Jeremiah 25:1-38. Prediction of the supremacy of Babylon The reply of the prophet to Zedekiah's message, comprised in the last four Chapter s, has come to an end. Accordingly we here return to a prophecy delivered during the time of Jehoiakim. It extends throughout the ch., with the exception of Je... [ Continue Reading ]
_in the fourth year_ In the earlier part of the Book we have not any prophecy so closely dated as the present Cp. ch. Jeremiah 3:6 and Jeremiah 26:1 ("In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim"). The addition of the year of Nebuchadrezzar marks more forcibly the fact that it was a turning-point in... [ Continue Reading ]
_spake unto all the people_ The events of ch. 36 (see Jeremiah 25:26 there) had not yet occurred. Jeremiah was still at liberty.... [ Continue Reading ]
_these three and twenty years_ Josiah reigned thirty-one years, and it was in the thirteenth year of that king (ch. Jeremiah 1:2) that Jeremiah was called. He therefore prophesied for eighteen or nineteen years in that reign. To this we are to add the reign of Jehoahaz (three months), and more than... [ Continue Reading ]
The editor or copyist failed to perceive that it is the prophet, not Jehovah, who is speaking in Jeremiah 25:3. Moreover, the grammar in the Hebrew is suspicious, and this _v_. is an insertion suggested by such passages as Jeremiah 7:25; Jeremiah 11:7. By omitting it, and (with LXX) all after "unto... [ Continue Reading ]
_provoke me not_ Read PROVOKE NOT JEHOVAH, a correction easily made in the Hebrew.... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto me_ i.e. Jeremiah. _saith the Lord_ The words were inserted through the same error which led to the insertion of Jeremiah 25:4. _that ye might … own hurt_ The gloss was suggested by the similar language of Jeremiah 25:6. _work of your hands_ idols. Cp. Jeremiah 10:3; Jeremiah 10:9; Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
_saith the Lord … my servant_ LXX omit, doubtless rightly, as a gloss which needlessly introduces harshness into the construction of the MT. It is remarkable, however, that neither do they recognise this title for Nebuchadrezzar elsewhere (Jeremiah 27:6 [Jeremiah 34:5], 43 [50]:10), probably as bein... [ Continue Reading ]
Babylon's victory and subsequent ruin.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the families of the north_ See ch. Jeremiah 1:14 f. _families_ For the wide use of this word see on Jeremiah 3:14, and cp. Jeremiah 8:3. _utterly destroy_ lit. as mg. _devote_, i.e. place them under a ban. LXX, reading otherwise two Hebrew letters often written rather similarly, _lay waste_. Cp.... [ Continue Reading ]
_take from them_ lit. as mg. _cause to perish from them_. _the voice of mirth, etc_.] Cp. Jeremiah 7:34. Here mention of the millstones and of the candle (lamp) is added, typical of domestic labour and social cheer. See the same description somewhat amplified in Revelation 18:22 f. _millstones_ Se... [ Continue Reading ]
_and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon_ LXX have, "and they shall be servants among the heathen," thus omitting "these," and "the king of Babylon," and probably indicating the original form of the Hebrew, which, however, they render inaccurately, as the construction of the verb here give... [ Continue Reading ]
See end of introductory note to this section. Of these _vv_., 12 and 14, as well as the latter part of 13, cannot be a genuine part of Jeremiah's prophecies, to be dated, like the earlier part of the passage, in "the 4th year of Jehoiakim," but are subsequent insertions when the Book was virtually c... [ Continue Reading ]
_even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations_ At this point there presents itself one of the most marked discrepancies between the Septuagint Version of Jeremiah and the Hebrew. (See Introd. iv. §§ 10 ff.) The Greek Version as it stands now ends the... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall serve themselves of them, even of them_ lit. _shall work by_(means of) _them_, i.e. shall use them as slaves. As the Chaldaeans have done to the people of God, so shall He requite them.... [ Continue Reading ]
The wine-cup of the Lord's fury to be drunk by all the nations. For confusion and dismay, expressed under the figure of intoxication, see below. Overthrow at the hands of the Chaldaeans is to be the fate of the nations. The genuineness of the passage as a whole has been challenged by Schwally and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then took I the cup_ not in any literal sense, but in vision; yet "not a mere allegory, but a psychic experience, in which Jeremiah really seems to himself to be forcing the goblet on the nations which he enumerates." Pe.... [ Continue Reading ]
