Jeremiah 25:6

25:1-7 The call to turn from evil ways to the worship and service of God, and for sinners to trust in Christ, and partake of his salvation, concerns all men. God keeps an account how long we possess the means of grace; and the longer we have them, the heavier will our account be if we have not improved them. Rising early, points out the earnest desire that this people should turn and live. Personal and particular reformation must be insisted on as necessary to a national deliverance; and every one must turn from his own evil way. Yet all was to no purpose. They would not take the right and only method to turn away the wrath of God.

And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them,.... So long as they served the Lord God, they continued in their own land, in the comfortable enjoyment of all the blessings of it; for their government was a theocracy; God was their King; and as long as they served and worshipped him only, he protected and defended them; but when they forsook him, and went after other gods, and served and worshipped them, then they were threatened to be turned out of their land, and carried captive into other lands; and yet, after all, if they returned from their idolatries, and left off worshipping idols, the Lord was ready to receive them kindly, and continue his favours to them: and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; their idols, which their own hands made, and then fell down to worship them; than which nothing can be more provoking to God: and I will do you no hurt; by sword, or famine, or pestilence, or captivity; signifying the hurt he had threatened them with should not be done, provided they forsook their idolatrous worship; God does no hurt to his true worshippers; yea, he makes all things work together for their good.

Gods; idols, which indeed are no gods, but so called by idolaters. To serve them, and to worship them; to pay any divine homage unto them. And provoke me not to anger by idols, which are the work of men’s hands (no uncreated beings). Or more generally, any works which are contrary to the law of God. If you do this, I will by my providence do you no harm, you shall yet enjoy your own land and prosper.

The seventy years' Chaldean bondage of Judah and the peoples. - Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 25:7 . But ye hearkened not to me, to provoke me by the work of your hands, to your own hurt. Jeremiah 25:8 . Therefore thus hath said Jahveh of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words, Jeremiah 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, Jeremiah 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. Jeremiah 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 (Jeremiah 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 אשׁכּים might be an Aramaism; but it is more probably a clerical error, since we have השׁכּם everywhere else; cf. Jeremiah 25:4, Jeremiah 7:13; Jeremiah 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 Jeremiah 7:13. As to the thought of Jeremiah 25:4 cf. Jeremiah 7:25. and Jeremiah 11:7. לאמר introduces the contents of the discourses of Jeremiah and the other prophets, though formally it is connected with ושׁלח, Jeremiah 25:4. As to the fact, cf. Jeremiah 35:15. וּשׁבוּ, so shall ye dwell, cf. Jeremiah 7:7. - With Jeremiah 25:6 cf. Jeremiah 7:6; Jeremiah 1:16, etc. (ארע, imperf.

[Bible] 24:10. And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them, and their fathers. Jeremias Chapter 25 The prophet foretells the seventy years captivity; after that the destruction of Babylon, and other nations. 25:1. The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people of Juda, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, (the same is the first year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon,) 25:2. Which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of Juda, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 25:3. From the thirteenth year of Josias the son of Ammon king of Juda until this day: this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising before day, and speaking, and you have not hearkened. 25:4. And the Lord hath sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ears to hear. 25:5. When he said: Return ye, every one from his evil way, and from your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord hath given to you, and your fathers for ever and ever. 25:6. And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you. 25:7. And you have not heard me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt. 25:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard my words: 25:9. Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.