Sefer Yirmiyahu, chapter 25. "The word that came to Yirmiyahu concerning all the people of Yehudah in the fourth year of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu king of Yehudah, which was the first year of Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel." "The word that came to Yirmiyahu concerning (al)" - the Malbim explains that here al means like el, that is, the prophecy that came to Yirmiyahu concerning all the people of Yehudah. A prophecy in relation to the people of Yehudah. When did this happen? In the fourth year of Yehoyakim son of Yoshiyahu. Rashi says this was the year in which their sentence was sealed that they would be exiled and drink the cup of wrath. As it says later, "Take the cup of wrath" and so on. And here, since we are speaking about the sentence, therefore before the sentence He sends the prophet to rebuke them. Perhaps in the end this cup of wrath would not be imposed upon them, perhaps their sentence would not be sealed for evil, perhaps they would repent. Therefore "the word that came to Yirmiyahu concerning all the people of Yehudah in the fourth year," a moment before the exile.
"Which Yirmiyahu the prophet spoke concerning all the people of Yehudah and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, saying." What is "which Yirmiyahu the prophet spoke concerning all the people of Yehudah"? The Radak explains, just as the Malbim explained el for "to Yirmiyahu," so the Radak explains here el. The word that Yirmiyahu the prophet spoke to all the people of Yehudah and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, saying. In contrast, the Malbim here does not explain the al in the sense of el, but rather the Malbim explains that there were two groups. There were the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and the prophet was in Yerushalayim, so to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim he speaks in the second person, present before him. In contrast, the people of Yehudah: Yehudah is a district, it is also outside Yerushalayim, and the inhabitants of Yehudah were not there facing him, facing the prophet. So consequently, when you want to say to whom he is speaking, I say: he speaks to the inhabitants of Yerushalayim, and he speaks about the inhabitants of Yehudah, because the inhabitants of Yehudah are not here, so I will not say that he speaks to them. So he speaks about them, because he is saying what will happen to them, so he speaks about them. And those who are here he addresses face to face, so he speaks to them. Therefore the Malbim says: concerning all the people of Yehudah who are not here, and to all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim with whom he speaks face to face, saying.
"From the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu son of Amon king of Yehudah until this day, these twenty three years, the word of Hashem has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not listen. And Hashem sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending, but you did not listen and you did not incline your ear to hear. Saying: Return now every man from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell upon the land that Hashem gave to you and to your fathers forever and ever. And do not go after other gods to serve them and to bow to them, and do not provoke Me with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm. But you did not listen to Me, says Hashem, so as to provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own harm." I wanted us to have some overview of where the prophecy here is heading. He opens with when the prophecy actually began. And then he says to them, from the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu son of Amon king of Yehudah until this day. How much is that? Twenty three years. So Rashi and the Radak do the calculation. Yoshiyahu king of Yehudah reigned thirty one years. In the thirteenth year, that is, after twelve years of his reign, in the thirteenth year Yirmiyahu's prophecy began. It turns out that Yirmiyahu prophesied in the days of Yoshiyahu for nineteen years, because he begins only after twelve years of his reign; in the thirteenth year he begins the prophecy. So thirty one minus the first twelve years in which he did not prophesy leaves us with nineteen. So it comes out that in the time of Yoshiyahu he prophesies nineteen years. Now we are not in the time of Yoshiyahu, we have already passed that period, we are in the fourth year of his son Yehoyakim. So nineteen years plus four years that Yehoyakim has already reigned makes twenty three years. We have reached twenty three years.
"And behold I speak to you, rising early and speaking." What is "rising early and speaking" (haskeim vedabeir, written with an aleph, ashkim)? Here the commentators explain that the aleph stands in place of a hei, like haskeim vedabeir, and the yod is extra. The Malbim explains that there is a possibility to say that the prophet here is speaking about himself, because afterward, in the next verse, he speaks: I sent the prophets, rising early and sending. So they are "rising early" (in the hei form), whereas "I" would be ashkim, like ashkim, "I rise early." As it were, the prophet speaks about himself, and therefore the Malbim gives an explanation for why it is with an aleph. And here in fact the Malbim comes to explain that he comes to tell them and detail for them: come and see how every option was exhausted. How all the possibilities available to bring you close, all of them have already been taken. He says: first of all, look who is the sender, the word of Hashem. There is here a divine speech to you, to the people. And with all this you were not willing to listen. Second, from the side of the messenger: "and I spoke to you," I spoke to you, and the messenger is a prophet of Hashem. Third, this was not just one time. You might say, perhaps He said it once, yes, I remember something, it was long ago, we forgot. No, he says, this is "I rise early and speak," every day we sent them anew. And another thing: you might say, perhaps that particular prophet, we did not connect with him. Yes, "and Hashem sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending." Not only me, but also all His servants. "And you did not listen and you did not incline your ear to hear." He says, and this was not just once, but "rising early and sending," meaning again and again. And with all this you did not listen and did not accept, and moreover, you did not even incline your ear to hear. Meaning, even to see, perhaps after all we might see something, even if not to accept, but at least incline an ear, even that you did not want.
