Jeremiah 27:7

And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) And his son, and his son’s son.—The words may have had the meaning that this was to be the farthest limit of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, as defined by the “seventy years” of Jeremiah 25:11. The use of the phrase, however, in Exodus 34:7, Deuteronomy 4:25, points rather to an undefined prolongation, subject only to the fact that there was an appointed limit. Historically we may note the fact that Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son, Evil-merodach (Jeremiah 52:31); he by his brother-in-law, Neriglissar, and he by Nabouahid and his son Belshazzar. (See Introduction.)

Shall serve themselves of him.—Better, shall make him to serve. It lies in the nature of the case that the pronoun refers to the King of Babylon for the time being. The confederacy of nations which shall overthrow the Babylonian monarchy, Medes and others, is described more fully in Jeremiah 51:11; Jeremiah 51:27-28. The words were clearly meant to point both ways. They warn the nations not to resist the Chaldæan king then. They warn the king not to think that he is founding a dynasty of long duration. The whole verse is wanting in the LXX., perhaps because they imagined that the “son’s son” of Jeremiah 27:7 was inconsistent with the facts of history, as they read them.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 27:7-8. All nations shall serve him, his son, and his son’s son — His son was Evil-merodach, and his son’s son Belshazzar, in whom his kingdom ended. Then the time of reckoning with his land came, when the tables were turned; and many nations and great kings — Incorporated in the empire of the Medes and Persians, served themselves of him. The nation, &c., that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon — That will not submit to that servitude, represented by the yoke, mentioned Jeremiah 27:2-3; will I punish with the sword, &c. — With one judgment after another, until they are wasted and ruined. Nebuchadnezzar was very unjust and barbarous in invading the rights and liberties of his neighbours, and forcing them into a subjection to him; yet God had just and holy ends in view in permitting it, namely, to punish those nations for their idolatry and gross immoralities. They that would not serve the God that made and preserved them, were justly made to serve their enemies that sought to ruin them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

27:1-11 Jeremiah is to prepare a sign that all the neighbouring countries would be made subject to the king of Babylon. God asserts his right to dispose of kingdoms as he pleases. Whatever any have of the good things of this world, it is what God sees fit to give; we should therefore be content. The things of this world are not the best things, for the Lord often gives the largest share to bad men. Dominion is not founded in grace. Those who will not serve the God who made them, shall justly be made to serve their enemies that seek to ruin them. Jeremiah urges them to prevent their destruction, by submission. A meek spirit, by quiet submission to the hardest turns of providence, makes the best of what is bad. Many persons may escape destroying providences, by submitting to humbling providences. It is better to take up a light cross in our way, than to pull a heavier on our own heads. The poor in spirit, the meek and humble, enjoy comfort, and avoid many miseries to which the high-spirited are exposed. It must, in all cases, be our interest to obey God's will.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

His son, and his son's son - Evil-Merodach and Nabonadius (see Daniel 5:1 note).

Shall serve themselves of him - See the marginal reference. After long servitude to the Persian and Median kings, the Selucidae ruined the remains of Babylon.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. son … son's son—(2Ch 36:20). Nebuchadnezzar had four successors—Evil-merodach, his son; Neriglissar, husband of Nebuchadnezzar's daughter; his son, Labosodarchod; and Naboned (with whom his son, Belshazzar, was joint king), son of Evil-merodach. But Neriglissar and Labosodarchod were not in the direct male line; so that the prophecy held good to "his son and his son's son," and the intermediate two are omitted.

time of his land—that is, of its subjugation or its being "visited" in wrath (Jer 27:22; Jer 25:12; 29:10; 50:27; Da 5:26).

serve themselves of him—make him their servant (Jer 25:14; Isa 13:22). So "his day" for the destined day of his calamity (Job 18:20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

All nations shall serve him; that is, all these nations; and some think that it is expressed in the article used here demonstratively, though not so taken notice of by our translators. And his son, and his son’s son; and Evil-merodach his son, who succeeded him, Jeremiah 52:31, and Belshazzar his grandchild, Daniel 4:1,11. Until the period of his kingdom shall come, (for nations have their periods,) which was after seventy years, according to Jeremiah 29:10, during which years some say four princes ruled in Babylon, the Scripture mentions but three. After that he shall himself be conquered, as it came to pass in Belshazzar’s time, Daniel 5:30, Darius the emperor of the Medes taking his kingdom.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And all nations shall serve him,.... That is, all those, all above mentioned; though there were others also that were tributary to him, but not every nation under heaven:

