Jeremiahchapter 25
38 verses · KJVJeremiah book hub →
Key verse
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, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 14.
The chapter
Chapter summary
In Jehoiakim's fourth year Jeremiah tallies twenty-three years of unheeded preaching ('ye have not hearkened') and speaks the number that will shape Daniel's prayer and the exile's calendar: 'these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years' (25:11), after which Babylon herself is called to account. Then the vision widens to the whole earth: the cup of the wine of wrath taken from Jehovah's hand and made to be drunk by nation after nation, Jerusalem first and Sheshach last. Jehovah roars from on high like one that treads the grapes; the slain shall be from one end of the earth to the other; and the shepherds of the flock are told to howl and wallow.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah · Jeremiah overview
Where the chapter sits
Jeremiah 25 falls in Against kings, prophets, and priests (chapters 21–29). Oracles against Judah's last kings; the Branch (23:5–6); false prophets; Hananiah's yoke; the letter to the exiles.
Before it: Temple sermon and symbolic acts, chapters 7–20. After it: Book of consolation, chapters 30–33.
The whole shape of Jeremiah→The world behind itThe date, the place, the people, and the works this site draws the setting from.
The history
The chapter dates itself with unusual care, and the date is the hinge of the age. In 605 BC the Babylonian crown prince Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Egyptian army at Carchemish on the upper Euphrates, chased the survivors south, and then took the throne when his father died. The Babylonian Chronicle, a court record now in the British Museum, describes that campaign and the accession in the same year.
Jeremiah opens by counting: twenty-three years of preaching, from Josiah's thirteenth year to this one, with no result. That is a man doing the arithmetic on his own career in public.
Then comes the number that shaped the next century of Jewish life. These nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, and then Babylon itself will be punished. Later readers, Daniel among them, counted from this text.
The second half hands round a cup. Ancient kings really did compel a defeated ruler to drink at a victory banquet, and the cup of wine passed from nation to nation here is a list of the whole known world in geographical order, Egypt, the Philistine cities, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon, the Arabian tribes, Elam, Media, and last of all Babylon under a code name formed by swapping its letters.
What it meant to them
The first hearers had just watched the balance of the world change in a single campaign season. This chapter told them what it meant: the empire everyone was now negotiating with was God's instrument, and even called his servant.
The seventy years did two things at once. It made the disaster certain and it made it finite. There was an end date, and Babylon was on the list of nations that would drink the same cup.
Sources cited
- The Babylonian Chronicle, in James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
- Kenneth A. Kitchen, On the Reliability of the Old Testament
A. Twenty-Three Years of Warning; Seventy Years in Babylon
1. (vv. 1-3)
a.in the fourth year of Jehoiakim: The date is doubled for a reason: the fourth year of Jehoiakim was also the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, so the same year that begins Babylon's rise in this book also fixes the twenty three years Jeremiah has already preached without being heard. Verse 3 counts from the thirteenth year of Josiah, the call of 1:2, to this day, the prophet's own tally of a ministry the nation refused. Keil places the year at 605 BC, the year of Carchemish, when Babylon's ascent to empire and Judah's sentence become the same event.
Jeremiah 25:1, 1 voiceWhat preachers and commentators have said about these verses, in their own words.
Jeremiah 25:1
“The fourth year - See Dan 1:1 note. This invasion of Judaea, in which Daniel was carried captive to Babylon, was according to the date of the years the fourth, but according to the actual time the third, year of the Jewish king. Nebuchadnezzar was not yet fully king, but associated with his father Nabopalassar.”
Jeremiah 25:3, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:3
“The three and twentieth year - i. e., nineteen under Josiah, and four under Jehoiakim. This prophecy divides itself into three parts, (1) the judgment of Judah Jer 25:3-11, and Babylon’s doom Jer 25:12-14; (2) the wine-cup of fury Jer 25:15-29; (3) the judgment of the world Jer 25:30-38.”
