Jeremiah 25:18-26

25:18 I made Jerusalem 1  and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. 2  I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object 3  of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. 4  Such is already becoming the case! 5  25:19 I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; 6  his attendants, his officials, his people, 25:20 the foreigners living in Egypt; 7  all the kings of the land of Uz; 8  all the kings of the land of the Philistines, 9  the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod; 10  25:21 all the people of Edom, 11  Moab, 12  Ammon; 13  25:22 all the kings of Tyre, 14  all the kings of Sidon; 15  all the kings of the coastlands along the sea; 16  25:23 the people of Dedan, Tema, Buz, 17  all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples; 18  25:24 all the kings of Arabia who 19  live in the desert; 25:25 all the kings of Zimri; 20  all the kings of Elam; 21  all the kings of Media; 22  25:26 all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath, 23  the king of Babylon 24  must drink it.

1 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

2 tn The words “I made” and “drink it” are not in the text. The text from v. 18 to v. 26 contains a list of the nations that Jeremiah “made drink it.” The words are supplied in the translation here and at the beginning of v. 19 for the sake of clarity. See also the note on v. 26.

3 tn Heb “in order to make them a ruin, an object of…” The sentence is broken up and the antecedents are made specific for the sake of clarity and English style.

4 tn See the study note on 24:9 for explanation.

5 tn Heb “as it is today.” This phrase would obviously be more appropriate after all these things had happened as is the case in 44:6, 23 where the verbs referring to these conditions are past. Some see this phrase as a marginal gloss added after the tragedies of 597 b.c. or 586 b.c. However, it may refer here to the beginning stages where Judah has already suffered the loss of Josiah, of its freedom, of some of its temple treasures, and of some of its leaders (Dan 1:1-3. The different date for Jehoiakim there is due to the different method of counting the king’s first year; the third year there is the same as the fourth year in 25:1).

6 sn See further Jer 46:2-28 for the judgment against Egypt.

7 tn The meaning of this term and its connection with the preceding is somewhat uncertain. This word is used of the mixture of foreign people who accompanied Israel out of Egypt (Exod 12:38) and of the foreigners that the Israelites were to separate out of their midst in the time of Nehemiah (Neh 13:3). Most commentators interpret it here of the foreign people who were living in Egypt. (See BDB 786 s.v. I עֶרֶב and KBL 733 s.v. II עֶרֶב.)

8 sn The land of Uz was Job’s homeland (Job 1:1). The exact location is unknown but its position here between Egypt and the Philistine cities suggests it is south of Judah, probably in the Arabian peninsula. Lam 4:21 suggests that it was near Edom.

9 sn See further Jer 47:1-7 for the judgment against the Philistines. The Philistine cities were west of Judah.

10 sn The Greek historian Herodotus reports that Ashdod had been destroyed under the Pharaoh who preceded Necho, Psammetichus.

11 sn See further Jer 49:7-22 for the judgment against Edom. Edom, Moab, and Ammon were east of Judah.

12 sn See further Jer 48:1-47 for the judgment against Moab.

13 sn See further Jer 49:1-6 for the judgment against Ammon.

14 map For location see Map1-A2; Map2-G2; Map4-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

15 sn Tyre and Sidon are mentioned within the judgment on the Philistines in Jer 47:4. They were Phoenician cities to the north and west of Judah on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Lebanon.

map For location see Map1-A1; JP3-F3; JP4-F3.

16 sn The connection with Tyre and Sidon suggests that these were Phoenician colonies. See also Isa 23:2.

17 sn Dedan and Tema are mentioned together in Isa 21:13-14 and located in the desert. They were located in the northern part of the Arabian peninsula south and east of Ezion Geber. Buz is not mentioned anywhere else and its location is unknown. Judgment against Dedan and Tema is mentioned in conjunction with the judgment on Edom in Jer 47:7-8.

18 tn For the discussion regarding the meaning of the terms here see the notes on 9:26.

sn See Jer 9:26 where these are mentioned in connection with Moab, Edom, and Ammon.

19 tc Or “and all the kings of people of mixed origin who.” The Greek version gives evidence of having read the term only once; it refers to the “people of mixed origin” without reference to the kings of Arabia. While the term translated “people of mixed origin” seems appropriate in the context of a group of foreigners within a larger entity (e.g. Israel in Exod 12:38; Neh 13:3; Egypt in Jer 50:37), it seems odd to speak of them as a separate entity under their own kings. The presence of the phrase in the Hebrew text and the other versions dependent upon it can be explained as a case of dittography.

sn See further Jer 49:28-33 for judgment against some of these Arabian peoples.

20 sn The kingdom of Zimri is mentioned nowhere else, so its location is unknown.

21 sn See further Jer 49:34-39 for judgment against Elam.

22 sn Elam and Media were east of Babylon; Elam in the south and Media in the north. They were in what is now western Iran.

23 tn The words “have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity at the end of the list to serve as a transition to the next sentence which does not directly mention the cup or the Lord’s wrath.

24 tn Heb “the king of Sheshach.” “Sheshach” is a code name for Babylon formed on the principle of substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the next to the last for the second, and so on. On this principle Hebrew שׁ (shin) is substituted for Hebrew ב (bet) and Hebrew כ (kaf) is substituted for Hebrew ל (lamed). On the same principle “Leb Kamai” in Jer 51:1 is a code name for Chasdim or Chaldeans which is Jeremiah’s term for the Babylonians. No explanation is given for why the code names are used. The name “Sheshach” for Babylon also occurs in Jer 51:41 where the term Babylon is found in parallelism with it.