Jeremiah 25:1-11

1 The word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Yehudah, in the fourth year of Yehoiakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah (the same was the first year of Nevukhadretztzar king of Bavel,)

2 which Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke to all the people of Yehudah, and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, saying:

3 From the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Yehudah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.

4 The LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear,)

5 saying, Return you now everyone from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even forevermore;

6 and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no harm.

7 Yet you have not listened to me, says the LORD; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.

8 Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts: Because you have not heard my words,

9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and [I will send] to Nevukhadretztzar the king of Bavel, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.

11 This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years.

Jeremiah 25:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 25

This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of Judea by the king of Babylon; and also of Babylon itself, after the Jews' captivity of seventy years; and likewise of all the nations round about. The date of this prophecy is in Jer 25:1; when the prophet puts the Jews in mind of the prophecies that had been delivered unto them by himself and others, for some years past, without effect, Jer 25:2-7; wherefore they are threatened with the king of Babylon, that he should come against them, and strip them of all their desirable things; make their land desolate, and them captives for seventy years, Jer 25:8-11; at the expiration of which he in his turn shall be punished, and the land of Chaldea laid waste, and become subject to other nations and kings, Jer 25:12-14; and by a cup of wine given to all the nations round about, is signified the utter ruin of them, and who are particularly mentioned by name, Jer 25:15-26; which is confirmed by beginning with the city of Jerusalem, and the destruction of that, Jer 25:27-29; wherefore the prophet is bid to prophesy against them, and to declare the Lord's controversy with them, and that there should be a slaughter of them from one end of the earth to the other, Jer 25:30-33; upon which the shepherds, kings, and rulers of them, are called to lamentation and howling, Jer 25:34-38.