Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 25:3
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that [is] the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
3. these three and twenty years ] Josiah reigned thirty-one years, and it was in the thirteenth year of that king (ch. Jer 1:2) that Jeremiah was called. He therefore prophesied for eighteen or nineteen years in that reign. To this we are to add the reign of Jehoahaz (three months), and more than three years of Jehoiakim.
but ye have not hearkened ] Omit with LXX. See next note.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The three and twentieth year – i. e., nineteen under Josiah, and four under Jehoiakim. This prophecy divides itself into three parts,
(1) the judgment of Judah Jer 25:3-11, and Babylons doom Jer 25:12-14;
(2) the wine-cup of fury Jer 25:15-29;
(3) the judgment of the world Jer 25:30-38.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
We read, Jer 1:2, that Jeremiah began to prophesy in the thirteenth year of Josiah. Josiah reigned thirty-one years, 2Ki 22:1; so that taking in the thirteenth year, Jeremiah prophesied nineteen years during the life of Josiah, to which adding the four of Jehoiakims reign, it maketh twenty-three. These twenty-three years, saith the prophet, I have been a preacher to you, and I have not been negligent in my work; but like men that get up early in the morning to despatch their business, so have I been in the discharge of my prophetical office.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. From the thirteenth year ofJosiah, in which Jeremiah began to prophesy (Jer1:1), to the end of Josiah’s reign, was nineteen years (2Ki22:1); the three months 2Kings 23. 31) of Jehoahaz’ reign, with the not quite completefour years of Jehoiakim (Jer 25:1),added to the nineteen years, make up twenty-three years in all.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day,…. The year in which Jeremiah began to prophesy, Jer 1:2;
(that [is], the three and twentieth year); for Josiah reigned one and thirty years; so that Jeremiah prophesied nineteen years in his reign; and now it was the fourth of Jehoiakim’s, which make twenty three years; so long the prophet had been prophesying to this people:
the word of the Lord hath come unto me; from time to time, during that space of twenty three years; and which he diligently, constantly, and faithfully delivered unto them; as follows:
and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking: as soon as ever he had a word from the Lord, he brought it to them, and took the most proper and seasonable time to inculcate it to them; in the morning, and after, he had had a vision or dream in the night from the Lord;
but ye have not hearkened; they took no notice of it; turned a deaf ear to it; however, did not obey or act as they were directed and exhorted to.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The seventy years’ Chaldean bondage of Judah and the peoples. – Jer 25:3 . “From the thirteenth year of Josiah, son of Amon king of Judah, unto this day, these three and twenty years, came the word of Jahveh to me, and I spake to you, from early morn onwards speaking, but ye hearkened not. Jer 25:4 . And Jahveh sent to you all His servants, the prophets, from early morning on sending them, but ye hearkened not, and inclined not your ear to hear. Jer 25:5 . They said: Turn ye now each from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, so shall ye abide in the land which Jahveh hath given to your fathers from everlasting to everlasting. Jer 25:6 . And go not after other gods, to serve them and to worship them, that ye provoke me not with the work of your hands, and that I do you no evil. Jer 25:7 . But ye hearkened not to me, to provoke me by the work of your hands, to your own hurt. Jer 25:8 . Therefore thus hath said Jahveh of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words, Jer 25:9 . Behold, I send and take all the families of the north, saith Jahveh, and to Nebuchadrezzar my servant (I send), and bring them upon this land, and upon its inhabitants, and upon all these peoples round about, and ban them, and make them an astonishment and a derision and everlasting desolations, Jer 25:10. And destroy from among them the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp. Jer 25:11. And this land shall become a desert, a desolation, and these peoples shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
