Jeremiah 25:30

Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) He shall mightily roar upon his habitation.—The use of the same English word for two Hebrew words of very different meaning is here singularly infelicitous. The first “habitation” is the dwelling-place of Jehovah, from which the thunders of His wrath are heard. The second is the “pasture” or dwelling-place of the flock and its shepherds, as in Jeremiah 6:2; Jeremiah 10:25; Psalm 79:7, upon whom the storm falls. Possibly, under its association with this new word, the roaring becomes to the prophet’s mind as that of the lion which attacks the flock. The same bold imagery for the Divine judgments meets us in Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2; Amos 3:8.

A shout, as they that tread the grapes.—The image is reproduced from Isaiah 63:3. The “shout” of those who tread the wine-press, crushing the grapes beneath their feet (Isaiah 16:10), is as the victorious war-cry of the Lord of Hosts, working through human conquerors, and crushing the nations of the earth in His avenging wrath.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 25:30-33. The Lord shall roar from on high — Shall manifest his anger from heaven. God speaks by his judgments, and those, when they are very terrible, may be fitly compared to the roaring of a lion, which strikes a consternation into those that hear it. He shall mightily roar upon his habitation — He shall pronounce and execute a terrible judgment upon his temple, the place on earth which he hath chosen for his residence: see 1 Kings 8:29. He shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes — That is, He shall utter his voice before his army, as Joel expresses it, Joel 2:11. Like a leader or general, he shall encourage them to give the onset upon their enemies, which is usually performed with a shout, as great as that which the treaders of grapes use at the time of the vintage. A noise shall come to the ends of the earth — The report of these calamities and confusions shall reach the most distant countries. For the Lord hath a controversy with the nations — God enters into judgment with men for their impieties, as being so many injuries to his honour, for which he demands satisfaction, Hosea 4:1; Micah 6:2. He will plead with all flesh — Namely, with fire and sword, as Isaiah expresses it, Isaiah 66:16. He will give the wicked to the sword — His quarrel with men is for their wickedness, for their contempt of him, of his authority over them, and kindness to them. They have provoked him to anger, and thence comes all this destruction. Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation — As the cup of God’s wrath goes round, every nation shall have its share, and take its turn, because one doth not take warning, by the calamities of another, to repent and reform. A great whirlwind shall be raised up, &c. — The Chaldean army shall come like a hurricane, raised in the north, and thence carried forward with incredible fierceness and swiftness, bearing down all before it. God’s vengeance is often compared to a whirlwind, and is here said to come from the coasts, or sides of the earth, because Chaldea was, at that time, thought to be one of the most remote regions. And the slain of the Lord, &c. — Multitudes shall fall by the sword of the merciless Chaldeans, so that the dead shall be everywhere found, here termed, the slain of the Lord, because slain by commission from him, and sacrificed to his justice. They shall not be lamented — They shall fall in such great numbers that the usual funeral rites and lamentations shall not be paid them, and many of them will lie unburied.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

25:30-38 The Lord has just ground of controversy with every nation and every person; and he will execute judgment on all the wicked. Who can avoid trembling when God speaks in displeasure? The days are fully come; the time fixed in the Divine counsels, which will make the nations wholly desolate. The tender and delicate shall share the common calamity. Even those who used to live in peace, and did nothing to provoke, shall not escape. Blessed be God, there is a peaceable habitation above, for all the sons of peace. The Lord will preserve his church and all believers in all changes; for nothing can separate them from his love.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Yahweh has risen like a lion from His covert, and at His roaring the whole world is filled with terror and confusion.

Upon his habitation - Against His pasture; i. e., Judaea. Yahweh comes forth as the lion to destroy the sheep which lie terrified within the circle of the tents.

A shout - The vintage-shout, here used for the war-cry. Compare Isaiah 16:9; Isaiah 63:3.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. roar—image from a destructive lion (Isa 42:13; Joe 3:16).

upon his habitation—rather, "His pasturage"; keeping up the image of a lion roaring against the flock in the pasture. The roar was first to go forth over Judea wherein were "the sheep of His pasture" (Ps 100:3), and thence into heathen lands.

shout … tread … grapes—(Jer 48:33; Isa 16:9, 10).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Reveal my will unto them presently, to revenge myself upon them, in words to this sense or purpose; tell them that I, who hitherto have been toward them as a lamb, will now be to them as a lion; so Joel 3:16 Amos 1:2 3:8; and, as a lion, will roar from heaven; for though the temple be sometimes called his holy habitation, yet the foregoing words, from, on high, expound this term in this place otherwise. Upon his habitation, or in his habitation, which is more likely to be understood, in heaven, (as the former,) than, in Jerusalem, as divers would have it; for God is here revealing his wrath against foreign nations, upon some of which these judgments came after God had done roaring in or upon Jerusalem.

He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth; a shout, such as soldiers use to give when they storm a city, or assault their enemies, to encourage their fellows, and to dishearten their enemies; like the shout of those that tread the grapes, singing one to another, or rejoicing and triumphing in the vintage.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them,.... What follows, as well as declare all that is before spoken concerning the cup of fury all nations must drink of:

the Lord shall roar from on high: from, heaven, like a lion, in violent claps of thunder; or in such dreadful dispensations of his providence, as will be very amazing and terrifying:

and utter his voice from his holy habitation; from heaven, as before; and though it will be terrible, yet quite consistent with his holiness and justice:

he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; the temple at Jerusalem, where he had his residence; but now should be deserted by him, and feel the effects of his wrath in the destruction and desolation of it: or rather, since the address is made to the nations of the world, and not to the Jews, it may be rendered, "in" or "out of his habitation" (q); and so designs heaven, as before; and all these expressions are intended to show both the certainty and terribleness of the dispensation;

he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth; or, "answer a shout" (r); give the onset for battle against the inhabitants of the earth, as the general of an army; which is accompanied with a shout, like that which is made by workmen treading in the wine press, to encourage one another to go on the more cheerfully in their work.

