Jeremiah 10:25 · Bible study
Jeremiah 10:25 Commentary: Imprecatory Prayer & Divine Justice
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Explore Jeremiah 10:25's imprecatory prayer for God's wrath on nations, its Old Testament context, and how it relates to loving enemies in the New Testament.
Research Summary
- Meaning: A prayer for God to pour out His wrath on the nations that have rejected Him and destroyed His people, trusting divine justice rather than personal vengeance.
- Key words: “Pour out” (H8210, often of anger or blood), “wrath/rage” (H2534, burning indignation), “know” (H3045, covenantal acknowledgment), “call” (H7121, invoke in worship), “consume” (H0398, H3615), “devastate” (H8074).
- Main debate: Whether this verse was originally Jeremianic or a later liturgical insertion (Maccabean period) based on its near identity with Psalm 79:6-7.
- Theological theme: The distinction between God’s disciplining of His own people and His final judgment on the unrepentant world.
- Best use: Pastoral care for those suffering injustice; teaching on the role of imprecatory prayer in the life of faith; connecting Old and New Testament ethics.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, and on the families that don’t call on your name; for they have devoured Jacob. Yes, they have devoured him, consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
KJV King James Version 1769
Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have devoured Jacob, yea, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Pour out Thy fury on the nations that have not known Thee, And on the families that have not called in Thy name, For they have eaten up Jacob, Yea, they have eaten him up, yea, they consume him, And his habitation they have made desolate!
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Pour out thy fury upon the nations that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name; for they have eaten up Jacob, yea, they have eaten him up and consumed him, and have laid waste his dwelling-place.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Derrama tu enojo sobre las gentes que no te conocen, y sobre las naciones que no invocan tu nombre: porque se comieron á Jacob, y lo devoraron, y le han consumido, y asolado su morada.
Derrama tua ira sobre as nações que não te conhecem, e sobre os povos que não invocam o teu nome; pois devoraram a Jacó; eles o devoraram, consumiram e assolaram sua morada.
Répands ta fureur sur les nations qui ne te connaissent pas,
Schütte aber deinen Zorn über die Heiden, so dich nicht kennen, und über die Geschlechter, so deinen Namen nicht anrufen. Denn sie haben Jakob aufgefressen und verschlungen; sie haben ihn weggeräumt und seine Wohnung verwüstet.
Stort Uw grimmigheid uit over de heidenen, die U niet kennen, en over de geslachten, die Uw Naam niet aanroepen; want zij hebben Jakob opgegeten, ja, zij hebben hem opgegeten, en hem verteerd, en zijn woning verwoest.
Riversa la tua ira sulle nazioni che non ti conoscono, e sui popoli che non invocano il tuo nome; poiché hanno divorato Giacobbe; sì, lo hanno divorato, l’han consumato, han desolato la sua dimora.
Wylej popędliwość twoję na te narody, które cię nie znają, i na rodzaje, które imienia twego nie wzywają; bo jedzą Jakóba, i pożerają go, aby go wszystkiego strawili, i mieszkanie jego w pustki obrócili.
Излей ярость Твою на народы, которые не знают Тебя, и на племена, которые не призывают имени Твоего; ибо они съели Иакова, пожрали его и истребили его, и жилище его опустошили.
願你將忿怒 傾 在 不 認識你 的列國中，和 不 求告 你名 的各族上；因為 他們吞了 雅各，不但吞了，而且滅絕，把 他的住處 變為荒場。
Let your wrath be let loose on the nations which have no knowledge of you, and on the families who give no worship to your name: for they have made a meal of Jacob, truly they have made a meal of him and put an end to him and made his fields a waste.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Jeremiah 10:25
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that this verse is a prayer, or at least a plea, for God to pour out His wrath on the nations that have harmed His people. Calvin sees it as the prophet appealing to the difference God made between His household and outsiders: Israel is chastened in measure, but the nations face destruction. Gill and Clarke emphasise that the request grows from the devastation Jacob has suffered: “they have devoured him, consumed him, and laid waste his habitation.” The plea is not personal vengeance but a cry for divine justice. Barnes notes the contrast with the preceding verse (v.24), where Jeremiah asks for correction “in measure” for Israel; here he asks for full fury on those who neither know God nor call on His name. The parallel with Psalm 79:6-7 is striking and likely indicates a shared liturgical tradition. Scholars debate whether the verse is entirely original to Jeremiah (some see it as a later insertion from the Maccabean period), but all agree it expresses a theological conviction: God rules justly and will vindicate His people.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Prayer for divine justice: The verse is a plea for God to act as judge against those who have harmed His people and rejected Him; commentators like Calvin and Gill see it as consistent with Old Testament covenant theology.
- Prophetic prediction: Poole and others interpret the imperative as a prediction: God will certainly pour out His wrath on the nations, as history later showed with the fall of Babylon.
