Jeremiah 25
OGCREVIEW OF CHAPTER TWELVE
I. Facts to Master.
The occasion of the oracle addressed to king Zedekiah (Jeremiah 21:1-2).
The two ways God placed before the people (Jeremiah 21:8),
That which Jeremiah urged the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do (Jeremiah 21:9).
The identity of Shallum and his fate (Jeremiah 22:11-12).
The type of burial predicted for Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:19).
Identity of the lovers in Jeremiah 22:20-21.
Identity of Coniah and his fate (Jeremiah 22:25).
Identity of the shepherds who had scattered the flock of God (Jeremiah 23:2).
Description of the King whom God would raise Up (Jeremiah 23:5).
Three activities of the coming King (Jeremiah 23:5).
The name of the coming King (Jeremiah 23:6).
The group of leaders to whom a long sermon is addressed in chapter 23.
The two wicked cities to which God compares the inhabitants of Judah (Jeremiah 23:14).
The basic message of the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:17).
Test of the veracity of a prophet (Jeremiah 23:22).
Two metaphors depicting the Word of God (Jeremiah 23:29).
The expression which Jeremiah is no longer to use (Jeremiah 23:33-36).
That which the Lord showed Jeremiah (Jeremiah 24:1-2).
The significance of the good and bad figs (Jeremiah 24:4-10).
The date of the messages in chapter 25 (Jeremiah 25:1).
The length of time Jeremiah had thus far been preaching (Jeremiah 25:3).
The commander of the armies of the north (Jeremiah 25:9).
The length of time the nations would serve the king of Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11).
That which would transpire after the seventy years (Jeremiah 25:12-14).
That which Jeremiah was to cause the nations to drink (Jeremiah 25:15).
II. Questions to Ponder.
Was Jeremiah a traitor in view of the counsel which he offered the people in time of war? Jeremiah 21:9.
To the reign of what king can Jeremiah 21:11 to Jeremiah 22:9 be as signed? In this passage what is (a) the exhortation, (b) the promise, (c) the warning?
What can you deduce about the reign of Jehoiakim from Jeremiah 22:13-17?
Did Jehoiachin have children? See Jeremiah 22:30; 1 Chronicles 3:17-18; and Jehoiachin tablets in Documents from Old Testament Times. pp. 84-86. In what sense would he be childless?
What is the New Exodus predicted in Jeremiah 23:8? How does it exceed the great Exodus from Egypt?
Why does Jeremiah react as he does in Jeremiah 23:9?
How were the prophets of Jerusalem worse than the prophets of Samaria? Jeremiah 23:13-14.
By what methods did the false prophets try to imitate the true prophets? Is this true today as well? see Jeremiah 23:23-32.
Why is Jeremiah told to abandon the prophetic terminology burden of the Lord? (Jeremiah 23:33-38) What good Bible terms are misused or misapplied today? Should such terms continue to be used by New Testament Christians?
Should chapter 25 be dated before or after the battle of Carchemish? See Jeremiah 25:1.
Did Jeremiah literally take a cup and pass it among the nations? (Jeremiah 25:15; Jeremiah 25:17; Jeremiah 25:28) How might this have been possible?
What peculiarity is to be found in the Septuagint version of chapter 25?
Who was the king of Sheshach? Jeremiah 25:26.
What judgment is being described in Jeremiah 25:30-38?
SPECIAL STUDY JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND THE SEVENTY YEARS PROPHECY
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy the basis for all chronology prior to 539 B.C., the year that Babylon fell to Cyrus. They assume that the seventy years are to be counted back from 537 B.C., the date they assign to the return of the Jews in the first year of Cyrus. This yields the date 607 for the 18th (or 19th) year of Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was destroyed (Jeremiah 52:29; Jeremiah 52:12). So certain are the Witnesses that their methodology is correct that they are willing to toss aside all the standard chronological works and declare that they alone have the key to Bible chronology.
It is important to note that these students accept 539 B.C. uncritically as an absolute date from which to begin their count. They never state WHY they accept 539 as a starting point or WHY 539 is an absolute date. They fail to realize that 539 was reached by the same methodology which they reject for the years prior to 539. The truly absolute years in antiquity are those in which astronomers can pin-point an eclipse of the sun. The year 539 was not such a year. It was computed by adding together the regnal years of dozens of kings, both Assyrian and Babylonian and adding them (or subtracting them as the case might be) to some absolute year. Now if this process is accepted for arriving at the year 539, why is it invalid for the years prior to 539? Since the Jehovah’s Witnesses repudiate standard chronology, they are faced with the embarrassing prospects of talking about kings who were taken off thrones before they were ever put on thrones and men dying before they were born. Though they never mention this in their books, the Witnesses are forced to redate every Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite, and Mitannian king prior to 539. It never seems to occur to these people that their understanding of Jeremiah’s seventy year prophecy might just be faulty. Most Bible believing Christians are perfectly at home within the framework of the standard chronology which has been painstakingly established by means of astronomy, archaeology, and scientific historiography. They find the seventy years prophecy a marvelous confirmation of the word of God. They do not have to resort to manipulation of ancient history and juggling of years as do the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the interest of truth, and with a sincere desire to aid those who want to know the plain truth, this special study is offered.