"Saying: Return now every man from his evil way" - I told you good prophecies. "Return now every man from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell upon the land that Hashem gave to you and to your fathers forever and ever." That is, this prophecy was given to you so that you would return from your evil ways and dwell upon the land. That is, if you return from your corrupt way, Hashem will watch over you for good; dwell upon the land forever. And notice, and not only that, even if you do not return from the rest of the transgressions, but "do not go after other gods to serve them and to bow to them, and do not provoke Me with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm." Do you hear? He is in fact giving two options. One option: return completely from your corrupt ways, and I will watch over you for good. He tells them, dwell upon the land that Hashem gave to you and to your fathers forever and ever, He will give it to you and to your children forever. That is what is called a package of benefits. But even if you will not be so successful in your repentance, at least do not go after other gods. Even if you remain in the rest of the transgressions, but at least the worst of all, to serve idolatry, to serve them and to bow to them, at least that, do not provoke Me with the work of your hands. And then what is the benefit here? "And I will do you no harm." Here there is no promise that I will do you good, since you continue in the rest of your corrupt deeds. But in any case, what is there? I will not do you harm. What does "I will not do you harm" mean? Although I will not turn to do you good, because you will not return, but I will not actively do you harm; rather, notice, you will be under nature. If you serve idolatry, then with full providence I will harm you. But if you do not serve idolatry, then at least I will leave you in the hand of nature and I will not do you harm through providence.
"But you did not listen to Me, says Hashem, so as to provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own harm." "But you did not listen to Me, says Hashem" - you did not heed. "So as to provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own harm" - the meaning is, notice, "provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own harm," listen to what a wonderful explanation the Malbim gives. You provoked Me with the work of your hands so that I was forced to do you harm. We saw a very wonderful explanation of this in the Nefesh HaChaim, that the Nefesh HaChaim explains that in fact when a person commits a transgression, he sins doubly. The one sin: you provoked Hashem. Hashem said not to do it and you did it. Now the Holy One, blessed be He, must give you a punishment. And the moment Hashem gives you a punishment, the Shechinah grieves. You provoked Hashem again. You grieved Hashem again. Because Hashem must punish you, and He has grief in this. What does the Shechinah say? "My head is heavy, My arm is heavy." So the Shechinah grieves. So there is here a double grief to the Shechinah. Each time you rebelled against Hashem's word, and once when you forced Hashem to punish you, He grieves over this. Something like this the Malbim says here as well. "Provoke Me with the work of your hands to your own harm." You provoked Me in that, through the work of your hands, I was compelled to harm you, and Hashem does not desire to harm His creatures. So in this too you provoked the Holy One, blessed be He, that He was forced to bring evil upon you.
"Therefore, thus said Hashem of hosts: Because you did not listen to My words, behold I send and take all the families of the north, says Hashem, and to Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel My servant, and I will bring them upon this land and upon its inhabitants, and upon all these nations round about, and I will destroy them and make them a desolation, a hissing, and everlasting ruins." Hashem says, since you did not listen to My words, meaning the rebuke with which I rebuked you, therefore "behold I send and take all the families of the north, says Hashem, and to Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel My servant." The Radak explains that "and to Nevuchadretzar" refers back to the sending. I send and take all the families of the north, says Hashem, and I also send to Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel My servant. And I will bring them all upon this land and upon its inhabitants. All the families of the north and also Nevuchadnetzar king of Bavel My servant. I will bring them, "and upon all these nations round about, and I will destroy them and make them a desolation, a hissing, and everlasting ruins." What do all the nations have to do with it? Fine, you say "I will bring them upon this land and upon its inhabitants," as He said before, I rebuked you for years and you did not listen, so now I will bring upon you the trouble and disaster of which I have already been speaking for years. But what is the relevance of saying "and upon all these nations round about, and I will destroy them"? That is to say, the trouble will come also upon the nations, and them too I will destroy and make them a desolation, a hissing, and everlasting ruins.