The list which follows is one which has evidently been expanded. The LXX omit "all the kings of the land of Uz" (Jeremiah 25:20), "all the kings of Arabia" [or (see note there) "all the kings of the mingled people"] (Jeremiah 25:24), and "all the kings of Zimri" (Jeremiah 25:25). Gi. and Co. accordi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Pharaoh_ a name belonging not to an individual but (cp. _Kaiser_and _Czar_) to the monarch as such. The word has been somewhat altered in shape by its transmission to us through Hebrew. It is the hieroglyph _Per-âa_, meaning _great house_(cp. _Sublime Porte_), and gradually became the title of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_and all the mingled people_ here denoting foreigners living in Egypt. This phrase (and so in Jeremiah 25:24) means those who sojourned in a country for commercial or other purposes without losing their own nationality. Cp. Jeremiah 50:37 (referring to foreigners living in Babylon); Exodus 12:38; 1... [ Continue Reading ]
_Zidon_ the ordinary form of the name in the O.T. Cp. Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 47:4. Sidon, as the Greek form, is that which occurs in the N.T. _isle_ mg. _coastland_, lit. where a mariner betakes himself for refuge or rest; hence used of the colonies planted by Phoenicians on the shores of the Medi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dedan_ a tribe descended from Abraham by his wife Keturah (Genesis 10:7) and dwelling S.E. of Edom. Their caravans maintained a trade between Tyre and Arabia (Ezekiel 27:15; Ezekiel 27:20; Ezekiel 38:13). _Tema_ the modern _Teimâ_, about 250 miles S.E. of Edom. They were descendants of Ishmael (Ge... [ Continue Reading ]
_and all the kings of Arabia_ LXX omit. _Arabia_ lit. dwellers in the _steppes_(ăr âbâh), "a tribe (or group of tribes) somewhere in N. Arabia; cf. Isaiah 21:13 … after Old Testament times it was gradually extended so as to denote the whole of what we now know as -Arabia." But in the Old Testament... [ Continue Reading ]
_and all the kings of Zimri_ LXX omit, and the name is found here only. Du. ingeniously conjectures that it may be a fictitious one intended by a late editor to hint covertly at the Romans, the Hebrew consonants of which have (combined) the same numerical value. This, however, would make the inserti... [ Continue Reading ]
_of the world_ rightly omitted by LXX. It is clear that Jeremiah 25:25 bear traces of modification in consonance with later Jewish views as to the end of the dispensation. _which are upon the face of the earth_ This would not suggest to the Jewish ear, as it does to us, the thought of absolutely un... [ Continue Reading ]
There is some reason to consider these _vv_. a later insertion. For (i) the nations (Jeremiah 25:17) had already been made to drink, (ii) Jehovah ("and thou shalt say") suddenly becomes the speaker, instead of, as in the previous _vv_., the prophet himself, (iii) the implication (Jeremiah 25:29) tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_called by my name_ See on Jeremiah 7:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord shall roar_ as a lion coming forth from his covert, and terrifying by his approach the shepherds and their flocks. There is no escape and the slain cover the earth. Cp. Amos 1:2. _fold_ For mg. _pasture_cp. Jeremiah 10:25; Jeremiah 23:3. _a shout_ lit. _a vintage shout_, the cry with whic... [ Continue Reading ]
The judgement to come upon all the peoples of the earth. The description is characterized by Oriental hyperbole. A considerable amount is adapted from elsewhere, and the eschatological character of the whole tends to throw serious doubts upon the genuineness of the passage.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A noise_ lit. a crash, battle-din. So in Jeremiah 51:55; Isaiah 13:4; Isaiah 17:12; Hosea 10:14; Amos 2:2. _plead_ See on Jeremiah 2:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the slain of the Lord_ For the phrase cp. Isaiah 66:16. _they shall not … gathered_ omitted by LXX and apparently inserted here by MT. from Jeremiah 8:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_wallow yourselves_in ashes] rather, SPRINKLE YOURSELVES. See on Jeremiah 6:26. The words "in ashes" are added in E.VV. only because they occur in the Hebrew of the other passage. _principal of the flock_ not equivalent to "shepherds," but rather, chief among the sheep, i.e. wealthy ones of the peo... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the shepherds, etc._ For the idiom in mg. _flight shall perish from the shepherds, and escape from, etc._, cp. Job 11:20 mg.; Psalms 142:4 (Hebrews 5); Amos 2:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Zechariah 11:3.... [ Continue Reading ]
Co. for metrical reasons transfers the last two clauses of Jeremiah 25:38 to end Jeremiah 25:35. He also omits the second part of Jeremiah 25:37, joining "and the peaceable … silence" to Jeremiah 25:36.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He hath forsaken his covert_ a repetition of the figure with which the section opened. As the lion seeks other shelter, when that which he has dwelt in hitherto is destroyed, so Jehovah forsakes his land now that it has become desolate. But perhaps we should omit "as," and read "the lion leaves his... [ Continue Reading ]