I. WHAT WAS THE SEVENTY YEARS PERIOD?
In order to ascertain the precise significance of the seventy years period it will be necessary to examine carefully each of the verses in the Old Testament which speak of this period.
When seventy years are completed for (literally, to) Babylon, I will visit you (the Israelites).
This verse shows that the seventy years is allotted to Babylon i.e., to the world dominion of the Neo-Babylon empire. NO MENTION IS MADE HERE OF ANY SEVENTY YEARS OF DESOLATION IN JERUSALEM.
NOW I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes.
Surely this passage is dealing with the seventy years. The nations will serve Nebuchadnezzar for a set period of time. At the end of that period of time, Babylon will be overthrown. Now this prophecy was given in the reign of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:3) and it appears that the prophet is saying that the period of service to the Babylonian king has already begun.
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste.
Again these verses do not assert that the land of Judah and Jerusalem would lie desolate for seventy years. The seventy years are THE YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE KING OF BABYLON BY ALL THE NATIONS. After the seventy years, the king of Babylon will be destroyed.
The seventy year period need not be a literal period of that length. It may be a symbolic number or round number. The use of round numbers in the Bible is not uncommon. In Genesis 15:13, for example, the figure 400 years is given for the length of the Egyptian bondage of the Israelites. This Egyptian bondage actually lasted 430 years (Exodus 12:40). It is not difficult to discover why the figure seventy years was chosen by Jeremiah for his prophecy of the LENGTH OF BABYLONIAN WORLD POWER. Seven in the Bible is a perfect number and ten appears to be the number of worldly power. So ten times seven is seventy, the complete number of years which God allotted to the dominion of Babylon. The number seventy in Jeremiah’s prophecy is symbolic and there is no reason to assume a priori that it was ever intended to be understood as seventy years to the day.
D. Daniel 9:2
In the first year of his reign (Darius, the Mede) I Daniel perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
This passage simply tells us that at the end of seventy years the desolation in Palestine must cease. Jeremiah had predicted that at the end of the seventy years of Babylonian world dominion, God would destroy the king of Babylon and deliver His people from bondage (Jeremiah 29:10 f). Thus Daniel knew that shortly the Jews would be returning to rebuild the waste places of Judah since the seventy years were completed.
II. WHEN DID THE SEVENTY YEARS BEGIN?
The seventy years could not have begun before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, for this was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:1). The Babylonian king took the throne in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 B.C.). This was also the year in which he invaded the Hatti land (Syria-Palestine) and received heavy tribute from ALL the kings there.[232] In this year he besieged the city of Jerusalem, succeeded in binding Jehoiakim the king of Judah with fetters to carry him to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6-7) but finally allowed him to remain as a Babylonian vassal of Judah (2 Kings 24:1). Apparently Jehoiakim was forced to render tribute to his new master and to send hostages to Babylon according to the custom of that time (Daniel 1:1-2).
[232] See Documents from Old Testament Times, op cit.,p. 79.
Thus the FOURTH YEAR OF JEHOIAKIM (first year of Nebuchadnezzar) was a crucial year for Judah. This was the year that brought Jerusalem, and Judah under the yoke of Babylon. It was the beginning of the service to the king of Babylon prophesied by Jeremiah.
The prophecy of the seventy years was first given in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1). Jeremiah predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would come (Jeremiah 25:9) and he did come, that very year. This was the year that Judah and all the kingdoms of Syria-Palestine began to SERVE THE KING OF BABYLON (Jeremiah 25:11). The nations which Jeremiah had in mind are mentioned in Jeremiah 25:18-26. These nations were not all conquered nor left desolate in a year or even several years. They were gradually brought under the control of Babylon. But when did this service to the king of Babylon begin? Most of the nations mentioned came under the control of Babylon in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign when he marched victoriously in the Hatti land. The city of Ashkelon, mentioned by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:20), was in fact CAPTURED in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar.[233] Ashkelon’s service to the king of Babylon must have begun in that year not some nineteen years later as required in the chronology of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
[233] Ibid.
Jeremiah seems to indicate that he considered the desolation to have already begun in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. In Jeremiah 25:18 the prophet states: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and princes, to make them a desolation, and a waste, a hissing and a curse AS AT THIS DAY. Since this prophecy was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1) what more conclusive proof is needed on the matter of when the desolations were to begin?
