Jeremias 25:9
Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- ecce ego mittam et assumam universas cognationes aquilonis, ait Dominus, et Nabuchodonosor regem Babylonis servum meum, et adducam eos super terram istam, et super habitatores ejus, et super omnes nationes quæ in circuitu illius sunt : et interficiam eos, et ponam eos in stuporem et in sibilum, et in solitudines sempiternas.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἀποστέλλω καὶ λήμψομαι πατριὰν ἀπὸ βορρᾶ, καὶ ἄξω αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν ταύτην καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας αὐτὴν καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα τὰ ἔθνη τὰ κύκλῳ αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐξερημώσω αὐτοὺς καὶ δώσω αὐτοὺς εἰς ἀφανισμὸν καὶ εἰς συριγμὸν καὶ εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν αἰώνιον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הִנְנִ֣י שֹׁלֵ֡חַ וְלָקַחְתִּי֩ אֶת כָּל מִשְׁפְּח֨וֹת צָפ֜וֹן נְאֻם יְהוָ֗ה וְאֶל נְבֽוּכַדְרֶאצַּ֣ר מֶֽלֶךְ בָּבֶל֮ עַבְדִּי֒ וַהֲבִ֨אֹתִ֜ים עַל הָאָ֤רֶץ הַזֹּאת֙ וְעַל יֹ֣שְׁבֶ֔יהָ וְעַ֛ל כָּל הַגּוֹיִ֥ם הָאֵ֖לֶּה סָבִ֑יב וְהַ֣חֲרַמְתִּ֔ים וְשַׂמְתִּים֙ לְשַׁמָּ֣ה וְלִשְׁרֵקָ֔ה וּלְחָרְב֖וֹת עוֹלָֽם
Haydock's commentary
My servant. So this wicked king is here called; because God made him his instrument in punishing the sins of his people. (Challoner) (Worthington)
He thought himself more than man, but he was only the rod destined for the fire.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily I on Rom. i. 1, 2
“Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ.” Why did God change his name, and call him Paul who was Saul? It was, that he might not even in this respect come short of the Apostles, but that that preëminence which the chief of the Disciples had, he might also acquire ( Mark iii. 16 ); and have whereon to ground a closer union with them. And he calls himself, the servant of Christ, yet not merely this; for there be many sorts of servitude. One owing to the Creation, according to which it says, “for all are Thy servants” ( Ps. cxix. 91 ); and according to which it says, “Nebuchadnezzar, My servant” ( Jer. xxv. 9 ), for the work is the servant of Him which made it. …