Indictment ofludah and the Nations (25:1-38)B. Indictment of Judah and the Nations (25:1-38)
2371. Nebuchadrezzar: Yahweh's Servant for a Time (25:1-14)
25 1 The word that came toa Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the
fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon),^2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke con-
cerning all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:(^3) From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, yes, until this
day-this is twenty-three years-the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I
have spoken to you -constantly I spoke-but you have not listened;^4 and Yah-
weh has repeatedly sent to you all his servants the prophets-constantly he
sent-but you have not listened, indeed you have not bent your ear to listen.
(^5) Return, would you, each person from his evil way and from your evil doings,
and dwell on the soil that Yahweh gave to you and to your fathers for all time.
(^6) 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.^7 But you have not listened to me-oracle of Yahweh-so as to pro-
voke me to angerb with the work of your hands, to your own hurt.
(^8) Therefore thus said Yahweh of hosts: 'Because you have not listened to my
words':
(^9) Look I am sending and I will take all the tribes of the north-oracle of
Yahweh-also to Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, my servant, and I will
bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all
these nations round about, and I will devote them to destruction, and I
will make them a desolation, an object of hissing, and ruins forever.^10 And
I will banish from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of millstones and
the light of the lamp.^11 And all this land will become a ruin and a desola-
tion,c and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
(^12) And it will happen when seventy years are fulfilled, I will reckon against
the king of Babylon and against that nation-oracle of Yahweh-their in-
iquity; also against the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make it desolations
'Reading "to" for Heb 'al; several MSS have 'el. The two prepositions are used interchange-
ably in Jeremiah to mean "to" (see v 2 and Note for 11:2).
bReading with T the infinitive of the Q, hak'isenf ("to provoke me to anger"); cf. 7:18 and
32:29. The Kt has an impossible hik'isunf ("they provoked me to anger"?).
'Reading ule~orba ("and a desolation") with many MSS, c^01 , Aq, Symm, Theod, S, TMS, and
Vg; MT lacks "and."