Generally in Bible prophecy desolation which is predicted upon a country comes on the country gradually, not all at once. Take the Babylon prophecies for instance. At the end of seventy years God promises to visit Babylon and make it an everlasting desolation (Jeremiah 25:12). But at the end of seventy years Babylon was merely captured. It did not become a desolation immediately. For some years the city thrived but during all those years Babylon was GRADUALLY becoming a complete desolation. The same applies to Jerusalem and Judah. With Nebuchadnezzar’s attack in 605 the land GRADUALLY began to become desolate. That desolation of course reached its height in 587 when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. But the desolation BEGAN in 605, the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
The desolation which Jerusalem was to experience was to involve MORE THAN ONE KING. The plural kings and princes in Jeremiah 25:18 is important. Again this points to 605, the fourth year of Jehoiakim (first year of Nebuchadnezzar), as the beginning of the seventy year period. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah would all be involved in the fulfillment. Even when Jehoiakim attempted to rebel against the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar sent warriors to ravish the land of Judah (2 Kings 24:1-2). How could the desolation of Jerusalem be said to involve KINGS if in fact it began in the 11th year of Zedekiah, last king of Judah, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim.
Important in this discussion is the passage found in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21,
He (Nebuchadnezzar) took into exile unto Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they were servants to him and his sons until the dominion of the kingdom of Persia (21) to fulfill (literally, to fill up) the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept its sabbaths, to fulfill (literally, to fill up) the seventy years. At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar took additional exiles to Babylon. There they were servants to the king of Babylon. This FILLED UP the prophecy of Jeremiah. This verse does not say that the service to the king of Babylon BEGAN with the deportation after the destruction of Jerusalem. Both the Bible and secular history agree that the Jews BEGAN to serve the king of Babylon some nineteen years earlier. This service in exile was to FILL UP the seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah, i.e., to fill up the remaining years of service to the king of Babylon. The service to the king of Babylon was to last until the beginning of the dominion of the Persian empire.
This service to the king of Babylon was also to last until the land of Palestine had enjoyed its sabbaths. This is an obvious reference to Leviticus 25. The Law of Moses provided for a sabbatical year (every seventh year) in which the land went untilled. At the end of seven sabbaths of years (49 years) a year of jubilee was celebrated in which captives went free and land reverted back to the original owners. According to the standard chronology Jerusalem fell in 587 and the captives returned home to claim their land in 538, exactly 49 years. During the last part of Jeremiah’s seventy year period the land of Palestine did keep its sabbaths-seven sabbatical years of time. These 49 years of sabbath rest for the land and continued service to the king of Babylon in Babylonia, filled up the remaining portion of Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of service to the king of Babylon.
In the first year of Cyrus (538-537) the captives experienced their jubilee yearthey were released from their servitude and returned to their original possessions.
III. WHEN DID THE SEVENTY YEARS END?
The seventy years plainly ended with the overthrow of Babylon, not the return of the Jews as claimed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Then AFTER seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon. Babylon was punished in 539. Thus this must be the end of the seventy year period. The Jehovah’s Witnesses acknowledge that Babylon fell in 539. They claim that the seventy years began in 607. This is a period of only 68 years. How do the Witnesses explain that AFTER seventy years the king of Babylon will be punished? Was Jeremiah wrong? OR are the Jehovah’s Witnesses wrong when they insist on interpreting the seventy years literally as seventy years to the day?
When seventy years are completed FOR BABYLON, I will visit you (the Israelites). The seventy year period allotted to Babylon ended when Babylon fell in 539. It is AFTER that period is completed that God visits His people.
NOW in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom.
The proclamation of Cyrus releasing the Jews filled up the words of Jeremiah because Jeremiah had predicted that AFTER the seventy year period the Jews would be released. This verse does not indicate that the year or so between the fall of Babylon and the actual return of the Jews to Palestine was to be INCLUDED in the seventy year period as the Witnesses claim.
IV. THE SEVENTY YEARS OF INDIGNATION
In addition to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy years of service to the king of Babylon there is a second, altogether different, seventy years period mentioned in Zechariah 1:12; Zechariah 7:5.
How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which You have had indignation these seventy years?
This question was asked by the angel of the Lord in a vision seen by Zechariah in the second year of Darius, 520 B.C. Jerusalem still had not been fully restored. The Temple had not even been built yet. Because the Temple of the Lord was being neglected the people were under the wrath of God. God had sent a desolation (Hebrew chorev). See Haggai 1:3-11. There was drought and crop failure. This was the seventy years of indignation which began with the destruction of the Temple and ended with the rebuilding of that same Temple in 516 B.C.
This passage alone is sufficient to prove that the Jehovah’s Witnesses chronology is completely wrong. They place the destruction of the Temple in 607. But the Temple was not rebuilt until 516, a period of NINETY-ONE YEARS. How can the Witnesses fit this seventy year period mentioned by Zechariah into their chronology?
Say to all the people of the land to the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
Again the seventy year period since the destruction of the Temple is referred to. In this chapter the people are concerned as to whether it is any longer necessary to observe certain fast days now that the Temple was being rebuilt. For seventy years, 587-516 they had been observing fasts in the 5th and 7th month (Jeremiah 7:5) as well as in the 4th and 10th month (Jeremiah 8:19). These are not fasts required in the Law of Moses but fasts which commemorated events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. They had a fast to bewail the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (10th month), the breech in the walls of Jerusalem (4th month), the burning of the city (5th month), and the death of Gedaliah (7th month). Now that the Temple was being rebuilt they wanted to know whether or not they should keep these fasts.
