Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;
Parallel Translations
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Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today;
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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;
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Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them an appalment, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day;
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 25:18 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Psalms 60:3 You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
- Jeremiah 24:9 I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I will drive them.
- Jeremiah 44:22 Thus Yahweh could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today.
- Joshua 6:18 But as for you, only keep yourselves from what is devoted to destruction, lest when you have devoted it, you take of the devoted thing; so you would make the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it.
- 1 Kings 8:24 who has kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is today.
- 2 Kings 22:19 because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh, when you heard what I spoke against this place, and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and have torn your clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard you,’ says Yahweh.
- Ezra 9:7 Since the days of our fathers we have been exceedingly guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
- Nehemiah 9:36 “Behold, we are servants today, and as for the land that you gave to our fathers to eat its fruit and its good, behold, we are servants in it.
- Isaiah 51:17-22 Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. There is no one to guide her among all the sons to whom she has given birth; and there is no one who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. These two things have happened to you— who will grieve with you?— desolation and destruction, and famine and the sword. How can I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie at the head of all the streets, like an antelope in a net. They are full of Yahweh’s wrath, the rebuke of your God. Therefore now hear this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more.
- Jeremiah 1:10 Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
- Jeremiah 19:3-9 Say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle. Because they have forsaken me, and have defiled this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods that they didn’t know, they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I didn’t command, nor speak, which didn’t even enter into my mind. Therefore, behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that this place will no more be called ‘Topheth’, nor ‘The Valley of the son of Hinnom’, but ‘The valley of Slaughter’. “ ‘ “I will make the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem void in this place. I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies to be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth. I will make this city an astonishment and a hissing. Everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.” ’
- Jeremiah 21:6-10 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal. They will die of a great pestilence. Afterward,” says Yahweh, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. He will strike them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them, have pity, or have mercy.” ’ “You shall say to this people, ‘Yahweh says: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he who goes out and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he will live, and he will escape with his life. For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good,” says Yahweh. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.” ’
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Jeremiah 25:11 This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
- Ezekiel 9:5-8 To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house. He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city. While they were killing, and I was left, I fell on my face, and cried, and said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?”
- Daniel 9:12 He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as has been done to Jerusalem.
- Amos 2:5 but I will send a fire on Judah, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”
- Amos 3:2 “I have only chosen you of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”
- 1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He begins with Jerusalem, as it is said elsewhere…
He begins with Jerusalem, as it is said elsewhere that judgment would begin at God’s house. (1 Peter 4:17.) And there is nothing opposed to this in the context of the passage; for though he had promised to the children of God a happy end to the evils which they were shortly to endure, he nevertheless enumerates here all the nations on whom God had bidden him to denounce judgments. In this catalogue the Church obtains the first place; for though God be the judge of the whole world, he yet justly begins with his own Church, and that especially for two reasons — for as the father of a family watches over his children and servants, and if there be anything wrong, his solicitude is particularly manifested; so God, as he dwells in his Church, cannot do otherwise than chastise it for its faults; — and then, we know that they are less excusable, who, having been taught the will of God, do yet go on indulging their own lusts, (Luke 12:47;) for they cannot plead ignorance. Hence is fulfilled what Christ declares, that those servants shall be more grievously beaten, who, knowing their masters will, yet obstinately disregard it. There is, then, a twofold fault in the members of the Church; and no comparison can be made between them and the unbelieving who are in thick darkness. Since God shines in his Church and shews the way, as Moses says,
“Behold I set before you the way of life and of death; I therefore call heaven and earth to witness that there is no excuse for you. (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19.)
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This, then, is the second reason why God first visits the sins of the faithful, or of those who are counted faithful.
There is also what appertains to an example: God chastises his own children lest he should seem by his indulgence to favor or countenance what is wicked and sinful. But this third reason is in a manner accidental; and therefore I wished to state it apart from the two other reasons. When, therefore, God so severely treats his own Church, the unbelieving ought to draw this conclusion, that if this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? (Luke 23:31.)
But the two things which I have before mentioned ought to be deemed by us as sufficient reasons why God, while suspending his vengeance as to the reprobate, punishes the elect as well as all those who profess themselves to be members of his Church. We now understand why Jeremiah mentions first the holy city, and then all the cities of Judah, the kings also and the princes; for God had with open bosom invited them to himself, but they had, as it were, from determined wickedness, provoked his wrath by despising both his Law and his Prophets.
