Глава 25

1–11. Condemnation of the Jews and their neighbors to 70 years of slavery to the Babylonians. 12–29. Judgment on Babylon and on the pagans in general. 30–38. Judgment on the world. Jeremiah 25:1–11. In the 4th year of the reign of Joachim, which coincided with the year of the accession of Nebuchadnezzar, who in that year (605) won a decisive victory over the Egyptian king Necho at Carkhamis and thereby became the ruler of all western Asia and Syria with Palestine, the prophet spoke a speech that contained a look at the past and a prophecy about the future. He claimed here that his long 23-year sermon, in which he called the Jews to repentance, remained without any result. Therefore, now the Lord instructs His servant Nebuchadnezzar to take Judea and the surrounding countries into his hands for 70 years. Jer.25:9. Behold, I will send and take all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, and I will send them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them to this land and to the inhabitants thereof and to all the surrounding nations; and I will completely destroy them and make them a terror and a mockery and an everlasting desolation. “Northern tribes” - see Jeremiah 1.15. – Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God not in the same sense as, for example, David, but simply as an instrument of divine wrath. Jer.25:10. And I will stop from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. In the mornings in the cities of Palestine, maids usually ground flour at home mills - millstones, which made quite a loud noise when working with them. - Lamps usually burned constantly in the house where people lived. Jer.25:11. And this whole land will be desolation and horror; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The prophet accurately determines the duration of the subjugation of the Jews to the Babylonians. God has appointed 70 years for this. Obviously, the prophet is counting the years from 605, when Nebuchadnezzar, through his victory over Pharaoh Necho, who still ruled Palestine, became the ruler of Judea and the surrounding countries, before even reaching them. Jeremiah considers the end of slavery to be the fall of Babylon in 539, or better, the decree of Cyrus, given in 537. Thus, the total is about 70 liters. (exactly 68). The number 70 also has a symbolic meaning, since it represents the result of multiplying 7 by 10, and both of these numbers in the language of Holy Scripture mean completeness. – Other peoples, of course, were gradually enslaved by Nebuchadnezzar, but the prophet does not consider it necessary to accurately mark the time and duration of this enslavement. Jeremiah 25:12–23. Babylon, in turn, will also drink the cup of God’s wrath after 70 years, and then this cup will be offered to other nations. The Prophet enumerates these nations in detail; starting with the Jews, he further mentions the great southern power - Egypt, and then the small states bordering Judea: Uz, the Philistine land, Idumea, then the eastern neighbors: Moab and Ammon, then the northwestern Phoenician state with its colonies, then the Arab tribes living in the south and southeast, finally the distant states - Elam and Media and other northern states, after which it will be their turn and Babylon. The reason why the Lord will force all these nations to drink from the cup of His wrath, the prophet puts forward, is that even the chosen people of God drink from this cup. How can the Lord forgive the pagan peoples who are more guilty before the court of Divine Truth! Jer.25:20. and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, “Mixed people” - these words refer to Art. The 19th also denotes newcomers from other countries, for example, the Phoenicians and Greeks, who began to settle in Egypt since the time of Psammetichus, the father of Necho. – “Uz” is also almost Idumea (Lamentations 4.21), but here it is politically presented as a separate region. Of the Philistine cities, Gath is not mentioned, which at that time had already lost its significance (cf. Am 6.2; 2 Chronicles 26.6). Only remnants remained of Azoth, because Psammetichus, after a 29-year siege, took it and destroyed it. Jer.25:22. and all the kings of Tire, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands that are beyond the sea, By islands we can mean not only real islands, but also the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenician colonies. Jer.25:23. Dedan, and Femu, and Buza, and all those who cut the hair on their churches, “Cutting hair at the churches” - see Jer.9:26. Jer.25:24. and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the nations of different nations who live in the wilderness, By Arabia here we mean not the entire country now designated by this name, but part of it, adjacent to Palestine from the east and southeast. Jer.25:25. all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, "Zimri" are probably the descendants of Zimran, the son of Abraham from Keturah (Gen. 25.2). - "Elam" - cf. Isa 21.2. The country beyond the Tigris, along its lower course. "Media" is a country lying along the upper reaches of the same river and also on its eastern side with the main cities: Ecbatana and Raga. Jer.25:26. and all the kings of the north, near one another and far away, and all the kingdoms of the earth that are on the face of the earth, and the king of Seshach will drink after them. The king of Seshach is obviously the king of Babylon. It is very likely that the name Sesha is a reworking of the name Babel (Babylon). Ancient writers sometimes used a special alphabet, the so-called atbash. Here the first letter of the alphabet was replaced by the last; the second - penultimate, etc. Thus, instead of the word Babel, the prophet could have gotten the expression Sesha. It is believed that the prophet so covertly designated Babylon in view of the fact that the prophecy going on here about the destruction of Babylon could have an encouraging effect on the Jews, who did not want to submit to the Babylonians. Others say that the prophet did this out of reluctance to irritate the Babylonian king, who was already almost the actual ruler of all Palestine. Jeremiah 25:30–38. All nations will receive retribution from God, without exception. And this retribution will be complete. The dead will lie unburied on the ground from one end to the other. The whole earth will become a desert. Thus, the judgment of individual peoples expands to the level of a universal, final judgment, of which it represents only a separate act. Jeremiah 25:30. Therefore, prophesy all these words against them and say to them: The Lord will thunder from on high and from His holy dwelling will give His voice; He will thunder terribly upon His village; like those who trample in a winepress, he will cry out against all who live on the earth. By height here it is better to mean the height of heaven, and not the height of Moriah, which is meant, for example, by the prophet Amos (Amos 1.2) or Joel (Joel 3.16). Here the wrath of God extends to Jerusalem, next, and to the heights of Moriah. Special note. The fate of the pagan nations mentioned in this chapter is depicted in detail in Jeremiah in ch. XLVI-XLIX and notes on the XXVth chapter. it is more natural to add to the comments about the entire department of Chapter XLVI-XLIX. You might be interested in: