Jeremiah 25

The Cup of His Fury

After twenty-three years of unheeded warning, Jeremiah names Babylon as the Lord's instrument, sets the limit of its rule at seventy years, and hands a cup of judgment to every nation, beginning with Jerusalem.

The fourth year of Jehoiakim, which is also Nebuchadrezzar's first year (verse 1); about 605 B.C. by the date the Church's manual gives for Babylon's victory at Carchemish Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Jeremiah 25 is dated by two kings at once: “the fourth year of Jehoiakim” of Judah, “that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon” (verse 1).

Jeremiah 25 is dated by two kings at once: “the fourth year of Jehoiakim” of Judah, “that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon” (verse 1). Babylon's defeat of Egypt at Carchemish is dated to 605 B.C., and from then on Judah “became a vassal of the new conquerors.” Judah's rulers had looked to Egypt for protection against Babylon, and that protection had failed.

The book is not in order of time: chapter 25 discusses Jehoiakim's fourth year, and chapter 26 then goes back to the beginning of his reign. The Bible Dictionary's outline puts chapters 21–23 together as prophecies about “pastors or rulers of the people” and 26–29 as a later group, and lists chapter 25 in neither.

The chapter moves in three steps. Jeremiah looks back over twenty-three years of unheeded preaching (verses 1–7). He then names Babylon as the instrument of judgment and sets seventy years as the length of its rule (verses 8–14). Last, the horizon widens from Judah to every nation, which must drink “the wine cup of this fury” (verses 15–38). The Church's chapter heading sums it up: “Captive Judah will serve Babylon for seventy years—Various nations will be overthrown—In the last days, all the inhabitants of the earth will be at war.”

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 25 answers a question that the earlier chapters leave open: what happens to a people that has been warned for a generation and has not listened?

Jeremiah 25 answers a question that the earlier chapters leave open: what happens to a people that has been warned for a generation and has not listened? The answer has a shape. The warnings were persistent (“rising early,” verses 3–4); the judgment, when it comes, is carried out by a foreign king whom the Lord calls “my servant” (verse 9); and the judgment has limits, since the servant's rule lasts seventy years and the servant is then judged himself (verses 11–12).

The chapter then widens. The cup of the Lord's fury goes to “all the nations” (verse 15), but the list begins with “Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah” (verse 18), and the Lord says outright, “I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name” (verse 29). Judgment starts at the people who bear His name and then reaches the whole earth, and the Church reads the last verses as pointing past Babylon to the latter days. The chapter's own heading says so: “In the last days, all the inhabitants of the earth will be at war.”

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–7

Twenty-three years of warning

In plain words

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar, this word came to Jeremiah for all the people of Judah and Jerusalem. For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah until now, Jeremiah has spoken to them, rising early to speak, and they have not listened. The Lord also sent all His servants the prophets, early and often, and they have not listened either. The message was always the same: turn from your evil ways and stay in the land the Lord gave you and your fathers for ever; do not follow other gods or provoke me with the work of your hands, and I will not harm you. But you did not listen, so you brought harm on yourselves.

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, that was the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon;

Context #

The year Babylon rose

The year in verse 1 is the year Babylon became Judah's master. Babylon “defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C.

The year in verse 1 is the year Babylon became Judah's master. Babylon “defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish in 605 B.C. Judah became a vassal of the new conquerors.” Jeremiah himself dates that battle to Jehoiakim's fourth year: Pharaoh Necho's army was beaten by “Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon” (Jer. 46:2). The king's name is spelled both ways (Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar), and his reign is dated 604–561 B.C., a year later than the date given for Carchemish; the verse itself says only that this was his first year.

The date matters because of whom Judah had been trusting. The “political rulers looked to Egypt for protection and power against Babylon's growing influence, even though Jeremiah had again and again warned Judah not to trust in Egypt.” In 605 that hope ended.

Sources: Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). “Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 The which Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the LORD hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.

Language #

Rising early

“Rising early” is an idiom of eagerness and persistence, not a time of day.

“Rising early” is an idiom of eagerness and persistence, not a time of day. The Hebrew verb means to start early, and the lexicon explains it as properly to “load backs of beasts for day's journey,” that is, to get going at dawn. In Jeremiah it is used “especially of” the Lord: “speaking early and often” and “sending early and often.” Here it is said of Jeremiah himself (verse 3) and then of the Lord's sending of “all his servants the prophets” (verse 4); the same phrase recurs in Jer. 26:5.

