Jeremiah 25
25
Jeremiah Reviews Twenty-Three Years of Ministry
1This is the message that came to Jeremiah about the people of Judah. He received this prophecy # 25:1 The Targum identifies Jeremiah’s message as “prophecy.” in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah and the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign in Babylon. # 25:1 This would have been about 605 BC. This unusually accurate dating indicates that Jeremiah knew that the history of Israel was changing dramatically. 2Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, saying: 3“For the last twenty-three years, ever since the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king, I have been warning you and continually # 25:3 Or “rising early [to prophesy to you],” a figure of speech for “persistently” or “again and again.” prophesying to you the words of Yahweh, but you have not listened. # 25:3 For over two decades, Jeremiah faithfully prophesied to the people of a coming judgment. His message was rejected by both leaders and people. 4Additionally, Yahweh has sent all his servants the prophets to you over and over again, but still you have neither listened nor humbled your hearts to pay attention to them. # 25:4 Or “inclined your ears to hear.” 5They told you, ‘If you turn, each person, from your evil ways and from your evil doings, Yahweh will let you remain in the land that he gave you and your ancestors for all time. 6Do not run after other gods to serve and worship them.’
“ ‘Do not provoke me to anger by worshiping idols your own hands have made, and I will do you no harm,’ 7declares Yahweh. ‘But you have not listened to me and have provoked my anger by worshiping idols your own hands have made, to your own harm.’ ” # 25:7 Because of the repetition of information with vv. 6–7, some scholars assume that the last half of this verse may, in fact, be a misplaced variant of v. 6b.
Prophecy of Seventy Years of Captivity
8“Therefore, because you have not listened to my words, Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, says: 9‘Behold, I will summon my servant Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, along with all the northern armies, and bring them to fight against this land, its people, and all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction and make them a desolation. I will turn them into ruins forever. Everyone will be utterly astonished by the sight of what I have done to them. # 25:9 Or “I will make them a horror and a hissing.” 10Moreover, I will banish the voices of celebration # 25:10 Or “mirth.” and laughter from them and the sweet voices of the groom and his bride. I will silence the noise of grinding grain in the morning, and in the evening, lamps will no longer burn in their homes. # 25:10 That is, life’s daily activities will cease. This verse is quoted in Rev. 18:23. 11The entire region will become a ruin, empty as a desert, and these nations will be carried off to Babylon to serve her king for seventy years. # 25:11 Seventy years (seventy is often used symbolically in the Bible) was the approximate length of the Babylonian captivity (see 2 Chron. 36:21; Jer. 29:10; Dan. 9:2), if calculated from 605 BC until 538 BC, when the Persian king Cyrus allowed the Jews to return. Seventy years of captivity meant, presumably, that all who went into exile were buried on foreign soil.
12“ ‘Then, after seventy years, I will punish the king of Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans # 25:12 That is, Babylonia. for their sin,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will make their land desolate forever. 13I will bring against that land all my words of warning that I have spoken against it, everything written in this scroll, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. 14Indeed, I will pay back the Babylonians for every wrong they have done. Great kings from many other nations # 25:14 Babylon was conquered by the Medes and Persians. will conquer the mighty Babylonians and will even make slaves of them.’ ”
The Cup of God’s Wrath
15Yahweh, Israel’s God, spoke these words to me: # 25:15 Current biblical scholarship tends to believe that vv. 15–38 are out of chronological order in the book of Jeremiah and that this passage originally belonged as an introduction to Jeremiah’s prophecies against the foreign nations of chs. 46–51. “Jeremiah, take this cup from my hand; it is the cup of the wine of my wrath. # 25:15 The “cup” is often seen as a symbol of God’s wrath (see Ps. 75:8; Isa. 51:17, 22; Jer. 49:12; 51:7; Ezek. 23:31–34; Matt. 26:39, 42). Make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. 16They will stagger # 25:16 Or possibly “vomit.” as drunkards and lose their minds because of the massacres # 25:16 Or “the sword.” I am sending among them.”
