Jer 27:5-8 | JFB | STEP | 5. God here, as elsewhere, connects with the symbol doctrine, which is as it were its soul, without which it would be not only cold and frivolous, but even dead [Calvin]. God's mention of His supreme power is in order to refute the pride of those who rely on their own power ( ). given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me-- ( , ; , 25, 32). Not for his merits, but of My own sole good pleasure [Estius].

‏ Jeremiah 27:5-8

5. God here, as elsewhere, connects with the symbol doctrine, which is as it were its soul, without which it would be not only cold and frivolous, but even dead [Calvin]. God's mention of His supreme power is in order to refute the pride of those who rely on their own power (Is 45:12).

given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me--(Psa 115:15, 16; Da 4:17, 25, 32). Not for his merits, but of My own sole good pleasure [Estius].

6. beasts of the field--not merely the horses to carry his Chaldean soldiers, and oxen to draw his provisions [Grotius]; not merely the deserts, mountains, and woods, the haunts of wild beasts, implying his unlimited extent of empire [Estius]; but the beasts themselves by a mysterious instinct of nature. A reproof to men that they did not recognize God's will, which the very beasts acknowledged (compare Is 1:3). As the beasts are to submit to Christ, the Restorer of the dominion over nature, lost by the first Adam (compare Ge 1:28; 2:19, 20; Psa 8:6-8), so they were appointed to submit to Nebuchadnezzar, the representative of the world power and prefigurer of Antichrist; this universal power was suffered to be held by him to show the unfitness of any to wield it "until He come whose right it is" (Eze 21:27).

7. son ... son's son--(2Ch 36:20). Nebuchadnezzar had four successors--Evil-merodach, his son; Neriglissar, husband of Nebuchadnezzar's daughter; his son, Labosodarchod; and Naboned (with whom his son, Belshazzar, was joint king), son of Evil-merodach. But Neriglissar and Labosodarchod were not in the direct male line; so that the prophecy held good to "his son and his son's son," and the intermediate two are omitted.

time of his land--that is, of its subjugation or its being "visited" in wrath (Jr 27:22; Jr 25:12; 29:10; 50:27; Da 5:26).

serve themselves of him--make him their servant (Jr 25:14; Is 13:22). So "his day" for the destined day of his calamity (Job 18:20).

8. until I have consumed them by his hand--until by these consuming visitations I have brought them under his power.