Jeremiah 25:7

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.

Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord,.... Though it was he that spake unto them by his prophets; and though it was so much to their own good and advantage; and the neglect of him and his word were so much to their disadvantage, and even ruin: that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt: which, though not signed to do either, yet eventually did both; both provoked the Lord, and brought destruction upon themselves; for whatever is against the glory of God is to the hurt of man; and whatever provokes him is pernicious to them in its consequences.

7 . unto me ] i.e. Jeremiah. saith the Lord ] The words were inserted through the same error which led to the insertion of Jeremiah 25:4 . that ye might … own hurt ] The gloss was suggested by the similar language of Jeremiah 25:6 . work of your hands ] idols. Cp. Jeremiah 10:3 ; Jeremiah 10:9 , Jeremiah 32:30 ; Deuteronomy 31:29 . Jeremiah 25:7

Ye heard me and other the Lord’s prophets thus speaking to you, but you did not obey and hearken. As if you had done it on purpose to incense me against you, who am of myself slow to wrath, and must be provoked to execute vindictive justice by men’s own wicked works; which do not otherwise affect or hurt me, but are to their hurt who do them.

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.

In the latter sense sôd occurs in two passages illustrating the present one, Jeremiah 23:18 ; Jeremiah 23:22 , where Jeremiah implies that the true prophets have access to the “council” of Jehovah, and preach the principles which are there approved (cf. Job 15:8 , R.V. marg. ; also Psalm 89:7 ). his servants the prophets ] An expression otherwise used chiefly by writers of the age of Jeremiah ( 2 Kings 17:13 ; 2 Kings 17:23 ; 2 Kings 21:10 ; 2 Kings 24:2 ; Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 25:4 ; Jeremiah 26:5 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 35:15 ; Ezekiel 38:17 ; also Zechariah 1:6 ; Daniel 9:10 ).

6 . The guilt is the greater, because Israel had been warned, but had not listened to the warning. neither have we hearkened unto thy servants the prophets ] A reminiscence of Jeremiah 26:5 ; cf. Jeremiah 7:25 ; Jeremiah 25:4 ; Jeremiah 29:19 ; Jeremiah 35:15 ; Jeremiah 44:4 (all containing the expression ‘my servants the prophets,’ followed by ‘and ye ( or they) hearkened not’). to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land ] The same combination in Jeremiah 44:21 ; cf. ‘our fathers, our kings, and our princes,’ Jeremiah 44:17 : comp. Nehemiah 9:32 ; Nehemiah 9:34 .