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¹The word that came to Jeremiah in regard to all the people of Judah in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

³"For these twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day—the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you over and over again, but you have not listened.

⁴Although the LORD has persistently sent to you all His servants the prophets, you have not listened nor [even] inclined your ear to hear [His message],

⁵saying, 'Turn now everyone from his evil way and the evil of your actions [that you may not forfeit the right to] live in the land that the LORD has given to you and your forefathers 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 work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.'

⁷Yet you have not listened to Me," says the LORD, "so that you have provoked Me to anger with the work (idols) of your hands to your own harm.

⁸"Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, 'Because you have not obeyed My words,

⁹behold (hear this), I will send for all the families of the north,' says the LORD, 'and I will send for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant [to enact My plan], and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing [that is, an object of warning and ridicule] and an everlasting desolation.

¹⁰Moreover, I will take from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones [grinding meal] and the light of the lamp [to light the night].

¹¹This whole land will be a waste and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

¹²'Then when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans (Babylonia),' says the LORD, 'for their wickedness, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste.

¹³I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

¹⁴(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even the Chaldeans [who enslaved other nations]; and I will repay [all of] them according to their deeds and according to the work of their [own] hands.)'"

¹⁵For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to me, "Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

¹⁶They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them."

¹⁷Then I (Jeremiah) took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD had sent me drink it:

¹⁸Jerusalem and the cities of Judah [being most guilty because their privileges were greatest], its kings and princes, to make them a horror, a ruin, a hissing and a curse, as it is to this day;

¹⁹Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, all his people,

²⁰and all the foreign (mixed) population, all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines (and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);

²¹Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon;

²²all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands and the coastlands across the [Mediterranean] Sea;

²³Dedan, Tema, Buz [the neighboring tribes north of Arabia], and all who clip off the side-growth of their hair;

²⁴all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign population who live in the desert;

²⁵all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam (Persia), and all the kings of Media;

²⁶all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another—and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach (Babylon) shall drink after them.

²⁷"Then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Drink, be drunk, vomit, and fall to 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 the LORD of hosts, "You shall surely drink!

²⁹For behold, I am beginning to work disaster in the city which is called by My Name, and shall you go unpunished? You will not be exempt from punishment, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth," says the LORD of hosts.'

³⁰"Therefore prophesy all these words against them and say to them: 'The LORD will roar from on high And utter His voice from His holy dwelling; He will roar mightily against His fold and pasture. He will jubilantly shout like those who tread the grapes [in the wine press], Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

³¹'A noise has come to the end of the earth, For the LORD has a controversy with and an indictment against the nations. He is entering into judgment with all mankind; As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,' says the LORD."

³²Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Behold, evil is going forth From nation to nation, And a great whirling tempest is rising From the remotest part of the earth.

³³"And those slain by the LORD on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. They will not be lamented (mourned over with expressions of grief) or gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the ground.

³⁴"Wail, you shepherds, and cry; And roll in ashes, you masters of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have come in full, And you will fall and be broken into pieces like a choice vessel.

³⁵"The shepherds will have no way to flee, Nor the masters of the flock any [way of] escape.

³⁶"A voice! The cry of the shepherds And the wailing of the masters of the flock! For the LORD is destroying their pasture,

³⁷"And the peaceful folds are devastated and made silent Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

³⁸"He has left His lair like the lion; For their land has become a horror Because of the fierceness of the oppressor And because of the Lord's fierce anger."

¹In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying,

²"Thus says the LORD, 'Stand in the court of the Lord's house [Jeremiah], and speak to all [the people of] the cities of Judah who have come to worship in the Lord's house all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them. Do not omit a word!

³It may be that they will listen and everyone will turn from his wickedness, so that I may relent and reverse [My decision concerning] the disaster which I am planning to do to them because of their malevolent deeds.'

