Jeremiah 25:31-33

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Jeremiah 25:31 tn For the use of this word see Amos 2:2; Hos 10:14; Ps 74:23. See also the usage in Isa 66:6, which is very similar to the metaphorical usage here.
2. Jeremiah 25:31 tn Heb “the Lord has a lawsuit against the nations.” For usage with “lawsuit” see Hos 4:1 and Mic 6:2, and compare use of the related verb in Jer 2:9 and 12:1.
3. Jeremiah 25:31 tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”sn There is undoubtedly a deliberate allusion here to the “wars” (Heb “sword”) that the Lord had said he would send raging through the nations (vv. 16, 27), and to the “war” (Heb “sword”) that he is proclaiming against them (v. 29).
4. Jeremiah 25:31 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”
5. Jeremiah 25:32 tn Heb “will go forth from nation to nation.”
6. Jeremiah 25:32 tn The words “of military destruction” have been supplied in the translation to make the metaphor clear. The metaphor has shifted from that of God as a lion, to God as a warrior, to God as a judge, to God as the author of the storm winds of destruction. sn For the use of this word in a literal sense see Jonah 1:4. For its use to refer to the wrath of the Lord that will rage over the wicked, see Jer 23:19 and 30:23. Here it refers to the mighty Babylonian army that will come bringing destruction over all the known world. The same prophecy has just been given under the figure of the nations drinking the wine of God’s wrath (vv. 15-29).
7. Jeremiah 25:33 sn The intent here is to emphasize the large quantity of those who are killed—there will be too many to insure proper mourning rites and proper burial.