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<p>We have, in these verses, a further description of those terrible desolations which the king of Babylon with his armies should make in all the countries and nations round about Jerusalem. In Jerusalem God had erected his temple; there were his oracles and ordinances, which the neighbouring nations should have attended to and might have received benefit by; thither they should have applied for the knowledge of God and their duty, and then they might have had reason to bless God for their neighbourhood to Jerusalem; but they, instead of that, taking all opportunities either to debauch or to disturb that holy city, when God came to reckon with Jerusalem because it learned so much of the <i>way of the nations</i>, he reckoned with the nations because they learned so little of the way of Jerusalem.</p>
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<p class="tab-1">They will soon be aware of Nebuchadrezzar’s making war upon them; but the prophet is here directed to tell them that it is God himself that makes war upon them, a God with whom there is no contending. 1. The war is here proclaimed (<a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.30" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.30">Jer. 25:30</a>): <i>The Lord shall roar from on high</i>; not <i>from Mount Zion and Jerusalem</i> (as <a class="bibleref" title="Joel.3.16,Amos.1.2" href="/passage/?search=Joel.3.16,Amos.1.2"><span class="bibleref" title="Joel.3.16">Joel 3:16</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.1.2">Amos 1:2</span></a>), but from <i>heaven</i>, from <i>his holy habitation</i> there; for now Jerusalem is one of the places against which he roars. <i>He shall mightily roar upon his habitation</i> on earth from that above. He has been long silent, and seemed not to take notice of the wickedness of the nations; the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now <i>he shall give a shout</i>, as the assailants in battle do, <i>against all the inhabitants of the earth</i>, to whom it shall be a shout of terror, and yet a shout of joy in heaven, as theirs that <i>tread the grapes</i>; for, when God is reckoning with the proud enemies of his kingdom among men, there is a <i>great voice of much people heard in heaven, saying, Hallelujah</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Rev.19.1" href="/passage/?search=Rev.19.1">Rev. 19:1</a>. He <i>roars as a lion</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Amos.3.4,Amos.3.8" href="/passage/?search=Amos.3.4,Amos.3.8"><span class="bibleref" title="Amos.3.4">Amos 3:4</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Amos.3.8">8</span></a>), as a lion that has <i>forsaken his covert</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.38" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.38">Jer. 25:38</a>), and is going abroad to seek his prey, upon which he roars, that he may the more easily seize it. 2. The manifesto is here published, showing the causes and reasons why God proclaims this war (<a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.31" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.31">Jer. 25:31</a>): <i>The Lord has a controversy with the nations</i>; he has just cause to contend with them, and he will take this way of pleading with them. His quarrel with them is, in one word, for their wickedness, their contempt of him, and his authority over them and kindness to them. <i>He will give those that are wicked to the sword</i>. They have provoked God to anger, and thence comes all this destruction; it is <i>because of the fierce anger of the Lord</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.37,Jer.25.38" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.37,Jer.25.38"><span class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.37">Jer. 25:37</span>, <span class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.38">38</span></a>), the <i>fierceness of the oppressor</i>, or (as it might better be read) <i>the fierceness of the oppressing sword</i> (for the word is feminine) is <i>because of his fierce anger</i>; and we are sure that he is never angry without cause; but <i>who knows the power of his anger</i>? 3. The alarm is here given and taken: <i>A noise will come even to the ends of the earth</i>, so loud shall it roar, so far shall it reach, <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.31" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.31">Jer. 25:31</a>. The alarm is not given by sound of trumpet, or beat of drum, but by a <i>whirlwind, a great whirlwind, storm</i>, or <i>tempest</i>, which shall be <i>raised up from the coasts</i>, the remote coasts <i>of the earth</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.25.32" href="/passage/?search=Jer.25.32">Jer. 25:32</a>. The Chaldean army shall be like a hurricane raised in the north, but thence carried on with incredible fierceness and swiftness, bearing down all before it. It is like the whirlwind out of which God answered Job, which was exceedingly terrible, <a class="bibleref" title="Job.37.1,Job.38.1" href="/passage/?search=Job.37.1,Job.38.1"><span class="bibleref" title="Job.37.1">Job 37:1</span>; <span class="bibleref" title="Job.38.1">38:1</span></a>. And, when the wrath of God thus roars like a lion from heaven, no marvel
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