Jeremiah 25

Jeremiah looks back on twenty-three years of warnings that Judah ignored, and announces that Babylon will be God’s instrument of judgment, with seventy years of servitude. Then comes the vision of the cup of God’s wrath, which every nation must drink, Babylon last of all. The chapter closes with a roaring Lord and weeping shepherds, a picture of judgment reaching the whole earth.

Jeremiah 25:1

Jeremiah dates this message to the year Nebuchadnezzar began to reign, when Babylon was becoming the dominant power. God is not surprised by the rise of empires. He announces it beforehand to all Judah, so that no one can say they were not warned.

BSA: word (“message, declaration”): This is not Jeremiah’s opinion but a declaration given to him by God.

Jeremiah 25:2

Jeremiah speaks to everyone, from the people of the land to the residents of Jerusalem. The message is public and for all. A prophet’s task is to say what God has said, to whoever will hear, whether or not it is welcome.

BSA: prophet (“a spokesperson for God”): Jeremiah’s words carry weight only because he speaks for God, not for himself.

Jeremiah 25:3

Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, when Jeremiah was first called, he has spoken for twenty-three years. Through all that time the people have not listened. God’s patience is long, and the failure to listen is the heart of the charge against them.

BSA: again and again (“rising early and speaking, with persistence and urgency”): God is pictured as an eager messenger up before dawn, anxious to be heard.

Hebrew: הַשְׁכֵּם (hashkēm, H7925) — “rising early.” The Hebrew idiom paints a picture of someone getting up at dawn to do the job at once. It shows God’s urgent, persistent care in sending warnings.

See also: Jeremiah 1:2.

Jeremiah 25:4

Jeremiah was not the only voice. God kept sending prophets, one after another, and they were all ignored. Refusing to bend the ear is more than being deaf. It is a stubborn choice not to hear.

BSA: inclined (“stretched, bent”): Listening takes effort, like leaning toward a voice, and they would not lean.

Jeremiah 25:5

The prophets’ message was simple and kind: turn from evil, and stay in the land God gave. Judgment was never God’s first word. Repentance always held the door open, and the land was a gift to be kept by faithfulness.

BSA: Turn now (“please, I pray”): The call to repent comes as a gracious plea, not just a command.

Hebrew: שֻׁבוּ (shuvu, H3427) — “turn back, return.” The same Hebrew word is used for repenting and for coming home. Turning from sin means turning back to God.

See also: Jeremiah 18:11.

Jeremiah 25:6

Two things are forbidden: following other gods, and angering God with what their own hands have made, meaning idols. The promise is plain. If they stop, no harm will come. The way of safety was open to them.

BSA: works (“deeds, actions”): The word covers both the idols they made and the deeds they did, since their whole way of life had turned from God.

Jeremiah 25:7

God says they did not listen, and so they harmed themselves. Sin is never only an offense against God. It also hurts the one who commits it. The judgment about to come is the harvest of their own choices.

BSA: harm (“causing evil to yourselves, for your own hurt”): Their rebellion rebounds on them. Disobeying God injures the disobedient.

Jeremiah 25:8

Here the ’therefore’ falls. Because the people refused God’s words, He will act. The Lord of Hosts, ruler over every power in heaven and earth, is the one speaking, so this is no idle threat.

BSA: obeyed (“heard and followed, heeded”): In the Bible, hearing God truly means doing what He says.

Jeremiah 25:9

God will gather the northern peoples under Nebuchadnezzar and bring them against Judah and its neighbors. Astonishingly, God calls this pagan king ‘My servant’. He uses even those who do not know Him to carry out His purposes. The result is ruin that others will gasp at.

BSA: devote (“destroy, consecrate”): The word means set apart completely for God, here for judgment, as with things placed under a ban. contempt (“hissing”): People who pass by will whistle in shock and scorn at what has happened.

Hebrew: שַׁמָּה (shammah, H8047) — “horror, desolation.” This word describes a place so devastated that passersby are stunned. It is a favorite word of Jeremiah for the fate of a land that has abandoned God.

See also: Jeremiah 27:6.

Jeremiah 25:10

The ordinary sounds of life will go silent: wedding joy, grinding grain, lamps in the evening. These are the signs of a living village. God’s judgment takes away not only buildings but the small daily pleasures people take for granted.

See also: Jeremiah 7:34; Revelation 18:23.

Jeremiah 25:11

The land will be a wasteland and the nations around will serve Babylon for seventy years. This is the first time the length is given. Even in judgment God sets a limit, and the seventy years prepare the way for a promise of return.