The Malbim explains that through My punishing you, I will also punish all the nations. Since Chazal say that no calamity comes to the world except on account of Israel. What is the meaning of this? Says the Malbim, at that time the astral configuration, beyond what we just explained, the configuration required that Nevuchadnetzar be ruler. That is, according to the fortune it was so decreed. So the stars of the configuration indicate. The configuration is in fact not individual to us; rather the configuration includes us and includes the nations as well. But what is the difference? Israel are above the fortune. That is, we are able to perform actions to leave the fortune. To leave the indication of the configuration. And what the stars indicate and what the fortune indicates, we have the power to leave that indication. And in this state, in which Israel are not worthy, we do not have the merit to leave what the configuration indicates. If we truly were worthy, notice what would then happen. The Holy One, blessed be He, would overturn the reality, overturn the configuration. And then Nevuchadnetzar was supposed to rule? No, the reverse. Since we are worthy, we would humble and eliminate Nevuchadnetzar. Notice what would then happen: that the nations too would profit from this. Since Nevuchadnetzar's rule was not only over us, it was also over the nations. Now, thus the configuration indicated. But the only ones who have the power to act against the configuration are we. And if we had performed some action against the configuration, then we would have succeeded in saving the nations too from this trouble. Because if we had succeeded in performing some action through Hashem's providence, in that Israel are not under the fortune, they are above the fortune, then the Holy One, blessed be He, would have subdued Nevuchadnetzar. If He had subdued Nevuchadnetzar, then consequently Nevuchadnetzar would not have oppressed the nations either. It comes out, then, that through our not listening, the indication of the configuration was now fulfilled upon the nations as well. It comes out that in the end the matter again returns to us. So beyond the fact that when we sin the Holy One, blessed be He, brings calamity to the world, and the calamity in fact sweeps over everything, and there is no calamity that comes to the world that does not come except on account of Israel, beyond that, the very reality that we are not worthy, we were unable to nullify the indication of the configuration, and consequently this configuration was fulfilled, the indication of the configuration, meaning the stars and the constellations, this thing was fulfilled both upon us and upon the nations.
Therefore he explains, we will see further on, that in verse eleven he says, "and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years." It is not for nothing that seventy years is written. The Abarbanel says, each of the seven stars, the seven planets, has its own special time, its own special reckoning of years, how much it influences. The sum of all the influences of the seven planets is seventy years. And with this he in fact comes to indicate that Nevuchadnetzar received from the stars, as we explained. Certainly the stars are not an independent power; everything is from Him, blessed be He. Mazal is from the language of abundance descending, flowing and influencing from the upper worlds downward. So do not think that we are here in the corrupt view of the nations who saw everything in the stars. Rather the meaning is, the Holy One, blessed be He, gave and leads the world in this reality through the influence of the stars. Here it is written seventy years, that is his rule. Because in truth the indication of the stars is for seventy years. The sum of all the indication of the stars is seventy years. This thing, then, comes to indicate that all seven stars indicate the reign of Nevuchadnetzar, until the cycle of all seven stars passes, which means seventy years, only then will the absolute kingdom of Nevuchadnetzar fall, only then, as it is called, will the wheel turn over.
The Malbim says, here one must note a precision in the language of the verse. It is written "and I will destroy them and make them a desolation, a hissing, and everlasting ruins." Says the Malbim, when we examine which is more, desolation (shamah) or everlasting ruins, then certainly desolation is something harsher, shemamah. It means desolation. And if so, we have already said several times that always when I come to speak of an evil thing, I go on adding, going on intensifying. Here it goes the opposite way, you go on lightening. First desolation and after that everlasting ruins. Desolation is less severe than everlasting ruins. Rather, he says, know that desolation compared to ruin, it is true that desolation is more severe. But everlasting ruins is more severe than desolation. And why? Because desolation means everything is desolate. But it may very well be that at some point things will begin to grow here and the land will give its yield and everything will return to life. But what happens with the houses that were destroyed then? They still remain destroyed. That is called everlasting ruins. So although the land will give its fruit and although all the desolation that was here will already be forgotten, but the ruins still remain. So it comes out, then, that everlasting ruins is more severe. Since everlasting ruins is forever. Until they rebuild the destroyed houses, they still remain as ruin. And therefore it is "a desolation and everlasting ruins."
