The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah (that is, the first year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon),
This verse dates one message by two calendars at once: Judah's fourth year of Jehoiakim is Babylon's first year of Nebuchadnezzar. Why does that pairing matter so much, and what changed for God's people in that year?
This one date gives historians a fixed point in the ancient world.
There is a remarkable date given in Jeremiah in relation to this. It is probably the most important date known to anyone who works out ancient dates. As far as possible, it lets him put events in order up to that date, and from then to our own time. Jeremiah mentions it no less than four times: in 25:1; 36:1; 45:1; and 46:2. The matching of the two dates in 25:1 is what makes it so striking and useful. "The fourth year of Jehoiakim" is the "first year of Nebuchadnezzar."
That same year also settled who would rule the region.
The fourth year of Jehoiakim was also the first year of Nebuchadrezzar. In this eventful year the battle of Carchemish was fought and Nebuchadrezzar defeated Egypt. This secured Babylon's place as the leading power. At this critical time the prophet looks back over his ministry among them.
That same year the first captives went to Babylon. The message dated here also looks back.
In chapter 25 — that is, in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign — the first deportation into exile takes place. Daniel is taken to Babylon, and some of the temple vessels are carried away. Jeremiah also reminds the people of what he told them in verse 3. For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Josiah, the word of the Lord has come to him. He has spoken to them again and again, but they have not listened. God sends them other prophets, but the people also refuse to listen to them or leave their evil ways. Judgment is at the door, and yet they turn a deaf ear to Jeremiah's warnings.
Why Babylon, and why now? The punishment named here follows a long refusal.
God had warned them again and again, and His warnings grew more solemn. He had also encouraged them with kindness. They refused it all. So, because of their deliberate and persistent idolatry, God announces the punishment they deserve at the hand of the king of Babylon. After their seventy years of captivity, the Lord must turn and judge the one who punished them — and this time with no set limit like the one given to Judah.
The change shows up in one word.
It was no longer Zedekiah, My servant, but it was Nebuchadnezzar, My servant. The children of Israel and of Judah were about to lose their special place as His nation, too. It was now a question, not of being His servant as a special honour, but only as an instrument in God's ordering of events. Nebuchadnezzar, the idolatrous Gentile, could be His servant in this way as much as any other.
This change of ruler opened a long era of rule by Gentile (non-Jewish) powers.
The times of the Gentiles began with Nebuchadnezzar. God allowed him to make Israel tributary. He dethroned Judah's king and carried away the people captive. From then till the Lord comes to reign "the times of the Gentiles" run their course. It is interesting and instructive to see why God allowed this: because of Israel's idolatry, and later because of their great sin in rejecting their Messiah.
Judgment does not start with the foreign nations.
So it is a universal principle: in judgment God begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? He cannot pass by His proud enemies. So judgment falls first on the nations that had most to do with His people. But it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and peoples of the earth.
Its view runs far past this one year.
The chapter clearly looks on from the past dealings of God with Jerusalem, its neighbours, and its Chaldean foes, to the universal judgment of the habitable earth at the end of the age.
- Date. Two calendars meet in one year: Jehoiakim's fourth, Nebuchadnezzar's first. Jeremiah repeats this date four times, and it anchors ancient history.
- Deafness. Behind the date lie twenty-three years of preaching. God sent prophet after prophet, and the people would not listen.
- Displacement. Because of persistent idolatry, the title "My servant" passes from Judah's king to a foreign king. Rule over Israel passes with it.
- Duration. From this point the times of the Gentiles begin their long course, running on until the Lord comes to reign.
- Reach. Judgment starts with what bears God's name, and it cannot stop there. From Jerusalem it spreads to the nations, and on to the whole earth at the end of the age.
which Jeremiah the prophet spoke unto all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying
Jeremiah speaks to a whole nation at once. Judah and Jerusalem are both named, and the year is the one in which Babylon rises and God gives up His city. One line of introduction raises two questions. Why address everyone? And what happens after years of speaking to people who will not listen?
The previous verse ties this speech to a year the book keeps returning to.
Jeremiah gives a remarkable date in connection with this. It is probably the most important date in any ancient records for anyone working out the order of history... Jeremiah mentions it no fewer than four times, in 25:1; 36:1; 45:1; and 46:2. It is the way 25:1 lines up two calendars that is so striking and useful. "The fourth year of Jehoiakim" is the "first year of Nebuchadnezzar." This chapter gives us a formal, solemn, and impressive declaration from the Lord. He gives up Jerusalem.
Jeremiah does not take the king aside or gather a small circle. He speaks to the nation and its capital together. What he gives them is a review of everything he has already said.
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the prophet addresses the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem... At this critical time the prophet looks back over his ministry among them. From the thirteenth year of Josiah he had spoken to them, but they had not heard. The Lord sent other servants, too, but they did not hear. He puts before them their stubbornness and how they provoked the Lord to anger.
The speech itself begins by counting the years. This was not a sudden announcement dropped on an unprepared people.