BSA: seventy (“a period of”): Seventy is roughly a human lifetime, a long span, yet it has an end.

See also: Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:2.

Jeremiah 25:12

Babylon is God’s tool, but it is not innocent. Once its time is done, God will call it to account for its own guilt. The one used to judge others will be judged. God’s justice reaches every nation, including the mighty one that served His purpose.

BSA: punish (“visit judgment upon, reckon with”): God Himself comes to settle the account, so no wrong goes unanswered.

See also: Jeremiah 51:1.

Jeremiah 25:13

All that Jeremiah has spoken against the nations, written in his book, will come true. The mention of a written book shows that God’s word is fixed and can be checked. What He has said, He will bring about.

BSA: written (“recorded, inscribed”): The words are put down permanently, a witness that will stand until they are fulfilled.

Jeremiah 25:14

Many nations and great kings will in turn enslave Babylon. God repays according to what people have done. The conqueror’s own deeds come back on him. This is a steady comfort for those who suffer under cruel powers.

BSA: repay (“recompense, give reward to”): God’s repayment is measured and fair, matched to what was actually done.

Jeremiah 25:15

Now God gives Jeremiah a picture to act out. He is handed a cup filled with the wine of God’s wrath, and all the nations are to drink it. The cup stands for the judgment God pours out, and it is not for Judah alone.

BSA: wrath (“intense anger, like a burning fire”): This is not a mood but a burning, holy anger against evil.

Hebrew: כּוֹס (kos, H3563) — “cup.” In the Bible a cup often means a person’s portion or lot, whether blessing or judgment. Here it is the lot of wrath handed to the nations.

See also: Isaiah 51:17; Revelation 14:10.

Jeremiah 25:16

The nations will drink, stagger and lose their senses. Judgment is pictured as drunkenness, where people lose control and cannot save themselves. The cause is the sword God sends, which means war and destruction.

BSA: stagger (“reel to and fro, be moved”): They sway helplessly, as a drunk man does, unable to stand firm.

Jeremiah 25:17

Jeremiah obeys and makes each nation drink. This is a prophetic act. His words as God’s messenger set the judgment in motion. He is not a spectator but the one carrying the cup.

BSA: cup (“divine wrath”): The cup is a picture, and what it holds is God’s settled anger at sin.

Jeremiah 25:18

Jerusalem and Judah are named first. God’s people are not spared. Judgment begins in God’s own house, and its effects are visible ’to this day’, since Jeremiah writes after the ruin has begun.

BSA: contempt (“rejection, disdain”): Judah will become a thing others reject and mock instead of honor.

See also: 1 Peter 4:17.

Jeremiah 25:19-20

The list moves to Egypt, the great power to the south, then to the mixed peoples, to Uz, and to the Philistine cities. Strong or small, ancient or new, none are exempt. Ashdod is called a remnant, hinting that it had already suffered.

BSA: mixed tribes (“of people, foreigners living there”): These were foreign groups living among larger nations, not a single united people.

Jeremiah 25:21-23

Now come Judah’s close neighbors: Edom, Moab and Ammon, then the trading cities of Tyre and Sidon, the distant coastlands, and Arabian desert peoples. Cutting the hair at the temples was a custom of some desert tribes. Israel was forbidden it. Nobody on the map is skipped.

BSA: coastlands (“islands, habitable spots”): These are far-off lands across the Mediterranean, showing how widely the cup is passed.

See also: Leviticus 19:27.

Jeremiah 25:24-25

The list turns east and north: Arabian desert peoples, then Zimri, Elam and Media. These are lands far from Judah, some then little known to Israel. The point is that God’s reach is wider than any border Judah could imagine.

Jeremiah 25:26

Every kingdom on earth, near and far, drinks, and last of all the king of Sheshach. Sheshach is a coded way of writing Babel, or Babylon, made by swapping the letters of the alphabet. The empire that served as God’s tool is the final nation to drink the cup.

Hebrew: שֵׁשַׁךְ (Sheshach, H8347) — “a coded name for Babylon.” Writing the name in code, with letters swapped in reverse order, was a known way to hide a name. Jeremiah uses it again in 51:41, where it clearly stands for Babylon.

See also: Jeremiah 51:41.

Jeremiah 25:27

Jeremiah is to tell the nations to drink until they are drunk, vomit and fall, never to rise. It is a stark picture of a collapse with no recovery. The sword comes from God. Nations rise and fall by His hand.

