Jeremiah 25:13

And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(13) Which Jeremiah hath prophesied . . .—Here again we have the trace of an interpolation. In the LXX. the words appear detached, as a title, and are followed by Jeremiah 49:35-39, and the other prophecies against the nations which the Hebrew text places at the end of the book (Jeremiah 46-51). The words “all that is written in this book” are manifestly the addition of a scribe. (See Introduction,)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:8-14 The fixing of the time during which the Jewish captivity should last, would not only confirm the prophecy, but also comfort the people of God, and encourage faith and prayer. The ruin of Babylon is foretold: the rod will be thrown into the fire when the correcting work is done. When the set time to favour Zion is come, Babylon shall be punished for their iniquity, as other nations have been punished for their sins. Every threatening of the Scripture will certainly be accomplished.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Septuagint places a full stop after "book," and take the rest as a title "what Jeremiah prophesied against the nations," which series there immediately follows. In the Masoretic Text, this series is deferred to the end Jeremiah 46-49, and with Jeremiah 50-51, forms one entire series. Other reasons make it probable that the Septuagint has preserved for us an earlier text, in which all direct mention of the king of Babylon is omitted and the 70 years are given as the duration of Judah's captivity, and not of the Babylonian empire. The fuller text of the Masorites is to be explained by the dislocation which Jehoiakim's scroll evidently suffered.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

13. all … written in this book, which Jeremiah … prophesied against all … nations—It follows from this, that the prophecies against foreign nations (forty-sixth through fifty-first chapters) must have been already written. Hence the Septuagint inserts here those prophecies. But if they had followed immediately (Jer 25:13), there would have been no propriety in the observation in the verse. The very wording of the reference shows that they existed in some other part of the book, and not in the immediate context. It was in this very year, the fourth of Jehoiakim (Jer 36:1, 2), that Jeremiah was directed to write in a regular book for the first time all that he had prophesied against Judah and foreign "nations" from the beginning of his ministry. Probably, at a subsequent time, when he completed the whole work, including the forty-sixth through fifty-first chapters, Jeremiah himself inserted the clause, "all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations." The prophecies in question may have been repeated, as others in Jeremiah, more than once; so in the original smaller collection they may have stood in an earlier position; and, in the fuller subsequent collection, in their later and present position.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That land; the land of the Babylonians and Chaldeans.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it,.... By his prophets, and particularly by Jeremiah, as follows; for not one word that is spoken by the Lord, either in a way of promise or threatening, shall fail; his truth, power, and faithfulness, are engaged to accomplish all:

even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations; the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, Arabians, Persians, and also the Babylonians, in Jeremiah 46:1, which prophecies, in the Greek version, immediately follow here, though in a confused manner; where some have thought they might be more regularly placed than as they are in the Hebrew copies, at the end of the book; but of this there seems to be no absolute necessity.

Geneva Study Bible

And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

13. even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations] At this point there presents itself one of the most marked discrepancies between the Septuagint Version of Jeremiah and the Hebrew. (See Introd. iv. §§ 10 ff.) The Greek Version as it stands now ends the sentence with “in this book,” and reads as a new sentence, and title of the section on the nations, “What Jeremiah prophesied against the nations,” although it is probable that originally these words were, as in E.VV., merely descriptive of “even all … book.” Upon this follows, with the heading “The things of (concerning) Elam,” what with us appears as ch. Jeremiah 49:35-39, and then, although in a different order of grouping, the other prophecies against foreign nations including Babylon, which in the Hebrew text (and E.VV.) come at the end of the whole Book (chs. 46–51). Which arrangement (if either, which Co. doubts) is the original one? Against the LXX’s order it is urged that by the Greek arrangement the passing of sentence upon the nations (Jeremiah 25:15-38 [Jeremiah 32:1-24]) is made to follow, whereas it should naturally precede, the announcement of punishments as set forth in detail in the prophecies themselves. In favour of the order of the LXX as the original one are the following considerations: (a) It is unlikely that the words rendered “which Jeremiah hath prophesied, etc.” (Jeremiah 25:13) should be from the prophet himself, while the clause would form a natural heading to the collection of prophecies against foreign nations, occurring thus in the course of the Book (as in Ezekiel chs. 25–32). When Hebrew editors of the text removed them to the end, the clause in question was left behind (cp. the converse proceeding pointed out in note on Jeremiah 51:64) and considered to be the conclusion of the preceding sentence; (b) we should a priori expect these prophecies to appear here in company with the kindred matter (Jeremiah 25:15-38). There is however a third hypothesis, which deserves serious consideration, viz. that in both Hebrew and LXX texts these prophecies stood at the end of ch. 25, and were removed to the respective positions which they now occupy in the two texts, because (a) the general overthrow anticipated at the time of the battle of Carchemish, and set forth in the vision of the wine-cup, did not in fact occur, and (b) the modifications of an apocalyptic character, apparently introduced into the latter part of this ch. in order to apply its threatening to a last judgement of the world, rendered it no longer a suitable introduction to them. This view is strongly supported by Peake who argues that the closing words of Jeremiah 25:13 should be taken as indicating a stage at which the Hebrew, and not only the LXX, placed these prophecies at this point.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 13. - And I will bring, etc. Clearly this verse cannot have formed part of the original prophecy, but must have been added whenever the collection of prophecies against foreign nations finally assumed its present form (see introduction on Jeremiah 50, 51.). It should be mentioned that the Septuagint separates the last clause of the verse, "that which Jeremiah prophesied," etc., and makes it the heading of the group of prophecies against the nations, which in the Hebrew Bible stand at the end of Jeremiah's prophecies, but which, beginning with "Elam," the Alexandrian Version inserts at this point. Jeremiah 25:13

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The overthrow of the king of Babylon's sovereignty. - Jeremiah 25:12. "But when seventy years are accomplished, I will visit their iniquity upon the king of Babylon and upon that people, saith Jahveh, and upon the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it everlasting desolations. Jeremiah 25:13. And I bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken concerning it, all that is written in this book, that Jeremiah hath prophesied concerning all peoples. Jeremiah 25:14. For of them also shall many nations and great kings serve themselves, and I will requite them according to their doing and according to the work of their hands."

The punishment or visitation of its iniquity upon Babylon was executed when the city was taken, after a long and difficult siege, by the allied Medes and Persians under Cyrus' command. This was in b.c. 538, just 68 years after Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar for the first time. From the time of the fall of Babylon the sovereignty passed to the Medes and Persians; so that the dominion of Babylon over Judah and the surrounding nations, taken exactly, last 68 years, for which the symbolically significant number 70 is used. The Masoretes have changed the Chet. הבאתי into הבאתי (Keri), because the latter is the usual form and is that which alone elsewhere occurs in Jeremiah, cf. Jeremiah 3:14; Jeremiah 36:31; Jeremiah 49:36.; whereas in Jeremiah 25:9 they have pointed הבאתים, because this form is found in Isaiah 56:7; Ezekiel 34:13, and Nehemiah 1:9. - The second half of the Jeremiah 25:13, from "all that is written" onwards, was not, of course, spoken by Jeremiah to the people, but was first added to explain "all my words," etc., when his prophecies were written down and published.