Jeremiah 25:18

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 this day; JERUSALEM - put first: for "judgment begins at the house of God;" they being most guilty whose religious privileges are greatest (). THE KINGS THEREOF - Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah. AS IT IS THIS DAY - the accomplishment of the curse has already begun under Jehoiakim. This clause, however, may have been inserted by Jeremiah at his final revision of his prophecies in Egypt....

He begins with Jerusalem, as it is said elsewhere that judgment would begin at God’s house. (1 Peter 4:17.) And there is nothing opposed to this in the context of the passage; for though he had promised to the children of God a happy end to the evils which they were shortly to endure, he nevertheless enumerates here all the nations on whom God had bidden him to denounce judgments. In this catalogue the Church obtains the first place; for though God be the judge of the whole world, he yet justly begins with his own Church, and that especially for two reasons — for as the father of a family watches over his children and servants, and if there be anything wrong, his solicitude is particularly manifested; so God, as he dwells in his Church, cannot do otherwise than chastise it for its faults; — and then, we know that they are less excusable, who, having been taught the will of God, do yet go...

15-29 The evil and the good events of life are often represented in Scripture as cups. Under this figure is represented the desolation then coming upon that part of the world, of which Nebuchadnezzar, who had just began to reign and act, was to be the instrument; but this destroying sword would come from the hand of God. The desolations the sword should make in all these kingdoms, are represented by the consequences of excessive drinking. This may make us loathe the sin of drunkenness, that the consequences of it are used to set forth such a woful condition. Drunkenness deprives men of the use of their reason, makes men as mad. It takes from them the valuable blessing, health; and is a sin which is its own punishment. This may also make us dread the judgments of war. It soon fills a nation with confusion. They will refuse to take the cup at thy hand. They will not believe Jeremiah; but...

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....

EXPOSITION This chapter may be illustrated by a comparison of it with Jeremiah 46:1. There Jeremiah exults ever the destruction of a nation (Egypt) which was one of the chief enemies of God's people, and on hearing or reading the inspired eloquence of the prophet the heart of a Jew could not but be moved with the liveliest sympathy. But it is another strain which meets us in this chapter, and one which to a Jew would certainly neutralize the favorable feelings which prophecies like that referred to must have awakened. Here Jeremiah announces that the last moment of grace for Judah is past, and the time for judgment come. The long-suffering of Jehovah has been exhausted; the fall of the commonwealth cannot any longer be delayed. Such was the strange destiny of the prophet; he was sent to "pull down" and "to build," but the destructive element (as...

[TO WIT], JERUSALEM, AND THE CITIES OF JUDAH,.... Which are mentioned first, because God's judgments began with them, as they usually do with the house of God, 1 Peter 4:17; and even now began; for this very year, in which this prophecy was delivered, Nebuchadnezzar came up and besieged Jerusalem, and carried away some captives, Daniel 1:1; this was the beginning of what afterwards were more fully executed: AND THE KINGS THEREOF, AND THE PRINCES THEREOF: the Kings Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, with those of their families, the princes of the blood, and their nobles: TO MAKE THEM A DESOLATION, AN ASTONISHMENT, AN HISSING, AND A CURSE; to strip them of their crowns and kingdom, of their wealth, and riches, and honour, and bring them into slavery and bondage; so that they

CHAPTER 25 The Seventy Years' Captivity and the Judgment of the Nations _ 1. The retrospect (Jeremiah 25:1) _ 2. The seventy years' captivity announced (Jeremiah 25:8) 3. The punishment of Babylon and its king (Jeremiah 25:12) 4. The wine-cup of fury for the nations (Jeremiah 25:15) 5. The day of the LORD and wrath of God (Jeremiah 25:30) Jeremiah 25:1. The prophet in the fourth year o

JEREMIAH 25. THE SUPREMACY OF BABYLON OVER JUDAH AND THE NATIONS. Jeremiah 25:1. In the year 604 (after the Babylonian victory over Egypt at Carchemish, 605 B.C., _cf._ Jeremiah 46:2), Jeremiah publicly reviews his ministry (since 626; _cf._ Jeremiah 1:2)_._ which has failed to produce repentance (Jeremiah 25:1). As a result, Yahweh will bring the victorious Babylonians against both Judah and the surrounding peoples to lay them waste, and the supremacy of Babylon shall last seventy years. Jeremiah 25:10. the so

JERUSALEM. Comes first (Compare Jeremiah 25:29), because of 1 Peter 4:17; Amos 3:2. AND. So some codices, with five early printed editions, Aramaean, Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. Others omit this "and". AS IT IS THIS DAY. Probably added by Jeremiah when this prophecy had been fulfilled....

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 Du., but on insufficient grounds, although it has probably received a certain editorial expansion. Co. considers the whole ch. to have a genuine Jeremianic _basis_, and Gi. agrees as to Jeremiah 25:15, but brackets Jeremiah 25:20 as later insertions, adducing among other reasons the placing of Judah and her neighbours on a level of comparison, contrary to the spirit of the genuine portions of Jeremiah, and the vagueness of the expressions, "_all_the kings of Tyre," "of Zidon," etc. ...