Again let it be noted that the period from the destruction of the Temple to the rebuilding of some was seventy years, NOT NINETY-ONE YEARS AS NECESSITATED BY THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES.
V. OBJECTIONS To THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS-’ VIEW THAT JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED AND ZEDEKIAH REMOVED FROM THE THRONE IN 607 B.C.
NOTE: Page references in the following comments refer to Babylon the Great bus Eden published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
The Jehovah Witnesses have a profound misunderstanding of the means by which ancient chronology is established. On page 138 the writers assert that chronologers base their calculations on the astronomical Canon of Ptolemy whose system of astronomy has long since been exploded (p. 138). As a matter of fact the exact reigns of certain Assyrian kings can be computed on the basis of astronomical data contained in Assyrian King Lists which are contemporary with the events which they recorded. For example, an eclipse of the sun is recorded in the 9th year of the Assyrian king Ashurdan III. By means of astronomy this can be computed to have been on June 15, 763. This date is confirmed by the Canon of Ptolemy. From this date the reigns of all the Assyrian kings and neo-Babylonian kings can be computed by means of various king lists and building inscriptions. It is interesting that one of the truly absolute dates in antiquity Isaiah 853 the famous battle of Qarqar at which king Ahab was present. He is actually named in the records of king Shalmaneser III. But according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses Ahab died in 922SIXTY-NINE YEARS BEFORE HE WAS PRESENT AT THE BATTLE OF QARQAR. The misunderstanding of Jeremiah’s seventy year prophecy has thrown off the chronology of the Witnesses.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses twist the Scriptures to make them fit predetermined theories of history. On page 136-37 the Witnesses assert that there were no captives taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. In order to maintain this false position the Witnesses twist Daniel 1:1. They assert that the third year of Jehoiakim mentioned here is not the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign but the third year of his vassalship to Nebuchadnezzar.
BUT NO OTHER PLACE IN THE BIBLE OR IN THE LITERATURE OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST DID ANY KING DATE HIS REIGN ACCORDING To HIS VASSALSHIP TO A FOREIGN RULER.
Here again the Witnesses reveal their ignorance of simple facts about the ancient Near East. To any unprejudiced mind Daniel 1:1 plainly means that Nebuchadnezzar did take hostages to Babylon in the first year of his reign which was also the 3rd year of Jehoiakim by the Babylonian method of reckoning regnal years.
In repudiating the scientific chronology prior to 539 the Witnesses make no attempt to point out where the reasoning of the historians has gone astray (p. 372). Now there is nothing wrong with suggesting that every chronologer outside the Witnesses-’ sect is wrong. But it would only seem fair that anyone who would make such a suggestion would indicate where everyone else went wrong in their thinking. THIS THE WITNESSES NEVER BOTHER TO DO. It is known from Babylonian records that Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years, his son Amel-Marduk reigned two years. The next king reigned 4 years, his son three months and Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, seventeen years. This totals 66+ years. BUT THE WITNESSES MAKE THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE LAST FOR 85 YEARS. Where do these additional years fit in? Was there some king who reigned for 20 years about whom the cuneiform sources, the Bible, the classical historians, and Jewish tradition knew nothing? What king that reigned 20 years could have been COMPLETELY forgotten? Did any of the five kings mentioned above reign more than the time assigned to them by the historians? If so, which one? The Witnesses are silent. Not one shred of proof is offered. The Witnesses ASSUME (without evidence) that the Hebrew word translated desolation means without inhabitant. They further ASSUME that when the Jews made their hasty exit to Egypt following the death of Gedaliah that ALL the people left the country. Judah was left without inhabitant (pp. 163, 64).
Now these ASSUMPTIONS are hard to reconcile with the plain statement of Jer 52:30 which records a deportation of Jews to Babylon FIVE YEARS AFTER JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED. But here again the Witnesses twist the evidence. They assert without a shred of proof that these were not taken off the land of Judah but were captured when Nebuchadnezzar made nations that bordered on the desolated land of Judah drink of the bitter potion of being violently conquered (p. 167). Any unprejudiced mind can see here an effort to MAKE the Bible say what one WANTS it to say. Jeremiah 52:28-30 records three deportations of the Jews, the first two of which were off the land of Judah. By what rule of interpretation is one to assume that the third deportation mentioned here was not off the land of Judah?
Conclusion
There are in the Bible TWO SEVENTY YEAR periods. The first of these was prophesied by Jeremiah in 605 and began in that year. It lasted until 539, the year in which the Neo-Babylonian Empire came to an end. The prophet uses a symbolic number to represent the period of Babylonian domination. The second seventy year period began with the destruction of the Temple (587) and lasted until the rebuilding of the Temple (516). The Jehovah’s Witnesses declare that there were 2,520 years in the times of the Gentiles. (Your will be done On Earth, p. 104). Adding these years to 607 they arrive at the year 1914 for the beginning of the reign of Christ. But since the Witnesses are wrong about the date of the fall of Jerusalem, then THE WITNESSES MUST BE WRONG ABOUT THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES ENDING IN 1914.
