Jeremiah 25
ButlerIt is to be noticed also that the figure chosen to set forth the difference between the good and the bad in Israel is taken from fruit. It was something presented as the result of growth and in connection with culture. The question was suggested how such a difference should come between the good and the bad. For if trees of the same sort grow in the same soil and have the same attention, and the same external influences, how comes some of the fruit to be very good and some very bad? Notice also the sharpness of the distinction. These fruits were either good or bad. To be excluded from one is to be included in the other. There is no third, no medium class. This exactly agrees with the way of speaking in the New Testament, especially by Jesus Himself—e.g., the seed in the good and bad ground, the sheep and goats, the good kinds of fish and the bad ones, the five wise and the five foolish virgins. It is of the first importance to bear in mind that the imperceptible gradations, as we reckon them, count for nothing with God. There are only two kinds of hearts, the good and the bad. Y.
25 : 1 THE word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah; the same was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; the which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear; saying, Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers, from of old and even for evermore: and go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and I will send unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate for ever. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them, even of them: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands. For thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto me: Take the cup of the wine of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. Then took I the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD
18 had sent me: to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is
19 this day; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
20 and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land
21 of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom,
22 and Moab, and the children of Ammon; and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Zidon,
23 and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea; Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that
24 have the corners of their hair polled; and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the
25 mingled people that dwell in the wilderness; and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of
26. Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the
27 king of Sheshach shall drink after them. And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more,
28 because of the sword which I will send among you. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Ye
29 shall surely drink. For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword
30 upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts. Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar against his fold; he shall
31 give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; as for the wicked, he will give them to the sword, saith the LORD.
32. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great
33 tempest shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth. And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the face of the
34 ground. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter are fully come, and I will break you in pieces, and ye
35 shall fall like a pleasant vessel. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the princi-
36 pal of the flock to escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the prin-
37 cipal of the flock! for the LORD layeth waste their pasture. And the peaceable folds are
38 brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the LORD. He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, and because of his fierce anger.
Chap. 25. The date of this chapter is definitely given—viz., in the fourth year of Jehoiakim was also the first of King Nebuchadnezzar—the very year in which the first great invasion of Judea was made by the combined forces of Chaldea, Moab, Ammon and Syria. (See 2 K. 24: 1, 2.) The great central thought of the chapter is, Jehovah, King of the nations of the earth, judging and punishing them for their iniquities; beginning here with His own covenant but now apostate people; continuing and widening the sweep of His judgments, so as to include Egypt and all those powers of Western Asia which had allied themselves with Egypt and Judea against the Chaldean empire; and then, after seventy years, turning His hand in righteous retribution to judge and punish the Chaldeans and proud Babylon. How God would bring about these visitations of judgment; how He would pass around among all the nations the wine-cup of His wrath, and make them drink to their own infatuation, and reeling, and madness, so that they would fall an easy prey to those enemies whom the Lord would use as His rod for their destruction, are also embraced in this chapter. H. C.
This chapter seems to come next in succession to chaps. 22, 23. It is dated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and most probably belonged to the earliest part of that year. For the defeat of the Egyptians at Carchemish, and the subsequent taking of Jerusalem, are both placed in the same year. But from verse 9 I think it may be concluded that Nebuchadnezzar had but just entered upon his expedition, and had not yet carried into execution any of those designs for which God there says He would “send and take” him. The prophet reproveth the Jews for their disregard of the Divine calls to repentance (verses 1-7). He foretelleth their subjugation, together with that of the neighboring nations, to the king of Babylon for seventy years, and the fall of the Babylonish empire at that period (verses 8-14). The same is foreshown under the symbol of the cup of God’s wrath, with which Jeremiah is sent, perhaps in a vision, unto all the nations, which are enumerated at large, to make them drink of it to their utter subversion (verses 15-29). And the like prophecy is the third time repeated in a strain of sublime and poetic imagery (verse 30 to the end). Blayney.
