Jeremiah 25:14

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation too. I will repay them for all they have done!’”

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כִּ֣י עָֽבְדוּ־בָ֤ם גַּם־הֵ֙מָּה֙ גּוֹיִ֣ם רַבִּ֔ים וּמְלָכִ֖ים גְּדוֹלִ֑ים וְשִׁלַּמְתִּ֥י לָהֶ֛ם כְּפָעֳלָ֖ם וּכְמַעֲשֵׂ֥ה יְדֵיהֶֽם׃

Transliteration

For ʿābədû in them gam-they gôyīm many and mə̄lāḵîm great, and wəšillamtî to them according to their pāʿŏlām and according to maʿăśēh their hands.

Grammar Details

• *ʿābədû*: Qal perfect, 3rd person plural - they served/enslaved
• *gam*: emphatic particle - also/even
• *gôyīm*: masculine plural noun - nations/peoples
• *mə̄lāḵîm*: masculine plural noun - kings
• *wəšillamtî*: Piel perfect, 1st person singular with waw consecutive - and I will repay/recompense
• *pāʿŏlām*: masculine singular noun with 3rd person masculine plural suffix - their deed/work
• *maʿăśēh*: masculine singular construct - work/deed of

Word Meanings

• *ʿābədû*: served/enslaved/made to work
• *gôyīm*: nations/gentiles/peoples
• *wəšillamtî*: I will repay/recompense/requite
• *pāʿŏlām*: their deed/action/work

Referenced Verses

• Jer 51:6 : 6 Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the LORD to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia back for what she has done.
• Jer 27:7 : 7 All nations must serve him and his son and grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon.
• Jer 50:9 : 9 For I will rouse into action and bring against Babylon a host of mighty nations from the land of the north. They will set up their battle lines against her. They will come from the north and capture her. Their arrows will be like a skilled soldier who does not return from the battle empty-handed.
• Jer 50:41 : 41 “Look! An army is about to come from the north. A mighty nation and many kings are stirring into action in faraway parts of the earth.
• Jer 50:29-34 : 29 “Call for archers to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, the Holy One of Israel. 30 So her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the LORD. 31 “Listen! I am opposed to you, you proud city,” says the Sovereign LORD of Heaven’s Armies.“Indeed, your day of reckoning has come, the time when I will punish you. 32 You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.” 33 The LORD of Heaven’s Armies says,“The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free. 34 But the one who will rescue them is strong. His name is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. He will strongly champion their cause. As a result he will bring peace and rest to the earth, but trouble and turmoil to the people who inhabit Babylonia.
• Jer 51:20-28 : 20 “Babylon, you are my war club, my weapon for battle. I used you to smash nations. I used you to destroy kingdoms. 21 I used you to smash horses and their riders. I used you to smash chariots and their drivers. 22 I used you to smash men and women. I used you to smash old men and young men. I used you to smash young men and young women. 23 I used you to smash shepherds and their flocks. I used you to smash farmers and their teams of oxen. I used you to smash governors and leaders.” 24 “But I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wicked things they did in Zion right before the eyes of you Judeans,” says the LORD. 25 The LORD says,“Beware! I am opposed to you, Babylon! You are like a destructive mountain that destroys all the earth. I will unleash my power against you; I will roll you off the cliffs and make you like a burned-out mountain. 26 No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone. No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house. For you will lie desolate forever,” says the LORD. 27 “Raise up battle flags throughout the lands. Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle. Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia. Call for these kingdoms to attack her: Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander to lead the attack. Send horses against her like a swarm of locusts. 28 Prepare the nations to do battle against her. Prepare the kings of the Medes. Prepare their governors and all their leaders. Prepare all the countries they rule to do battle against her.
• Jer 51:35-41 : 35 The person who lives in Zion says,“May Babylon pay for the violence done to me and to my relatives.” Jerusalem says,“May those living in Babylonia pay for the bloodshed of my people.” 36 Therefore the LORD says,“I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry. 37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. It will become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, a place where no one lives. 38 The Babylonians are all like lions roaring for prey. They are like lion cubs growling for something to eat. 39 When their appetites are all stirred up, I will set out a banquet for them. I will make them drunk so that they will pass out, they will fall asleep forever, they will never wake up,” says the LORD. 40 “I will lead them off to be slaughtered like lambs, rams, and male goats.” 41 “See how Babylon has been captured! See how the pride of the whole earth has been taken! See what an object of horror Babylon has become among the nations!
• Dan 5:28 : 28 As for peres– your kingdom is divided and given over to the Medes and Persians.”
• Hab 2:8-9 : 8 Because you robbed many countries, all who are left among the nations will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them. 9 The one who builds his house by unjust gain is as good as dead. He does this so he can build his nest way up high and escape the clutches of disaster. 10 Your schemes will bring shame to your house. Because you destroyed many nations, you will self-destruct. 11 For the stones in the walls will cry out, and the wooden rafters will answer back. 12 Woe to the one who builds a city by bloodshed– he who starts a town by unjust deeds. 13 Be sure of this! The LORD of Heaven’s Armies has decreed: The nations’ efforts will go up in smoke; their exhausting work will be for nothing. 14 For recognition of the LORD’s sovereign majesty will fill the earth just as the waters fill up the sea. 15 “Woe to you who force your neighbor to drink wine– you who make others intoxicated by forcing them to drink from the bowl of your furious anger, so you can look at their naked bodies. 16 But you will become drunk with shame, not majesty. Now it is your turn to drink and expose your uncircumcised foreskin! The cup of wine in the LORD’s right hand is coming to you, and disgrace will replace your majestic glory!
• Rev 18:20-24 : 20 (Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has pronounced judgment against her on your behalf!) 21 Then one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said,“With this kind of sudden violent force Babylon the great city will be thrown down and it will never be found again! 22 And the sound of the harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again. No craftsman who practices any trade will ever be found in you again; the noise of a mill will never be heard in you again. 23 Even the light from a lamp will never shine in you again! The voices of the bridegroom and his bride will never be heard in you again. For your merchants were the tycoons of the world, because all the nations were deceived by your magic spells! 24 The blood of the saints and prophets was found in her, along with the blood of all those who had been killed on the earth.”
• Ps 137:8 : 8 O daughter Babylon, soon to be devastated! How blessed will be the one who repays you for what you dished out to us!
• Isa 14:2 : 2 Nations will take them and bring them back to their own place. Then the family of Israel will make foreigners their servants as they settle in the LORD’s land. They will make their captors captives and rule over the ones who oppressed them.
• Isa 45:1-3 : 1 This is what the LORD says to his chosen one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I hold in order to subdue nations before him, and disarm kings, to open doors before him, so gates remain unclosed: 2 “I will go before you and level mountains. Bronze doors I will shatter and iron bars I will hack through. 3 I will give you hidden treasures, riches stashed away in secret places, so you may recognize that I am the LORD, the one who calls you by name, the God of Israel.
• Isa 66:6 : 6 The sound of battle comes from the city; the sound comes from the temple! It is the sound of the LORD paying back his enemies.