So the “three and twentieth year” is a charge of persistent warning, not of a single sermon. The Church edition's footnote sends the reader from verse 3 to Jer. 36:2, where the Lord tells Jeremiah to write down “all the words that I have spoken unto thee… from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.” The first hearers of this chapter had been told, again and again, for most of a generation.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear.

Related Scriptures #

Lehi among the prophets

“All his servants the prophets” was a larger company than the Bible names, and the Book of Mormon puts Lehi in it.

“All his servants the prophets” was a larger company than the Bible names, and the Book of Mormon puts Lehi in it. Jeremiah prophesied “with certainty that Babylon would conquer Judah because they rejected the words of Jeremiah and other prophets (such as Lehi).” Nephi describes the same crowded scene, “many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed” (1 Ne. 1:4). Besides the prophets the Bible names, “other unnamed prophets may have been active during this time as well,” and this verse is one of the passages that suggest it.

The response was not neutral. The Church edition's footnote to verse 4 links Jer. 26:5, where the Lord repeats the charge, and 1 Ne. 1:19, where “the Jews did mock” Lehi for what he testified of them. Jeremiah 26 also tells of Urijah, “a prophet named Urijah who was killed for delivering a similar prophecy,” which helps explain why the judgment in chapter 25 is so certain.

Sources: Jeremiah 25–26: Rejecting Prophets Leads to Captivity, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide. Scripture Central, “Who Were the “Many Prophets” in Jerusalem During Lehi’s Time?”, KnoWhy #441. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever:

6 And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt.

7 Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

Verses 8–14

Babylon and the seventy years

In plain words

Because you have not heard my words, says the Lord of hosts, I will send for all the families of the north and for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and bring them against this land, its people, and the nations around, and devastate them so that people stare and hiss at the ruins. I will silence the sound of the wedding, the millstones, and the lamp. All this land will be a ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years. When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation and make the land of the Chaldeans a permanent ruin. I will bring on it everything I have said, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. Many nations and great kings will make slaves of the Babylonians in turn, and I will repay them for what they have done.

8 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,

9 Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Context #

Nebuchadrezzar, my servant

The Lord calls Babylon's king “my servant” because he carries out the Lord's word against Judah, not because he worships the Lord.

The Lord calls Babylon's king “my servant” because he carries out the Lord's word against Judah, not because he worships the Lord. The Church edition's footnotes link the title to Jer. 43:10, and it also appears in Jer. 27:6. The historical books describe the same arrangement. When Jehoiakim's trouble began, “the Lord sent against him bands of the Chaldees… to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by his servants the prophets” (2 Kgs. 24:2).

Isaiah had said the same of Assyria: “the rod of mine anger” (Isa. 10:5). A servant of this kind is used and then held accountable (see verse 12).

Brenton's English of the Septuagint reads “a family from the north” here and does not name Nebuchadrezzar. One reading holds that the Greek's silence is no reason to treat the words as a later addition, and that the Hebrew's change of construction (a second “send” is implied before his name) gives Nebuchadrezzar special prominence. The Hebrew text is what the KJV translates.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

10 Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.

Imagery #

The sounds that stop

The verse lists the ordinary sounds and lights of a town and says that all of them will cease: a wedding, the millstones, a lamp.

The verse lists the ordinary sounds and lights of a town and says that all of them will cease: a wedding, the millstones, a lamp. Jeremiah had said the same of Jerusalem earlier, “the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride” (Jer. 7:34), and the Church edition links this verse to that one and to Jer. 16:9.

The same list returns in Revelation, turned on the great city Babylon: “the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee” (Rev. 18:22–23). Jeremiah's desolation of Judah and John's desolation of Babylon use the same inventory of everyday life.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Context #

Seventy years

The seventy years are a time of service to Babylon for “these nations,” not only Judah, and Jeremiah repeats the number in his letter to the exiles: “after seventy years be…

The seventy years are a time of service to Babylon for “these nations,” not only Judah, and Jeremiah repeats the number in his letter to the exiles: “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10; the Church edition's footnote also links Jer. 28:14). Later scripture treats the number as a promise that was kept. The chronicler says the exile lasted “to fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah… threescore and ten years,” and that in the first year of Cyrus “the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished” (2 Chr. 36:21–22). Daniel “understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet” (Dan. 9:2).

