Jeremiah 25
25
Seventy Years of Exile
1-2 #
2 K 24.1; 2 Ch 36.5-7; Dn 1.1,2. In the fourth year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah,#25.1,2 Jehoiakim … Judah: See the note at 1.3. which was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar#25.1,2 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. was king of Babylonia, the Lord told me to speak to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. So I told them:
3For 23 years now, ever since the thirteenth year that Josiah#25.3 Josiah: Hebrew “Josiah son of Amon”; Josiah ruled 640–609 b.c. was king, I have been telling you what the Lord has told me. But you have not listened.
4The Lord has sent prophets to you time after time, but you refused to listen. 5They told you that the Lord had said:
Change your ways! If you stop doing evil, I will let you stay forever in this land that I gave your ancestors. 6I don't want to harm you. So don't make me angry by worshiping idols and other gods.
7But you refused to listen to my prophets. So I, the Lord, say that you have made me angry by worshiping idols, and you are the ones who were hurt by what you did. 8You refused to listen to me, 9and now I will let you be attacked by nations from the north, and especially by my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. You and other nearby nations will be destroyed and left in ruins forever. Everyone who sees what has happened will be shocked, but they will still make fun of you. 10#Jr 7.34; 16.9; Rev 18.22,23. I will put an end to your parties and wedding celebrations; no one will grind grain or be here to light the lamps at night. 11#2 Ch 36.21; Jr 29.10; Dn 9.2. This country will be as empty as a desert, because I will make all of you the slaves of the king of Babylonia for 70 years.
12When that time is up, I will punish the king of Babylonia and his people for everything they have done wrong, and I will turn that country into a wasteland forever. 13My servant Jeremiah has told you what I said I will do to Babylonia and to the other nations, and he wrote it all down in this book. I will do everything I threatened. 14I will pay back the Babylonians for every wrong they have done. Great kings from many other nations will conquer the Babylonians and force them to be slaves.
The Cup Full of God's Anger
15The Lord God of Israel showed me a vision in which he said, “Jeremiah, here is a cup filled with the wine of my anger. Take it and make every nation drink some. 16They will vomit and act crazy, because of the war this cup of anger will bring to them.”
17I took the cup from the Lord's hand, and I went to the kings of the nations and made each of them drink some. 18I started with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the king and his officials were removed from power in disgrace. Everyone still makes insulting jokes about them and uses their names as curse words. 19The second place I went was Egypt, where everyone had to drink from the cup, including the king and his officials, the other government workers, the rest of the Egyptians, 20and all the foreigners who lived in the country.
Next I went to the king of Uz, and then to the four kings of Philistia, who ruled from Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what was left of Ashdod.#25.20 what was left of Ashdod: It was defeated by the king of Egypt after being surrounded for 29 years. 21Then I went to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, 22and to the kings of Tyre, Sidon, and their colonies across the sea. 23-24After this, I went to the kings of Dedan, Tema, Buz, the tribes of the Arabian Desert,#25.23,24 the tribes of the Arabian Desert: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text. 25Zimri, Elam, Media, 26and the countries in the north, both near and far.
I went to all the countries on earth, one after another, and finally to Babylonia.#25.26 Babylonia: The Hebrew text has “Sheshach,” a secret way of writing “Babylonia.”
27The Lord had said to tell each king, “The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, commands you to drink from this cup that is full of the wine of his anger. It will make you so drunk that you will vomit. And when the Lord sends war against the nations, you will be completely defeated.”
28The Lord told me that if any of them refused to drink from the cup, I must tell them that he had said, “I, the Lord All-Powerful, command you to drink. 29Starting with my own city of Jerusalem, everyone on earth will suffer from war. So there is no way I will let you escape unharmed.”
30The Lord told me to say:
From my sacred temple
I will roar like thunder,
while I trample my people
and everyone else
as though they were grapes.
31My voice will be heard
everywhere on earth,
accusing nations of their crimes
and sentencing the guilty
to death.
Disaster Is Coming
32The Lord All-Powerful says:
You can see disaster spreading
from far across the earth,
from nation to nation
like a horrible storm.
33When it strikes, I will kill so many people that their bodies will cover the ground like manure. No one will be left to bury them or to mourn.
The Leaders of Judah Will Be Punished
34The Lord's people are his flock,
and you leaders
were the shepherds.
But now it's your turn
to be butchered like sheep.
You'll shatter like fine pottery
dropped on the floor.#25.34 You'll shatter … floor: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
So roll on the ground,
crying and mourning.
35You have nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide.
* 36-37Listen to the cries
of the shepherds,
as the Lord's burning anger
turns#25.36,37 anger turns: Or “anger and enemy armies turn.” peaceful meadows
into barren deserts.
38Like a lion leaving its den,
the Lord has abandoned
his people
to the destruction of war.