Jeremiah reminds the people that "From the thirteenth year of Josiah ... 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" (v.3). God sends them other prophets, but the people also refuse to listen to them or leave their evil ways. Judgment is at the door, and yet they turn a deaf ear to Jeremiah's warnings.
That phrase "rising early and speaking" comes from an older translation. One writer notes how it is turned back on the people:
As Jehovah rose early to send them messages and warnings, they rose early to indulge in their wickedness.
Such a long delay says something about God, not just about the hearers. He kept the door open the whole time.
How tireless the patience of the Lord is! He promises that He Himself will turn back from the disaster He had to threaten, if only they would listen and turn from their evil ways. But if they went on rejecting the prophets He had sent (as He says, "rising up early and sending them"), let them prepare for the worst.
The same writer traces this pattern back to the first man.
God never judges people until their own consciences have judged them first. The Lord did not drive the first man out of Paradise until the man fled from His presence. Adam ran to hide from God. Only afterwards did God sentence him to what his own conscience had already sentenced him to. The same thing is always true of every soul.
Judgment in this chapter does not stop with Judah. But it starts there, and that order explains why this audience hears it first.
So it is a universal principle that when God judges, He begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? He cannot pass by His proud enemies. So a judgment is involved — first of the nations that had most to do with His people, and it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth. To limit this to what happened long ago is to make the prophetic word a matter of private interpretation. It squeezes into a narrow, short-lived space what is clearly and explicitly unlimited in reach.
- Spoken — Jeremiah addresses all Judah and all Jerusalem, and reviews everything he has already told them.
- Repeated — twenty-three years of speaking lie behind this address. God sent other prophets too.
- Patient — the long delay measures God's patience. He kept offering to turn back from the threatened disaster if they would turn.
- Self-judged — no sentence falls until conscience has already passed it. Adam ran and hid before God ever spoke.
- First — judgment starts with what carries God's name and then reaches the nations. The city named here hears it first.
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even unto this day, these three and twenty years, the word of Jehovah hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened.
One sentence sums up twenty-three years of preaching. The word came, the prophet spoke, and no one listened. Jeremiah gives this audit of his life's work in the fourth year of Jehoiakim — the year Nebuchadnezzar began to reign.
The chapter fixes the year twice over. One date belongs to Judah's king, the other to the king of the Gentiles.
Chapter 25 opens formally by fixing the date of this far-reaching word. This date is of the greatest value to anyone working out Bible dates, for the fourth year of Israel's king, Jehoiakim, falls in the same year as the first year of the Gentiles' king, Nebuchadnezzar. The Holy Spirit appears to stress its importance, for this book uses it no less than four times (Jer. 25:1; 36:1; 45:1; 46:2). This matching of the dates, so important for working out the timeline, surely has a definite and Divine use as well in measuring the times of the Gentiles. Up to this date the prophet shows that he had diligently declared the word of the Lord to them for 23 years, though they did not listen.
Jeremiah counts his twenty-three years from the reign of Josiah. That start once looked full of promise.
Jeremiah began his work as a prophet, as he hints, in the thirteenth year of Josiah, the last king of Judah. It was the year after the first effort to clear the capital and the country of the high places, the groves, the carved images and the cast metal images. The brightness of that promise only deepened his grief when the reform turned out to be completely superficial.
So the twenty-three years span a national clean-up that never reached the heart.
ESV has Jeremiah speaking "persistently." The older wording behind it is "rising early and speaking" — God pictured as a man who gets up at dawn because the errand matters to Him. The same picture appears elsewhere:
"I spoke to you," said He to His people, "rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear; and I called you, but you did not answer" (Jer. 7:13). And again it is written, "The Lord God of their fathers sent to them by His messengers, rising up early, and sending; because He had compassion on His people, and on His dwelling place; but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and misused His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36:15-16).
The repeated calls are not nagging. They are compassion refusing to give up.
What happens when people keep refusing a God who keeps calling?
The patience of God waits. More than that, it uses every means to call back to sincerity and to Himself those who have the truth and who have at least its outward form. The most touching appeals, the strongest warnings... all this is made useless by the stubbornness of men, who despise grace and practise evil. At last, when God has used up every means of calling to repentance, the judgment comes that this divine patience had held back.
Jeremiah's twenty-three unheard years were that patience at work, and they brought it to its end.
Jeremiah preached for over twenty years and saw no response. So what counts as successful service?
This was a moment for that special discipline in a servant's life which, when it does its work, enables him to pursue his service independent of results. Most people judge service to be effective if the results are good, and a failure if they are not. But the real servant must keep his eye only on his Master's word and leave the result to Him.
- Spoken. For twenty-three years, from Josiah's thirteenth year, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. He passed it on without a break.
- Early. "Rising early and speaking" pictures God's eagerness. He kept sending His messengers "because He had compassion on His people."
- Superficial. The count begins just after Josiah's reforms. The grief is that the reform "turned out to be completely superficial."
- Ignored. Stubbornness does not cancel judgment. It delays it until God "has used up every means of calling to repentance."
- Faithful. Jeremiah's long, fruitless ministry teaches the servant to work "independent of results." The outcome belongs to his Master.