3,4. In verse 3 the prophet solemnly reminds the people how long he had been bearing to them the messages of the Lord, even since the thirteenth year of Josiah—then twenty-three years. Josiah reigned thirty-one years; Jehoahaz three months; Jehoiakim was now in his fourth year. Hence the footing stands thus: Under Josiah say nineteen; under the next two kings four—equal to twenty three. He reminds them also that he had brought these messages in solemn earnestness, rising up early and speaking, as one awake betimes, upon whose heart the burden lay so heavily that his sleep was short and the morning hour found him waiting and full of ardor for his work. But they had not hearkened. Other prophets, too, Zephaniah and Habakkuk, had the Lord sent to them. H. C.
Jeremiah had been a constant preacher among them twenty-three years; he began in the thirteenth year of Josiah, who reigned thirty-one years; so that he prophesied about eighteen or nineteen years in his reign, then in the reign of Jehoahaz, and now four years of Jehoiakim’s reign. God keeps an account, whether we do or no, how long we have enjoyed the means of grace; and the longer we have enjoyed them, the heavier will our account be if we have not improved them. H.
9. Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant. Kings and princes are the great instruments of providence with respect to human affairs. Some of them God raises up to be executioners of His judgments upon sinful people; such was he of whom God saith (Hos. 13:11), “I gave thee a king in Mine anger.” Such was Nebuchadnezzar here spoken of, whom God calls His “servant,” because he “wrought for Him,” as God speaks concerning him (Ezek. 29:20)—that is, he executed God’s judgments upon Tyre, God making use of his ambition and desire of conquest, and prospering his arms, in order to the punishment of the neighboring countries for their sins. See a like instance in the king of Assyria, whom
God calls “the rod of His anger” (Isa. 10:5). W. Lowth.
9-11. There is not the slightest doubt that Jeremiah, following Micah, who lived a century before, foretold the destruction and captivity in the Chaldean period, and added the notice of a return after seventy years. This is recorded in Jer. 25:9-11; and the circumstances are such, that if the delivery of this prophecy be denied, no event in the life of the prophets can be accepted. Now this issue could not have been foreseen by any natural means. The return of a departed people was against all historical analogies, as not only the case of the Ten Tribes showed, but the existing usage on which recent discoveries have thrown so much light, of occupying such conquered lands by an exchange of peoples, that admitted usually of no succeeding break or disturbance. Now the utterance of Jeremiah was fulfilled by the edict of Cyrus (R.C. 536), a fact which is not contested; and all that is required is to suppose that Jeremiah, instead of counting from the last siege and captivity (R.C. 588), counts from the first (R.C. 606), as captivity then really began. Cairns.
10. The sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. In the East the people grind their corn at break of day; and on going out in a morning, one hears everywhere the noise of the mill, accompanied with the voice and songs of those that grind. Sir J. Chardin.—There is an affecting contrast in the text. Gloomy shall be the silence of the morning, melancholy the shadows of the evening; no cheerful noise to animate the one, no enlivening ray to brighten the darkness of the other. Desolation shall everywhere reign. Harmer.