He afterwards adds, to make them a waste, or a solitude. This was a grievous denunciation, no doubt, and we shall hereafter see that most became enraged against the holy man, and in their fury endeavored to destroy him; yet he with all intrepid mind fully declared what God had commanded him. He adds, an astonishment, and in the third place, an hissing, even that they would become detestable to all; for hissing intimates contempt, reproach, and detestation. In the fourth place he mentions a curse. We have already said what the Prophet meant by this word, even that the Jews would become in this respect a proverb, so that when one cursed another, he would use this form, “May God destroy thee as he destroyed the Jews.”
It is then added, as at this day The Prophet refers, no doubt, to the time of the city’s destruction. God had indeed even then begun to consume the people; but we shall hereafter see that the minds of the greater part were still very haughty: so that they often raised their crests and looked for a new state of things, and depended on aid from the Egyptians. But the Prophet here mentions what was not yet completed, and as it were by the finger, points out the day as having already come in which the city was to be destroyed and the temple burnt up. This, then, refers to the certainty of what he predicted. Some think that it was written after Jeremiah had been led into exile; but this conjecture has nothing to support it. It seems to me enough to suppose that his object was to rouse the Jews from their security, and to shew that in a short time all that he predicted would be accomplished, and that they were no more to doubt of this than if the calamity was now before their eyes. It follows, —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For now it beginneth and shall so continue till…
For now it beginneth and shall so continue till it be accomplished.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 25:18 [To wit], Jerusalem, and the cities of…
Jer 25:18 [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;
Ver. 18. To wit, in Jerusalem.] Judgment beginneth at God’s house {1Pe 4:17} {See Trapp on "1Pe 4:17"} {See Trapp on "Mat 25:41"} Sed si in Hierosolymis maneat scrutinium, quid fiet in Babylone? saith an ancient.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Judgment usually beginneth at the house of God, 1Pe…
Judgment usually beginneth at the house of God, 1Pe 4:17. God hath more known them and done them more good than other people, therefore their sins are higher provocations, and they are less excusable. By the kings here mentioned are to be understood Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah; these princes with their people God threatens to punish to astonishment, and so as men should mock at them, and curse them; which expressions we have before met with in the same cause. But here ariseth a doubt how the prophet saith,
as it is this day, whereas this prophecy, Jer 25:1, was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, but Jerusalem was not made such a desolation till the eleventh year of Zedekiah, which was eighteen years after. Some think that though the thing were yet to come, yet the prophet speaketh of it as past, because of the certainty of it, which is but what is ordinary in the prophetical writings. Others think that these words were added after the captivity of Jeremiah, writing over his former prophecies. Others from these words judge that this part of the chapter was a prophecy at some other time following what was in the beginning of this chapter. Others think that he adds these words because the carrying into captivity was at this time begun, though not completed until the eleventh year of Zedekiah.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah,.... Which…
To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah,.... Which are mentioned first, because God's judgments began with them, as they usually do with the house of God, Pe1 4:17; and even now began; for this very year, in which this prophecy was delivered, Nebuchadnezzar came up and besieged Jerusalem, and carried away some captives, Dan 1:1; this was the beginning of what afterwards were more fully executed:
and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof: the Kings Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah, with those of their families, the princes of the blood, and their nobles:
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to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; to strip them of their crowns and kingdom, of their wealth, and riches, and honour, and bring them into slavery and bondage; so that they became an astonishment to some, to see the change that was made in them; and were hissed stand cursed by others:
(as it is this day); which is added, either because of the certainty of it, or because it began to take, place this very year; though more fully in Jeconiah's time, and still more in Zedekiah's; or rather this clause might be added by Jeremiah after the captivity; or by Baruch, or by Ezra, or whoever collected his prophecies, and put them into one volume, as Jer 52:1 seems to be added by another hand.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 25:18-21. To wit, Jerusalem and the cities thereof…