BSA: sword (“a cutting instrument, a tool for war”): The sword stands for war and bloodshed, the means by which the nations are brought down.

Jeremiah 25:28

Some nations may refuse the cup, but refusing changes nothing. God’s answer is firm: you will certainly drink it. No one can argue their way out of God’s judgment, any more than a man can refuse the consequences of his deeds.

BSA: drink (“to surely and completely consume”): They will not sip but drink it down to the last drop.

Jeremiah 25:29

God begins with the city that bears His Name, Jerusalem. If His own people are not spared, how can the nations escape? The argument runs from the nearer to the farther. God is impartial, and wrongdoing is answered everywhere.

BSA: go unpunished (“be innocent, escape free”): No one will be able to walk away declared innocent while guilty.

Hebrew: נָקָה (naqah, H5352) — “to be clear, innocent, unpunished.” The word means to be left free of guilt or penalty. God asks with strong emphasis whether anyone could be so left, and answers no.

See also: 1 Peter 4:17.

Jeremiah 25:30

The Lord is pictured as a lion roaring from His holy dwelling over His own pasture, and as grape-treaders shouting as they crush the fruit. His voice is a warning that cannot be ignored. When He speaks in judgment, the whole earth hears.

BSA: roar (“utter a mighty, thunderous voice”): The roar of a lion is the sound before the attack, so the nations are being warned.

Hebrew: יִשְׁאַג (yishʾag, H7580) — “he will roar.” This is the word used for a lion’s roar. It pictures God as a lion about to spring on the prey, and it is repeated for emphasis.

See also: Amos 1:2; Isaiah 63:3.

Jeremiah 25:31

The uproar reaches the ends of the earth because the Lord has a case against the nations. He judges all people and gives the wicked to the sword. God is pictured as a judge in a courtroom, and the verdict is not arbitrary.

BSA: brings a charge (“a controversy, dispute”): God is pictured as bringing a legal case against the nations, with real charges.

Hebrew: רִיב (riv, H7379) — “legal dispute, lawsuit.” This word belongs in a courtroom. God does not strike blindly. He lays out a case, then carries out the sentence.

Jeremiah 25:32

Disaster passes from nation to nation, and a great storm rises from the farthest places. Judgment spreads like a gathering storm. No one can stop it, and no corner of the earth is out of its path.

BSA: storm (“tempest, whirlwind”): A whirlwind is violent and sweeps everything in its way, so judgment will be wide and fierce.

Jeremiah 25:33

The slain lie everywhere, with no one to mourn, gather or bury them. To go unburied was a terrible disgrace in Israel. The picture shows how total the judgment is, and how worthless sin makes a life that rejects God.

BSA: dung (“manure, worthless refuse”): The bodies are left like waste on the field, a strong image of disgrace.

Jeremiah 25:34

The shepherds, meaning the rulers and leaders, are told to wail and roll in the dust. Their day of slaughter has come. They will break like fine pottery, which cannot be put back together. Those who were meant to protect the people fall first.

BSA: shepherds (“leaders, caretakers of God’s people”): Shepherd was a common title for kings and rulers, who were supposed to look after the flock.

Hebrew: רֹעִים (roʿim, H7462) — “shepherds.” In the ancient Near East kings were called shepherds. The word reminds the leaders that they were meant to care for the people, not use them.

See also: Jeremiah 23:1; Ezekiel 34:2.

Jeremiah 25:35

There will be no place to run for the leaders. Flight and escape are both lost to them. Those who thought their power or position would shelter them find there is no refuge from God.

BSA: escape (“survivor, deliverance”): Not even a survivor will be left among them to tell of deliverance.

Jeremiah 25:36-37

Jeremiah hears the cry of the shepherds as their pasture is destroyed. The peaceful meadows are silenced. The reason is given at once: the burning anger of the Lord. What was calm and fruitful becomes quiet only because it is dead.

BSA: peaceful (“serene”): These were calm, safe fields, which makes their silence all the sadder. anger (“wrath, indignation, nose, countenance”): The Hebrew word is linked to the nose, as in snorting or hot breath. It pictures anger blazing out of the face.

Jeremiah 25:38

The Lord has come out of His den like a lion. The land lies desolate because of the oppressor’s sword and the fierce anger of the Lord. The chapter ends where it began, with the plain fact that God is a Judge who can be trusted to act, and who warned long before.

BSA: den (“lair, secret place”): The lion has been waiting hidden, and now steps out to act.