Jeremiah 25:26

And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another,.... That were on the north of Judea, the kings of Syria, and those that were near to the kingdom of Babylon, whether more remote from

And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

All the kings of the north, far and near; all under the government of the Chaldeans, or (as others) all those princes that have dominions between the north and east. All the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth; that is, in those parts of the world which were at that time known, with whom there was ordinary commerce. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them; and the king of Babylon, who was last of all to drink of this cup of the Lord’ s fury. That he is here meant is plain from , where Sheshach is thus interpreted. But why Babylon is called Sheshach is a harder question, and not easily resolved. Those who think the prophet gives Babylon here another name to avoid an odium fresh the king of Babylon, at this time their enemy, neither consider the usual courage of this prophet, nor that he speaks plainly enough, , where he mentioneth both Babylon and Sheshach, and expoundeth the latter by the former. It is thought that Babylon is called Sheshach from the name of an idol called Shach which they worshipped, to whose honour they yearly kept a festival for five days together, which they called Shace, and they say that during this festival Cyrus took Babylon. But these are all uncertain guesses; it is enough for us to know that by the king of Sheshach is meant the king of Babel, as the prophet expounds himself, .

Jeremiah 25:26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which [are] upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.Ver. 26. And all the kingdoms.] See on Jeremiah 25:16. And the king of Sheshak,] i.e., Belshazzar, that bezzling king of Babylon, while he is quaffing in the vessels of God’ s house to the honour of Shat, the Babylonian goddess; whence those feast days were called σακεαιημεραι, being like the Roman Saturnalia. Antichrist also, who hath troubled all the kingdoms of the earth, shall himself perish, together with his Babylon the great, which hath made the nations drunk with the wine of her fornications. Shesac, id est poculum laetitiae aut vanitatis, vel sericum tuum.

(26) The kings of the north.—The term is used generally (the Jews knowing comparatively little of the detailed geography of that region, the Grog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal of Ezekiel 38, 39), as in Jeremiah 1:14, for the Scythians and other nations lying between the Caspian Sea and the Tigris. In the corresponding passage of Jer 51:27, Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz are specially named. The kingdoms of the world.—The words are, of course, limited by the horizon of the prophet’s vision. As the “world” of the New Testament writers was the Roman Empire, so in the life of Jeremiah it was identical with that of Babylon. (Comp. Daniel 2:38; Daniel 4:22.) The king of Sheshach.—The name, which obviously is, from its position, the culminating point of the whole prophecy, is found only here and in Jeremiah 51:41. No city or country bearing this name is mentioned in the Old Testament or in any ancient writer. The traditional Rabbinic explanation is beyond doubt the true one. We have here the earliest known example of the use of a cypher-writing to disguise the meaning of what was written from all but the initiated. The cypher in this instance, known by the significant name of ATBASH (i.e., A taking the place of T, and T of A, B of SH, and SH of B, and so on), consisted in the use of the Hebrew alphabet in an inverted order, thus giving SHeSHaCH as an equivalent for BaBeL. This, then, was the crowning mystery reserved to the last. The Chaldæan kingdom was to do its work as the scourge of God upon the nations; but it was simply an instrument in His hand, as the Assyrians had been in their day (Isaiah 10:15); and when the work was done, the law of a righteous retribution would be felt by it and by its rulers. It adds to the point of the enigma that the word Sheshach would suggest to an Hebrew, taking its probable etymology, the idea of “crouching” or “sinking.” It may be noted (1) that the use of such a cypher seems to belong to the same mental characteristics as the prominence of the Hebrew alphabet in the acrostic structure of the Lamentations; (2) that the name is omitted by the LXX. both here and in Jeremiah 51:41; and (3) that another instance of the same cypher is found in Jeremiah 51:1. The second fact is presumptive evidence that it was not found in the copy which the Greek translators had before them; and the natural inference from this is that there were two editions of the prophecy even in the prophet’s time—one with and the other without the enigmatic word, the latter being probably the earlier of the two, the former adding, for the comfort of Israel, at once the limits of their exile (Jeremiah 25:14), and this intimation (so veiled that the Chaldæans, if they came across it, would not be likely to understand its meaning) of the way in which it would at last be brought to its close.

Verse 26. The kings of the north, far and near] The first may mean Syria; the latter, the Hyrcanians and Bactrians. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.] Sheshach was an ancient king of Babylon, who was deified after his death. Here it means either Babylon, or Nebuchadnezzar the king of it. After it has been the occasion of ruin to so many other nations, Babylon itself shall be destroyed by the Medo-Persians.

26. of the world] rightly omitted by LXX. It is clear that Jeremiah 25:25-26 bear traces of modification in consonance with later Jewish views as to the end of the dispensation. which are upon the face of the earth] This would not suggest to the Jewish ear, as it does to us, the thought of absolutely universal dominion on the part of Babylon. This we see from such passages as Daniel 2:38; Daniel 4:22, where the sense intended to be conveyed cannot be in accordance with the sense of the words taken literally. Sheshach, etc.] This clause also is absent from LXX, and doubtless is a later insertion. Sheshach=Babel (Babylon) in accordance with a system of cypher writing. It took different forms, of which this (called Atbash) consists in substituting the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet for the first, the last but one for the second and so on. ShShCh will on this principle take the places of BBL. Cp. Jeremiah 51:41, where Sheshach and Babylon occur in parallel clauses. See also in Jeremiah 51:1, where the Hebrew (Le B Ka Ma Y) becomes, when thus transmuted, CaSDIM = Chaldaeans, the actual rendering of the Septuagint. They omit Sheshach in Jeremiah 51:41. The word to the Hebrew ear suggested sinking, humiliation, and thus alluded to Babylon’s eventual punishment, which, however, is foreign to the thought of the passage. shall drink after them] The turn of Babylon itself shall come to perish.

All the kingdoms of the world ... - In accordance with the usage of Holy Scripture this universality is limited. It is moral and not geographical.

26. Kings of the north — Completing the survey. Sheshach — See also Jeremiah 51:41. In the opinion of many we have here and in Jeremiah 51:1, an example of that cabalistic figure called the atbash.