Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 25:1 - 25:11

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 25:1 - 25:11


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The Judgment on Judah

v. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the year 606 B. C. the date being determined so exactly because it marked the final turning-point in the history of Judah as well as for the nations of the entire Orient, since Nebuchadnezzar at that time took charge of the Babylonian armies as king in fact, if not in name, although his aged father, Nabopolassar, was still living, defeated Pharaoh-Nechoh at Carchemish on the Euphrates, overran Canaan, took Jerusalem, and made Jehoiakim his vassal;

v. 2. the which,
namely, the word of prophecy transmitted to him from the Lord, Jeremiah, the prophet, spake unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

v. 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah,
who reigned from approximately 641 to 610 B. C. even unto this day, that is, the three and twentieth year, in other words, for twenty-three years, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, his public ministry having begun approximately in the year 629 B. C. and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking, devoting himself with all zeal and earnestness to his work; but ye have not hearkened, the same accusation being made here which he had been obliged to bring against them time and again.

v. 4. And the Lord hath sent unto you all His servants, the prophets,
for Zephaniah and Habakkuk and the prophetess Huldah had also been active during this period, rising early and sending them, eagerly concerned about their welfare; but ye have not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear, they had paid not the slightest attention, they had completely ignored His message.

v. 5. They said,
literally, "saying," the word referring either to Jeremiah alone or to all the prophets, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, from his wicked manner of living, and from the evil of your doings, their wickedness finding its expression in all the acts of their life, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers forever and ever, with the intention that they should always possess it;

v. 6. and go not after other gods to serve them and to worship them,
in the idolatry which they had practiced so flagrantly and shamelessly, and provoke Me not to anger with the works of your hands, chiefly their idolatrous sacrifices, and I will do you no hurt, for all the prophets had told them time and again that their conduct would bring God's punishment upon them.

v. 7. Yet ye have not hearkened unto Me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands,
as the natural consequence of their obstinate disobedience, to your own hurt.

v. 8. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts,
whose sublime authority is unquestioned, Because ye have not heard My words,

v. 9. behold, I will send and take all the families of the North, saith the Lord,
all the nations which were allies to the Chaldeans, and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, My servant, who is so designated in this case because in this campaign he carried out the plans of the Lord, and will bring them against this land and against the inhabitants thereof and against all these nations round about, whom Judah had so often chosen as allies, and will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and an hissing and perpetual desolations, so that onlookers would be filled with horror, which, however, would quickly be changed to a sneer of satisfaction and malice as the former fruitful fields were gradually converted into a wilderness.

v. 10. Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth,
of loud rejoicing, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, whose incessant grinding noise indicated a happy household in the Orient, and the light of the candle, even the poorest house in the East having an open oil-lamp with a linen or cotton wick burning all night. Cf Isa_24:7.

v. 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation,
the territory not only of Judah, but of the surrounding nations as well, and an astonishment, a source of amazement to all beholders; and these nations, Judah and its neighbors, shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years, which, beginning with 606 B. C. was the length of the period during which the supremacy of Babylon was unquestioned. The exactness with which every detail of the prophecy is set forth is no more remarkable than the literal fulfillment of the Lord's prediction.