General Heading.
‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.'
Here we have an indication of what this final main section is all about. It deals with YHWH's ‘powerful word' (dbr YHWH) against all the nations which were affecting Judah/Israel at that time. It indicated that YHWH's judgment would be active against such nations. It must be remembered that during the time of Jeremiah's prophecies following Josiah's death in 609 BC, Babylon was the dominant nation in the ancient Near Eastern world, and we therefore learn from these prophecies how their tentacles would embrace all the nations round about, bringing YHWH's judgment on them. None would escape their attention. But the final important point is that in the end Babylon itself would succumb, overtaken by judgment from the north. In contrast God's people would arise triumphantly from the ashes. Jeremiah's message was thus that against all appearances it was to be recognised that God was still in control.
Oracles Concerning Egypt.
There are two oracles concerning Egypt. The first deals with the rout of the Egyptian armies at Carchemish as Nebuchadrezzar began to take over that part of the world (c 605 BC) after a lull following the final defeat of the Assyrians. At that stage, after a further rout at Hamath, Egypt were driven back to their own borders. The second deals with Nebuchadrezzar's ‘invasion' of Egypt in a punitive expedition which occurred decades later. Both are confirmed archaeologically, although the latter only in a fragmentary inscription.
In the second millennium BC Egypt had seen Palestine and beyond as its own special province and had mainly exercised control over it. But Egyptian power had waned and to a certain extent in the first part of the 1st millennium BC Palestine had been left to itself prior to its becoming subservient to Assyria. But at the time to which this prophecy refers Egypt under Pharaoh Necho had sought once again to exercise its authority outside its own borders and to extend its control over this and other territory, engaging in wars of belligerence, and it was his attempt to assist a weakened Assyria against the Babylonians that had resulted in his advance to the Euphrates and the death of Josiah, and the loss of Judean independence.