Now since the Witnesses have been using both 607 and 1914 as foundation stones in their system of prophetic interpretation, and since they are WRONG on both dates, one certainly has ground for suspicion that their whole system of prophetic interpretation is questionable.
Jeremiah 25:1-11
II. GOD AND THE WORLD RULER Jeremiah 25:1-38
Chapter 25 is one of the most important Chapter s in the entire book. A great deal can be learned about the message of Jeremiah from this single chapter. After a brief introduction (Jeremiah 25:1-3) Jeremiah speaks of God’s judgment on Judah (Jeremiah 25:4-11), Babylon (Jeremiah 25:12-14), surrounding nations (Jeremiah 25:15-29) and finally the whole world (Jeremiah 25:30-38).
COMMENTS
Chronologically chapter 25 precedes the last four Chapter s. The precision in dating the events of this chapter indicates that Jeremiah was aware of the tremendous importance of the year 605 B.C., the fourth year of Jehoiakim and first year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:1). The battle of Carchemish was certainly one of the most important battles in ancient history and perhaps in all history. Control of the world was at stake. Jeremiah had been speaking in somewhat vague terms about the approach of an enemy from the north. He now sees his prophecies fulfilled. This was to be the year in which the first of four recorded deportations to Babylonia took place. Just before the armies of Nebuchadnezzar arrived, Jeremiah is bidden to make one last appeal to his countrymen for repentance (Jeremiah 25:2). Even though God knew that His call for repentance would be unheeded yet His love for Judah constrained Him to issue the appeal through the mouth of His prophet.
A. Judgment on Judah Jeremiah 25:1-11
**TRANSLATION
(1) The word which came unto Jeremiah concerning **all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, the king of Judah, (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), (2) which Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto- all the people of Judah and unto all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (3) From the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, unto this day, these twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come unto me, and I have spoken unto you in earnest but you have not listened. (4) And the LORD sent unto you all of His servants the prophets in earnest, but you did not hearken nor did you incline your ear to listen. They said, Turn now each man from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and you shall live in this land which the LORD has given to you and to your fathers forever and ever; (6) and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me with the work of your hands, and I will not harm you. But you did not hearken unto Me (oracle of the LORD) in order to provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own hurt. (8) Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not listened to My words, (9) behold, I am about to send and take all the families of the north (oracle of the LORD), and also Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon My servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and I will make them an astonishment an object of hissing and perpetual desolations. (10) And I will destroy from them the sound of joy and the sound of rejoicing, the voice of bridegroom and the voice of bride, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. (11) And all this land shall become a desolation and astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
COMMENTS
For some twenty-three years Jeremiah had been preaching the word of God to the people of Judah but they had not hearkened. His ministry had begun in the thirteenth year of Josiah. Since Josiah reigned a total of thirty-one years (2 Kings 22:1) Jeremiah prophesied for eighteen or nineteen years in the reign of that good king. Then followed three months of the reign of Jehoahaz (2 Kings 23:31) and three years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Throughout this period Jeremiah had been receiving divine revelations and had been communicating them to the people. He emphasizes the earnestness of his proclamation by using a Hebrew idiom which if translated literally would be rising early and speaking. But in spite of the earnestness of Jeremiah throughout his ministry the people had not been receptive.
God had sent other prophets besides Jeremiah to plead with the people of Judah. It is not certain whether Jeremiah is referring to prophets who preceded him or prophets who were contemporary with him. Since most of the prophets who were contemporary with Jeremiah were unfaithful, he probably is referring to his prophetic predecessors. In either case Jeremiah 25:4 indicates that the people of Judah had more than one opportunity to hear the message of the Lord. It was not merely a dislike for the personality of Jeremiah which had caused the people to reject his message, for they had rejected others before him (Jeremiah 25:4). one by one those prophets had come before the nation to urge the people to abandon then- evil practices in order that they might continue to dwell in the land which God had given to their fathers (Jeremiah 25:5). God’s gift of the promised land to the descendants of Abraham was conditional and the prophets of God repeatedly set forth the conditions upon which the promised land could be retained. One of the foremost conditions was that the people cease to worship and serve other gods, idols, the work of their hands. If they would but cease this deliberate provocation of God, He would not harm them (Jeremiah 25:6). But the people would not hearken to the earnest appeals of God’s messengers. They continued to provoke God with their idolatry to their own hurt (Jeremiah 25:7). When one disobeys God he courts disaster! All of God’s commandments are for the benefit and well-being of man.