10,11. In Oriental life the sound of the millstone is heard in every family, each one doing its grinding with its own hand-mill. So the light of a candle is among the necessaries of comfortable life. Hence not only should all joyous sounds cease from those lands, but all the sounds of busy common life, indicating that the country was left void of inhabitants—an utter desolation. “An astonishment” of course means an occasion for astonishment to all the people of the earth; a marvel before the world. The duration of this wide sway of Babylon and of the Chaldean power should be seventy years. The records of profane history concur with the testimony of Scripture to confirm the fact here stated. Beginning with the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, the duration of that dynasty was seventy years, closing with its subversion by Cyrus at the head of the combined armies of Media and Persia. In the line of profane history we have a witness, every way competent and worthy, in the so-called “Canon of Ptolemy,” which contains a table of the reigns of the several monarchs of Babylon from B.C. 747 to B.C. 331—the end of the Persian dynasty. “This ancient document,” remarks George Rawlinson, “which has always stood high in authority, has recently been confirmed in so many points by the inscriptions found in the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, that its authentic character is established beyond all possibility of cavil and dispute.” In this canon we have the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, forty-three years; of Evilmerodach, two; of Neriglissar, four; of Nabonned (alias Labynetus), seventeen; and jointly with him in the closing period of his reign, his son, Belshazzar; in all equal to sixty-six; an approximation to the scriptural record which seems to make the time about seventy. In the line of Scripture history, we have the authority of Daniel (9:1, 2), who in the first year after the fall of the Chaldean dynasty, finding by the prophecies of Jeremiah that the captivity was set for seventy years, saw in his own personal history that this period was near its close. He went to Babylon with the first captives in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, and of course knew that he had been there then about seventy years. The length of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign, the most important item in this chronological series, is in like manner confirmed by the concurrent testimony of both sacred and profane history. Sacred history gives us first the years of Jehoiakim coincident with Nebuchadnezzar—i.e., eleven, less four, equal to seven. Add to this the years of the captivity of Jehoiachin, his immediate successor—viz., thirty-six; the amount is forty-three. In the line of profane history, not only the “Canon of Ptolemy,” but the testimony of Berosus makes his reign forty-three years. Of course in our text (verse 11) “the king of Babylon” is not to be restricted to any one king, but embraces the dynasty of Babylonian kings down to the Persian rule. See a different but accurate form of stating the same general fact in chap. 27:6, 7. H. C.
11. Those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The fixing of the time during which the captivity should last would be of great use, not only for the confirmation of the prophecy, when the event (which in this particular could by no human sagacity be foreseen) should exactly answer the prediction, but for the comfort of the people of God in their calamity, and the encouragement of faith and prayer. Daniel, who was himself a prophet, had an eye to it (Dan. 9:2). Nay, God Himself had an eye to it (2 Chron. 36:22), for therefore He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, that the word spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished. Known unto God are all His works, from the beginning of the world; which appears by this that when He has thought fit, some of them have been made known to His servants the prophets, and by them to His Church.
12-14. The ruin of Babylon, at last, is here likewise foretold, as it had been long before by Isaiah. The destroyers must themselves be destroyed and the rod thrown into the fire, when the correcting work is done with it. This shall be done when seventy years are accomplished, for the destruction of Babylon must make way for the deliverance of the captives. H.
And so it came to pass. After seventy years the Medo-Persian power subjugated Babylon, and struck the first fatal blow at her supremacy and pride. She never rose again to her former splendor. Not many years passed before the doom of desolation marched on apace to its accomplishment, and Babylon went rapidly down toward utter extinction. During more than two thousand years past it has been only a mass of ruins. Verse 13 seems to allude to those extended prophecies of Jeremiah “against all the nations” which we find in chaps. 46-51. Naturally the critics raise the question how this allusion can be accounted for in this place? Were those prophecies already written at this time? Or is this reference precisely prophetic—i.e., in anticipation of portions yet to be written and embraced in this Book of Jeremiah? Or was this clause added by the compiler of these prophecies after all the materials of the volume had been written? I incline to the last-named supposition—viz., that the last half of verse 13 was added by the compiler. In verse 14, the rather unusual phrase, “Serve themselves of them,” means to exact service of them; to compel them to serve. The tables shall be turned; the relation between the parties reversed. Whereas Babylon made those nations her servants for seventy years, they shall make Babylon serve during other long periods thereafter. (See chap. 27:6, 7 and Isa. 14:2.)
15,16. It gives us a vivid sense of the great truth so often illustrated in human history, that whom God would destroy He first leaves to infatuation; or, in the terse phrase of the ancient heathen authors: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
17. “Made all the nations to drink,” carries out the peculiar phraseology brought to view first in this prophet’s original commission (chap. 1: 10): “See, I have this day set thee over the nations to root out, to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant.” What the prophet is commissioned to announce, he is said to do; or, as here, to “make” the nations do. Of course this is a figurative conception, involving no literal cup of wine whatever.