⁴And you will say to them, 'Thus says the LORD, "If you will not listen to Me and obey My law which I have set before you,

⁵and listen and follow [carefully] the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have been sending to you repeatedly—though you have not listened—

⁶then I will make this house [the temple] like Shiloh, and I will make this city [subject to] the curse of all nations of the earth [because it will be so vile in their sight]."'"

⁷The priests and the [false] prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

⁸Now when Jeremiah finished proclaiming everything that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people seized him, saying, "You must die!

⁹Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD saying, 'This house will be like Shiloh [after the ark of the LORD had been taken by our enemies] and this city [Jerusalem] will be desolate, without inhabitant'?" And all the people were gathered around Jeremiah in the [outer area of the] house of the LORD.

¹⁰When the princes (court officials) of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king's house to the house of the LORD and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the LORD.

¹¹Then the priests and the [false] prophets said to the princes and to all the people, "This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city as you have heard with your own ears."

¹²Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and to all the people, saying, "The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.

¹³Therefore, now change your ways and your deeds and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He has pronounced against you.

¹⁴As for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as seems good and suitable to you.

¹⁵But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on its inhabitants, for in truth the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing."

¹⁶Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and to the [false] prophets, "This man is not deserving of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God."

¹⁷Then some of the elders of the land stood up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying,

¹⁸"Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Zion will be plowed like a field, And Jerusalem will become [heaps of] ruins, And the mountain of the house [of the LORD—Mount Moriah, on which stands the temple, shall become covered not with buildings, but] like a densely wooded height."'

¹⁹"Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put Micah to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the LORD and entreat the favor of the LORD? And did not the LORD relent and reverse His decision concerning the misfortune which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are [thinking of] committing a great evil against ourselves."

²⁰And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Uriah the son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land in words similar to all those of Jeremiah.

²¹And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put Uriah to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.

²²Then Jehoiakim the king sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor and certain [other] men with him [went] to Egypt.

²³And they brought Uriah [God's spokesman] from Egypt and led him to King Jehoiakim, who executed him with a sword and threw his dead body among the graves of the common people.

²⁴But the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hands of the people to put him to death.

¹In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

²Thus says the LORD to me, "Make for yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck,

³and send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴Command them to go to their masters, saying, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, you shall say this to your masters:

⁵"I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will give it to whomever pleases Me.

⁶Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant and instrument, and I have also given the wild animals of the field to serve him.

⁷All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the [appointed] time [of punishment] for his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their servant.

⁸"But any nation or kingdom that will not serve this same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish," says the LORD, "with the sword, with famine and with pestilence (virulent disease), until I have destroyed it by Nebuchadnezzar's hand.

⁹And as for you, do not listen to your [counterfeit] prophets, your diviners, your dreams and dreamers, your soothsayers or your sorcerers, who say to you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.'

¹⁰For they prophesy a lie to you which will cause you to be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out and you will perish.

¹¹But the nation which will bow its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, that nation I will let remain on its own land," says the LORD, "to cultivate it and live in it."'"

¹²I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way, saying, "Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

¹³Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by famine and by virulent disease, as the LORD has spoken to any nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴Do not listen to and believe the words of the [false] prophets who are saying to you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy a lie to you;

¹⁵for I have not sent them," says the LORD, "but they are prophesying falsely in My Name, in order that I may drive you out and that you may perish, you [together] with the [false] prophets who prophesy to you."

¹⁶Then I said to the priests and to all these people, saying, "Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your [false] prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, 'Behold, the articles of the Lord's house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon'; for they are prophesying a lie to you.

¹⁷Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city become a ruin?

¹⁸But if they are [true] prophets, and if the word of the LORD is [really spoken] by them, let them now entreat the LORD of hosts that the articles which are [still] left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.

¹⁹For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the [bronze] pillars, the [bronze] Sea, the [bronze] bases [of the ten basins in Solomon's temple used for washing sacrificial animals], and the rest of the articles that are left in this city (Jerusalem),

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

²¹"Yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the articles which remain in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem,

²²'They will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day that I visit them [with My favor],' says the LORD. 'Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.'"