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Jeremiah 25:4

Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear),

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Yahweh has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them (but you have not listened or inclined your ear to hear),

  • KJV King James Version

    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.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    And the LORD hath sent unto you all His servants the prophets, sending them betimes and often — but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear —

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Cross-references (20)

Passages linked to Jeremiah 25:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Jeremiah 25:3 From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, Yahweh’s word has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.
  • Jeremiah 26:5 to listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, even rising up early and sending them, but you have not listened;
  • 2 Chronicles 36:15-16 Yahweh, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until Yahweh’s wrath arose against his people, until there was no remedy.
  • Jeremiah 7:24-26 But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.
  • Jeremiah 11:7-10 For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, “Obey my voice.” Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’ ” Yahweh said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
  • Jeremiah 13:10-11 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says Yahweh; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’
  • Jeremiah 16:12 You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.
  • Jeremiah 17:23 But they didn’t listen. They didn’t turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.
  • Jeremiah 18:12 But they say, ‘It is in vain; for we will walk after our own plans, and we will each follow the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”
  • Jeremiah 19:15 “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.’ ”
  • Jeremiah 22:21 I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you didn’t obey my voice.
  • Jeremiah 29:19 because they have not listened to my words,” says Yahweh, “with which I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but you would not hear,” says Yahweh.
  • Jeremiah 32:33 They have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. Although I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.
  • Jeremiah 35:14-15 “The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and to this day they drink none, for they obey their father’s commandment; but I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, and you have not listened to me. I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Every one of you must return now from his evil way, amend your doings, and don’t go after other gods to serve them, then you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers:’ but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me.
  • Jeremiah 36:31 I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but they didn’t listen.” ’ ”
  • Jeremiah 44:4-5 However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Oh, don’t do this abominable thing that I hate.” But they didn’t listen and didn’t incline their ear. They didn’t turn from their wickedness, to stop burning incense to other gods.
  • Zechariah 7:11-12 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law, and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies.
  • Acts 7:51-52 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
  • Hebrews 12:25 See that you don’t refuse him who speaks. For if they didn’t escape when they refused him who warned on the earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,
  • Jeremiah 25:7 “Yet you have not listened to me,” says Yahweh; “that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.”

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (11 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He then adds, I have spoken, and ye heard…

He then adds, I have spoken, and ye heard not He complains here that his work had been useless, and at the same time shews that the whole fault was in the people. He confirms the same thing in other words, Jehovah has sent to you all his servants the prophets, rising. up early, etc He enhances their sin, — that they had not only rejected one Prophet but even many; for God had not employed Jeremiah alone to teach them, but had joined others with him, so that they were less excusable. We hence see that their sin is in this verse exaggerated; for the Jews had not only despised God in the person of one man, but had also rejected all his servants. He might, indeed, have simply said, that God had sent his servants, but he adds the word prophets, in order that their ingratitude might appear more evident. It was, indeed, very wicked to neglect God’s servants; but as prophecy was an invaluable treasure, and a singular pledge and symbol of God’s favor, it was a double crime when they thus despised the prophets, whose very name ought to have been held sacred by them.

He afterwards applies to God what he had said of himself, rising up early It is certain that God does not rise up, as he sleeps not in the night; but the language is much more expressive and forcible, when God himself is said to rise up early. And it, was not without reason that the Prophet spoke so emphatically; for though the Jews were sufficiently convicted of ingratitude for having disregarded God’s servants, it was yet a monstrous impiety to shew no regard for God. But when the unbelieving are proved guilty, they ever fix their eyes on men, “He! it is with a mortal that I have to do; far be it from me ever to rise up against God; but why is this so much blamed, since I do not immediately perish? since I am not suddenly cast down at the nod of man? what! am I not free to inquire, and to discuss, and to examine every part of what is said? why do the prophets so imperiously treat us, that it is not lawful to doubt any of their words?” Thus, then, did the ungodly speak. But God on the other hand answered them and said, that he was despised, as also Christ said,

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“He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me.” (Luke 10:16)

So also the Prophet sets forth God himself as rising up early, exhorting the people and manifesting every care for their wellbeing. This, then, is the design of the metaphor, when he says, that God had sent to them and rose up early; he rose up early while sending his servants.

Now as God fulminates against all despisers of his doctrine, so from these words we may gather no small consolation; for we certainly conclude that God watches over our safety whenever sound and faithful teachers go forth: it is the same as though he himself descended from heaven, rose up early, and was intent in securing our salvation. This we learn from the very words of the Prophet, when he says, that God rose up early. But as this testimony of God’s favor and paternal care towards us is delightful, so to the same extent dreadful is the vengeance that awaits those who neglect this favor, who sleep when God is watching, who hear not when he is speaking, who continue in their sloth and torpor when God of his own accord meets them, and kindly and gently invites them to himself.

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.

John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 25:4 And the LORD hath sent unto you…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Nor am I the only prophet whom the Lord…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord hath sent unto you all his…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 25:4-7. And the Lord hath sent unto you…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain All. We know of Joel, Habacuc, Sophonias, and Holda.…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain rising early--(See on Jer 7:13). "The prophets" refer to…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain THE JUDGMENT ON JUDAH, Jer_25:4-11.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. The editor or copyist failed to perceive that…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 4, 5. (Comp. Jer_7:25 Jer_11:7 Jer_35:15) They said;…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 25:4 For many generations, God had sent prophets to…

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