Passage

Jeremiah 25.9

Book: Jeremiah · ASV

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"7. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith Jehovah; that ye may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt. 8. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts: Because ye have not heard my words,"

"9. behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith Jehovah, and I will send unto 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 I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations."

"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 lamp. 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jeremiah 25:7-11, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"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.” 8. Therefore Yahweh of Armies says: “Because you have not heard my words,"

"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."

"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 lamp. 11. This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jeremiah 25:7-11, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"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. 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."

"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. ^{I will: Heb. I will cause to perish from them} 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jeremiah 25:7-11, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"7. And ye have not hearkened unto Me, an affirmation of Jehovah, so as to provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands for evil to you. 8. 'Therefore thus said Jehovah of Hosts, Because that ye have not obeyed My words,"

"9. Lo, I am sending, and have taken all the families of the north, an affirmation of Jehovah, even unto Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and have brought them in against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and have devoted them, and appointed them for an astonishment, and for a hissing, and for wastes age-during."

"10. And I have destroyed from them the voice of rejoicing, and the voice of joy, voice of bridegroom and voice of bride, noise of millstones, and the light of lamps. 11. And all this land hath been for a waste, for an astonishment, and these nations have served the king of Babylon seventy years." (Jeremiah 25:7-11, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Jeremiah of Anathoth, transmitting YHWH's judgment
Audience: Judah and Jerusalem; the surrounding nations subject to Babylonian-judgment
Location: Jerusalem
Time period: "the fourth year of Jehoiakim" (Jer 25:1), 605 BC, the year of Nebuchadnezzar's accession and the Battle of Carchemish

Theological reading

The verse is the OT's most-explicit symmetrical-application of the [[H2763 - charam|charam]] against Judah itself, YHWH commissions Nebuchadnezzar (named here as YHWH's "servant" (ʿavdi)) to execute cherem-judgment on Judah and the surrounding nations. Three features are theologically-load-bearing. (1) Nebuchadnezzar-as-YHWH's-servant: the same title (ʿeved YHWH) used of Moses, Joshua, David, and the Suffering Servant is applied to the pagan-king as judicial-instrument of YHWH's charam-judgment on covenant-breach. The deployment shocks; it dramatizes YHWH's sovereignty over even pagan-imperial-power (compare Isa 10:5 on Assyria as YHWH's "rod of mine anger"; Isa 44:28; 45:1 on Cyrus as YHWH's "shepherd" and "anointed"). (2) Symmetrical-jurisprudence: the same charam-threshold that triggered conquest-judgment against Canaan now triggers exile-judgment against Judah. The framework is not Israelite-license-against-outgroup but covenantal-jurisprudence symmetrically-applied, the same God who delivered Canaan to Joshua delivers Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar when the iniquity-cup is full. (3) The named cause: v. 7-8's "because ye have not heard my words" names the cause as covenantal-disobedience to the prophetic-word, the [[H8085 - shama|shama]]-failure pattern. The verse pairs with Isa 43:28 ("I will make Jacob a curse"); Jer 50:21, 26; 51:3 (Babylon eventually receives the same charam-judgment for what it did to Judah); and Lam 2:5 ("YHWH has become like an enemy"). The eschatological-trajectory threads forward through Mal 4:6's closing-warning into the NT-anathema tradition.

Key words

H2763 - charam, ve-haḥaramtim, the charam execution-verb at the verse's center; the symmetrical-application of the conquest-mode against Judah itself.
H8085 - shama, the verb of v. 7-8's named-cause ("because ye have not heard").

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.