The very beginning of this discourse points to the great crisis in the fortunes of Judah. Jeremiah recalls into the memory of the people not merely the whole time of his own labours hitherto, but also the labours of many other prophets, who, like himself, have unremittingly preached repentance to the people, called on them to forsake idolatry and their evil ways, and to return to the God of their fathers – but in vain (Jer 25:3-7). The 23 years, from the 13th of Josiah till the 4th of Jehoiakim, are thus made up: 19 years of Josiah and 4 years of Jehoiakim, including the 3 months’ reign of Jehoahaz. The form might be an Aramaism; but it is more probably a clerical error, since we have everywhere else; cf. Jer 25:4, Jer 7:13; Jer 35:14, etc., and Olsh. Gramm. 191, g. For syntactical reasons it cannot be 1st pers. imperf., as Hitz. thinks it is. On the significance of this infin. abs. see on Jer 7:13. As to the thought of Jer 25:4 cf. Jer 7:25. and Jer 11:7. introduces the contents of the discourses of Jeremiah and the other prophets, though formally it is connected with , Jer 25:4. As to the fact, cf. Jer 35:15. , so shall ye dwell, cf. Jer 7:7. – With Jer 25:6 cf. Jer 7:6; Jer 1:16, etc. ( , imperf. Hiph. from ). cannot be the reading of its Chet., for the 3rd person will not do. The seems to have found its way in by an error in writing and the Keri to be the proper reading, since is construed with the infinitive.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Jeremiah now expostulates with the Jews, because they had not only perfidiously departed from the true worship of God, and despised the whole teaching of his Law, but because they had shaken off the yoke, and designedly and even obstinately rejected all warnings, being not moved by reproofs nor even by threatenings. He does not then simply charge them with impiety and ingratitude, but adds the sin of perverseness, that they were like untameable wild beasts, and could by no means be corrected.
He says, that from the thirteenth year of Josiah king of Judah, to that year, which was the twenty-third year, he had not ceased faithfully to perform the office committed to him, but had effected nothing. It hence appears how incorrigible was their wickedness. We have seen, at the beginning of the book, that he was called by God to be a Prophet in the thirteenth year of King Josiah; and he had now been engaged in his calling, as he declares, for twenty-three years.
He had spent his time in vain, he had consumed much labor without any fruit. It is then no wonder that he now accuses them of perverseness, and that in the name of God; for he pleads not his own cause, but shews what the Jews deserved, considering how much God had labored in reclaiming them, and that they had rejected all his warnings and refused all his remedies. Then from the thirteenth year of Josiah, he says, to this day; and afterwards in a parenthesis he adds, that he had already discharged his office for twenty-three years.
We learn that the Prophet spoke thus seventeen years before the destruction of the City and Temple; for he had accomplished forty years before the people were driven into exile, and before they who thought themselves safe, miserably perished. He continued to the death of Josiah; and afterwards about twenty-two transpired; for Jehoiakim reigned eleven years; and without reckoning the short time of Jeconiah, Mathaniah, called also Zedekiah, was in the eleventh year removed, and disgracefully and reproachfully put to death. Thus it appears that the Prophet constantly labored for forty years.
Hence, also, we learn how diabolical was the madness of that people in rejecting so many admonitions. And if we connect another thing, to which I lately referred, that they had been taught by many examples, it will appear still more evident that the disease of impiety as to that people was altogether incurable.
But this passage deserves special attention; for we here learn that we ought immediately to return to God when he invites us; for faith is known by its promptitude. As soon then as God speaks, it behoves us to be attentive, so that we may immediately follow him. But if God ceases not for a whole year to warn and exhort us, while at the same time his doctrine is despised, we become guilty of intolerable sin. Let us then remember that days are here in a manner mentioned as well as years, that the Jews might consider how many days are included in every year; and let us also know that years are mentioned by Jeremiah, that they might, understand that they had no excuse, inasmuch as God had for so long a time ceased not to promote their welfare, while in the meantime they persisted in their impiety, and continued obstinate to the last. This is the reason why the Prophet relates again when it was that he began to discharge his prophetic office, even from the thirteenth year of Josiah.
He then adds, that it was their own fault that they had not repented; spoken, he says, has Jehovah to me, and I to you. By saying that the word of God was deposited with him, he no doubt intended to assert his authority against the unbelievers, who clamored that he presumptuously pretended God’s name, and that he had not been sent by God. For we have elsewhere seen that the Church was then miserably torn, having intestine broils, and many were boasting that they were prophets; and we shall hereafter find the same thing in other places. Thus, then, Jeremiah was not received by the whole people, and his authority was disputed. Since then he had to contend with many ungodly men, he here testifies that he came not of himself, but that the prophetic office had been committed to him.
