Bible Strands
Jeremiah 25:9
behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Judah and Jerusalem, delivering a judgment pronounced after their refusal to obey His words.
The words — The Hebrew שֹׁלֵ֡חַ (sho.leach) conveys [am] about to send, while מִשְׁפְּחֹת (mishpechot) denotes [the] clans or families. These terms frame the divine summons as an immediate, targeted mobilization.
The thread — This summons echoes in Jeremiah 1:15, where the LORD again declares He will call the clans and kingdoms of the north, and in Isaiah 13:3, which describes the LORD commanding His sanctified ones to execute wrath. The theme of land becoming an everlasting desolation recurs in Jeremiah 18:16.
Why it lands — It demands recognition that historical conquests operate under divine authority, not merely human ambition. It requires readers to take the consequences of persistent disobedience seriously.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:3 I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph.
- Jeremiah 1:15 For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the LORD. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.
- Jeremiah 18:16 They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.
- Ezekiel 29:18 “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to labor strenuously against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder made raw. But he and his army received no wages from Tyre for the labor they expended on it.
- Habakkuk 1:6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—that ruthless and impetuous nation which marches through the breadth of the earth to seize dwellings not their own.
- Jeremiah 6:22 This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth.
- Jeremiah 43:10 Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.
- Leviticus 26:25 And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
- 1 Kings 9:7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- Isaiah 5:26 He lifts a banner for the distant nations and whistles for those at the ends of the earth. Behold—how speedily and swiftly they come!