Bible Time

¹THE word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the 4th year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the 1st year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; ²The year in which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ³From the 13th year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, that is 23 years, the word of Yahvah has come to me and I have spoken to you, warning you in advance daily; but you did not listen. ⁴And Yahvah has sent to you all his servants the prophets, sending them in advance to warn you; but you did not listen, nor incline your ear to hear. ⁵They said, Repent every man from his evil way, and from the evil of his actions, and live in the land which Yahvah has given to you and to your fathers forever and ever; ⁶And do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke me to anger with the works of your hands; that I may not hurt you. ⁷Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahvah; but you have provoked me to anger with the works of your hands to your own harm.

⁸Therefore, thus says Yahvah of hosts: Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹Look, I will send and take all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says Yahvah, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations around it, and I will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹And this whole land will be a desolation and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon 70 years. ¹²And it will come to pass when 70 years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his people for their iniquities, says Yahvah; and the land of the Chaldeans, I will also make it a perpetual desolation. ¹³And I will bring on that land all words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴For many nations and great kings will also enslave them; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their own hands.

¹⁵For thus says Yahvah of hosts, the God of Israel to me: Take the wine cup of this fury from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶And they will drink, and be dazed and be troubled because of the sword which I am sending among them. ¹⁷Then I took the cup from Yahvah's hand, and made all the nations to whom Yahvah had sent me drink it: ¹⁸Even to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, as it is this day; ¹⁹And to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his servants and his princes and all his people ²⁰And all his borders and all the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the land of the Philistines and Ashkelon and Gaza and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod ²¹Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon ²²And all the kings of Tyre and all the kings of Zidon and the kings of the islands which are beyond the sea ²³Deran and Tema and Buz and all of those who cut their beards ²⁴And all the kings whose boundaries are close to each other and all the kings of Arabia who live in the desert ²⁵And all the kings of Zimran and all the kings of Elam and all the kings of the Medes ²⁶And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth; and the king of the Parthians will drink after them. ²⁷Therefore, you will say to them, Thus says Yahvah of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink and get drunk and stagger and fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. ²⁸And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you will say to them, Thus says Yahvah of hosts: You will certainly drink. ²⁹For look, I begin to bring evil on this city which is called by my name, and you will not be left unpunished, you will not be blameless; for I am calling for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahvah of hosts.

³⁰Therefore, you will prophesy against them all these words, and say to them, Yahvah will roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he will mightily roar against his fold; he will shout, Hurrah, hurrah, like those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. ³¹The noise will reach even to the ends of the earth; for Yahvah will contend against the nations; he will judge all flesh, and the wicked he will deliver to the sword, says Yahvah. ³²Thus says Yahvah of hosts, the God of Israel, Look, evil will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind will be raised up from the ends of the earth. ³³And those who are slain by Yahvah will be on that day from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; they will not be lamented, nor mourned, nor wept over, nor gathered, nor buried; but they will be like refuse on the face of the ground. ³⁴Howl, you shepherds, and cry; wallow in the ashes, you who have great flocks; for the days of your slaughter are at hand, and you will be broken, and fall like choice vessels. ³⁵And the shepherds will not find the way to flee, nor will the rams of the flock escape. ³⁶A voice of the cry of shepherds, and the bleating of the rams of the flock will be heard; for Yahvah has plundered their flocks. ³⁷And the peaceful folds are destroyed because of the fierce anger of Yahvah. ³⁸For they have deserted his fold like a lion that has forsaken his lair; for their land is desolate because of the anger of Yahvah and because of the presence of his fierce anger.