Jeremiah 25:30-38

D. Judgment on the World Jeremiah 25:30-38

TRANSLATION

(30) But as for you, prophesy unto them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD from on high will roar, and from His holy habitation He will give forth His voice; He will mightily roar against His pasture. He will give forth a shout like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise will come unto the ends of the earth, for the LORD has a controversy with the nations. He is about to judge all flesh; the wicked He shall give to the sword (oracle of the LORD). (32) Thus says the LORD of hosts: Disaster proceeds from nation to nation, and a tempest is being stirred up from the farthest bounds of the earth. (33) Those slain by the LORD in that day shall be from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented, gathered, or buried; they shall be dung on the face of the ground. (34) Howl, O shepherds! Cry out! Wallow, O lords of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and dispersions have been filled up, and you shall fall like a precious vessel. (35) Flight shall perish from the shepherds, and escape from the lords of the flock. (36) A sound! The cry of shepherds, the howl of the lords of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pastures. (37) The peaceful folds are brought to silence because of the fierce wrath of the LORD. (38) He has left His covert as the lion; for their land has become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of His fierce anger.

COMMENTS

Jeremiah 25:30-38 contain a poetic description of the world-wide judgment of the Lord. In the first two verses of this section the prophet presents four pictures of the Lord in the act of executing judgment upon the wicked. (1) Like a lion about to pounce upon the prey the God of holiness roars from His heavenly habitation against His pasture or sheepfold. The tender Shepherd of Israel has turned into a roaring lion because of the wickedness of His people. (2) As those who tread the grapes shout while they press the grapes, so the Lord will raise the victorious shout as the wicked of the earth fall beneath His feet. (3) As a prosecutor reads his indictment against the accused, so the Lord enters into a controversy i.e., a court case, with the nations of the world. (4) He not only prosecutes the nations but He also pronounces judgment against them. It is as righteous judge pronouncing sentence against the guilty that God decrees desolation and war for the whole earth. The noise in Jeremiah 25:31 refers to the tumult of warfare.

God will raise up against the nations of the world a tempest or whirlwind from the uttermost parts of the earth. In Jeremiah 6:22 the phrase uttermost part of the earth refers to the north country and therefore it is obvious that the prophet has in mind Babylon. This whirlwind of divine wrath will sweep from nation to nation (Jeremiah 25:32). Those slain by this agent of God will fill the earth. So many will die that customary funeral rites will have to be abandoned. Unburied and unlamented corpses will lie upon the face of the earth. (Jeremiah 25:33). Neither shepherds (rulers) nor lords of the flock (rich and influential people) will escape. Their days of slaughtering other nations, deporting and scattering captive peoples, are ended. The nations of the world in all their glory shall fall and be broken like a precious vessel which has fallen to the ground (Jeremiah 25:34). Sometimes high ranking officials escape the fate of the common people in times of warfare. But from the divine judgment coming upon the world there will be no escape for anyone (Jeremiah 25:35). The proud and pompous world leaders will howl in agony and cry out in distress as they see their pasture, the land which they rule, devastated (Jeremiah 25:36). The peaceful pastoral regions (peaceful folds) will be reduced to silence because neither man nor flock will be there any more. Their land has become an appalling waste because the lion, the Lord of hosts, has left His lair.[231] God has become a fierce destroyer to the peoples of the earth.

[231] An alternative interpretation: The Lord forsakes His desolate land just as a young lion forsakes his lair when it has been destroyed.