Jeremiah 25:34

Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel. HOWL, YE SHEPHERDS - princes (). Here he returns from pronouncing judgments against the Gentile nations, to the Jews and their rulers, using the same image as in , "pasture," note. WALLOW YOURSELVES - cover yourselves as thickly with ashes, in token of sorrow, as one who rolls in them (; ). (Maurer.) YE PRINCIPAL OF THE FLOCK - leaders of the people. Septuagint translate, rams, carrying ou...

I doubt not but that the Prophet now turns his discourse especially to his own nation, which interpreters have not observed, and hence have not understood the meaning of the Prophet. He prophesied of God’s judgments, that the Jews might know that they in vain looked for impunity, as the Lord would not pardon the ignorant and destitute of all true knowledge, who might have pretended their ignorance as an excuse; and also that this comfort might support the minds of the godly, that the heathens, involved in the same guilt, would be subjected to the same judgment; and lastly, that knowing the difference between them and other nations, they might flee to God’s mercy and be encouraged to repent by entertaining a hope of pardon. After having then treated this general subject, he now returns to the people over whom he was appointed a teacher. He might indeed have declared from an eminence what...

30-38 The Lord has just ground of controversy with every nation and every person; and he will execute judgment on all the wicked. Who can avoid trembling when God speaks in displeasure? The days are fully come; the time fixed in the Divine counsels, which will make the nations wholly desolate. The tender and delicate shall share the common calamity. Even those who used to live in peace, and did nothing to provoke, shall not escape. Blessed be God, there is a peaceable habitation above, for all the sons of peace. The Lord will preserve his church and all believers in all changes; for nothing can separate them from his love....

Verse Jeremiah 25:34. _HOWL, YE SHEPHERDS_] Ye kings and chiefs of the people. _YE SHALL FALL LIKE A PLEASANT VESSEL._] As a fall will break and utterly ruin a precious vessel of crystal, agate, c., so your overthrow will be to you irreparable ruin....

PRINCIPAL OF THE FLOCK - i. e., noble ones. WALLOW YOURSELVES IN THE ASHES - Rather, roll yourselves on the ground. FOR ... - Read; “for your days for being slaughtered are accomplished, and I will scatter you” (or, (dash you in pieces). FALL LIKE A PLEASANT VESSEL - The comparison suggests the idea of change from a thing of value into worthless fragments. Jeremiah 25:36 HATH SPOILED - Or, spoileth....

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...

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. It is no uncommon thing in Scripture to call kings and civil magistrates shepherds; see Jeremiah 23:1; AND WALLOW YOURSELVES [IN THE ASHES], YE PRINCIPAL OF THE FLOCK; or "roll yourselves [in dust]", as a token of mourning; as being in the utmost distress, and incapable of helping themselves, and redressing the grievances of their people; and therefore lie down and tumble about as in the greatest anxiety and trouble, the Targum is, "cover your heads with ashes, ye mighty of the people;''

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

SHEPHERDS. rulers (of all kinds). Compare Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 6:3. All three had miserable ends: Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:18; Jeremiah 36:30); Jehoiachin, taken to Babylon; and Zedekiah, after his eyes were put out. PRINCIPALS. strong ones. OF YOUR DISPERSIONS: or, when ye are dispersed. So in the Mugah Codex (quoted in the _Massorah),_ with three early printed editions. PLEASANT. precious (i.e. fair, but fragile)....