The Metzudat Tziyon explains that shamah is from the language of astonishment. That a person sees this thing and is astonished, that is called shamah. And "a hissing" (sherekah) means producing a sound by pursing the lips, that is sherekah. That is what we call a whistle. And we saw this several times: "everyone who passes by shall be astonished and hiss." What is "be astonished"? Be amazed. Be amazed means from the language of astonishment. And hiss, as a person whistles in shock, so this will be the reality that people will see what happened to the land that was a praiseworthy land and suddenly they will see it destroyed.
Let us note that the verse here calls Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel "My servant." Do not confuse this with what is written, for example, regarding Moshe, "servant of Hashem." Because what is written regarding Moshe, "servant of Hashem," means that Moshe nullified all his desires for the honor of the Creator, blessed be He. So Moshe became a servant of Hashem in the full sense of the word. In this respect he is called servant of Hashem. In contrast, there is an aspect of "servant," as when I tell you, so-and-so is my servant. What does that mean? Every mission on which I send him, he goes. That is what is written here. Says the Metzudat David, "to Nevuchadretzar king of Bavel My servant," the meaning is that he will go on My mission. That is the meaning of "My servant." Not a title of honor, but someone who will carry out and bring into actuality the will of the Creator, at His command, blessed be He.
"And I will remove from them the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp." Now he will describe the magnitude of the breakage. And he says, "and I will remove from them the sound of joy and the sound of gladness." When a person's situation is good, when he is in success, he has the sound of joy and the sound of gladness. Everything with him is joyful. Joy. He says, not only that, but also "the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride." The voice of the groom and the voice of the bride is not only in a time of success, but constantly, when there is settlement in the world, when there is existence, there is life, there are unions. He says, this too will not be. There will be a situation where even unions will not be. So not only will there not be joy over excessive success and good, but even unions, which is what is called something expected and trivial, even that will not be. And not only that, also "the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp." Even when the land is destroyed, but in any case one needs millstones to prepare and make ready the food. One needs the light of a lamp to live within the house. He says, know that the reality will be that all this will be lost. There will be no sound of millstones and no sound of a lamp, since the land will be utterly desolate. So that is to say, even vinedressers and farmers will not remain here, nothing will remain here.
Chazal say that the sound of millstones comes to signify a meal of a mitzvah. They would perform a brit milah, so they would grind spices for medicine. So the sound of millstones is what they would do for the sake of the brit, to grind spices. So there will not be the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, which is the joy of marriage, and also not the joy of a brit milah, which is the sound of millstones, to grind spices for the healing of the infant. And the light of the lamp, this refers to a feast. That at feasts they would light many lamps. The Radak also explains that this refers to a feast of joy, only he explains that they would grind spices for the feast of joy. It comes out that according to the Radak the grinding here is for the sake of the food itself. In contrast, according to how Rashi explains, the grinding is for the sake of spices for the healing of the milah, yes, for the healing of the infant. And the lamps, as Rashi said, so too the Radak says, that they would light many lamps in the feasting house. As the Targum says, "the voice of those who praise by the light of the lamps." Those who laud and praise by the light of the lamps. The Malbim says, what is the difference between gladness (simchah) and joy (sason)? Says the Malbim, sason is outward, and simchah is in the heart. "You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and their wine increased." In contrast sason, sason is when a person rejoices and exults, his gladness bursts its bounds, it goes outward.
"And all this land shall become a ruin, a desolation, and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years." The entire land will be a ruin, a desolation. "A ruin" - that is to say, besides being ruined more than all, with all the lands, as we saw above that the destruction will be a comprehensive destruction, because Nevuchadnetzar will rule over all the lands, it will be ruined and desolate in a manner unique to it, since it will rebel against Nevuchadnetzar. The rest of the peoples will not rebel against him. The rest of the peoples will serve Bavel seventy years. "And all this land shall become a ruin, a desolation, and these nations shall serve the king of Bavel seventy years." They will serve the king of Bavel seventy years, and therefore with them there will not be complete ruin and desolation. But you will rebel, therefore this land will be a unique ruin and desolation. And why do we explain thus? Because you already said before that everything will be a ruin and desolation. So what did you now add? I added that there will be a destruction unique to this land, because it will rebel, whereas the rest of the nations will come under the yoke of the king of Bavel for seventy years and will not rebel against him.