The Church's sources measure the seventy years in two ways. Read with verse 12, they are the span of Babylon's rule: “Judah would serve Babylon for seventy years, at which time another kingdom would conquer Babylon.” Measured by the temple, the second temple “was completed in 516 B.C., exactly seventy years after the temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.” Both treat the number as a span fulfilled in history. The verse fixes the length and names the ruler, but it gives no start date.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jeremiah 25–26: Rejecting Prophets Leads to Captivity, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide. Chapter 29: The Exiles Return (Ezra), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

12 And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations.

Related Scriptures #

The instrument is judged in turn

The king who is “my servant” in verse 9 is himself called to account in verse 12, once the seventy years are complete.

The king who is “my servant” in verse 9 is himself called to account in verse 12, once the seventy years are complete. The Church edition links the verse to Dan. 5:26, where Daniel reads the writing on Belshazzar's wall: “God hath numbered thy kingdom… Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians,” and “In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain” (Dan. 5:26–30). The pattern is that Judah serves Babylon for seventy years, “at which time another kingdom would conquer Babylon.”

Isaiah gives the principle behind it. The Lord will use Assyria against Jerusalem, and when He has “performed his whole work upon mount Zion and on Jerusalem,” He will “punish the fruit of the stout heart of the king of Assyria” (Isa. 10:12). Being used by God to punish others does not excuse the instrument. See Isa. 10:5.

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.

Context #

All that is written in this book

“This book” may be the scroll of Jer. 36, which was commissioned in the same year.

“This book” may be the scroll of Jer. 36, which was commissioned in the same year. In Jehoiakim's fourth year the Lord told Jeremiah to “write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations” (Jer. 36:1–2), which matches this verse's “which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations.” The text does not say the two are the same; the shared date and wording make it a plausible reading. Jehoiakim later cut that scroll up and burned it (Jer. 36:23).

In the Hebrew Bible the prophecies against foreign nations are gathered in chapters 46–51, and chapter 46 opens “against the Gentiles” (Jer. 46:1). The Greek of the Septuagint is arranged differently. In Brenton's English, verse 13 ends at “all things that are written in this book,” without the words about Jeremiah prophesying against the nations, verse 14 is absent, and the passage on the cup is numbered as chapter 32. The Hebrew order is the one the KJV follows.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.

14 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.

Verses 15–29

The cup for the nations

In plain words

The Lord God of Israel said to me, Take from my hand this cup of the wine of my fury and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword I am sending among them. So I took the cup and made all those nations drink: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with their kings and princes, to make them a ruin and a curse, as they are today; Pharaoh king of Egypt and his officials and all his people; the mixed peoples, and the kings of Uz, of the Philistine cities, of Edom, Moab, and Ammon, of Tyre and Sidon and the coastlands; Dedan, Tema, Buz, the kings of Arabia, of Zimri, Elam, and Media, all the kings of the north, near and far, and all the kingdoms on the earth. And the king of Sheshach will drink after them. Tell them: Drink, get drunk, and fall, to rise no more, because of the sword I am sending among you. If they refuse to take the cup from your hand, tell them: You will certainly drink. I am beginning to bring harm on the city that bears my name; should you go unpunished? You will not. I am calling down a sword on everyone who lives on the earth.

15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.

Imagery #

The wine cup of this fury

A cup of wine that makes nations stagger and fall is the chapter's picture of divine judgment.

A cup of wine that makes nations stagger and fall is the chapter's picture of divine judgment. The Church edition's footnote lists other places where the figure appears: Jerusalem has “drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury” (Isa. 51:17), and “the cup also shall pass through unto” Edom (Lam. 4:21). The footnote adds King Benjamin's address (“they have drunk out of the cup of the wrath of God,” Mosiah 3:26) and a revelation of the latter days (“the cup of mine indignation is full,” D&C 29:17).

The Isaiah chapter shows how the cup moves. The Lord takes it out of Jerusalem's hand and puts it “into the hand of them that afflict thee” (Isa. 51:22–23). Jeremiah 25 describes the same movement from the other side: “Beginning in Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, the bitter cup will be drunk by Egypt, the nations of the west and east, and Babylonia.”

Jeremiah probably did not carry a literal cup from nation to nation. One reading holds that “the cup is no material cup, and the drinking of it no act of the outer, physical reality”: Jeremiah gave it to the nations by announcing the Lord's decree in Jerusalem. The chapter itself describes no journey, only “Then took I the cup… and made all the nations to drink” (verse 17).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.

