Chapter 25 – FAMILIA MUNDIAL
1 [1-14] The fourth year of Jehoiakim: 605 B.C. Officially, the first year of Nebuchadnezzar began the following year; but as early as his victory over Egypt at Carchemish in 605, Nebuchadnezzar was the dominant power in the Near East, in whom Jeremiah now saw the fulfillment of his prophecy of the enemy to come from the north (cf ⇒ Jeremiah 1:13; ⇒ 6:22-24). In ⇒ Jeremiah 25:11-12 occurs for the first time the prophecy of the seventy years’ exile; cf ⇒ Jeremiah 29:8(10). This Jeremiah intends as a round number, to signify that the present generation must die out.
2 [15-17] Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations (cf ⇒ Jeremiah 1:5) as well as to his own people. All the nations mentioned here appear again in the more extensive collection of Jeremiah’s oracles against the nations in Jer 46-51.
3 [20] Uz: the homeland of Job, in Edomite or Arabian territory.
4 [22] The shores beyond the sea: Phoenician commercial colonies planted throughout the Mediterranean world.
5 [23] Dedan and Tema and Buz: North Arabian tribes.
6 [26] Sheshach: Babylon. The word is formed from babel by substituting letters of the Hebrew alphabet in inverse order.