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Jeremiah 25: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 25
25
Seventy Years of Exile. 1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim,#The fourth year of Jehoiakim: 605 B.C. Officially, the first year of Nebuchadnezzar began the following year; but as early as his victory over Egypt at Carchemish in 605, Nebuchadnezzar wielded dominant power in the Near East. Jeremiah saw in him the fulfillment of his prophecy of the enemy to come from the north (cf. 1:13; 6:22–24). In vv. 11–12 the prophecy of the seventy years’ exile occurs for the first time; cf. 29:10. This number signifies that the present generation must die out; cf. forty in the exodus tradition (Nm 14:20–23). son of Josiah, king of Judah (the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon).#Jer 36:1. 2This word the prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: 3Since the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day—that is, twenty-three years—the word of the Lord has come to me and I spoke to you untiringly, but you would not listen.#Jer 1:2. 4The Lord kept sending you all his servants the prophets,#2 Chr 36:15. but you refused to listen or pay attention 5to this message: Turn back, each of you, from your evil way and from your evil deeds; then you shall remain in the land which the Lord gave you and your ancestors, from of old and forever. 6Do not follow other gods to serve and bow down to them; do not provoke me with the works of your hands, or I will bring evil upon you.#Jer 7:6–7. 7But you would not listen to me—oracle of the Lord—and so you provoked me with the works of your hands to your own harm.#Jer 7:17–19. 8Hence, thus says the Lord of hosts: Since you would not listen to my words, 9I am about to send for and fetch all the tribes from the north—oracle of the Lord—and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; I will bring them against this land, its inhabitants, and all these neighboring nations. I will doom them, making them an object of horror, of hissing, of everlasting reproach.#Jer 1:15; 43:10. 10Among them I will put to an end the song of joy and the song of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. 11This whole land shall be a ruin and a waste. Seventy years these nations shall serve the king of Babylon;#Lv 26:32–35. 12but when the seventy years have elapsed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their guilt—oracle of the Lord. Their land I will turn into everlasting waste.#Is 13:20–22. 13Against that land I will fulfill all the words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14They also shall serve many nations and great kings, and thus I will repay them according to their own deeds and according to the works of their hands.#Jer 27:7; 50:9, 41–42; 51:6, 24.
The Cup of Judgment on the Nations. 15#Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations (cf. 1:5) as well as to his own people. All the nations mentioned here appear again in the more extensive collection of Jeremiah’s oracles against the nations in chaps. 46–51. For thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath#Cup…wrath: a metaphor for destruction that occurs often in the Old Testament (cf. Ps 11:6; 75:9; Hb 2:15–16; Ez 23:31–33, etc.). from my hand and have all the nations to whom I will send you drink it.#Rev 14:10. 16They shall drink, and retch, and go mad, because of the sword I will send among them.#Jer 51:7. 17I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and gave it as drink to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me: 18to Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, its kings and princes, to make them a ruin and a waste, an object of hissing and cursing, as they are today; 19to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, princes, all his people 20and those of mixed ancestry; all the kings of the land of Uz;#Uz: the homeland of legendary Job, in Edomite or Arabian territory. all the kings of the land of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22all the kings of Tyre, of Sidon, and of the shores beyond the sea;#The shores beyond the sea: Phoenician commercial colonies located throughout the Mediterranean world. 23Dedan and Tema and Buz,#Dedan and Tema and Buz: North Arabian tribes. all the desert dwellers who shave their temples; 24all the kings of Arabia; 25all the kings of Zimri, of Elam, of the Medes; 26all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other; all the kingdoms upon the face of the earth and after them the king of Sheshach#Sheshach: a contrived word from the Hebrew letters of Babylon. shall drink.
27Tell them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink! Get drunk and vomit! Fall, never to rise, before the sword that I will send among you!#Ob 16. 28If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink!#Jer 49:12. 29Now that I am inflicting evil on this city, called by my name, how can you possibly escape? You shall not escape! I am calling down the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth—oracle of the Lord of hosts. 30As for you, prophesy against them all these words and say to them:
The Lord roars from on high,
from his holy dwelling he raises his voice;
Mightily he roars over his sheepfold,
a shout like that of vintagers echoes#Jer 51:14.
over all the inhabitants of the earth.
31The uproar spreads
to the end of the earth;
For the Lord has an indictment against the nations,
he enters into judgment against all flesh:
The wicked shall be given to the sword—
oracle of the Lord.
32Thus says the Lord of hosts:
Look! disaster stalks
nation after nation;
A violent storm surges
from the recesses of the earth.
33On that day, those whom the Lord has slain will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, they will not be gathered, they will not be buried; they shall lie like dung upon the ground.#Jer 8:2; 16:4, 6.
34Howl, you shepherds, and wail!
roll on the ground, leaders of the flock!
The time for your slaughter has come;
like choice rams you shall fall.
35There is no flight for the shepherds,
no escape for the leaders of the flock.#Jer 32:4.
36Listen! Wailing from the shepherds,
howling from the leaders of the flock!
For the Lord lays waste their grazing place;
37desolate are the peaceful pastures,
from the burning wrath of the Lord.
38Like a lion he leaves his lair,
and their land is made desolate
By the sweeping sword,
and the burning wrath of the Lord.#Jer 4:7.
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