Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 25

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah. —We are carried back in the present arrangement of Jeremiah’s prophecies to a much earlier period than that of the preceding chapter. It is the fourth (in Daniel 1:1, the third) year of the reign of Jehoiakim, who had been made king by Pharaoh-nechoh after his defeat of Josiah and capture of Jerusalem. Since the prophet had been called to his work, B.C. 629, a great revolution had been brought about in the relations of the colossal monarchies of the East.

Nineveh had fallen (B.C. 606) under the attacks of Cyaxares the Mede, and Nabopolassar the Chaldaean.

Nebuchadnezzar, the son of the latter, though his father did not die until the following year, was practically clothed with supreme authority, and had defeated Pharaoh-nechoh at Carchemish, on the banks of the Euphrates, in B.C. 605. The form of the name used here, Nebuchadrezzar, corresponds with the Assyrian, Nabu-kudu-ur-uzur (Jeremiah 46:1; 2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:20).

He was now the master of the East, and it was given to Jeremiah to discern the implications of the new situation for the future destinies of Judah. He was to see that the wisdom of its rulers would be to accept the position of tributary rulers under the great conqueror, instead of rashly seeking either to assert their independence or to trust to the support of Egypt, crushed as she was by the defeat at Carchemish.

The clear vision of the prophet saw in the Chaldaean king the servant of Jehovah—in modern phrase, the instrument of the designs of the Providence which orders the events of history—and he became, from that moment, the unwelcome preacher of the truth: that the independence of Judah had passed away, and that nothing but evil could follow from fanatical attempts, or secret intrigues and alliances, aiming at resistance.

The twenty-third year (B.C. 603-4) — Thus, there had been nineteen years of prophetic work under Josiah, and between three and four under Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 1:2). Of the former period, we have only a scanty record. The year is noticeable as the one that apparently witnessed the first collection of Jeremiah’s prophetic utterances (Jeremiah 36:5–8).

Rising early and speaking — See Note on Jeremiah 7:13.

Turn ye again now ... —The sum and substance of the work of all true prophets has always been found, it scarcely needs to be said, in the call to repentance and conversion; but there is, perhaps, a special reference to the substance of their preaching as recorded in 2 Kings 17:13. The words are interesting as showing that Jeremiah was probably seconded in his work by other prophets whose names have not come down to us.

The works of your hands. —These were, of course, the idols which they had made and worshipped.

The families of the north. —The phrase reminds us of the vision of “the seething pot from the face of the north” in Jeremiah 1:13, and includes all the mingled races, Scythians and others, who acknowledged the dominion of the Chaldean king.

Nebuchadrezzar ... my servant. —The use of the word which is applied by psalmists and prophets to David (Psalms 78:70; 2 Samuel 7:8) and to the future Christ (Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 52:13) is in every way remarkable. It has its parallel, and, in fact, its explanation, in the language in which Isaiah speaks of Cyrus as the shepherd, the anointed, of Jehovah (Isaiah 44:28; Isaiah 45:1). Each ruler of the great empires of the world was, in ways he did not know, working out the purposes of God.

The phrase “I will utterly destroy” may be noted as especially characteristic of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 2:34; Deuteronomy 3:6, and other passages) and Joshua (Joshua 2:10; Joshua 6:21; Joshua 8:26).