In view of the fact that the people of Judah had not listened to and obeyed the word of the Lord (Jeremiah 25:8), God was about to execute judgment upon them. As he had done so many times before, Jeremiah makes mention of the powerful enemy from the north which was about to descend upon Judah. But here for the first time in his ministry Jeremiah positively identifies that ominous foe. The enemy from the north is Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon whose forces even at that very moment were poised for the strike against Carchemish. Nebuchadnezzar is about to sweep down upon Judah and her neighbors and utterly destroy them all. The tiny nations of Syria-Palestine would be so completely destroyed that travelers would hiss or whistle in astonishment at the desolate condition of the lands. These desolations are not of brief duration but are perpetual i.e., they would last for a very long time (Jeremiah 25:9). Silence will reign supreme in these lands. All joyous sounds as, for example, the voice of bridegroom and bride will cease. Even the sound of the millstones will cease because no one will be left to grind the grain. The routine business of everyday life will cease. No light from oil lamps will illuminate the darkness of the night. There is absolutely no sign of life throughout the lands (Jeremiah 25:10). The land of Judah will become such a desolation that men will be astonished at what has taken place there. For seventy years Judah and the neighboring nations of Syria-Palestine will serve the king of Babylon. Commentators are divided as to whether the seventy years are to be interpreted literally or figuratively. Cheyne, for example, believes the figure is to be taken as an indefinite or round number as in Isaiah 23:17. In this case seventy years would simply mean a very long time. Other commentators insist that the figures are to be taken literally but they disagree as to when the seventy years commenced. For a detailed discussion of the seventy years prophecy see the special study at the end of this chapter.
Nebuchadnezzar is called by God in Jeremiah 25:9 My servant. Cyrus the Persian is called in prophecy My shepherd and My anointed (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1). But no foreigner is ever accorded the title My servant except Nebuchadnezzar. Generally to be a servant of a deity is to be a worshiper of that deity (cf. Daniel 6:20). The chosen people are called My servant (Jeremiah 30:10; Jeremiah 46:27-28; Ezekiel 37:25) and Isaiah describes the Suffering Messiah as God’s servant. But certainly Nebuchadnezzar was no worshiper of the Lord. He was a polytheist and an idolater. The Chaldean king is called the servant of God because he was the unconscious agent of the Lord. It is interesting to note that in each case where the title My servant is applied to Nebuchadnezzar the Septuagint translation omits the title.
Jeremiah 25:12-14
B. Judgment on Babylon Jeremiah 25:12-14
TRANSLATION
(12) But it shall come to pass when seventy years are completed I will visit upon the king of Babylon, even upon that nation, their iniquity, even upon the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate forever. (13) And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken concerning it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied concerning all the nations. (14) For many nations and great kings shall make servants of them, even them; and I will repay them according to their works, and according to the deeds of their hands.
COMMENTS
The Ruler of all nations will not allow Babylon to go unpunished for her crimes against humanity. Babylon is merely a tool used of God for a time and then discarded. Jeremiah was not pro-Babylonian. Here he makes a specific prediction that after seventy years of Babylonian world rule that nation too would be visited by the God of judgment. To visit someone’s sins upon them is to punish them for their wrong doings. The land of the Chaldeans would become a perpetual desolation (Jeremiah 25:12). Every word which God had spoken and which Jeremiah had preached and written about Babylon would be fulfilled (Jeremiah 25:13). God would recompense the Chaldeans for their wicked works. Many kings and great nations would again and again enslave the Chaldeans (Jeremiah 25:14). Babylon fell first to the Medes and Persians, and then to the Greeks and Parthians.
Jeremiah 25:15-29
C. Judgment on Surrounding Nations Jeremiah 25:15-29
TRANSLATION
(15) For thus says the LORD, God of Israel, unto me: Take this cup of wine, wrath, from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I am about to send you to drink it. (16) And they shall drink and they shall stagger and behave like a madman because of the sword which I am about to send among them. (17) And I took the CUP from the hand of the LORD and I caused all nations to whom the LORD had sent me to drink it. (18) Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and her kings and her princes, to make them a desolation, and astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day. (19) Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all of his servants, his princes, and all of his people; (20) and all the mingled people; all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistine (even Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); (21) Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon; (22) and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and all the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea; (23) Dedan, Tema, and Buz, and all who clip the corners of their hair; (24) and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the midst of the desert; (25) and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; (26) and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another; and to all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. (27) Then say unto them; Thus says the LORD of hosts God of Israel: Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall and do not arise because of the sword which I am about to send among you. (28) And it shall come to pass, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then say unto them; Thus says the LORD of hosts: You shall surely drink! (29) For behold, if I am beginning to destroy the city which is called by My name, shall you go completely unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; for I am about to call a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth (oracle of the LORD).
COMMENTS
The figure of drinking from the wine cup of God’s wrath is not one which is uncommon in prophetic literature.[230] The origin of the figure is uncertain. Some relate it to the practice recorded in Numbers 5:11-31 where a woman suspected of adultery was required to drink a loathsome potion with disastrous results to her if guilty. Bright suggests that the figure may go back to the practice of giving those who were marked for execution some brew to tranquillize them and render them incapable of struggle. Be that as it may, Jeremiah is here commanded to take the cup of wrath from the hand of God and cause the nations of the world to drink of it (Jeremiah 25:15). The nations after drinking of that brew will become as intoxicated men, like raving lunatics. Their incoherence and utter confusion is brought about by news of the approach of the sword of the Lord, the armies which He will use to execute His judgment (Jeremiah 25:16). Jeremiah relates that he complied with the commandment of the Lord and caused the nations of the world to drink of God’s deadly cup (Jeremiah 25:17).