(q) "in habitaculo suo", Junius & Tremellius; "vel ex habitaculo", Gataker, Schmidt. (r) "heded respondebit", Schmidt; "celeusma respondebit", Gataker.

Geneva Study Bible

Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words, and say unto them, The LORD shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. The Lord shall roar] as a lion coming forth from his covert, and terrifying by his approach the shepherds and their flocks. There is no escape and the slain cover the earth. Cp. Amos 1:2.

fold] For mg. pasture cp. Jeremiah 10:25, Jeremiah 23:3.

a shout] lit. a vintage shout, the cry with which the treaders of the grapes used to cheer their toil. So Jehovah will trample down the nations. Cp. Jeremiah 48:33, where see note; Isaiah 16:10. Here, however, it is the battle shout. Cp. Jeremiah 51:14.

30–38. The judgement to come upon all the peoples of the earth. The description is characterized by Oriental hyperbole. A considerable amount is adapted from elsewhere, and the eschatological character of the whole tends to throw serious doubts upon the genuineness of the passage.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 30-38. - The judgment upon the world. Verse 30. - Therefore prophesy thou, etc. Babylon, like the smaller kingdoms which it absorbed, has fallen, and nothing remains (for nothing had been revealed to the prophet concerning an interval to elapse previously) but to picture the great assize from which no flesh should be exempt. As the lion suddenly bursts, roaring, from his lair, so Jehovah, no longer the "good Shepherd," shall roar from on high (comp. Amos 1:2; Joel 3:16) even upon his habitation, or rather, against his pasture, where his flock (Jeremiah 23:1) has been feeding so securely. He shall give a shout. It is the technical term used at once for the vintage-shout and for the battle-cry. In Isaiah 16:9, 10, there is a beautiful allusion to this double meaning, and so perhaps there is here (comp. Jeremiah 51:14). Jeremiah 25:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"But do thou prophesy to them all these words, and say unto them: Jahveh will roar from on high, and from His holy habitation let His voice resound; He will roar against His pasture, raise a shout like treaders of grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth. Jeremiah 25:31. Noise reacheth to the end of the earth, for controversy hath Jahveh with the nations; contend will He with all flesh; the wicked He gives to the sword, is the saying of Jahveh. Jeremiah 25:32. Thus saith Jahveh of hosts: Behold, evil goeth forth from nation to nation, and (a) great storm shall raise itself from the utmost coasts of the earth. Jeremiah 25:33. And the slain of Jahveh shall lie on that day from one end of the earth unto the other, shall not be lamented, neither gathered nor buried; for dung shall they be upon the ground. Jeremiah 25:34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry! and sprinkle you (with ashes), ye lordliest of the flock! For your days are filled for the slaughter; and I scatter you so that ye shall fall like a precious vessel. Jeremiah 25:35. Lost is flight to the shepherds, and escape to the lordliest of the flock. Jeremiah 25:36. Hark! Crying of the shepherds and howling of the lordliest of the flock; for Jahveh layeth waste their pasture. Jeremiah 25:37. Desolated are the pastures of peace because of the heat of Jahveh's anger. Jeremiah 25:38. He hath forsaken like a young lion his covert; for their land is become a desert, because of the oppressing sword, and because of the heath of His anger."

In this passage the emblem of the cup of the Lord's anger (Jeremiah 25:25-29) is explained by a description of the dreadful judgment God is to inflict on all the inhabitants of the earth. This is not the judgment on the world at large as distinguished from that proclaimed in Jeremiah 25:15-29 against the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of the world, as Ng. supposes. It is the nature of this same judgment that is here discussed, not regard being here paid to the successive steps of its fulfilment. Jeremiah 25:30 and Jeremiah 25:31 are only a further expansion of the second half of Jeremiah 25:29. "All these words" refers to what follows. The clause"Jahveh will roar" to "let His voice resound" is a reminiscence from Joel 3:16 and Amos 1:2; but instead of "out of Zion and out of Jerusalem" in those passages, we have here "from on high," i.e., heaven, and out of His holy habitation (in heaven), because the judgment is not to fall on the heathen only, but on the theocracy in a special manner, and on the earthly sanctuary, the temple itself, so that it can come only from heaven or the upper sanctuary. Jahveh will roar like a lion against His pasture (the pasture or meadow where His flock feeds, cf. Jeremiah 10:25); a name for the holy land, including Jerusalem and the temple; not: the world subject to Him (Ew.). 'הידד , He will answer Hedad like treaders of grapes; i.e., raise a shout as they do. Answer; inasmuch as the shout or wary-cry of Jahveh is the answer to the words and deeds of the wicked. Grammatically הידד is accus. and object to the verb: Hedad he gives as answer. The word is from הדד, crash, and signifies the loud cry with which those that tread grapes keep time in the alternate raising and thrusting of the feet. Ew. is accordingly correct, though far from happy, in rendering the word "tramping-song;" see on Isaiah 16:9. As to the figure of the treader of grapes, cf. Isaiah 63:3.