and his son, and his son's son; their Scripture names were Evilmerodach and Belshazzar, Jeremiah 52:31; and by Ptolemy, in his canon, are called Iloarudamus and Nabonadius; between whom he places Niricassolassarus, or Neriglissarus; who was not a son of Evilmerodach, but his sister's husband. A son of his succeeded him, called Laborosoarchod; who, reigning but nine months, is not placed in the canon; agreeably to which is the account of Berosus (h); by whom the immediate son of Nebuchadnezzar is named Evilmaradouchus; or Evilmalaurouchus, as in Eusebius (i); who, after he had reigned two years, was slain by Neriglissoor, or Neriglissar, as in the above writer, his sister's husband; who, after he had enjoyed the kingdom four years, died, and left it to his son, whom he calls Chabaessoarachus, or Laborosoarchados, as before, who reigned but nine months; and then Nabonnidus succeeded, the name he gives him who was conquered by Cyrus in the seventeenth year of his reign; and not very different is the account of Nebuchadnezzar's successors, and the names of them, as given by Abydenus, out of Megasthenes (k); according to whom, Evilmalaurouchus, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, was his successor; then Neriglissar, his sister's husband, who left a son called Labassoarascus; and after him Nabannidochus, in whose times Cyrus took Babylon; and who appears to be the same with Belshazzar, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar; so that the Scripture is very just and accurate in mentioning these two only as the son, and son's son of Nebuchadnezzar, whom the nations should serve; for in the last of these ended the Babylonish monarchy:

until the very time of his land come; or that "itself; also he himself" (l) or, "also of himself", as the Vulgate Latin version. The Targum is,

"until the time of the destruction of his land come, also of himself;''

there was a time fixed for his life, and so long the nations were to serve, and did serve, him personally; and there was a time fixed for the continuance of his monarchy, in his son, and son's son; when it was to end, as it did, in Belshazzar's reign; and when the seventy years' captivity of the Jews was up:

and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him; and his kingdom; subdue it, and make it tributary to them. This was accomplished by the Medes and Persians, with Darius and Cyrus at the head of them, and other nations and kings, allies and auxiliaries to them, and associates with them; see Jeremiah 25:14. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "and many nations and great kings shall serve him"; so the Targum; which falls in with the former part of the verse; wherefore the other sense is best.

(h) Apud Joseph. contra Apion. I. 1. sect. 20. p. 1344. (i) Praepar. Evangel. I. 9. c. 40. p. 455. (k) Apud Euseb. Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 41. p. 457. (l) "etiam illud, vel ipsum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.

Geneva Study Bible

And all nations shall serve him, and his {d} son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land shall come: and then many nations and great kings shall {e} bring him into subjection.

(d) Meaning, Evilmerodach and his son Belshazzar.

(e) They will bring him and his kingdom in subjection as in Jer 25:14.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. him, and his son, and his son’s son] If this prophecy be meant to be taken literally, it will signify that the power of Babylon would last for two generations of rulers after Nebuchadnezzar. According to profane history however it was more prolonged. Evil-Merodach (Amil-Marduk, man or servant of Marduk the chief Babylonian divinity), son and successor to Nebuchadnezzar (b.c. 561), reigned two years, or two years and a few months, according to the tablets dated in his reign. He was killed in a rebellion led by his sister’s husband, Neriglissar (Nergal-Sharezer), who in three or four years was succeeded by a young son Laborosoarchod, murdered after a nine months’ reign. Thus, unless the v. merely means that for the Jews or other nations there was to be no speedy riddance of Babylon, as the false prophets taught, it is at variance with history. It is possible that this fact may be the cause of its omission by LXX, but a view much to be preferred is that the apparently definite fixing of a termination to the power of Babylon, an announcement quite out of harmony with the context (cp. end of note on Jeremiah 25:11), stamps it as a gloss. As Co. (Heb. p. 70) says “The idea that the dominion of the Chaldæns is to be merely transitory … is decidedly inappropriate in this place, where it is much more to the interest of the prophet to depict the power of Nebuchadnezzar as terribly as possible.”

the time of his own land come] As he acted, so shall he in like manner suffer.

many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him] See on Jeremiah 25:14.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Him, and his son, and his son's son. This is intelligible only if the seventy years predicted by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 25:11, 12, 29:10, are a round number. Nebuchadnezzar died in B.C. 561, and was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach, who, after two years, was put to death by Neriglissar. In B.C. 555 Laberosoarchod (?) became king, but after nine months a usurper belonging to another family, Nabonedus or Nabunita, ascended the throne, which he occupied till B.C. 538, the year of the fall of Babylon. "Seventy years," taken literally, only brings us to B.C. 555, seventeen years short of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus. Until the very time of his land come; rather, until the time of his own land come. Nebuchadnezzar cannot ensure his realm against captivity. Shall serve themselves of him (For the meaning of the phrase, see on Jeremiah 25:14.) Jeremiah 27:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The yoke of the king of Babylon upon the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. - Jeremiah 27:2. "Thus said Jahveh to me: Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, Jeremiah 27:3. And send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that are come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Jeremiah 27:4. And command them to say unto their masters, Thus hath Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Thus shall ye say unto your masters: Jeremiah 27:5. I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched hand, and give it to whom it seemeth meet unto me. Jeremiah 27:6. And how have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him. Jeremiah 27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his land come, and many nations and great kings serve themselves of him. Jeremiah 27:8. And the people and the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put its neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon, with sword, with famine, and with pestilence I will visit that people, until I have made an end of them by his hand. Jeremiah 27:9. And ye, hearken not to your prophets, and your soothsayers, and to your dreams, to your enchanters and your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying: Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 27:10. For they prophesy a lie unto you, that I should remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and ye should perish. Jeremiah 27:11. But the people that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and will serve him, that will I let remain in its land, saith Jahveh, to till it and to dwell therein."