[230] Isaiah 51:17; Isaiah 51:22: Ezekiel 23:31-34; Habakkuk 2:16; Psalms 60:3; Jeremiah 49:12; Jeremiah 51:7, etc.
The real problem is to determine the nature of the episode recorded here. If the student of Jeremiah will take the time to locate all the countries named in Jeremiah 25:18-26 he will immediately see that it would have been impossible for Jeremiah to literally visit all the nations. What then took place in this passage? Is this a vision or a symbolic act or merely rhetoric? Some think that Jeremiah in a visionary experience took a wine cup from the hand of God and passed it among the nations. In this case Jeremiah is here describing what he saw in a vision. Yet no positive indication of a vision is present in the passage. Others think that a symbolic act was performed by the prophet. He actually took a cup of wine, explained its significance, and passed it around among the ambassadors of these various lands who were present in Jerusalem. It’s difficult, however, to imagine that ambassadors from distant Media and Elam would have been present in Jerusalem. Other commentators think that the cup which Jeremiah is told to pass among the nations is metaphorical. The prophet passes the cup by preaching his message of God’s wrath against the nations. However the account seems to bear all the earmarks of an actual experience. God told Jeremiah to pass a wine cup among the nations (Jeremiah 25:15) and he carried out the command (Jeremiah 25:17). The nations to whom he carried the cup apparently could reject it (Jeremiah 25:28). Although none of the explanations of this episode are without their difficulties it seems to this writer that a symbolic act was performed most likely involving the ambassadors of the various lands mentioned in Jeremiah 25:18-26.
In Jeremiah 25:18-26 Jeremiah enumerates the nations to whom he carried the cup of God’s wrath. First, of course, stands Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The kings (Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah) and princes of Judah shall drink of that cup of judgment and their land will become a desolation, a horrible and shocking sight as at this day (Jeremiah 25:18). The last phrase of Jer 25:18 implies that in the view of Jeremiah the desolation of Jerusalem had already begun in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. This episode of the wine cup of wrath must have occurred not long after the invasion of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. In the view of Jeremiah the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem began with that invasion, not with the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. The foreign nations which were required to drink the cup of God’s judgment are fourteen in number.
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Egypt is the southernmost country named. The oracles against Egypt also stand first in the collection of foreign nation oracles at the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The mixed multitudes or mingled people mentioned in Jeremiah 25:20 were probably foreigners who dwelled within the borders of Egypt. Some of these mingled people joined the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt many years earlier (Numbers 11:4).
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The location of the land of Uz is uncertain. It seems to have been in close proximity to Edom (cf. Lamentations 4:21). Job was a citizen of this land (Job 1:1). No kingdom by this name is found in the historical records of antiquity.
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Philistia to the southwest of Judah would next taste the cup. Four of the major Philistine cities, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and Ashdod are named specifically. Gath, the fifth city of the Philistine pentapolis, is omitted here as in Amos 1:6-8. Of Ashdod only a remnant remained after the siege and capture by Pharaoh Psammetichus I (663-609 B.C.).
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5, 6. The transjordan kingdoms of Edom, Moab and Ammon are next named. These kingdoms are named in order from south to north.
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Phoenicia with her two major cities of Tyre and Sidon and her overseas colonies would also drink from the cup.
8, 9, 10. Three tribes of northern Arabia, Dedan, Tema, and Buz are next named. The Dedanites were descended from Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:3) and had a reputation for being traders (Ezekiel 27:15; Ezekiel 27:20; Ezekiel 38:13). Tema was a tribe related to Abraham through his son Ishmael (Genesis 25:15). Buz was a tribe de scended from Nahor, Abraham’s brother (Genesis 22:21). All of these tribes are identified as those who clip the corners of the hair. The custom of cutting away the hair from the temples is forbidden to the Israelites in Leviticus 19:27. No doubt the custom had some pagan religious significance.
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The kings of Arabia and the mingled people who are associated with them will also taste of the judgment of God. These tribes dwelled almost due east of the populated region of Transjordan.
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Zimri as the name of a people is not found else where. Some relate this people to the desert tribes just mentioned while others associate them with the two kingdoms named along with Zimri in Jeremiah 25:25.
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Elam, east of Babylon, had already begun to fade as an independent people and was shortly to be absorbed by the Medes and later by Persia.
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The Medes were one of the most powerful nations of Jeremiah’s day. They were located east of Assyria and north of Elam. They had been instrumental in the overthrow of Nineveh in 612 B.C. Media eventually merged with Persia under the leadership of Cyrus the Great. The Medo-Persian empire fell before the armies of Alexander the Great.
