Jeremiah 25:7

Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. PROVOKE ME TO ANGER ... TO YOUR OWN HURT - though ye provoke me to anger (), yet it is not me, but yourselves, whom ye thereby hurt (; )....

He proves what he had said before, that the Jews had been wholly disobedient, though God had kindly offered and shewed that he would be reconciled to them, provided they turned from the heart to him. The fact that this message was not received by the Jews, was an evidence of extreme and irreclaimable obstinacy. And he enhances their guilt by saying, _that ye might provoke me; _for he intimates that they were led away to evil by a voluntary purpose, as though they wished to provoke God. The Prophet, then, by saying _that ye might provoke me, _accuses them of deliberate wickedness. It, indeed, often happens that men go astray through ignorance, and do not attend because no one warns them; but since God had so many times exhorted the Jews to repent, no other opinion could have been formed of them, but that they designedly wished, not only to despise God, but also to provoke him to the conte...

1-7 The call to turn from evil ways to the worship and service of God, and for sinners to trust in Christ, and partake of his salvation, concerns all men. God keeps an account how long we possess the means of grace; and the longer we have them, the heavier will our account be if we have not improved them. Rising early, points out the earnest desire that this people should turn and live. Personal and particular reformation must be insisted on as necessary to a national deliverance; and every one must turn from his own evil way. Yet all was to no purpose. They would not take the right and only method to turn away the wrath of God....

Verse Jeremiah 25:7. _THAT YE MIGHT PROVOKE_] Ye would not hearken; but chose to provoke me with anger....

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...

YET YE HAVE NOT HEARKENED UNTO ME, SAITH THE LORD,.... Though it was he that spake unto them by his prophets; and though it was so much to their own good and advantage; and the neglect of him and his word were so much to their disadvantage, and even ruin: THAT YE MIGHT PROVOKE ME TO ANGER WITH THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS, TO YOUR OWN HURT: which, though not signed to do either, yet eventually did both; both provoked the Lord, and brought destruction upon themselves; for whatever is against the glory of God is to the hurt of man; and whatever provokes him is pernicious to them in its consequences....

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

SAITH THE LORD. [is] Jehovah's oracle. PROVOKE ME TO ANGER, &C. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 32:21)....

_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 32:30; Deuteronomy 31:29....