Bible Commentaries

Jeremiah 25. The Supremacy of Babylon over Judah and the Nations.

Jeremiah 25:1-11. 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 25:1-7). 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 sound of the millstones: for this familiar sign of normal routine, see Thomson, pp. 526f., and cf. Revelation 18:22; also Jeremiah 25:23 (where there is a reference to the light of the lamp).

Jeremiah 25:11. Cf. Jeremiah 29:10 and Zechariah 1:12; seventy is a round number, to denote two or three generations, as in Jeremiah 27:7.

Jeremiah 25:12-14, proclaiming final judgment on Babylon itself, is a later addition. It interrupts the connexion, and presupposes the existence of the whole book, and in particular, of the prophecy against Babylon, Jeremiah 50:1 to Jeremiah 51:58, which is certainly later than this chapter, to say nothing of other sections of Jeremiah 46-49. LXX makes the foreign prophecies (Jeremiah 46-51) follow Jeremiah 25:13 and precede Jeremiah 26-45; it omits Jeremiah 25:14, and uses Jeremiah 25:13 b as a title of the foreign prophecies, at the end of which it resumes with Jeremiah 25:15.

Jeremiah 25:15-29. The Babylonian advance (the "sword" of Jeremiah 25:16) against the nations (cf. Jeremiah 1:10) is figured as the offering of a cup to be drunk (Jeremiah 13:13, Jeremiah 48:26), producing the confusion of intoxication among the peoples enumerated (Jeremiah 25:18-26; on their relation to the prophecies given in Jeremiah 46-51, see the prefatory note to Jeremiah 46). Yahweh, who has begun with His own people, will not spare the others.

Jeremiah 25:18. Omit with LXX, "as it is this day", added after 586 B.C.

Jeremiah 25:20. mingled people: settled foreigners (so Jeremiah 25:24; cf. Jeremiah 50:37).—the remnant of Ashdod: i.e. the survivors of the Egyptian siege (Herod. ii. 157).

Jeremiah 25:22 mg. refers to the shores of the Mediterranean.

Jeremiah 25:23 b: see on Jeremiah 9:26.

Jeremiah 25:26. The last clause, omitted by LXX, is a later addition; note mg.

Jeremiah 25:30-38 (eschatological and non-Jeremianic). Description of the "Day of Yahweh" (Jeremiah 25:33; cf. Isaiah 66:16), when He will judge Judah (His "fold") and the whole world. The rulers ("shepherds", Jeremiah 25:34) and their chief subjects, shall cry out in vain; Yahweh, like a lion, shall leave His lair (i.e. Judah), now desolated by the sword (Jeremiah 25:38 mg.; cf. Zechariah 11:3).

Jeremiah 25:30 is based on Amos 1:2. For the shout of the wine-press, see Jeremiah 48:33, Isaiah 16:10; for the general figure, Isaiah 63:1-6.

Jeremiah 25:31. plead: "contend" (Jeremiah 2:9).