Jeremiah 25:14 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Jeremiah 25:8–14

Read Jeremiah 25:14 with 25:8–14. By itself, “For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, imperial horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Nebuchadnezzar is named as the invading servant, Judah will become desolate, and after seventy years Babylon too will answer for its wrongdoing.

Why This Verse Appears Here

Within the same chapter, this unit advances from “Twenty-Three Years of Warning Are Recalled” into “Babylon's Seventy Years End in Its Own Accounting.” Its non-interchangeable movement is: Nebuchadnezzar is named as the invading servant, Judah will become desolate, and after seventy years Babylon too will answer for its wrongdoing. This verse's placement is specific: The prophetic word through Jeremiah supplies a stated reason through “For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also” at Jeremiah 25:14 in “Babylon's Seventy Years End in Its Own Accounting.”