After having asserted the authority of his call, he adds, that he had faithfully promoted the welfare of the whole people; for he declares how faithful and diligent he had been when he says, that he had spoken and rose up early; for to rise up early means that he had been assiduous in his work. The Prophet then shews that he had not been tardy or idle, and that he had not spoken carelessly as many do, who seem to do what God commands, but display no fervid zeal and no sedulity. The Prophet then, after having declared that he had been sent from above, adds that he had exercised fidelity and diligence, that he had strenuously served God and his Church. I have spoken to you, he says, as the Lord had spoken to me, — how? rising up early
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) The three and twentieth year (B.C. 603-4).Thus there had been nineteen years of prophetic work under Josiah, and between three and four under Jehoiakim (Jer. 1:2). Of the former period we have but scanty record. The year is noticeable as that which apparently witnessed the first collection of Jeremiahs prophetic utterances (Jer. 36:5-8).
Rising early and speaking.See Note on Jer. 7:13.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah, etc. Appropriately marking the crisis, the prophet takes a retrospective glance. For twenty-three years he had patiently and persistently preached repentance to this unwilling and persecuting people; and hence they cannot now say that their calamities come without warning. These three and twenty years are made up of nineteen under Josiah and four of Jehoiakim, including the three months’ reign of Jehoahaz.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jeremiah’s Warning To The People Concerning Their Future ( Jer 25:3-11 ).
Jer 25:3
‘From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these three and twenty years, the word of YHWH has come to me, and I have spoken unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.’
He pointed out to them that he had now been engaged in his ministry for twenty three years, diligently (‘rising up early’ – a typical Jeremaism) bringing to them the word of YHWH. But he points out that they had not listened.
Jer 25:4
‘And YHWH has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not listened, nor bent your ear to hear,)’
Indeed YHWH had previously been diligent (rising up early) in sending many prophets among them who had been equally diligent and had proclaimed His word to them. But they had not listened to them either.
Jer 25:5
‘Saying, “Return you now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land which YHWH has given to you and to your fathers, from of old and even for evermore,’
So he now with great patience calls on them, as the previous prophets had called on them (compare 2Ki 17:12-14), again to return from their evil ways, and from the evil of their doings (for they needed to be right in both their behaviour and their attitude) if they wished to dwell ‘for evermore’ in the land which YHWH had of old given to their fathers.
Jer 25:6
‘And do not go after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no hurt.”
For YHWH’s promise was that if they did not go after other gods to worship and serve them, and did not provoke Him to anger by breaking the requirements of the covenant, then He would bring no harm upon them. This was still in the stage when repentance was seen as possible, and was looked for.
‘The work of your hands’ may indicate the idols that they had made, or it may be pointing to their general behaviour, or indeed both.
Jer 25:7
“Yet you have not listened to me, the word of YHWH, that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.”
But YHWH now charges them with the fact that they had not listened to any of the prophets, and had also certainly not listened to Jeremiah. And therefore they had not listened to Him. This was the sure ‘word of YHWH’. And the consequence was that they had provoked Him to anger by what they had been doing, and especially by their idolatry, in such a way as would bring hurt upon them.
Jer 25:8-9
‘Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts, “Because you have not heard my words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, the word of YHWH, and I will send to Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.”
And He warns them that because of their failure to listen to the prophets and to hear His word, He would now summon the people of the countries to the north, including ‘My servant’ Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and would bring them all against both their land, and also the land of neighbouring countries, to destroy them and make them a spectacle in the eyes of all. Note that the warning is to the whole neighbourhood. Judah would be one of many.
In Isa 44:18; Isa 45:1 YHWH had called Cyrus ‘My shepherd’ and ‘My anointed’. Here He calls Nebuchadrezzar ‘My servant (see also Jer 27:6; Jer 43:10). In both cases it was because they were adopted by Him as His instruments in carrying out His purposes. It did not indicate that they had become believers. And Nebuchadrezzar would come at the head of a coalition of different nations, for in the fight against Assyria the Medes and the Scythians, together with a number of other allies, had been involved.
Jer 25:10
“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.”
