5 I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.
Ah Lord Yahweh! behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm; there is nothing too hard for you,
I have made the earth, and created man on it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and all their host have I commanded.
Happy is he who has the God of Jacob for his help, Whose hope is in Yahweh, his God: Who made heaven and earth, The sea, and all that is in them; Who keeps truth forever;
Blessed are you by Yahweh, Who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh; But the earth has he given to the children of men.
Have you not known? have yet not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? [It is] he who sits above the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants of it are as grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing; who makes the judges of the earth as vanity. Yes, they have not been planted; yes, they have not been sown; yes, their stock has not taken root in the earth: moreover he blows on them, and they wither, and the whirlwind takes them away as stubble. To whom then will you liken me, that I should be equal [to him]? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these, who brings out their host by number; he calls them all by name; by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power, not one is lacking.
Thus shall you say to them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:
For by him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.
And, "You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you continue. They all will grow old like a garment does.
To him who by understanding made the heavens; For his loving kindness endures forever: To him who spread out the earth above the waters; For his loving kindness endures forever: To him who made the great lights; For his loving kindness endures forever: The sun to rule by day; For his loving kindness endures forever; The moon and stars to rule by night; For his loving kindness endures forever:
has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
"Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them;
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.
Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together.
Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who stretches forth the heavens alone; who spreads abroad the earth (who is with me?);
Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all his host! Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you heavens of heavens, You waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of Yahweh, For he commanded, and they were created.
To you it was shown, that you might know that Yahweh he is God; there is none else besides him.
The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that the ground teems with, and all the fish of the sea are delivered into your hand. Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As the green herb, I have given everything to you.
for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.
For Yahweh your God has blessed you in all the work of your hand; he has known your walking through this great wilderness: these forty years Yahweh your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.
and when you come near over against the children of Ammon, don't bother them, nor contend with them; for I will not give you of the land of the children of Ammon for a possession; because I have given it to the children of Lot for a possession.
a people great, and many, and tall, as the Anakim; but Yahweh destroyed them before them; and they succeeded them, and lived in their place;
When you shall father children, and children's children, and you shall have been long in the land, and shall corrupt yourselves, and make an engraved image in the form of anything, and shall do that which is evil in the sight of Yahweh your God, to provoke him to anger;
For ask now of the days that are past, which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and from the one end of the sky to the other, whether there has been [any such thing] as this great thing is, or has been heard like it?
God said, "Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree, which bears fruit yielding seed. It will be your food. To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food." And it was so.
"Honor your father and your mother, as Yahweh your God commanded you; that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
Yet they are your people and your inheritance, which you brought out by your great power and by your outstretched arm.
Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you, and all this people, to the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread on, to you have I given it, as I spoke to Moses.
Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth has Yahweh, the God of heaven, given me; and he has charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
"Those who are deceased tremble, Those beneath the waters and all that live in them. Sheol{Sheol is the lower world or the grave.} is naked before God, And Abaddon{Abaddon means Destroyer.} has no covering. He stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, And the cloud is not burst under them. He encloses the face of his throne, And spreads his cloud on it. He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, And to the confines of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble And are astonished at his rebuke. He stirs up the sea with his power, And by his understanding he strikes through Rahab. By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding. Who determined the measures of it, if you know? Or who stretched the line on it? Whereupon were the foundations of it fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy? "Or who shut up the sea with doors, When it broke forth from the womb, When I made clouds the garment of it, Thick darkness a swaddling-band for it, Marked out for it my bound, Set bars and doors, And said, 'Here you may come, but no further; Here shall your proud waves be stayed?' "Have you commanded the morning in your days, And caused the dawn to know its place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, And shake the wicked out of it? It is changed as clay under the seal, And stands forth as a garment. From the wicked, their light is withheld, The high arm is broken. "Have you entered into the springs of the sea? Or have you walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the earth in its breadth? Declare, if you know it all. "What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is the place of it, That you should take it to the bound of it, That you should discern the paths to the house of it? Surely you know, for you were born then, And the number of your days is great! Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, Or have you seen the treasures of the hail, Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, Against the day of battle and war? By what way is the lightning distributed, Or the east wind scattered on the earth? Who has cut a channel for the flood water, Or the path for the thunderstorm; To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; On the wilderness, in which there is no man; To satisfy the waste and desolate ground, To cause the tender grass to spring forth? Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew? Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it? The waters become hard like stone, When the surface of the deep is frozen. "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, Or loosen the cords of Orion? Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish the dominion of it over the earth? "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?' Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky, When the dust runs into a mass, And the clods of earth stick together? "Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, When they crouch in their dens, And lie in wait in the thicket? Who provides for the raven his prey, When his young ones cry to God, And wander for lack of food?
Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 27
Commentary on Jeremiah 27 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
The Yoke of Babylon upon Judah and the Neighbouring Peoples - Jeremiah 27-29
These three chapters are closely connected with one another. They all belong to the earlier period of Zedekiah's reign, and contain words of Jeremiah by means of which he confirms and vindicates against the opposition of false prophets his announcement of the seventy years' duration of the Chaldean supremacy over Judah and the nations, and warns king and people patiently to bear the yoke laid on them by Nebuchadnezzar. The three chapters have besides an external connection. For Jer 28 is attached to the event of Jer 27 by its introductory formula: And it came to pass in that year, at the beginning, etc., as Jer 29 is to Jer 28 by ואלּה . To this, it is true, the heading handed down in the Masoretic text is in contradiction. The date: In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim , the son of Josiah king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27:1), is irreconcilable with the date: And it came to pass in that year , in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month. The name "Jehoiakim the son of Josiah" in Jeremiah 27:1 is erroneous. It is without doubt the blunder of a copyist who had in his mind the heading of the 26th chapter, and should have been "Zedekiah;" for the contents of Jer 27 carry us into Zedekiah's time, as plainly appears from Jeremiah 27:3, Jeremiah 27:12, and Jeremiah 27:20. Hence the Syr. translation and one of Kennicott's codd. have substituted the latter name.
(Note: Following the example of ancient comm., Haevernick in his Introd . (ii. 2) has endeavoured to defend the date: "In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah." To this end he ventures the hypothesis, that in Jer 27 there are placed beside one another three discourses agreeing in their subject-matter: "one addressed to Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 27:2-11), a second to Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:12-15), a third to the priests and people;" and that the words: "by the hand of the ambassador that came to Zedekiah the king of Judah," are appended to show how Zedekiah ought to have obeyed the older prophecy of Jehoiakim's time, and how he should have borne himself towards the nations with which he was in alliance. but this does not solve the difficulty. The prophecy, Jeremiah 27:4-11, is addressed to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon; but since the envoys of these kings did not come to Jerusalem till Zedekiah's time, we are bound, if the prophecy dates from the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, to assume that this prophecy was communicated to Jeremiah and published by him eleven years before the event, upon occasion of which it was to be conveyed to the kings concerned. An assumption that would require unusually cogent reasons to render it credible. Vv. 4 b -21 contain nothing whatever that points to Jehoiakim's time, or give countenance to the hypothesis that the three sections of this chapter contain three discourses of different dates, which have been put together on account merely of the similarity of their contents.
Beyond this one error of transcription, these three chapters contain nothing that could throw any doubt on the integrity of the text. There are no traces of a later supplementary revision by another hand, such as Mov., Hitz., and de W. profess to have discovered. The occurrence of Jeremiah's name in the contracted form ירמיה , as also of other names compounded with Jahu in the form Jah , does not prove later retouching; for, as Graf has shown, we find alongside of it the fuller form also (Jeremiah 28:12; Jeremiah 29:27-30), and have frequently both longer and shorter forms in the same verse (so in Jeremiah 27:1; Jeremiah 28:12; Jeremiah 29:29-31). And so long as other means for distinguishing are wanting, it will not do to discriminate the manner of expression in the original text from that of the reviser by means of these forms alone. Again, as we have shown at p. 194, note, there is a good practical reason for Jeremiah's being called "the prophet" ( הנּביא ); so that this too is not the reviser's work. Finally, we cannot argue later addition from the fact that the name of the king of Babylon is written Nebuchad n ezzar in Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 27:8,Jeremiah 27:20; Jeremiah 28:3, Jeremiah 28:11, Jeremiah 28:14; Jeremiah 29:1, Jeremiah 29:3; for the same form appears again in Jeremiah 34:1 and Jeremiah 39:5, and with it we have also Nebuchad r ezzar in Jeremiah 29:21 and Jeremiah 39:1. Elsewhere, it is true, we find only the one form Nebuchad n ezzar, and this is the unvarying spelling in the books of Kings, Chron., Ezra, Dan., and in Esther 2:6; whereas Ezekiel uniformly writes Nebuchad r ezzar (Ezekiel 26:7; Ezekiel 29:18-19, and Ezekiel 30:10), and this form Jeremiah uses twenty-seven times (Jeremiah 21:2, Jeremiah 21:7; Jeremiah 22:25; Jeremiah 24:1; Jeremiah 