Jeremiah 25 is the twenty-fifth chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapter 25 is the final chapter in the first section of the Book of Jeremiah, which deals with the earliest and main core of Jeremiah's message. In this chapter, Jeremiah identified the length of the time of exile as seventy years (verses 11-12).
Text
The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 38 verses in English Bibles and the Masoretic Text. In the Septuagint, verse 14 is omitted, and verses 15-38 are numbered as Jeremiah 32:15-38 (see "Verse numbering" below).
Verse numbering
The order of chapters and verses of the Book of Jeremiah in the English Bibles, Masoretic Text (Hebrew), and Vulgate (Latin), in some places differs from that in Septuagint (LXX, the Greek Bible used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and others) according to Rahlfs or Brenton. The following table is taken with minor adjustments from Brenton's Septuagint, page 971.
The order of Computer Assisted Tools for Septuagint/Scriptural Study (CATSS) based on Alfred Rahlfs' Septuaginta (1935), differs in some details from Joseph Ziegler's critical edition (1957) in Göttingen LXX. Swete's Introduction mostly agrees with Rahlfs' edition (=CATSS).
Textual witnesses
Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis (895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (10th century), Codex Leningradensis (1008). Some fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, i.e., 4QJerc (4Q72; 1st century BC), with extant verses 7‑8, 15‑17, 24‑26 (similar to Masoretic Text).
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint (with a different verse numbering and some textual differences), made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; Q; 6th century).
Parashot
The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Jeremiah 25 contains the Ninth prophecy in the section of Prophecies of Destruction (Jeremiah 1-25). { P}: open parashah; { S}: closed parashah. { P} 25:1-7 { P} 25:8-14 { P} 25:15-27a { P} 25:27b-31 כה אמר { S} 25:32-38 { P}
Seventy years of captivity (25:1–14)
Verse 1
The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon). The "word of the Lord" in Jeremiah 36:1 also came to Jeremiah "in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah". The bracketed words, "which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon", are doubted to be original as they are not included in the Septuagint.
Verse 2
which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: The message concerned all the people and was therefore delivered to all the people, proclaimed without fear by Jeremiah.
Verse 3
"From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened. Cross reference: Jeremiah 1:2 "Even to this day": that is the fourth year of Jehoiakim, king of Judah (605 BC), so since "the thirteenth year of Josiah" (627 BC), it was "the 23th year" of persistent proclaiming God's Word by Jeremiah.
Verse 11
And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. "These nations": Judah and the surrounding nations, such as Moab and Phoenicia. "Seventy years": may represent "the length of lifetime" (). The seventy years of serving the king of Babylon began circa 605 BC (2 Kings 24:1) and ended circa 536 BC ()