The devastating effect of the invasion is described. All festivities and activities, the things for which men lived, will come to a halt. There would be no more festal occasions with their mirth and gladness, there would no more be bridegrooms and brides enjoying their wedding celebrations, and even the maids who ground the corn during the day would be affected. The mill stones would cease operating, and the lamps at night would not be lit, for there would be no grain and no oil, and no one to tend to them. Life as they had always known it would have ground to a halt.
Jer 25:11
“And this whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”
This description has in mind a land made so desolate that people who pass through look at it with open mouths, hardly able to believe what they are seeing. And the length of time during which these nations would have to serve the king of Babylon was ‘seventy years’ (see also Jer 29:10), that is, the normal lifetime of a man from cradle to the grave. Like most numbers in the Old Testament it was to be taken as a round number, and not applied too strictly. This especially applies to a number incorporating ‘seven’ which in all countries was seen as an indicator of ‘divine completeness’. It was a general indicator.
Various attempts have been made to delineate the seventy years in mind more exactly, although in our view unnecessarily:
1. As indicating the period of Babylonian rule from the first time that they entered the area in around 605 BC and had taken people into exile (including Daniel and his three friends), after defeating the Egyptians at Carchemish and Hamath, to the time when the first exiles returned with Cyrus’ permission, which would be a year or so after Babylon was crushed in 539 BC. This interpretation would tie in with the date when this prophecy was given, and the fact that the first year of Nebuchadrezzar’s rule is (unusually) specifically mentioned (Jer 25:1).
2. As indicating the period from when Assyria was finally crushed in around 609 BC to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC.
3. As simply indicating ‘within a full lifetime’. It would safely take it beyond the lifetime of Nebuchadrezzar.
The purpose of the seventy years according to 2Ch 36:21 was so that the land could ‘enjoy its sabbaths’, which may be an indication that the seventh Sabbatical year during which no crops were to be sown (Exo 23:10-11) had on the whole been ignored in Judah and Israel, or may simply be a symbolic indictor of a period of ‘rest’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that [is] the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
Ver. 3. Rising early and speaking. ] A dilucula indesinenter: as good husbands use to do, taking the best times.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
thirteenth year of Josiah. Compare Jer 1:2.
the three and twentieth year: i.e. of Jeremiah’s prophesying: 18 years under Josiah + 3 months under Jehoahaz + 4 years under Jehoiakim.
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
rising early and speaking. See note on Jer 7:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
thirteenth: Jer 1:2, 1Ki 22:3, 2Ch 34:3, 2Ch 34:8
rising: Jer 25:4, Jer 7:13, Jer 11:7, Jer 29:19, Jer 35:15, Jer 44:4, Gen 22:3, Exo 8:20, Psa 81:13, Isa 55:2, Mar 1:35, Joh 8:2, Joh 8:47, 2Ti 4:2
Reciprocal: Deu 17:12 – and will not hearken Jos 3:1 – rose early 1Ki 13:1 – by the word 2Ch 36:15 – the Lord Neh 9:29 – testifiedst Pro 29:1 – General Isa 28:10 – For precept Jer 7:26 – they hearkened Jer 13:10 – evil Jer 26:5 – whom Jer 32:33 – rising Jer 35:14 – rising Jer 36:2 – from the day Eze 2:3 – I send Eze 3:7 – Israel will Eze 24:13 – because Dan 9:6 – have we Hos 5:2 – a rebuker Hos 9:17 – because Zep 1:1 – in the days Zec 1:4 – unto Mat 20:1 – early Mat 21:34 – he sent Mat 21:35 – General Mat 23:37 – how Luk 20:10 – sent
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 25:3. The actual date of the present word is the 23rd year of Josiah according to the calculation of this verse. In this instance the prophet goes back to the time when he had first begun to write and gives a brief review of his work of admonition for the people and of their indifference to his words.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to {b} this day, that [is] the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, {c} rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
(b) Which was the fifth year and the ninth month of Jehoiakim’s reign.
(c) That is, I have spared no diligence or labour, Jer 7:13 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The prophet announced that he had been preaching to his audience regularly for 23 years, but they had not paid attention to what he had said. According to Jer 1:2, Jeremiah began his ministry in 627 B.C.