Albert Barnes Commentary Jeremiah 25
Albert Barnes Commentary
Jeremiah 25
Albert Barnes Commentary
Jeremiah 25
"The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (the same was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,)" — Jeremiah 25:1 (ASV)
The fourth year - See (Daniel 1:1) note. This invasion of Judea, in which Daniel was carried captive to Babylon, was according to official dating the fourth, but according to actual time the third, year of the Jewish king. Nebuchadnezzar was not yet fully king, but associated with his father Nabopolassar.
"From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened." — Jeremiah 25:3 (ASV)
The twenty-third year – that is, nineteen under Josiah, and four under Jehoiakim. This prophecy divides itself into three parts:
- The judgment of Judah (Jeremiah 25:3–11), and Babylon’s doom (Jeremiah 25:12–14).
- The wine-cup of fury (Jeremiah 25:15–29).
- The judgment of the world (Jeremiah 25:30–38).
"saying, Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah hath given unto you and to your fathers, from of old and even for evermore;" — Jeremiah 25:5 (ASV)
Turn you - that is, Repent; the great summons of God to mankind at all times (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38).
"behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and [I will send] unto Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations." — Jeremiah 25:9 (ASV)
The term families is probably used here to signify the widespread empire of Nebuchadnezzar.
My servant — This title, so remarkable in the Old Testament as the special epithet, first of Moses, and then of the Messiah, is three times given to Nebuchadnezzar, and marks the greatness of the commission entrusted to him.
"Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp." — Jeremiah 25:10 (ASV)
Take from them ... the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle - (or, lamp). To denote the entire cessation of domestic life. The one was the sign of the preparation of the daily meal, the other of the assembling of the family after the labors of the day were over.
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