Prophecy of the Captivity

25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the ^(A)fourth year of ^(B)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the ^(C)first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ² the word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the ^(D)people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ³ “From the ^(E)thirteenth year of ^(F)Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, ^[a]these ^(G)twenty-three years the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken to you ^(H)again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ And the Lord has sent to you all His ^(I)servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear, ⁵ saying, ‘^(J)Turn now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land which the Lord has given to you and your forefathers ^(K)forever and ever; ⁶ and ^(L)do not follow other gods to ^[b]serve them and to ^[c]worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will do you no harm.’ ⁷ Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the Lord, “in order to ^(M)provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ “Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says: ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, ⁹ behold, I will ^(N)send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^(O)My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will ^[d]completely destroy them and ^(P)make them an object of horror and ^[e]hissing, and an everlasting place of ruins. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will ^(Q)eliminate from them the voice of jubilation and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the ^(R)sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ^11 (S)This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for ^(T)seventy years.

Babylon Will Be Judged

¹² ‘Then it will be ^(U)when seventy years are completed I will ^(V)punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares the Lord, ‘for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and ^(W)I will make it an everlasting desolation. ¹³ I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in ^(X)this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against ^(Y)all the nations. ¹⁴ (^[f]For ^(Z)many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will ^(AA)repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’”

¹⁵ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this ^(AB)cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and give it to all the nations to whom I send you, to drink from it. ¹⁶ Then they will ^(AC)drink and loudly vomit and act insanely because of the sword that I am going to send among them.”

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and ^(AD)gave it to all the nations to whom the Lord sent me, to drink from it: ¹⁸ To ^(AE)Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and its kings and its officials, to make them places of ruins, objects of horror, ^[g]hissing, and a curse, as it is this day; ¹⁹ To ^(AF)Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ and to all the ^(AG)foreign ^[h]people, all the kings of the ^(AH)land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the ^(AI)Philistines (that is, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of ^(AJ)Ashdod); ²¹ To ^(AK)Edom, ^(AL)Moab, and the sons of ^(AM)Ammon; ²² and to all the kings of ^(AN)Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of ^(AO)the coastlands which are beyond the sea; ²³ and to ^(AP)Dedan, Tema, ^(AQ)Buz, and all who ^(AR)trim the corners of their hair; ²⁴ and to all the kings of ^(AS)Arabia and all the kings of the ^(AT)foreign ^[i]people who live in the desert; ²⁵ and to all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of ^(AU)Elam, and all the kings of ^(AV)Media; ²⁶ and to all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and ^(AW)all the kingdoms of the earth which are on the face of the ground; and the king of ^[j](AX)Sheshach shall drink it after them.

²⁷ “And you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “^(AY)Drink, be drunk, vomit, fall down, and do not get up, because of the ^(AZ)sword which I am sending among you.”’ ²⁸ And if they ^(BA)refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of armies says: “^(BB)You shall certainly drink! ²⁹ For behold, I am ^(BC)beginning to inflict disaster on this city which is ^(BD)called by My name, so should you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment, for ^(BE)I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the Lord of armies.’

³⁰ “Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and you shall say to them,

³³ “Those ^(BL)put to death by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the ^[m]other. They will ^(BM)not be mourned, gathered, or buried; they will be like ^(BN)dung on the face of the ground.