2. (vv. 4-7)
a.rising early and sending them: The Lord's servants the prophets were sent rising early and sending them, the same figure used of the word's arrival at Jeremiah himself in verse 3, a household rising before dawn to speak because the message could not wait. The terms offered were plain, turn from your evil way and dwell in the land, with no penalty attached but the one already stated, and go not after other gods. Israel's refusal is put in her own hurt rather than God's anger alone, ye have not hearkened unto me, to your own hurt, which the older writers read as judgment explaining itself before it falls.
Jeremiah 25:5, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:5
“Turn . . . dwell--In Hebrew there is expressed by sameness of sounds the correspondence between their turning to God and God's turning to them to permit them to dwell in their land: Shubu . . . shebu, "Return" . . . so shall ye "remain." every one from . . . evil--Each must separately repent and turn from his own sin.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3. (vv. 8-11)
a.Because ye have not heard my words: The sentence is passed because ye have not heard my words, and the instrument named is startling: Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, a pagan emperor called into Jehovah's own employ, which the bench reads as sovereignty over the nations stated as plainly as anywhere in the prophets. The desolation removes the sounds of ordinary life, the voice of mirth, the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, the millstones and the candle, a house going dark and silent rather than merely destroyed. The seventy years is named here for the first time in the book, the term the exiles themselves will read in chapter 29 and Daniel will count out by name in Daniel 9:2.
Jeremiah 25:9, 3 voices
Jeremiah 25:9
“The term families is probably used here to signify the widespread empire of Nebuchadnezzar. My servant - This title, so remarkable in the Old Testament as the especial epithet, first of Moses, and then of the Messiah, is thrice given to Nebuchadnezzar, and marks the greatness of the commission entrusted to him.”
Jeremiah 25:9
“The Medes and other northern peoples, confederate with Babylon, are included with the Chaldeans. my servant--My agent for punishing (Jer 27:6; 43:10; compare Jer 40:2). Cyrus, "My shepherd." God makes even unbelievers unconsciously to fulfil His designs.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 25:9-11
“The fixing of 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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 25:10, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:10
“I will take from them - See Jer 7:34, and Jer 16:9. The sound of the mill-stones, and the light of the candle - These two are conjoined, because they generally ground the corn before day, by the light of the candle. Sir J. Chardin has remarked, that every where in the morning may be heard the noise of the mills; for they generally grind every day just as much as is necessary for the day’s consumption.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:11, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:11
“And this whole land shall be a desolation,.... Not only the city of Jerusalem, but all Judea, without inhabitants, or very few, and shall be uncultivated, and become barren and unfruitful: and an astonishment; to all other nations, and to all persons that pass through, beholding the desolations of it: and other nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years; both the Jews, and other nations of Egypt, reckoning from the date of this prophecy, the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, when Daniel and others were carried captive, Dan 1:1; to the first year of Cyrus.”
Jeremiah 25:11
“Seventy years - The duration of the Babylonian empire was really a little short of this period. But the 70 years are usually calculated down to the time when the Jews were permitted to return to their country (compare Jer 29:10).”
4. (vv. 12-14)
a.when seventy years are accomplished: The same seventy years that measures Judah's servitude also measures Babylon's reprieve; when the term is full the Lord turns to punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity, the sentence Chronicles closes its own history on and Daniel reads by name. Verse 13 calls the coming judgment on the nations all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations, an explicit pointer forward to the oracles of chapters 46 to 51. Verse 14's many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also states that Babylon's own empire will be repaid by others in its turn, conquest answered with conquest.
Jeremiah 25:12, 3 voices
Jeremiah 25:12
“And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished,.... Which were accomplished in the first year of Cyrus: they began with the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, who reigned two years and two months with his father Nabopolassar; after that forty three years by himself; Evilmerodach two years: Neriglissar four years; Belshazzar or Nabonadius seventeen years; and Darius the Median two years; which all make sixty nine years and two months; and if ten months more be added to complete the said seventy years, it will carry the end of them to the first year of Cyrus (g).”
