Jeremiah 25:9-19

9 behold, I will ¹send and take all the families of the north,' declares the LORD, 'and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ²My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and ³make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.

10 'Moreover, I will ⁴take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the ⁵sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

11 '⁶This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon ⁷seventy years.

Babylon Will Be Judged

12 'Then it will be ⁸when seventy years are completed I will ⁹punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and ¹⁰I will make it an everlasting desolation.

13 'I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in ¹¹this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against ¹²all the nations.

14 '(For ¹³many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will ¹⁴recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)' "

15 For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, "Take this ¹⁵cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

16 "They will ¹⁶drink and stagger and go mad because * of the sword that I will send among them."

17 Then I took the cup from the LORD'S hand and ¹⁷made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it:

18 ¹⁸Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day;

19 ¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people;

Jeremiah 25:9-19 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.

Cross References

• 1. Jeremiah 1:15; Jeremiah 6:22, 23
• 2. Isaiah 13:3; Jeremiah 27:6; Jeremiah 43:10
• 3. 1 Kings 9:7, 8; Jeremiah 18:16; Jeremiah 25:18
• 4. Isaiah 24:8-11; Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9; Ezekiel 26:13; Revelation 18:23
• 5. Ecclesiastes 12:4; Isaiah 47:2
• 6. Jeremiah 4:27; Jeremiah 12:11, 12
• 7. 2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:2; Zechariah 7:5
• 8. Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:2
• 9. Isaiah 13:14; Jeremiah 50, 51
• 10. Isaiah 13:19
• 11. Jer 36:4, 29, 32
• 12. Jeremiah 1:5, 10; Jeremiah 36:2
• 13. Jeremiah 27:7; Jeremiah 50:9, 41; Jeremiah 51:27, 28
• 14. Jer 51:6, 24, 56
• 15. Job 21:20; Psalms 75:8; Isaiah 51:17, 22; Jeremiah 51:7
• 16. Nahum 3:11
• 17. Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 25:28
• 18. Psalms 60:3; Isaiah 51:17
• 19. Jeremiah 46:2-28; Nahum 3:8-10

Footnotes

• [a] Or "put them under the ban"
• [b] Lit "cause to perish"
• [c] Or "For they have served many nations and great kings"