"And it shall be, when seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Bavel and upon that nation, says Hashem, their iniquity, and upon the land of the Kasdim, and I will make it everlasting desolations." The Holy One, blessed be He, says, after the king of Bavel carries out the decree that I decreed, and this is the aspect of "My servant," that he fulfills My command, afterward he will be punished. As the Gemara says, the Holy One, blessed be He, came to destroy Yerushalayim and to wipe His hands on that man. That is the reason he turned back, Nero Caesar turned back. Why? Since he understood that in the end the Holy One, blessed be He, would, as it is called, wipe His hands on that man. That is to say, whoever does this thing will pay a heavy price. So this too is what happens here. "When seventy years are completed, I will visit upon the king of Bavel and upon that nation, says Hashem." The meaning is, not only upon the king of Bavel will I visit, but also upon that nation. What is "that"? "That," explains the Malbim, refers back to what I said before, upon the king of Bavel and upon that nation, Bavel. The meaning is the nation of Bavel, meaning the royal city. I will visit their iniquity, that they destroyed lands, "and upon the land of the Kasdim, and I will make it everlasting desolations." The meaning is the land of the Kasdim in its entirety. Bavel was the royal city, and the land of the Kasdim was the comprehensive place, called the land of the Kasdim. Upon all of them I will visit all that they did and afflicted the inhabitants of the world. How "when seventy years are completed"? The Radak does the calculation, we will do it briefly. Says the Radak, Nevuchadnetzar himself reigned forty five years. How do we know this? Because Evil Merodach his son reigned in the thirty sixth year of the exile of King Yehoyachin, as is written at the end of Sefer Melachim, and also at the end of this book. Yehoyachin was exiled in the eighth year of Nevuchadnetzar. There you reach forty five. Evil Merodach reigned twenty three years. How do you reach this? Because we found that Belshatzar his son reigned three years. Together we are left from twenty six with twenty three remaining. The three were not completed for Belshatzar, because in the third year he was killed. Calculation: forty five, twenty three, that is sixty eight. Two years for Belshatzar, because he did not complete that year, that is seventy. Here we received together the three generations that were promised to Nevuchadnetzar because of the matter that he went and returned the letter and so on. Three generations that were promised to him, that is he and his son and his grandson. That is Nevuchadnetzar forty five, Evil Merodach twenty three, and Belshatzar his grandson two years, close to three years, together you received seventy years. Therefore he says "when seventy years are completed I will visit upon the king of Bavel." Why does he not say "in the completion"? Because Belshatzar was only in the third year, and therefore it comes out that one cannot say it is exactly precise, but rather it is "like the completion," the kaf of approximation.
"And I will bring upon that land all My words that I have spoken concerning it, all that is written in this book, which Yirmiyahu prophesied concerning all the nations." "And I will bring upon that land all My words that I have spoken concerning it" - this is the prophecy that Yirmiyahu prophesied, a unique prophecy that he prophesied concerning Bavel, and it appears at the end of his book, Sefer Yirmiyahu. "And all that is written in the book concerning all the nations" - that also the prophecies that Yirmiyahu prophesied from chapter forty six, from where he begins "which was the word of Hashem to Yirmiyahu concerning all the nations," all the prophecies that he prophesied concerning all the nations He will bring also upon Bavel. That is to say, besides receiving your personal portion, there is also a prophecy concerning all the nations, and the prophecy concerning all the nations includes Bavel, that it too is like all the nations. And then, if so, it comes out that they will receive an increased dosage.
"For many nations and great kings shall enslave them too, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands." "For many nations shall enslave them too." All the nations that until now Bavel oppressed, harmed, they will enslave Bavel and they will return to them all the evils they did to them. That is to say, all that you oppressed the nations, the nations will now exact from you. Rashi says that we are speaking here about Madai, about Paras, who will in the end exact from the Kasdim. And through this, "and I will repay them according to their deeds," they will receive back the evil they did to others, measure for measure. Notice, it is written "and I will repay them according to their deeds (poalam) and according to the work of their hands (ma'aseh yedeihem)." Says the Malbim, what is the difference between poalam and ma'aseh yedeihem? Says the Malbim, poalam is the engagement in the matter. The very fact that a person is engaged in something, that is called poel. In contrast, ma'aseh yedeihem is the conclusion, the completion, the finish. He says, for this I will repay them for the very deed, and also for the very engagement, that he was engaged in order to bring the deed into actuality. Not only for the work of their hands, but also for their engagement. The meaning is, for when you were engaged in bringing the deed into actuality, the matter was done with cruelty, with fury, out of an evil heart. He says, this too will come into account. That is to say, the Holy One, blessed be He, will repay both for the very deed and for its quality. In what quality it was and in what form it was, for this too the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact from them.