- Liturgical later addition: Critical scholars argue the verse was inserted during the Maccabean period, drawing on Psalm 79 for worship contexts of persecution.
What is clear: The verse expresses a plea for God to judge the nations that have violently destroyed His people and do not acknowledge Him.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Authenticity of verse | Most translations include the verse as part of Jeremiah. | Some critical scholars (e.g., Stade, Gi, Co.) consider v.25 a later addition from the Maccabean period, citing the parallel in Psalm 79 and the change in tone from Jeremiah’s view of the nations as God’s instruments. |
| Appropriateness of imprecatory prayer for Christians | The verse models handing justice to God, not personal vengeance. | Some traditions see it as incompatible with Jesus’ command to love enemies (Matthew 5:44) and therefore limit its use to lament or prophecy; others view it as a legitimate expression of God’s justice that believers may echo in contexts of severe oppression. |
| Identity of the nations | Primarily the Babylonians who were destroying Judah. | Calvin and others apply the words more broadly to all who oppose God; Adam Clarke applies it in a pastoral sense to families who neglect worship. |
| Meaning of 'know you' and 'call on your name' | Refers to covenantal relationship and worship, not mere intellectual awareness. | Some commentators limit 'know' to acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty (Wesley), while others include a demand for active trust and obedience (Gill). |
Historical & Cultural Context
Jeremiah prophecies during the final decades of the kingdom of Judah, as the Babylonian empire under Nebuchadnezzar sweeps across the Near East. The northern enemy mentioned in 10:22, a “great commotion out of the north country”, points directly to Babylon. By chapter 10, Judah has been warned repeatedly about idolatry (vv.1-16), and now the judgment is imminent: the people are told to gather their belongings and prepare for exile (v.17). The lament that follows (vv.19-25) is placed on the lips of the community, personified as the daughter of Zion. The “shepherds” (v.21) are the kings and leaders whose failure to seek God has scattered the flock. In this atmosphere of trauma, the prayer of v.25 appears as a desperate appeal: if God’s own people are being disciplined, let the nations that devoured Jacob not escape. The verbs pile up, devoured, consumed, made an end, laid waste, each drawn from the language of total destruction (cf. 8:16; Ps 79:7). The term mishpachot (“families” or “clans”) in parallel to “nations” stresses that the judgment extends to the basic social units of the oppressors. Historically, this prayer was answered: Babylon itself fell to Persia, and the exiles eventually returned. But within the moment of the prayer, it is a raw cry from the ruins, trusting that the God who judges begins at His own house but does not end there (see 1 Peter 4:17).
Textual Notes
The supplied sources note that some critical scholars, Stade, Gi, Co., and others cited in the Cambridge Bible, consider Jeremiah 10:25 to be a later addition, possibly from the Maccabean period, because of its near-verbatim parallel with Psalm 79:6-7. They argue that the view of the nations as objects of wrath, rather than as instruments of God’s judgment on Judah, seems at odds with Jeremiah’s earlier perspective. However, other commentators (Keil & Delitzsch, Calvin, Gill) accept the verse as original, noting that it fits the developing lament of the passage. The manuscript evidence supports its inclusion, and it appears in all major Hebrew manuscripts. The consulted sources do not mention any significant textual variants within the verse itself.
Reception History
This verse has been used across church history as both a prayer and a warning. Jewish tradition incorporated it into the liturgy of mourning for the destruction of the Temple. Early Christian writers saw in it an anticipation of the final judgment on those who persecute God’s people. During the Reformation, commentators like Calvin and Luther read it as a model for distinguishing between the chastisement of believers and the condemnation of the ungodly. In more recent centuries, the verse has been cited in contexts of national disaster and persecution, most often with pastoral caution, noting that the New Testament calls believers to pray for their enemies. Some hymnody draws on its language of pouring out wrath to express confidence in God’s ultimate justice. The verse remains a challenge for Christians who seek to hold together the imprecatory psalms with Jesus’ command to love enemies.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- Justice begins with God’s own household. In v.24 the prophet asks for measured correction; the plea for wrath on the nations is set within this frame. God’s discipline aims at reformation, not destruction.
- The nations are judged for what they don’t know and what they have done. They neither acknowledge God nor call on His name, and they have violently consumed Jacob. The prayer ties ignorance of God to active oppression.
- Prayer for judgment is a cry for God’s sovereign rule. The prophet does not take vengeance himself; he hands the outcome to God. This is an act of trust, not a call to arms.
Five-point outline
- Explicit petition: “Pour out Your wrath”, a direct address to God as judge.
- Recipients specified: the nations and families that do not know or call on God.
- Grounds for judgment: knowledge withheld and the act of devouring Jacob.
- Intensified description: four verbs describing total destruction of Jacob.
