SECTION XVIII.

GOD'S JUDGMENT OF THE HEATHEN NATIONS, CH. XXV.

XXV. 1. The word which came to Jeremiah respecting the whole people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah,-this is the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,-2. which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, until this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Yahveh has come to me, and I spoke to you early and diligently; but you hearkened not. 4. And Yahveh sent to you all his servants the prophets, early and diligently; but you hearkened not, nor inclined your ear to hear; 5. saying: "Turn ye every one from his evil way and from the wickedness of your deeds; then you

CHAPTER XXV.

Ver. 1. The first by for by; in ver. 2 also the two interchange. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim. For the first time (apart from i. 2) a prophecy is here exactly dated to the year, which is done often afterwards. The year was one of special importance. It is described as the first of King Nebuchadnezzar (see on xxi. 2), in harmony with the reckoning elsewhere in this book and the Book of Kings. This parenthesis may have been added later. Yet the omission by the LXX proves nothing, since they have dropped every reference to that king. It is significant that in this year the destroyer of Jerusalem first came on the scene, fighting the decisive battle of Carchemish as his father's general, and advancing to Jerusalem and against Egypt, but recalled by his father's death to assume the government. Ver. 3 glances back at i. 2. About nineteen years of Jeremiah's labours belong to the reign of Josiah, the last four to that of Jehoiakim. D 3. a. 2; Eng. § 52, unless a vii. 25, xi. 7 f. Ver. 5. 7

for D, Aramaic form, Ges. § 53. simple error in copying. Ver. 4. Cf. joins on the first words of ver. 4.

shall continue to dwell in the land, which Yahveh gave you and your fathers from of old for ever. 6. And run not after foreign gods to serve them and fall down before them; and provoke me not by the work of your hands, then I will do you no hurt." 7. But you hearkened not to me, is Yahveh's oracle, that you might provoke me by the work of your hands to your harm. 8. Therefore thus says Yahveh of hosts: Because you hearkened not to me, 9. behold, I send for all the tribes of the north, is Yahveh's oracle, and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about; and I lay them under a ban, and make them a solitude and a hissing and eternal desola

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"And you dwell" you shall dwell securely, Ges. § 130. 2; Eng. § 128. Ver. 7. Read with Keri pyn, as in vii. 18, or

yan (J. D. Michaelis, Graf). "To your hurt," as in vii. 6. Ver. 9. The tribes of the north, as in i. 15. LXX have raspian ȧò Boppa, omitting King Nebuchadnezzar, which Hitzig prefers: ¡Y пn, a horde from the north. But this would be far too obscure a description of the Babylonian kingdom. Since now, on the other hand, the LXX presuppose the mention of the latter in ver. 12 f., although omitting baby there also (τὸ ἔθνος ἐκεῖνο, τὴν γῆν ἐκείνην !), so also not merely may the indefinite plural "all races of the north" have stood in ver. 9; but it is proved that the LXX, who show themselves very untrustworthy in ver. 3 f., regularly omit the Babylonian king. A commentator would scarcely have been bold enough to call him, which predicate the LXX erase also in xxvii. 6, xliii. 10, where they cannot avoid mentioning the king's name. He is called Yahveh's servant, of course not in the sense that God had special pleasure in him as in David, but as an instrument which God used in executing His plan in reference to Judah and the nations. ' depends on b, I send to him = summon him. After general mention of the nations, who will execute the judgment, God's leading organ is mentioned in particular. And I bring them (the suffix referring to the hordes of Nebuchadnezzar) upon this land (Judah) and all these nations round about the neighbouring peoples. The demonstratives point to those lying nearest; therefore is not to be questioned, cf. xxviii. 14. And lay them under a ban, carry out upon them the cherem, the doom of extermination—a phrase often applied in Deuteronomy and Joshua to the Canaanites,

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tions.

10. And I make the sound of singing and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamps, to vanish from them. 11. And this whole land shall be made a desolation, a solitude; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

12. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are fulfilled, I will visit on the king of Babylon and on that nation, is Yahveh's oracle, their transgression, and on the land of the Chaldæans, and make it eternal solitudes. 13. And I bring upon that land all my words, which I have spoken respecting it (everything written in this book, which Jeremiah

in Jeremiah only again in the oracle respecting Babylon, 1. 21, 26, li. 3. And make them (their land) a solitude and a hissing, see on xviii. 16 (xix. 8). Ver. 10. Cf. vii. 34, xvi. 9. The present passage adds also the sound of the mills and the light of the lamps, both signs of domestic life, which one sees and hears in all inhabited houses. Ver. 11. This people and these nations are distinguished, as in ver. 9. Their Babylonian bondage, and, of course, that of Judah also, will last seventy years. Even the LXX attest the passage, although they wrongly translate και δουλεύσουσιν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη. The critical attacks on 116 have dogmatic reasons and aims. It is true the same statement recurs ten years later in xxix. 10, but that passage assumes it to be already well known. Vv. 12-14 are attacked on various critical grounds by Hitzig, Graf, Nägelsbach, and others. The LXX omit only ver. 14, because they take 13c as the heading to the oracles respecting the heathen, and insert the latter here, so that no room is left for ver. 14. The LXX, therefore, do not come into account on the critical question. The mention of the seventy years' period requires a statement of what will then happen, i.e. an announcement of the overthrow of the Babylonian empire. The objection, that it is not credible that Jeremiah already spoke so fully and expressly (Nägelsbach) as in vv. 12-14 of the destruction of Babylon, is refuted by the example of Habakkuk. Ver. 12. ns, infin. like the "; cf. Judg. viii. 1. ns goes back to "an. hy nie as in lx. 26, 62 (cf. xlix. 33), but not necessarily borrowed thence. Ver. 13. m, Keri, puts the form usual in Jeremiah for nisan, Kethib. In the addition of the copyist or of a commentator, ver. 13b, to . There is therefore

