Jeremiah 25:13

13. Written in this book The difficulties in this verse have been exaggerated. On the one hand, there can be no question that this language implies the existence of a written book of Jeremiah, and is not satisfied with a merely spoken discourse. But words at first spoken more fully are here reduced to a condensed written record, in which the identifying phrase “written in this book” occurs. That the passage directly mentions the prophecies which are to come has been too hastily assumed. Against all the nations is a phrase which is perfectly intelligible in its application to prophecies already recorded. But the Septuagint divides this thirteenth verse differently. Its arrangement is inconsistent with the Masoretic punctuation, but not with the original text, and strongly commends itself to favourable consideration. The preceding passage is made to terminate at book, and the sentence immediately following is the caption of the succeeding passage What Jeremiah prophesied against the nations a title which describes the subject-matter of the passage as far as the thirty-fourth verse. And yet, even with the Masoretic pointing, the difficulty is not serious.