17 Then took I the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:

18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;

Context #

Judah first, Babylon last

The list of nations opens with Jerusalem and Judah and ends with Babylon.

The list of nations opens with Jerusalem and Judah and ends with Babylon. “The enumeration begins with Judah… on which first judgment is to come,” then goes through Egypt and Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, the desert tribes, Elam and Media, “all the kings of the north,” and “last of all the king of Babylon.” The Church's own summary keeps that order: Jerusalem and Judah, Egypt, “the nations of the west and east, and Babylonia.”

The footnote to “nations” in verse 15 sends the reader back to the call: “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jer. 1:5), and ahead to Jer. 46:1. The cup in this chapter is how that commission is carried out.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;

20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,

21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon,

22 And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea,

23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,

24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert,

25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes,

26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

Language #

The king of Sheshach

“Sheshach” is Babylon written in a simple cipher. Jer. 51:41 gives it away by pairing the names: “How is Sheshach taken!… how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!”

“Sheshach” is Babylon written in a simple cipher. Jer. 51:41 gives it away by pairing the names: “How is Sheshach taken!… how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations!” The cipher is called atbash, in which letters are exchanged in reverse alphabetical order (the last letter for the first, the next-to-last for the second, and so on); applied to Babylon's name in Hebrew, it produces Sheshach. One reading takes the word to suggest “a sinking down,” which would make Jer. 51:64 a commentary on it: “Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise.”

The Septuagint lacks the clause. In the Hebrew, “shall drink after them” sets Babylon apart from the others: it drinks last.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

27 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.

28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.

Witness of Christ #

The cup no one can refuse

The cup of judgment in this chapter is a cup the nations cannot decline, and the Lord uses the same image of Himself.

The cup of judgment in this chapter is a cup the nations cannot decline, and the Lord uses the same image of Himself. In a revelation to Joseph Smith, the Savior says He has “suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I,” and adds, “would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink” (D&C 19:16–18). The cup of indignation is full for those who “will not repent… my blood shall not cleanse them if they hear me not” (D&C 29:17).

Jeremiah's cup is judgment on the nations, not a prophecy of the Atonement, and the passage does not speak of Christ. The connection is the image the Lord Himself uses: the cup of wrath that nations must drink if they refuse to repent is the cup the Savior drank so that they need not. In Isaiah's version the Lord takes the cup from Jerusalem's hand and promises, “thou shalt no more drink it again” (Isa. 51:22).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.

Latter-day Prophets #

Beginning at the city called by my name

Judgment begins with those who bear the Lord's name, and a modern revelation says the same of the Lord's house.

Judgment begins with those who bear the Lord's name, and a modern revelation says the same of the Lord's house. In 1837 the Lord told Thomas B. Marsh that vengeance “shall come upon all the face of the earth,” and that “upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth,” first “among those among you… who have professed to know my name and have not known me” (D&C 112:24–26). The revelation does not quote Jeremiah, but the order is the same: the Lord's own people first, then all the nations.

The warning is not only for the Saints of 1837: it “also had reference to future members of the Church.” Brigham Young warned that if the Saints do not “begin to reform and do the work the Father has given them to do, they will be found wanting.” Joseph Fielding Smith said that if members do not keep the commandments, “we, like the rest of the world, shall suffer His wrath in justice.” Wilford Woodruff said that “the Lord will plead with her strong ones, and if she sins He will chastise her until she is purified before the Lord.”

Other scripture holds the same pattern. Peter writes that “judgment must begin at the house of God” (1 Pet. 4:17), and the Church edition's footnote to this verse sends the reader to Ezekiel's vision, where the order is “begin at my sanctuary” (Ezek. 9:6). In Jeremiah's day the city was Jerusalem, and its fall opened the cup's journey.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Section 112, The Word of the Lord to the Twelve, Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual.

Verses 30–38

The Lord roars; the shepherds howl

In plain words

Prophesy all this to them: the Lord will roar from on high and shout like men treading grapes against everyone on the earth. The noise will reach the ends of the earth, because the Lord has a case against the nations. He will bring all people to judgment, and the wicked He will give to the sword. Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a great storm is rising from the farthest parts of the earth. Those the Lord has slain will lie from one end of the earth to the other, unmourned and unburied, like dung on the ground. Howl, you shepherds, and roll in the ashes, you leaders of the flock, for the days of your slaughter have come, and you will fall like a fine vessel. The shepherds will have nowhere to flee. Listen to their cry: the Lord is destroying their pasture. Peaceful meadows are silenced by the Lord's fierce anger. Like a lion he has left his lair, and the land is desolate.

