Jeremiah 25

Jeremiah 25 is the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, and is a part of the Books of the Prophets.^[1]

Text

• The original text is written in Hebrew language.
• This chapter is divided into 38 verses in English Bibles and Masoretic Text. In Septuagint, verse 14 is omitted, whereas verses 15-38 are numbered as Jeremiah 32:15-38 (see "Verse numbering" below).

Textual versions

Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter in Hebrew language:

• Masoretic Text (10th century)
• Dead Sea Scrolls: (2nd century BC)^[2][3]
  • 4QJer^c (4Q72): extant: verses 7‑8, 15‑17, 24‑26

Ancient translations in Koine Greek:

• Septuagint (3rd century BC; different verse numbering)
• Theodotion version (~AD 180)

Structure

NKJV groups this chapter into:

• Jeremiah 25:1-14 = Seventy Years of Desolation
• Jeremiah 25:15-38 = Judgment on the Nations

Verse 1

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon) (NKJV)^[4]

• Cross reference: Jeremiah 36:1

Verse 11

And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. (NKJV)^[5]

• "These nations": Judah and the surrounding nations, such as Moab and Phoenicia.^[6]
• "Seventy years": may represent "the length of lifetime" (Psalm 90:10).^[7]

Verse 12

‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.’ (NKJV)^[8]

Cross reference: Jeremiah 29:10, Daniel 9:2; Zechariah 1:12; Zechariah 7:5

Verse 26

All the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. Also the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. (NKJV)^[9]

• "Sheshach" (Hebrew: ששך): means "Babylon" (Hebrew: בבל babel; also in Jeremiah 51:41), cryptically written using the "Atbash" monoalphabetic substitution cipher system.^[10][11]

Verse numbering

The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.^[12]

The order of CATSS based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935), differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs edition (=CATSS).^[12]

See also

• Related Bible parts: 2 Chronicles 36, Ezra 1, Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah 51, Daniel 1, Daniel 9, Daniel 10, Zechariah 1, Zechariah 7

Notes and references

Bibliography

• Ryle, Herbert Edward (2009). The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Paperback. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781117708690. 
• The Nelson Study Bible. Thomas Nelson, Inc. 1997. ISBN 9780840715999. 
• Ulrich, Eugene, ed. (2010). The Biblical Qumran Scrolls: Transcriptions and Textual Variants. Brill. 

External links

Jewish

• Jeremiah 25 Hebrew with Parallel English
• Jeremiah 25 Hebrew with Rashi's Commentary

Christian

• Jeremiah 25 English Translation with Parallel Latin Vulgate