Jeremiah 25:12
“And that nation - הגוי ההוא haggoi hahu. Dr. Blayney contends that this should be translated his nation, and that ההוא hahu is the substantive pronoun used in the genitive case. It is certainly more clear and definite to read, “I will punish the king of Babylon, and His nation.” Will make it perpetual desolations - See the note on Isa 13:19, where the fulfillment of this prophecy is distinctly marked.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:12
“Accomplished - Counted from the time that the Jews were carried away in the time of Jeconiah or Jehoiakim, 2 Kings xxiv, 15, 16. Desolations - This was fulfilled by Darius, the king of Persia, Dan. iv, 31, of these seventy Nebuchadnezzar reigned thirty six, 2 Kings xxv, 27.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:13, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:13
“The Septuagint places a full stop after “book,” and take the rest as a title “what Jeremiah prophesied against the nations,” which series there immediately follows. In the Masoretic Text, this series is deferred to the end Jer. 46–49, and with Jer. 50–51, forms one entire series. Other reasons make it probable that the Septuagint has preserved for us an earlier text, in which all direct mention of the king of Babylon is omitted and the 70 years are given as the duration of Judah’s captivity, and not of the Babylonian empire.”
B. The Wine Cup of Fury Passed Among the Nations
1. (vv. 15-17)
a.Take the wine cup of this fury: The sign act is a cup carried in vision from nation to nation, take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it, wrath pictured as a drink forced on those who provoked it. Verse 16 names the effect, they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, drunkenness as the image of nations reeling under judgment they cannot resist. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand states Jeremiah's own obedience in the vision, the prophet made to enact what he has only spoken until now; Revelation 14:10 and 16:19 take up the same cup of wrath, a link the notes state without pressing further than the words allow.
Jeremiah 25:15, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:15-17
“The pouring out of the cup—and that a cup of pure or unmixed wine (which is called akratos in Greek)—is a sign of the Lord's wrath so that all the nations who have waged war against the people of God will drink from the cup of the wrath of the Lord. Also, Isaiah writes concerning this cup against Jerusalem, "You have drunk and emptied the drinking cup of wrath, the cup of destruction; therefore, arise!" But that cup is being drunk by all nations so that they can vomit and be maddened.”
Jerome· written before 420· SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 5:14patristic
Jeremiah 25:15
“Saith - Or, hath said. This prophecy - placed by the Septuagint after those against the nations - forms an impressive statement of the manner in which the new kingdom of Babylon was to execute Yahweh’s wrath upon the nations far and near.”
Jeremiah 25:17, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:17
“Then took I the cup - Not actually offering the wine-cup - Holy Scripture has suffered much from this materialistic way of explaining it: but publicly proclaiming this prophecy in Jerusalem, as the central spot of God’s dealings with men, and leaving it to find its way to the neighboring states.”
2. (vv. 18-26)
a.to make them a desolation: The cup passes first to Jerusalem itself, judgment beginning at the house called by God's own name before it touches a single Gentile nation, the pattern Peter will later state as a principle. The catalogue then runs outward by the compass, Egypt, the coastal cities, Edom, Moab and Ammon, Tyre and Zidon, the Arabian tribes, Elam and the Medes, every neighbor Judah watched or feared drawn into the same reckoning. The list closes on the king of Sheshach, Babylon's own name spelled backward through the Hebrew atbash cipher, so that the empire carrying out the sentence is named at the end as also due to drink it, a detail the bench reads as deliberate.
Jeremiah 25:18, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:18
“As it is this day - Words omitted by the Septuagint, and probably added by Jeremiah after the murder of Gedaliah had completed the ruin of the land.”
Jeremiah 25:18
“Jerusalem--put first: for "judgment begins at the house of God"; they being most guilty whose religious privileges are greatest (1Pe 4:17). kings--Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah. as it is this day--The accomplishment of the curse had already begun under Jehoiakim. This clause, however, may have been inserted by Jeremiah at his final revision of his prophecies in Egypt.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 25:20, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:20
“All the mingled people - The strangers and foreigners; Abyssinians and others who had settled in Egypt. Land of Uz - A part of Arabia near to Idumea. See on Job 1:1 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:20
“Of Uz - Some part of Arabia Petraea, near to Idumaea. Of the Philistines - Uzzah, Ekron, Ashdod, and Askelon, were four of their cities, the fifth which was Gath is not here named.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:23, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:23
“Dedan, and Tema, and Buz,.... These seem to be places in Edom or Idumea, of whose destruction Jeremiah prophesies in Jer 49:7; or rather in Arabia and Mesopotamia. Jerom reckons them among the Ishmaelites and Saracens, The persons from whom they descended are mentioned in Gen 22:21; and all that are in the utmost corners; that is, either of the above countries, or of the whole earth: or "all that had their hair shorn" (m); or the corners of their beards; which Jerom says is applicable to the Saracens. (m) כל קצוצי פאה "universis qui attonsi sunt in comam", V.”