The yoke Jeremiah is to make and lay on his neck is a plain emblem of the Babylonian yoke the nations are to bear. The words "bonds and yokes" denote together one yoke. מטות are the two wooden beams or poles of the yoke, which were fastened together by means of the מוסרות, bonds, ropes, so that the yoke might be laid on the beast's neck; cf. Leviticus 26:13. That Jeremiah really put such a yoke on his neck and wore it, we see from Jeremiah 28:10, Jeremiah 28:12, where a false prophet breaks it for him. He is to send the yoke to the kings of Edom, Moab, etc., by means of envoys of those kings, who were come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah. And since Jeremiah laid a yoke on his own neck, and so carried out the commanded symbolical action in objective reality, there is no reason to doubt that he made yokes for the five kings named and gave them to their respective envoys. Chr. B. Mich., Hitz., Graf, hold this to be improbable, and suppose that Jeremiah only made a yoke for himself and put it on his neck; but by appearing abroad with it, he set before the eyes of the ambassadors, the yoke that was to be laid on their kings, and, in a certain sense, emblematically gave it to them. But even though this might have sufficed to accomplish the aim of the prophecy, it is difficulty to reconcile it with the wording of the text; hence Hitz. seeks arbitrarily to change שׁלּחתּם into שׁלּחתּה. And it is a worthless argument that Jeremiah cannot possibly have believed that the envoys would carry the yokes with them and deliver them to their masters. Why should not he have believed they would do so? And if they did not, it was their concern. The plur. "bands and yokes" may indeed mean a single yoke, but it may also mean many; and the verbs נתתּם and שׁלּחתּם, both with plural suffixes, indicate clearly that he was to make not merely one yoke for himself, but yokes for himself and the kings. In Jeremiah 28:10 and Jeremiah 28:12, where one yoke is spoken of, the singular המּוטה is used; while, Jeremiah 28:13, "yokes of wood hast thou broken," does not prove that this plural has the same force as the singular.

We are not told for what purpose ambassadors from the kings named had come to Jerusalem; but we can discover what it was from the message Jeremiah gives them for their lords. From this it appears, without a doubt, that they were come to take counsel as to a coalition with the view of throwing off the Chaldean supremacy. By God's command Jeremiah opposes this design with the announcement, that the God of Israel, the Creator of the world and of all creatures, has given all these lands (those of the kings named in Jeremiah 27:3) into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar; that men, and even beasts, should serve him, i.e., that he might exercise unbounded dominion over these lands and all that belonged to them, cf. Jeremiah 28:14. "My servant," as in Jeremiah 25:9. All nations are to serve him, his son and his grandson. These words simply express the long duration of the king of Babylon's power over them, without warranting us in concluding that he was succeeded on the throne by his son and his grandson, cf. Deuteronomy 6:2; Deuteronomy 4:25. For, as we know, Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach; then came his brother-in-law Neriglissar, who murdered Evil-Merodach, who was followed by his son Laborosoarchod, a child, murdered after a nine months' reign by conspirators. Of these latter, Neboned ascended the throne of Babylon; and it was under his reign that the time for his land came that it should be made subject by many nations and great kings, cf. Jeremiah 25:14. גּם הוּא serves to strengthen the suffix on ארצו; and the suffix, like בּו, refers to Nebuchadnezzar.

(Note: Jeremiah 27:7 is wanting in the lxx, and therefore Mov. and Hitz. pronounce it spurious. But, as Graf remarked, they have no sufficient reason for this, since, reference being had to Jeremiah 27:16 and to Jeremiah 28:3, Jeremiah 28:11, this verse is very much in place here. It is not a vaticinium ex eventu, as Hitz. asserts, but was rather omitted by the lxx, simply because its contents, taken literally, were not in keeping with the historical facts. The lxx omit also the clause from "that will not serve" to "king of Babylon and," which is accordingly, and for other subjective reasons of taste, pronounced spurious by Hitz.; but Graf justly opposes this.)

What is said in Jeremiah 27:6 and Jeremiah 27:7 is made sterner by the threatening of Jeremiah 27:8, that the Lord will punish with sword, famine, and pestilence the people and kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar. ואת introduces a second relative clause, the את being here quite in place, since "the people and the kingdom" are accusatives made to precede absolutely, and resumed again by the 'על הגּוי ה, which belongs directly to the verb "visit." With עד־תּמּי, cf. Jeremiah 24:10 and אתם עד־כּלּותי, corresponding in meaning, in Jeremiah 9:15.