25:1, Jeremiah 25:9; Jeremiah 29:21; Jeremiah 32:1, Jeremiah 32:28; Jeremiah 35:11; Jeremiah 37:1; Jeremiah 39:1, Jeremiah 39:11; Jeremiah 43:10; Jeremiah 44:30; Jeremiah 46:2, Jeremiah 46:13, Jeremiah 46:26; Jeremiah 49:28, 40; Jeremiah 50:17; Jeremiah 51:34; Jeremiah 52:4, Jeremiah 52:12, Jeremiah 52:28-30 - not merely in the discourses, but in the headings and historical parts as well). But though the case is so, we are not entitled to conclude that Nebuchadnezzar was a way of pronouncing the name that came into use at a later time; the conclusion rather is, as we have remarked at p. 203, and on Daniel 1:1, that the writing with n represents the Jewish-Aramaean pronunciation, whereas the form Nebuchadrezzar, according to the testimony of such inscriptions as have been preserved, expresses more fairly Assyrian pronunciation. The Jewish way of pronouncing would naturally not arise till after the king of Babylon had appeared in Palestine, from which time the Jews would have this name often on their lips. Hence it is in the book of Jeremiah alone that we find both forms of the name (that with r 27 times, that with n 10 times). How it has come about that the latter form is used just three times in each of Jer 27 and 28 cannot with certainty be made out. But note, (1) that the form with n occurs twice in 28 (Jeremiah 28:3 and Jeremiah 28:11) in the speech of the false prophet Hananiah, and then, Jeremiah 28:14, in Jeremiah's answer to that speech; (2) that the prophecy of Jer 27 was addressed partly to the envoys of the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, and Phoenicia, while it is partly a warning to the people against the lying speeches of the false prophets, and that it is just in these portions, Jeremiah 27:6, Jeremiah 27:8, and Jeremiah 27:20, that the name so written occurs. If we consider this, we cannot avoid the conjecture, that by changing the r for n , the Jewish people had accommodated to their own mode of utterance the strange-sounding name Nabucudurusur , and that Jeremiah made use of the popular pronunciation in these two discourses, whereas elsewhere in all his discourses he uses Nebucahd r ezzar alone; for the remaining cases in which we find Nebuchad n ezzar in this book are contained in historical notices.)
The Yoke of Babylon. - In three sections, connected as to their date and their matter, Jeremiah prophesies to the nations adjoining Judah (Jeremiah 27:2-11), to King Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:12-15), and to the priests and all the people (Jeremiah 27:16-22), that God has laid on them the yoke of the king of Babylon, and that they ought to humble themselves under His almighty hand.
According to the (corrected) heading, the prophecy was given in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. If we compare Jer 28 we find the same date: "in that year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah," more fully defined as the fourth year of his reign. Graf has made objection, that in the case of a reign of eleven years, one could not well speak of the fourth year as the beginning of the reign. But the idea of beginning is relative (cf. Genesis 10:10), and does not necessarily coincide with that of the first year. The reign of Zedekiah is divided into two halves: the first period, or beginning, when he was elevated by Nebuchadnezzar, and remained subject to him, and the after or last period, when he had rebelled against his liege lord.
The yoke of the king of Babylon upon the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. - Jeremiah 27:2. "Thus said Jahveh to me: Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, Jeremiah 27:3. And send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that are come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Jeremiah 27:4. And command them to say unto their masters, Thus hath Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Thus shall ye say unto your masters: Jeremiah 27:5. I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched hand, and give it to whom it seemeth meet unto me. Jeremiah 27:6. And how have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him. Jeremiah 27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his land come, and many nations and great kings serve themselves of him. Jeremiah 27:8. And the people and the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put its neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon, with sword, with famine, and with pestilence I will visit that people, until I have made an end of them by his hand. Jeremiah 27:9. And ye, hearken not to your prophets, and your soothsayers, and to your dreams, to your enchanters and your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying: Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 27:10. For they prophesy a lie unto you, that I should remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and ye should perish. Jeremiah 27:11. But the people that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and will serve him, that will I let remain in its land, saith Jahveh, to till it and to dwell therein."