אתו

cannot refer to DD, but only no reference to a special book

N

prophesied respecting all heathen nations); 14. for them also will many nations with great kings bring into bondage, and I will recompense them according to their doing and according to the dealing of their hands.

15. For thus said Yahveh, the God of Israel, to me: Take

containing the oracles respecting the heathen, in which the particular oracles about Babylon (ch. 1. 41) were to be found. Looking at the form of this addition, it might be thought that the copyist thought "all my words respecting them" needed an explanation, because there were no direct oracles about Babylon in the book before him. In this case the meaning would be everything which Jeremiah said of the judgment on the heathen together (from ii. 3 up to and including ch. xxv.), applies also to Babylon; cf. ver. 14. It is more probable to us

is the heading of a commentator to אשר נבא י' על כ' ה' that

xxv. 15 ff. found on the margin, and then inserted in an awkward place (cf. LXX); whereas the first part of the chapter, according to ver. 1, was spoken by baby, now an oracle Danby follows (see this very phrase in ver. 15 and xxxvi. 2, after which, besides the oracles of this chapter, others spoken respecting the heathen followed here originally). Consequently

must, of כל הכתוב בספר הזה,the remark added by the copyist

course, apply to ch. 1. f., and spring, not from the redaction of the fourth or fifth year of Jehoiakim, but from the later one which took up those chapters. All my words, which I spoke respecting them, will apply to the specific oracles respecting Babylon, although not necessarily to all now collected in ch. 1. f.; there may be a reference even to the sayings of other prophets like Isaiah and Habakkuk respecting that city. The clause would have to be explained differently, if originally the judgment on Babylon were only intimated in a brief saying, supplemented in the subsequent redaction, according to ch. 1. f. So Ewald takes as the original wording instead of vv. 12-14: "But when seventy years are fulfilled, I will visit on that people (says Yahveh) their trangression; for even them (eos) many nations and great kings shall reduce to bondage, and Í will recompense them according to their action, according to the work of their hands." Ver. 14. Nemesis will overtake even them (pronoun added separately for emphasis). Cf. the similar oracle, xxvii. 7. It should not be said that only the latter one is genuine and accurate. The perf. y is prophetic. After the formal announcement of ver. 13, one quite looks for definite information. Ver. 15. The confirmatory goes back

this goblet of the wine of wrath from my hand and give it to all the nations to drink, to which I send thee. 16. And they shall drink, and reel, and be mad because of the sword which I send among them. 17. Then I took the goblet from the hand of Yahveh and gave all the nations to drink, to which Yahveh sent me: 18. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and their kings, their princes, to make them a desolation, a solitude, a hissing and a curse (as it is this day), 19. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and his whole nation, 20. along with every mixed nation, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21. Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon, 22. and all the kings of Tyre and all the kings of Sidon, and

to the chief prophecy, ver. 11, which included already not merely Judah, but also the heathen nations. Пon, apposition to, of wine, which is the divine wrath. n belongs to DID (fem.); in refers to ; cf. xiii. 13. Ver. 16. Reeling (cf. v. 22) of a drunken man; just so nnn, to behave foolishly; cf. ver. 27. Ver. 18. Their kings, see on xvii. 19; hissing, see on xviii. 16.

.belongs to the preceding verse ואת כל הערב

D (see on xi. 5) omitted by LXX, added later when the fulfilment took place, but possibly by the prophet himself, who probably also repeated this enumeration afterwards. Ver. 20. The non-Egyptian settlers in the land are meant, e.g. Phoenicians, especially perhaps the Ionian and Carian troops, who had been settled there since the days of Psammetichus, father of Necho. y or any, from y, to mix, see Ex. xii. 38; Neh. xiii. 3; so in Jer. 1. 37, of the foreign colony in Babylon. The idea is rather different in ver. 24. The land of Uz (wanting in LXX), an idea combining, according to Lam. iv. 21, geographically with Edom (cf. also the friendship of Job, who dwelt in Uz, with the Temanite Eliphaz), is here distinguished politically from Edom. These tribes perhaps dwelt east of Edom towards the Arabian desert. Of the five Philistine towns, Gath is not even mentioned, because its importance was lost (cf. Amos vi. 2; 2 Chron. xxvi. 6); it is also wanting in Zeph. ii. 4; Zech. ix. 5 ff.; only the remnant of Ashdod, because the town was taken and destroyed by Psammetichus after a twenty-nine years' siege (Herod. ii. 157). Ver. 22. All the kings of Tyrus, etc. All the governments dependent on these chief cities are meant. The kings of the island. (sing.) denotes the coast, both of