18. For obvious reasons, Jerusalem and Judah come first. Their sins had been most provoking to God. Indeed, it might be said, perhaps, that their case determined (as to time and manner) this whole series of judgments on the nations of Western Asia, calling forth those schemes of Divine providence which then raised up the great Chaldean power, and made it a hammer to break those nations in pieces. The clause, “As it is this day,” seems to have been written by the compiler of these prophecies, who added it after the first great instalment of fulfilling events. H. C.—It is most likely that this narrative was either written by the prophet himself, or dictated by him to Baruch, who wrote for him, after the destruction of Jerusalem, when a compilation was made of all his prophecies; this supposition will account for the words, “as it is this day,” found at the close of the 18th verse. Blayney.
19. Pharaoh of Egypt legitimately comes next. For many centuries, even back to the age of the early Pharaohs, the kingdom that sat on the Nile had been the pitted antagonist of the kingdom that sat on the Euphrates. Between these two great powers of ancient times, wars were frequent; antipathies eternal. Each sought to draw into alliance with itself whatever other tribes and sovereignties lay intermediate or adjacent. Hence, Egypt had drawn into her alliance the powers named in these subsequent verses, especially verses 20-24, and consequently involved them in her own doom. The first decisive blow against the Egyptian power was struck in the great battle at Carchemish, to which Jeremiah refers (chap. 46: 2). From this she never rallied during the sway of this Chaldean dynasty. H. C.
19-26. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, comes next, because the Jews trusted to that broken reed (verse 19); the remains of them fled to Egypt, and then Jeremiah particularly foretold the dedestruction of that country (chap. 43: 10, 11). All the other nations that bordered upon Canaan must pledge Jerusalem in this bitter cup, this cup of trembling. The mingled people, the Arabians, so some; some rovers of divers nations that lived by rapine, so others; the kings of the land of Ez, joined to the country of the Edomites. The Philistines had been vexatious to Israel, but now their cities and their lords became a prey to this mighty conqueror. Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Zidon are places well known to border upon Israel; the isles beyond or beside the sea are supposed to be those parts of Phoenicia and Syria that lay upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Dedan and the other countries mentioned (verses 23, 24) seem to have lain upon the confines of Idumea and Arabia the desert. Those of Elam are the Persians, with whom the Medes are joined, now looked upon as inconsiderable, and yet afterward able to make reprisals upon Babylon for themselves and all their neighbors. The kings of the north, that lay nearer to Babylon, and others that lay at some distance, will be sure to be seized on and made a prey of by the victorious sword of Nebuchadnezzar. Nay, he shall push on his victories with such incredible fury and success, that all the kingdoms of the world that were then and there known should become sacrifices to his ambition. Upon this whole matter we may observe: 1. That there is a God that judges in the earth, to whom all the nations of the earth are accountable, and by whose judgment they must abide. 2. That God can easily bring to ruin the greatest nations, the most numerous and powerful, and such as have been most secure. 3. That those who have been vexatious and mischievous to the people of God will be reckoned with for it at last. Many of these nations had in their turns given disturbance to Israel, but now comes destruction on them. The year of the Redeemer will come, even the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. H.
27-29. None of these nations could be excused from this wine-cup and its doom. Since the Lord had begun with His own people as having sinned against greater light, yet recognizing them still as His own, He could not judge them and leave other idolatrous nations unpunished. See this law of the Divine administration (1 Pet. 4: 17, 18).
30-33. Calamities take a wide and fearful sweep. The nations of the earth are agitated with wars and conquests. A new power arises in the person of the Chaldean empire, and gains a world-wide ascendency, subjugating all other nations and tribes to its sway. This is fitly compared to the roaring of a lion and to his going forth to destroy; or to an earthquake which rocks the nations from end to end of the inhabited world. H. C.
JEREMIAH, CHAPTER XXVI., IN VOL. VII., PAGE 399. JEREMIAH, CHAPTER XXVII., IN VOL. VII., PAGE 430. JEREMIAH, CHAPTER XXVIII., IN VOL. VII., PAGE 430.