Jeremiah 25, Yahweh’s Wrath and Mercy

In the latter half of this prophecy Jeremiah makes a cryptic reference to Babylon as Sheshak. The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary explains:

The atbash is a code that interchanges the letters of a name with an equivalent one in the Hebrew alphabet. It works like this: The last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is substituted by the first; the penultimate is substituted by the second, and so on. If this were done in English, the letter, Z would be represented by the letter A. The letter Y would be substituted by the letter B. If one takes the consonants of the name Sheshach (š-š-k) and uses the code described here, one ends up with b-b-l. The combination of these three consonants yields the name Babylon.

^25:1 The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. ² So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: ³ For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of Yahweh has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

⁴ And though Yahweh has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. ⁵ They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land Yahweh gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever. ⁶ Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

⁷ “But you did not listen to me,” declares Yahweh, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”

⁸ Therefore Yahweh Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹ I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares Yahweh, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. ¹⁰ I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹² “But when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation, the land of the Babylonians, for their guilt,” declares Yahweh, “and will make it desolate forever. ¹³ I will bring on that land all the things I have spoken against it, all that are written in this book and prophesied by Jeremiah against all the nations. ¹⁴ They themselves will be enslaved by many nations and great kings; I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.”

Jeremiah (and other prophets, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk) has been prophesying for 23 years, telling Israel to repent of her injustice and idolatry, but she hasn’t listened, so God has determined to punish her with invasion and deportation from the land. He will use Babylon to invade and take away the sounds of normal life, not only for Judah, but for all the surrounding nations. But servitude to Babylon will only last 70 years and then Yahweh will punish Babylon also.

¹⁵ This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”

¹⁷ So I took the cup from Yahweh’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn, a curse—as they are today; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people, ²⁰ and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod); ²¹ Edom, Moab and Ammon; ²² all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; ²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who are in distant places; ²⁴ all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who live in the wilderness; ²⁵ all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media; ²⁶ and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshak will drink it too.

²⁷ “Then tell them, ‘This is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk and vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword I will send among you.’ ²⁸ But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, tell them, ‘This is what Yahweh Almighty says: You must drink it! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears my Name, and will you indeed go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword on all who live on the earth, declares Yahweh Almighty.’

³⁰ “Now prophesy all these words against them and say to them: “‘Yahweh will roar from on high; he will thunder from his holy dwelling and roar mightily against his land. He will shout like those who tread the grapes, shout against all who live on the earth. ³¹ The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for Yahweh will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,’” declares Yahweh.

³² This is what Yahweh Almighty says: “Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.” ³³ At that time those slain by Yahweh will be everywhere—from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground.

³⁴ Weep and wail, you shepherds; roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock. For your time to be slaughtered has come; you will fall like the best of the rams. ³⁵ The shepherds will have nowhere to flee, the leaders of the flock no place to escape. ³⁶ Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wailing of the leaders of the flock, for Yahweh is destroying their pasture. ³⁷ The peaceful meadows will be laid waste because of the fierce anger of Yahweh. ³⁸ Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate because of the sword of the oppressor and because of Yahweh’s fierce anger. (Jeremiah 25)

Yahweh is going to punish all the nations using Babylon, who will be a conquering superpower. Jeremiah is to offer the cup of the wine of God’s wrath to all nations in his prophesying. If He did not spare Israel, why would He spare the other nations. Leaders are especially singled out as deserving of punishment. But finally, after using Babylon to carry out His judgment, Yahweh will punish Babylon. The length of her empire will only be 70 years.

“Defenders of the precise period of seventy years,” for Jeremiah’s prophecy of Israel’s duration in Babylonian servitude, of which I am one, “offer a choice between 605 B.C. (or 606) and 536 B.C., when resettlement took place under Zerubbabel and Joshua; or 586 B.C., the beginning of the Babylonian captivity, and 516 B.C., the year of the completion of Zerubbabel’s temple. The former appears more tenable in view of the period of the three deportations, dating from Jehoiakim’s reign to Jehoiachin’s to Zedekiah’s.” (Expositor’s Commentary). Though the time of servitude to Babylon is the same for all the nations God is punishing, only Israel is promised that she will be returned to her land after 70 years. Only she has a covenant with Yahweh that cannot be abridged.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Why is God punishing all the other nations in addition to Judah? What is their sin?
2. Habakkuk, the prophet, is stunned that God is going to use Babylon, a nation more sinful than Judah, to carry out His judgment. Is God being unfair?
3. What could prompt Jeremiah to refer to Babylon as Sheshak?
4. If God does not spare His covenant people from judgment, why would he spare us?