Indictment of Judah and the Nations (25:1-38) 273over the wicked to enemies who will kill them by the sword. Hebrew netanam
is not "he will put (them)," as the RSV, NIV, and NRSV translate. The term
means "he has given them over," appearing often in the stereotyped expression
about people being "given over into the hand" of their enemies (Josh 10: 19;
Judg 2:23; 1Sam14:10, 12). Isaiah 34:2 states that Yahweh has doomed the na-
tions and given them over (netanam) to slaughter. The LXX (edothesan, "they
were given over"), T ("he hands them over"), and Vg (tradidi, "I have handed
over") are all different, but each preserves the idea of Yahweh surrendering the
wicked to their enemies.MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
Yahweh states here in oblique fashion that he is about to roar from heaven
against his pasture on earth. The audience will perceive that Yahweh is por-
traying himself as a lion but will not know what pasture his sights are set upon.
Yahweh's voice will also be the loud shout of men treading grapes, except that
his shout will be the shout of battle. Instead of red juice flowing from ripened
grapes, blood of victims will be poured forth. These victims will be the inhabi-
tants of earth, which means Yahweh's pasture will be the whole earth. Yahweh
then says that the sound has already been heard worldwide, for his case is
against the nations. With all of them he is entering into judgment, and the
wicked are as good as dead before the sword of their enemy.
This oracle can be dated along with earlier material in the chapter to Je-
hoiakim's fourth year, 605 B.C.; otherwise to 604 or 597-594, when Jeremiah
was preaching against foreign nations.
When this oracle is added to what precedes, "these words" in v 30 will sup-
plement the divine words of vv 27-29, which accompany the passing of Yah-
weh's cup of wrath. The directive to prophesy against the nations in v 30a will
also supplement earlier directives to address the nations in vv 27a and 28a, and
the statement about the wicked having been given over to the sword in v 32 will
reinforce earlier predictions of the same in vv 16, 27, and 29.
4. Evil Will Travel (25:32-33)
25 32 Thus said Yahweh of hosts:
Look, evil shall go forth
from nation to nation
A great tempest is roused
from remote parts of the earth.(^33) And they shall be-the slain of Yahweh in that day-from the one end of the
earth to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, and they shall
not be gathered, and they shall not be buried; for dung upon the surface of the
ground they shall be.