Jeremiah 25:3 Komentář

The prophecy of this chapter bears date some time before those prophecies in the chapters next foregoing, for they are not placed in the exact order of time in which they were delivered. This is dated in the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, that remarkable year when the sword of the Lord began to be drawn and furbished. Here is, I. A review of the prophecies that had been delivered to Judah and Jerusalem for many years past, by Jeremiah himself and other prophets, with the little regard given to them and the little success of them (Jer 25:1-7). II. A very express threatening of the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, by the king of Babylon, for their contempt of God, and their continuance in sin (Jer 25:8-11), to which is annexed a promise of their deliverance out of their captivity in Babylon, after 70 years (Jer 25:12-14). III. A prediction of the devastation of divers other nations about, by Nebuchadrezzar, represented by a "cup of fury" put into their hands (Jer 25:15-28), by a sword sent among them (Jer 25:29-33), and a desolation made among the shepherds and their flocks and pastures (Jer 25:34-38); so that we have here judgment beginning at the house of God, but not ending there.

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; 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; 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; 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; which is confirmed by beginning with the city of Jerusalem, and the destruction of that, Jer 25:27; 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; upon which the shepherds, kings, and rulers of them, are called to lamentation and howling, Jer 25:34.

From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day,.... The year in which Jeremiah began to prophesy, Jer 1:2; (that is, the three and twentieth year); for Josiah reigned one and thirty years; so that Jeremiah prophesied nineteen years in his reign; and now it was the fourth of Jehoiakim's, which make twenty three years; so long the prophet had been prophesying to this people: the word of the Lord hath come unto me; from time to time, during that space of twenty three years; and which he diligently, constantly, and faithfully delivered unto them; as follows: and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking: as soon as ever he had a word from the Lord, he brought it to them, and took the most proper and seasonable time to inculcate it to them; in the morning, and after, he had had a vision or dream in the night from the Lord; but ye have not hearkened; they took no notice of it; turned a deaf ear to it; however, did not obey or act as they were directed and exhorted to.

(Version 3.) From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Ammon, king of Judah, until this day, which is the twenty-third year, the word of the Lord came to me, and I spoke to you, rising up at night and speaking, but you did not listen. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, who reigned in Jerusalem for thirty-one years, Jeremiah began to prophesy, and he prophesied under him for nineteen years. After him, his son Joahaz became king, but he was immediately taken into captivity by Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, and his brother Joachim succeeded to the throne (2 Kings 23). In the fourth year of his reign, this message of the Lord comes to Jeremiah and thus it was the twenty-third year of the prophet Jeremiah, since he began speaking to the people. And he never ceased to preach, but every day, rising at dawn and in the night, he spoke to the people. And you have not listened, he says. But if, as the heretics want from the old things, the law was given once for help, and established precepts which we do or do not do according to our own will; how does the Prophet always thrust himself forward and daily repeat the commands of God, which, certainly once received, were enough for those to whom they were given, unless to show this, that we always need the help of God and can never be sufficient, what was given once, unless it is renewed daily by the reminder of the Lord? And the Lord sent to all of you his servants the Prophets, rising up in the morning and sending them; and you did not listen. Not through one Prophet, but through all his people, God always warned, and as if he himself arose in watchful vigil and stood up in the morning, to warn his people. And you did not listen; so with the more frequent admonition, how much greater have been the sins of those who despise?

He mentions the great number of years in order to emphasize God’s long-suffering in putting up with unbelievers for so long. I sent my servants the prophets to you, he says. I urged you to abandon the road to ruin and travel by the other road that produces life. I, in fact, promised you blessings for doing this. But you did not listen, and instead you chose the worship of idols. And to censure the purpose of this unbelief he went on, “So that you might provoke me by the works of your own hands to your own misfortune.” To provoke me, you committed those things, but then you also reaped their harmful effects then as well.

PROPHECY OF THE SEVENTY YEARS CAPTIVITY; AND AFTER THAT THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON, AND OF ALL THE NATIONS THAT OPPRESSED THE JEWS. (Jer. 25:1-38) fourth year of Jehoiakim--called the third year in Dan 1:1. But probably Jehoiakim was set on the throne by Pharaoh-necho on his return from Carchemish about July, whereas Nebuchadnezzar mounted the throne January 21, 604 B.C.; so that Nebuchadnezzar's first year was partly the third, partly the fourth, of Jehoiakim's. Here first Jeremiah gives specific dates. Nebuchadnezzar had previously entered Judea in the reign of his father Nabopolassar.

From the thirteenth year of Josiah, in which Jeremiah began to prophesy (Jer 1:1), to the end of Josiah's reign, was nineteen years (Kg2 22:1) of Jehoahaz' reign, with the not quite complete four years of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:1), added to the nineteen years, make up twenty-three years in all.

The seventy years' Chaldean bondage of Judah and the peoples. - Jer 25:3. "From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon king of Judah, unto this day, these three and twenty years, came the word of Jahveh to me, and I spake to you, from early morn onwards speaking, but ye hearkened not. Jer 25:4. And Jahveh sent to you all His servants, the prophets, from early morning on sending them, but ye hearkened not, and inclined not your ear to hear. Jer 25:5. They said: Turn ye now each from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, so shall ye abide in the land which Jahveh hath given to your fathers from everlasting to everlasting. Jer 25:6. And go not after other gods, to serve them and to worship them, that ye provoke me not with the work of your hands, and that I do you no evil. Jer 25:7. But ye hearkened not to me, to provoke me by the work of your hands, to your own hurt. Jer 25:8. Therefore thus hath said Jahveh of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words, Jer 25:9. Behold, I send and take all the families of the north, saith Jahveh, and to Nebuchadrezzar my servant (I send), and bring them upon this land, and upon its inhabitants, and upon all these peoples round about, and ban them, and make them an astonishment and a derision and everlasting desolations, Jer 25:10. And destroy from among them the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp. Jer 25:11. And this land shall become a desert, a desolation, and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." The very beginning of this discourse points to the great crisis in the fortunes of Judah. Jeremiah recalls into the memory of the people not merely the whole time of his own labours hitherto, but also the labours of many other prophets, who, like himself, have unremittingly preached repentance to the people, called on them to forsake idolatry and their evil ways, and to return to the God of their fathers - but in vain (Jer 25:3-7). The 23 years, from the 13th of Josiah till the 4th of Jehoiakim, are thus made up: 19 years of Josiah and 4 years of Jehoiakim, including the 3 months' reign of Jehoahaz. The form אשׁכּים might be an Aramaism; but it is more probably a clerical error, since we have השׁכּם everywhere else; cf. Jer 25:4, Jer 7:13; Jer 35:14, etc., and Olsh. Gramm. 191, g. For syntactical reasons it cannot be 1st pers. imperf., as Hitz. thinks it is. On the significance of this infin. abs. see on Jer 7:13. As to the thought of Jer 25:4 cf. Jer 7:25. and Jer 11:7. לאמר introduces the contents of the discourses of Jeremiah and the other prophets, though formally it is connected with ושׁלח, Jer 25:4. As to the fact, cf. Jer 35:15. וּשׁבוּ, so shall ye dwell, cf. Jer 7:7. - With Jer 25:6 cf. Jer 7:6; Jer 1:16, etc. (ארע, imperf. Hiph. from רעע). הכעסוּני cannot be the reading of its Chet., for the 3rd person will not do. The ו seems to have found its way in by an error in writing and the Keri to be the proper reading, since למען is construed with the infinitive.