Jeremiah 25:24, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:24
“And all the kings of Arabia,.... Of Arabia Petraea; and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert; the other Arabians or mixed people, that dwell in Arabia Deserta, as the Scenites, Nomades, Kedarenes, and others; and so the Targum, "and all the kings of the Arabians, that dwell in tents in the desert.'' Of these, see the prophecy in Jer 49:28.”
Jeremiah 25:24
“Arabia - That part which bordered on Palestine, and was inhabited mainly by Ishmaelites. The mingled people - Compare the Jer 25:20 note. In Arabia there seem to have been many tribes of Cushite origin, who by intermarriage with other tribes had become of mixed blood.”
Jeremiah 25:25, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:25
“And all the kings of Zimri,.... Of Arabia Felix, so called from Zimran, a son of Abraham by Keturah, Gen 25:2; the same whom Pliny (n) calls Zamerenes; and all the kings of Elam; or Persia; who are prophesied against in Jer 49:34; and all the kings of the Medes; who commonly go together with the Persians. (n) Nat. Hist. I. 6. c. 28.”
Jeremiah 25:25
“Zimri--perhaps the Zabra mentioned by PTOLEMY between Mecca and Medina. Zimran also, as Dedan, was one of Abraham's sons by Keturah (Ge 25:2). Elam--properly, west of Persia; but used for Persia in general.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 25:26, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:26
“The kings of the north, far and near - The first may mean Syria; the latter, the Hyrcanians and Bactrians. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them - Sheshach was an ancient king of Babylon, who was deified after his death. Here it means either Babylon, or Nebuchadnezzar the king of it. After it has been the occasion of ruin to so many other nations, Babylon itself shall be destroyed by the Medo-Persians.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:26
“In the Cabalistic system (called Athbash, the first Hebrew letter in the alphabet being expressed by the last) Sheshach would exactly answer to Babel. Jeremiah may have used this system (as perhaps in Jer 51:41) for concealment at the time of this prediction, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, while Nebuchadnezzar was before Jerusalem.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3. (vv. 27-29)
a.Drink ye, and be drunken: Refusal is not permitted, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Ye shall certainly drink, judgment stated as unavoidable rather than merely threatened. Verse 29 gives the reasoning Peter will later echo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?, the nation nearest to God judged first and hardest, with no nation left exempt, I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth. The scope has widened past Judah's neighbors to the whole earth without the text pausing to announce the shift.
Jeremiah 25:28, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:28-29
“That the burden of the word of the Lord will at last become the burden of his judgments. Isaiah had prophesied long since against most of these nations ( ch. xiii. , &c.) and now at length all his prophecies will have their complete fulfilling. That those who are ambitious of power and dominion commonly become the troublers of the earth and the plagues of their generation.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
C. The LORD Roars from on High; No Way to Flee for the Shepherds
1. (vv. 30-31)
a.The Lord shall roar from on high: The lion figure returns, the Lord shall roar from on high, the same voice Amos uses for judgment on the nations, paired here with the shout of those that tread the grapes, harvest and judgment pictured together. Verse 31 states the scope in a lawcourt's own language, the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh, judgment framed as a case argued rather than an arbitrary blow. The sentence named here falls specifically on them that are wicked, the plea reaching all flesh even where the sword does not.
Jeremiah 25:30, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:30
“Yahweh has risen like a lion from His covert, and at His roaring the whole world is filled with terror and confusion. Upon his habitation - Against His pasture; i. e., Judaea. Yahweh comes forth as the lion to destroy the sheep which lie terrified within the circle of the tents. A shout - The vintage-shout, here used for the war-cry. Compare Isa 16:9; Isa 63:3.”