17So I took the cup from Yahweh’s hand and made all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me drink from it. # 25:17 There are several possible ways to interpret this event. (1) A literal interpretation. Jeremiah was given a literal cup from the hand of Yahweh and went to all the locations he mentions. This interpretation is unlikely due to the time it would take to travel to all the nations listed. (2) A visionary interpretation. Jeremiah received this in a vision in which Jeremiah himself really seems to be forcing the cup of the wine of God’s wrath on the nations that he enumerates. (3) A poetic interpretation. God used the symbol of a cup, and whether by writing or sending messengers to the kings of the nations, Jeremiah caused each of the kings to receive their respective messages of coming judgment. (4) A supernatural interpretation. Jeremiah was supernaturally transported (or “translated”; see Acts 8:39–40 and the first footnote) to each of the kingdoms mentioned and prophesied to them their respective messages of doom and judgment. (5) A parabolic interpretation. Jeremiah received this prophecy as a parable of a cup and God’s judgments of the nations and was not to be understood literally. To “drink” of that cup meant that they would experience the coming wrath of Yahweh. 18I started with Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. Their kings and leaders were removed from power in disgrace and made an object of horror, derision, and a curse, as they are today.
19Then I went to Egypt to her king, Pharaoh, his officials, his leaders, and all the Egyptians, 20and all foreigners who lived there, and they, too, drank from the cup.
Next, I went to all the kings of the land of Uz; # 25:20 According to one of the Dead Sea Scrolls (the War Scroll), the land of Uz was situated beyond the river Euphrates. The two major theories of its location are near Syria or near Edom. all the kings of the territory of the Philistines, of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what was still left of Ashdod.
21Then, I went to the kings of Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22the kings of Tyre, the kings of Sidon, # 25:22 Tyre and Sidon are Phoenician coastal cities; Tyre was a small island, originally not connected to the mainland. and the kings of the Mediterranean lands.
23Afterward, I went to the cities of Dedan, Tema, Buz, # 25:23 Dedan, Tema, and Buz were in northwestern Arabia. and all the desert tribes of Arabia, # 25:23 Or “all who cut the corners of their hair,” a custom of the Arabian desert tribes. However, the reference to “cutting the fringe” may refer to those tribes who live on the outer extremities of the desert. 24all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed people groups who live in the desert, 25all the kings of Zimri, # 25:25 There is conjecture that Zimri is actually Zimran, a son of Abraham by Keturah (see Gen. 25:2). all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, 26all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another, to all the kingdoms of the earth.
As for the king of Babylon, # 25:26 Or “Sheshak.” Sheshak means humiliation, but it is also a secret way of writing “Babylon” in code using a type of cryptogram. The system used here is called an atbash cipher; in it the first letter of the alphabet is exchanged for the final letter, the second letter is exchanged for the second to last letter, and so on. he will drink from the cup last of all.
27“You will say to each one, ‘Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, the God of Israel, says to you: Drink from this cup that is full of the wine of my wrath. Vomit, fall over, and rise no more. And when I send war against the nations, you will be completely defeated.’
28“If they refuse to drink from the cup from your hand, you will say to them, ‘Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, says this: You have no choice—drink! 29For take note, starting with the city called by my own name, Jerusalem, everyone on earth will suffer from war. So there is no way I will let you escape unpunished, declares Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies.’
30“Jeremiah, you must prophesy all these words to them:
“ ‘Yahweh roars from heaven’s heights;
his voice thunders from his holy dwelling place.
He roars mightily against his people, # 25:30 Or “against his fold.”
and his shout # 25:30 This is the Hebrew word hedad. It is also used to denote the shout of warriors (see 51:14). will be like those who tread grapes—
a shout that echoes to the ends of the earth.
31The noise will resound over all the earth.
For Yahweh declares:
I am indicting the nations,
bringing all humanity to trial,
and sentencing the wicked to death.’ ”
32Yahweh, Commander of Angel Armies, decrees:
“Behold, disaster is spreading
from nation to nation.
My anger, like a perfect storm, is rising
from the far ends of the earth.”
33Those whom Yahweh slaughters that day will be from all over the earth, and no one will mourn for them. No one will gather their bodies or bury them; they will lie as dung on the ground.
34Howl, you shepherds, wail in sorrow,
and roll on the ground, you leaders of the flock,
for your day has come to be slaughtered like sheep.
You will fall and be scattered,
like pieces of broken pottery.
35Shepherds, you have nowhere to hide,
nowhere to run, you leaders of the flock. # 25:35 See Amos 2:14.
36Listen as the shepherds cry out in distress!
Listen as the leaders of the flock wail in sorrow! # 25:36 See Zech. 11:3.
For Yahweh has laid their pasture # 25:36 That is, their nation. waste,
37and their peaceful meadows are reduced to silence
because of Yahweh’s furious anger.
38The lion # 25:38 Scholars are divided over who this “lion” is. Most see it as Yahweh rising to roar in judgment and abandoning his lair (the land); others take the lion to be King Nebuchadnezzar coming to ransack the land. has left his lair,
and their land is left a wasteland
because of the sword of the oppressor
and because of his fierce anger.
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Jeremiah 25: TPT
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