The extent of the Lord’s judgment is made clear once again. Judgment begins with Judah, the Lord’s fold
(Jeremiah 25:30), but the clamor will resound to the ends of the earth.
The Hebrew word for clamor
is saon and it refers to the noise that a large crowd makes. It may be a reference to a large army gathering, in this case the Babylonian army, which is the Lord’s instrument of judgment against the nations.1
The reason given for the clamour
is that the Lord has an indictment against the nations.
This is the language of a lawsuit. The Hebrew word rib is used again as it was when Jeremiah described the case of covenant unfaithfulness that the Lord has brought against Judah (see Jeremiah 2:1–37). Here the accused is not Judah, but the nations. The whole world is guilty of unfaithfulness to the one who created them and to whom they must answer. The Lord is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword.
The scope of the Lord’s judgment is clearly universal; the whole of humanity stands accused before him.
31 The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD has an indictment against the nations; he is entering into judgment with all flesh, and the wicked he will put to the sword,declares the LORD.’