Jeremiah 25:31, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:31
“A noise - The trampling of an army in motion. Compare Amo 2:2. A controversy - i. e., a suit at law. Will plead - Or, will hold judgment. As judge He delivers the wicked to the sword.”
2. (vv. 32-33)
a.a great whirlwind shall be raised up: The judgment is pictured moving like weather, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth, a chain reaction rather than a single stroke. Verse 33 states the scale starkly, the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth, denied even the ordinary mercies of lament and burial, they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried. Dung upon the ground is the same image chapters 8 and 16 already used of Jerusalem's own dead, the city's fate now generalized to the nations that shared her sins.
Jeremiah 25:32, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:32
“A great whirlwind - Or, storm. The coasts of the earth - See Jer 6:22 note. The thunderstorm seen first on the edge of the horizon overspreads the heaven, and travels from nation to nation in its destructive course.”
Jeremiah 25:32
“The Chaldean army shall be like a hurricane raised in the north, but thence carried on with incredible fierceness and swiftness, bearing down all before it. It is like the whirlwind out of which God answered Job, which was exceedingly terrible, Job xxxvii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3. (vv. 34-36)
a.Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: The address turns to the kings and princes under the shepherd figure already used in chapter 23, howl, ye shepherds, and cry, and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock, rulers who fed themselves now facing the slaughter they permitted. Ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel pictures the leadership class as fine pottery about to be dropped, valuable and about to be worthless. Verse 35's flight with no way to escape and verse 36's cry heard because the Lord hath spoiled their pasture state that the shepherds' own provision, the throne and the land, is the thing being taken from under them.
Jeremiah 25:34, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:34
“Howl, ye shepherds, and cry,.... The Targum is, "howl, ye kings, and cry;'' and the rulers and governors of the nations before threatened with destruction are meant; who are here called upon to lamentation and mourning for the ruin and loss of their kingdoms; though Calvin thinks that this is an apostrophe to the Jewish nation, and the rulers of it.”
Jeremiah 25:34
“Howl, ye shepherds - Ye kings and chiefs of the people. Ye shall fall like a pleasant tresses - As a fall will break and utterly ruin a precious vessel of crystal, agate, etc., so your overthrow will be to you irreparable ruin.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 25:35, 1 voice
Jeremiah 25:35
“And the shepherds shall have no way to flee,.... Or, "and flight shall perish from the shepherds" (u); though they may attempt it, they shall not be able to accomplish it; neither the dignity of their persons, the greatness of their power, or the abundance of their riches, would make a way for them; their enemies being so numerous, powerful, and watchful: nor the principal of the flock to escape; this was particularly verified in Zedekiah and his princes, Jer 39:”
4. (vv. 37-38)
a.the peaceable habitations are cut down: because of the fierce anger of the Lord ends the oracle where it began, ordinary settled life silenced by the same anger that opened the chapter. He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion pictures God withdrawing the restraint that had sheltered the land, the same lion that roared in verse 30 now leaving his den, so the predator's absence, not merely his presence, becomes the danger. Their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor closes the chapter on the instrument named at verse 9, Nebuchadrezzar, called nowhere else in Scripture God's own servant.
Jeremiah 25:38, 2 voices
Jeremiah 25:38
“He hath forsaken his covert as a lion,.... Which some understand of God leaving Jerusalem, or the temple, where he dwelt; who, while he made it his residence, protected it; but when he forsook it, it became exposed to the enemy. Kimchi says it may be understood of the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar; but he thinks it is most correct to interpret it of the destruction of the second temple; that is, by the Romans, when it was left desolate by Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.”
Jeremiah 25:38
“As the lion - Leaving the banks of Jordan when overflowed, and coming with ravening fierceness to the champaign country.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 25. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 10 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, SIX BOOKS ON JEREMIAH 5:14; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765) and Matthew Henry.
Keep studying
On this page
Studies3
On this chapter
On this book
Subjects1