Jer 25:18-21. To wit, Jerusalem and the cities thereof — The Jews are mentioned first, because Jeremiah, as well as the rest of the prophets, was in the first place sent to them, and they were to have the greatest share in the judgments denounced. As it is this day — This clause speaks of the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem; when all that Jeremiah had foretold against them was fulfilled; and therefore must have been added either by Baruch, his amanuensis, or else by Ezra: or whoever it was that collected Jeremiah’s prophecies into one volume, who, it is likely, added the fifty- second chapter. Pharaoh king of Egypt — Whose army Nebuchadnezzar overcame before he took Jerusalem. And all the mingled people — Or, intermingled, as Blaney translates הערב, joining the expression with the preceding verse, and understanding thereby all the foreigners resident in Egypt, who had, by intermarriages, formed connections with the Egyptians. St. Jerome takes the word in the same sense. Our translators, however, seem to have understood by it a mixture of several nations, dwelling either upon the coasts of the Mediterranean, or of the Red sea. And all the kings of the land of Uz — This was the country of Job; but concerning its situation different opinions are entertained. It was most probably on the confines of Idumea, if not a part of it. The daughter of Edom is said to dwell in the land of Uz, Lam 4:21 : see note on Job 1:1. Those who were leaders, or governors of different tribes or families, seem to have had the name of kings: they are now called emirs. And all the kings of the Philistines — The princes of the different districts, or cities, into which Philistia was divided, namely, Ashkelon and Azzah, &c. And the remnant of Ashdod — Or Azotus, which had been very much ruined by two sieges in which it was taken, the one by Tartan, the Assyrian general, mentioned Isa 20:1; the other by Psammitichus, king of Egypt, who retook it after the longest siege that had even been known in those times: Herodot. lib. 2. c. 157. The prophecy respecting the Philistines is contained in chap. 47. Edom — Or rather, And Edom — As the LXX., Syr., and Vul. read, with seven MSS. For the prophecies concerning Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites, see chap. 48. and Jer 49:1-22.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain As it is this day - Words omitted by…
As it is this day - Words omitted by the Septuagint, and probably added by Jeremiah after the murder of Gedaliah had completed the ruin of the land.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain As, &c. He probably inserted this (Haydock) after the…
As, &c. He probably inserted this (Haydock) after the event, (Vatable) or the country was much distressed even under Sedecias.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Jerusalem--put first: for "judgment begins at the house of…
Jerusalem--put first: for "judgment begins at the house of God"; they being most guilty whose religious privileges are greatest (Pe1 4:17).
kings--Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah.
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as it is this day--The accomplishment of the curse had already begun under Jehoiakim. This clause, however, may have been inserted by Jeremiah at his final revision of his prophecies in Egypt.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 18. Jerusalem — Mentioned first, as being most important,…
18. Jerusalem — Mentioned first, as being most important, and perhaps, too, most guilty.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 18. The list which follows is one which has…
18. The list which follows is one which has evidently been expanded. The LXX omit “all the kings of the land of Uz” (Jer_25:20), “all the kings of Arabia” [or (see note there) “all the kings of the mingled people”] (Jer_25:24), and “all the kings of Zimri” (Jer_25:25). Gi. and Co. accordingly consider that this phrase marks additions throughout. It will also be observed that in Jer_25:20 Philistia is virtually enumerated (“Ashkelon, etc.”) twice. In Jer_25:18 Co. would omit all after “Judah,” and put Pharaoh at the head of the list to be displaced afterwards by a scribe jealous for the precedence of his country even in a list of this character!
We may perceive a certain system (south to north) in the enumeration. After Jerusalem and Judah the prophet takes in order the furthest south (Egypt), south-east (Uz), south-west (Philistines), east (Edom, etc.), west (Tyre, etc.), east and northwards (Dedan, etc. to the Medes), and finally the north far and near (Jer_25:26).
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kings] For the suspicious character of the use of the pl. see end of introd. note on Jer_19:3-9.
and a curse] not in LXX, and probably introduced here from Jer_24:9.
as it is this day] absent from LXX, and evidently added after b.c. 586 in the time of the exile.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (18) As it is this day.—The words are not…
(18) As it is this day.—The words are not in the LXX., and may probably have been added after the prediction had received its fulfilment in the final capture of Jerusalem and the desolation of the country. Here, as before in Jer_25:13, we trace the hand of a transcriber. It will be noted that the prophet begins with the judgment about to fall on his own people, and then passes on from “the house of God” (1Pe_4:17) to those that are without.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The kings thereof. (see on Jer_19:3) As it is…
The kings thereof. (see on Jer_19:3) As it is this day. As to the meaning of this phrase, see on Jer_11:5. The words evidently presuppose that the prediction has already been fulfilled; (Jer_44:6, Jer_44:23) consequently, they cannot have stood herein the original draft of the prophecy. An early editor, or even Jeremiah himself, must have inserted them. They are omitted in the Septuagint.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 25:18 Everyone drank from the cup, meaning that the…
25:18 Everyone drank from the cup, meaning that the leaders heard the words of judgment. • From that day until this: Jeremiah probably delivered the Lord’s messages at the time of the siege and fall of Jerusalem (588–586 BC).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.