Jeremiah 25:30-31

25:30 “Then, Jeremiah, 1  make the following prophecy 2  against them:

‘Like a lion about to attack, 3  the Lord will roar from the heights of heaven;

from his holy dwelling on high he will roar loudly.

He will roar mightily against his land. 4 

He will shout in triumph like those stomping juice from the grapes 5 

against all those who live on the earth.

25:31 The sounds of battle 6  will resound to the ends of the earth.

For the Lord will bring charges against the nations. 7 

He will pass judgment on all humankind

and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.’ 8 

The Lord so affirms it! 9 

1 tn The word “Jeremiah” is not in the text. It is supplied in the translation to make clear who is being addressed.

2 tn Heb “Prophesy against them all these words.”

3 tn The words “like a lion about to attack” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. The explicit comparison of the Lord to a lion is made at the end of the passage in v. 38. The words are supplied in the translation here for clarity.

4 sn The word used here (Heb “his habitation”) refers to the land of Canaan which the Lord chose to make his earthly dwelling (Exod 15:13) and which was the dwelling place of his chosen people (Jer 10:25; Isa 32:18). Judgment would begin at the “house of God” (v. 29; 1 Pet 4:17) but would extend to the rest of the earth (v. 29).

5 sn The metaphor shifts from God as a lion to God as a mighty warrior (Jer 20:11; Isa 42:13; Zeph 3:17) shouting in triumph over his foes. Within the metaphor is a simile where the warrior is compared to a person stomping on grapes to remove the juice from them in the making of wine. The figure will be invoked later in a battle scene where the sounds of joy in the grape harvest are replaced by the sounds of joy of the enemy soldiers (Jer 48:33). The picture is drawn in more gory detail in Isa 63:1-6.

6 tn For the use of this word see Amos 2:2; Hos 10:14; Ps 74:23. See also the usage in Isa 66:6 which is very similar to the metaphorical usage here.

7 tn Heb “the Lord has a lawsuit against the nations.” For usage of the term see Hos 4:1; Mic 6:2, and compare the usage of the related verb in Jer 2:9; 12:1.

8 tn Heb “give the wicked over to the sword.”

9 tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”