- Context within the lament: this verse is the climax of a prayer that begins with confession (v.23) and plea for measured discipline (v.24).
Illustration hooks
- A family whose home has been destroyed by a natural disaster prays for help and also for the authorities to hold accountable those who exploited the tragedy. The prayer for justice is not hatred but a call for order to be restored.
- A church that has been persecuted in a hostile region prays for the salvation and, if necessary, the restraint of its oppressors. The imprecatory psalms give voice to that pain before God, even when we struggle with the words.
- When a child is bullied, a parent prays for the bully to stop, sometimes for consequences. That longing for protection is a reflection of God’s own heart for justice.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it sinful to pray for God to judge my enemies?
- How can I reconcile this verse with Jesus’ command to love and pray for my enemies (Matthew 5:44)?
- Does God still judge nations today, or is that only a future event?
Leading a Discussion
This verse confronts us with a difficult part of Scripture, a prayer for God’s wrath. As you read it together, notice how the prophet prays within a covenant relationship: he first acknowledges human inability (v.23) and asks for measured correction (v.24). Only then does he turn to the nations. The group should examine both the raw honesty of the prayer and the boundaries the prophet sets around it.
Discussion questions
- Read Jeremiah 10:23-25 together. What do you notice about the sequence of the prayer? Why does the prophet start with confession and a plea for discipline before asking for judgment on others?
- The verse says the nations “do not know You” and “do not call on Your name.” In the Old Testament, what does it mean to “know” God? (See Job 18:21; Isaiah 43:22.) How does this differ from mere information about God?
- The verbs for what the nations did to Jacob are piled up: devoured, consumed, made an end, laid waste. Why do you think the language is so intense? What does this reveal about the suffering of God’s people?
- How does this prayer compare to the imprecatory psalms (e.g., Psalm 79, 137)? Is it personally vengeful, or does it surrender justice to God? Defend your answer from the text.
- Christians often struggle with praying for judgment. How does the New Testament teaching on loving enemies (Matthew 5:44; Romans 12:14) challenge and inform our reading of this verse?
- The Cambridge Bible notes that some scholars think this verse was added later, perhaps during the Maccabean persecution. If that were true, what does it suggest about how later believers used Jeremiah’s language in their own suffering?
- How can a church pray for justice in the world today without falling into a spirit of vengeance? What safeguards does this passage itself provide?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 18:21 | Surely such are the dwellings of the unrighteous. This is the place of him who doesn’t know God.” |
| Psalms 14:4 | Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up my people as they eat bread, and don’t call on Yahweh? |
| Psalms 27:2 | When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. |
| Psalms 79:6 | Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t know you, on the kingdoms that don’t call on your name, |
| Psalms 79:7 | for they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland. |
| Isaiah 43:22 | Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. |
| Isaiah 64:7 | There is no one who calls on your name, who stirs himself up to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have consumed us by means of our iniquities. |
| Jeremiah 8:16 | The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan. The whole land trembles at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell therein.” |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
8 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke applies this verse as a warning to Christian families who neglect daily worship. He calls them spiritual Chaldeans, worse than the original ones, because they know God yet refuse to serve Him. Such households, he warns, cannot expect God's blessing on their children or property.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes draws a sharp distinction between two kinds of divine punishment: correction meant to lead to repentance, and anger poured out on the pagan nations who oppose God. He notes that Jeremiah prays for Jacob to receive only the first, measured discipline, not the second.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentary highlights a scholarly debate over whether these verses are Jeremiah's own words or a later addition. If genuine, they show the prophet making a final appeal for mercy on Judah, despite having been forbidden to intercede, while also calling God's wrath down on the surrounding nations.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
Powre out thy wrath vpon the heathen, that knowe thee not, and vpon the families that call not on thy Name: for they haue eaten vp Iaakob and deuoured him and consumed him, and haue made his habitation desolate.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill highlights a deliberate contrast: God corrects His own people in measured love, but pours out unrestrained fury on the nations ignorant of Him. He explains that "families" refers to heathen kingdoms, not individual households. The imprecation matches the utter desolation these nations caused to Israel.
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch argue that the command to "gather your bundle" is a call to prepare for exile, not a contemptuous dismissal. They interpret God's pressing them hard as a siege so effective that no one escapes the enemy. The congregation's confession "this is my suffering" expresses acceptance of the punishment, not prior carelessness.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry emphasizes the false security of the Jews who thought their land was an impregnable fortress. They were so confident that God's warning to pack up and prepare for exile came as a shocking reversal: the place they trusted would be no refuge.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley highlights that the prayer asks God to direct His fury not toward His own people but toward the heathen, defined as those who refuse to acknowledge Him. The phrase "call not" stands for the whole of worship, so the appeal is for judgment to fall on the enemies of God, not on the faithful.