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¹ THE word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon;² The year in which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,³ From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day, that is twenty-three years, the word of the LORD has come to me and I have spoken to you, warning you in advance daily; but you did not listen.⁴ And the LORD 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.⁵ They said, Repent every man from his evil way, and from the evil of his doings, and dwell in the land which the LORD has given to you and to your fathers for ever and ever;⁶ And 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.⁷ Yet you have not hearkened to me, says the LORD; but you have provoked me to anger with the works of your hands to your own harm.

⁸ Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Because you have not listened to my words,⁹ Behold, I will send and take all the tribes of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about, and I will utterly destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.¹⁰ Moreover 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.¹¹ And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.¹² And it shall come to pass when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his people for their iniquities, says the LORD; and also the land of the Chaldeans, I will make it a perpetual desolation.¹³ And I will bring upon 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.¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall enslave them also; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their own hands.

¹⁵ For thus says the LORD 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.¹⁶ And they shall drink, and be dazed and be troubled because of the sword which I am sending among them.¹⁷ Then I took the cup from the LORDS hand, and made all the nations to whom the LORD had sent me drink it:¹⁸ Even 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;¹⁹ And to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to all his servants and his princes and all his people²⁰ And 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 Ashdod²¹ Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon²² And all the kings of Tyre and all the kings of Zidon and the kings of the islands which are beyond the sea²³ Deran and Tema and Buz and all of those who cut their beards²⁴ And all the kings whose boundaries are close to each other and all the kings of Arabia who dwell in the desert²⁵ And all the kings of Zimran and all the kings of Elam and all the kings of the Medes²⁶ And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of the Parthians shall drink after them.²⁷ Therefore you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink and be drunken and stagger and fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.²⁸ And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: You shall certainly drink.²⁹ For behold, I begin to brine evil on this city which is called by my name, and you shall not be left unpunished, you shall not be blameless; for I am calling for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD of hosts.

³⁰ Therefore you shall prophesy against them all these words, and say to them, The LORD shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar against his fold; he shall shout, Hurrah, hurrah, like those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.³¹ The noise shall reach even to the ends of the earth; for the LORD will contend against the nations; he will judge all flesh, and the wicked he shall deliver to the sword, says the LORD.³² Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.³³ And those who are slain by the LORD shall be on that day from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; they shall not be lamented, neither mourned nor wept over nor gathered nor buried; but they shall be like refuse upon the face of the ground.³⁴ Howl, you shepherds, and cry; wallow in the ashes, you who have great flocks; for the days of your slaughter are at hand, anal you shall be broken, and fall like choice vessels.³⁵ And the shepherds shall not find the way to flee, nor shall the rams of the flock escape.³⁶ A voice of the cry of shepherds, and the bleating of the rams of the flock shall be heard; for the LORD has plundered their flocks.³⁷ And the peaceful folds are destroyed because of the fierce anger of the LORD.³⁸ For they have deserted his fold like a lion that has forsaken his covert; for their land is desolate because of the anger of the LORD and because of the presence of his fierce anger.