In addition to the nations specifically named, the Lord indicates that many other nations must also drink of the cup of destruction. Kings of the north, some near and some distant, indeed all kingdoms of the civilized world would drink. But last of all the king of Sheshach would drink of that deadly cup. Sheshach is a cipher, a cryptic way of writing the name Babylon. In this system of writing, the alphabet is written along a line and then on another line is written again in reverse order. The first letter corresponds to the last, the second letter corresponds to the last but one, etc. When this system is followed in Hebrew, Babylon comes out being spelled Sheshech. The same device is used again in Jeremiah 51:41. It is not clear why Jeremiah chose to use this code name for Babylon. Certainly he was not afraid to speak out plainly concerning the fate of Babylon (cf. Jeremiah 25:12). Perhaps Jeremiah changed the name Babylon to Sheshach in one of the later editions of his book after this cipher came into common use among the captives in Babylon. Then too, the word Sheshach sounds in Hebrew very like a word that means humiliation. A play on words might be intended.
As Jeremiah hands his symbolic cup to each nation he is to instruct them to drink its contents. They will, he predicts, begin to act as intoxicated men, staggering, vomiting, falling. But that is one stupor from which they would never awake. Thus does Jeremiah picture in figurative language the irrational, incoherent, and helpless behavior as Nebuchadnezzar marches against these lands (Jeremiah 25:27). If the representatives to whom he offers the symbolic cup refuse to receive it from his hand, Jeremiah is to assure them that they must indeed drink of the cup of divine destruction whether or not they cooperate in sipping from the symbolic cup (Jeremiah 25:28). The rationale for the impending destruction of the nations is very simple. God had already begun to bring judgmental calamity upon the beloved city of Jerusalem, the city where His Temple stood, the city where some of His faithful worshipers lived. Jerusalem is called by the name of God i.e., it belonged to Him, it was His special city. If Jerusalem must taste of divine wrath, do the nations think that they shall escape scot-free? They too will suffer at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the divinely appointed sword (Jeremiah 25:29).
Jeremiah 25:30-38
D. Judgment on the World Jeremiah 25:30-38
TRANSLATION
(30) But as for you, prophesy unto them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD from on high will roar, and from His holy habitation He will give forth His voice; He will mightily roar against His pasture. He will give forth a shout like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come unto the ends of the earth, for the LORD has a controversy with the nations. He is about to judge all flesh; the wicked He shall give to the sword (oracle of the LORD). (32) Thus says the LORD of hosts: Disaster proceeds from nation to nation, and a tempest is being stirred up from the farthest bounds of the earth. (33) Those slain by the LORD in that day shall be from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the face of the ground. (34) Howl, O shepherds! Cry out! Wallow, O lords of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and dispersions have been filled up, and you shall fall like a precious vessel. (35) Flight shall perish from the shepherds, and escape from the lords of the flock. (36) A sound! The cry of shepherds, the howl of the lords of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pastures. (37) The peaceful folds are brought to silence because of the fierce wrath of the LORD. (38) He has left His covert as the lion; for their land has become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of His fierce anger.
COMMENTS
Jeremiah 25:30-38 contain a poetic description of the world-wide judgment of the Lord. In the first two verses of this section the prophet presents four pictures of the Lord in the act of executing judgment upon the wicked. (1) Like a lion about to pounce upon the prey the God of holiness roars from His heavenly habitation against His pasture or sheepfold. The tender Shepherd of Israel has turned into a roaring lion because of the wickedness of His people. (2) As those who tread the grapes shout while they press the grapes, so the Lord will raise the victorious shout as the wicked of the earth fall beneath His feet. (3) As a prosecutor reads his indictment against the accused, so the Lord enters into a controversy i.e., a court case, with the nations of the world. (4) He not only prosecutes the nations but He also pronounces judgment against them. It is as righteous judge pronouncing sentence against the guilty that God decrees desolation and war for the whole earth. The noise in Jeremiah 25:31 refers to the tumult of warfare.
God will raise up against the nations of the world a tempest or whirlwind from the uttermost parts of the earth. In Jeremiah 6:22 the phrase uttermost part of the earth refers to the north country and therefore it is obvious that the prophet has in mind Babylon. This whirlwind of divine wrath will sweep from nation to nation (Jeremiah 25:32). Those slain by this agent of God will fill the earth. So many will die that customary funeral rites will have to be abandoned. Unburied and unlamented corpses will lie upon the face of the earth. (Jeremiah 25:33). Neither shepherds (rulers) nor lords of the flock (rich and influential people) will escape. Their days of slaughtering other nations, deporting and scattering captive peoples, are ended. The nations of the world in all their glory shall fall and be broken like a precious vessel which has fallen to the ground (Jeremiah 25:34). Sometimes high ranking officials escape the fate of the common people in times of warfare. But from the divine judgment coming upon the world there will be no escape for anyone (Jeremiah 25:35). The proud and pompous world leaders will howl in agony and cry out in distress as they see their pasture, the land which they rule, devastated (Jeremiah 25:36). The peaceful pastoral regions (peaceful folds) will be reduced to silence because neither man nor flock will be there any more. Their land has become an appalling waste because the lion, the Lord of hosts, has left His lair.[231] God has become a fierce destroyer to the peoples of the earth.
[231] An alternative interpretation: The Lord forsakes His desolate land just as a young lion forsakes his lair when it has been destroyed.