30 Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

31 A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the LORD.

Latter-day Prophets #

A controversy with the nations

The last half of the chapter reaches beyond Babylon's day to the last days.

The last half of the chapter reaches beyond Babylon's day to the last days. The Church's chapter heading says so (“In the last days, all the inhabitants of the earth will be at war”), and “the last part of chapter 25 prophetically leaps forward into the future to the time of the battle of Armageddon,” showing Judah “that the wicked nations will not escape the Lord's judgment.” Elder Joseph Fielding Smith “specifically tied the Lord's controversy with the nations to the last days,” and “the language of Jeremiah 25:32–33 is similar to other scriptures about Armageddon.”

The wording links to Isaiah: “by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh: and the slain of the Lord shall be many” (Isa. 66:16), a verse the Church edition lists in its footnotes to verses 31 and 33. Jeremiah is among the prophets, “ancient and modern,” who have spoken at length of the final war that will usher in the Millennium.

This reading adds to the first half of the chapter, which is about Babylon: the judgment in Nebuchadrezzar's time comes first, and the closing verses point to a larger one.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Enrichment I: The Battle of Armageddon: A Prophetic View, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

32 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth.

33 And the slain of the LORD shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.

34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves in the ashes, ye principal of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are accomplished; and ye shall fall like a pleasant vessel.

Context #

Howl, ye shepherds

The “shepherds” and “the principal of the flock” are the leaders, and they are named among those who cannot escape.

The “shepherds” and “the principal of the flock” are the leaders, and they are named among those who cannot escape. Chapters 21–23 are “on pastors or rulers of the people,” and the Church edition's footnote sends verse 34 to the Lord's earlier charge: “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” (Jer. 23:1). The kings and princes of Judah were first on the list of the cup's drinkers in verse 18, and here the leaders' cry (verses 34–36) closes the chapter.

The reason is in verse 36: the Lord “hath spoiled their pasture.” Shepherds who scatter the flock lose the pasture they were meant to keep.

Sources: “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.

36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and an howling of the principal of the flock, shall be heard: for the LORD hath spoiled their pasture.

37 And the peaceable habitations are cut down because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

38 He hath forsaken his covert, as the lion: for their land is desolate because of the fierceness of the oppressor, and because of his fierce anger.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 25

This chapter does not prophesy of Christ, but it gives the background for the cup He drank. Jeremiah hands a cup of wrath to every nation, and each must drink it: “Ye shall certainly drink” (verse 28). In a revelation to Joseph Smith the Savior says He drank that cup so that others need not: “I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent; But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I” (D&C 19:16–17). Isaiah shows the other half: the Lord takes the cup of staggering out of Jerusalem's hand (Isa. 51:22). Jeremiah's word to the nations shows why that offer matters.

Worth exploring next

The same year. Read Jer. 36 for the scroll written in Jehoiakim's fourth year, and Jer. 26 for the temple sermon from the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign.
The seventy years kept. Read Jer. 29:1–14, 2 Chr. 36:17–23, and Dan. 9:1–3.
The cup. Read Isa. 51:17–23 (on the site: Isa. 51) and D&C 19:15–19.
Judgment at the house of the Lord. Read D&C 112:24–30 and Ezek. 9:1–6.
The nations. Read Jer. 46 and Jer. 50–51, where the oracles named here are given in full.
Lehi's Jerusalem. Read 1 Ne. 1:1–20 beside this chapter's “all his servants the prophets.”

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

1 Ne. 1:4 — Nephi's “many prophets, prophesying unto the people that they must repent” in Jerusalem is the same crowded scene as verse 4.
D&C 112:24–26 — The Lord tells Thomas B. Marsh that the Lord's own house is where judgment begins, as in verse 29.
D&C 19:16–18 — The Savior speaks of the bitter cup, the image of verses 15–28.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Enrichment G: Babylonia and the Conquest of Judah, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 29: The Exiles Return (Ezra), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Enrichment I: The Battle of Armageddon: A Prophetic View, Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadrezzar”, Bible Dictionary.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
Jeremiah 25–26: Rejecting Prophets Leads to Captivity, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide.
Scripture Central, “Who Were the “Many Prophets” in Jerusalem During Lehi’s Time?”, KnoWhy #441.
Section 112, The Word of the Lord to the Twelve, Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual.

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