JeremiahChapter 25

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¹This is the message that came to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah. It came in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah. That was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon. ²So Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem. He said, ³"The LORD's messages have come to me for twenty-three years. That is from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until today. I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴And the LORD has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again. But you have not listened or paid attention. ⁵The prophets told you, 'Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and evil actions. Then you can live in the land that the LORD gave to you and your fathers forever and ever. ⁶Do not follow other gods to serve them and worship them. Do not make me angry with the idols your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.' ⁷'But you have not listened to me,' says the LORD. 'So you have made me angry with the idols your hands have made, and you have hurt yourselves.' ⁸So this is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'You have not obeyed my words. ⁹So look, I will call all the peoples of the north, says the LORD. I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and the people who live in it. I will bring them against all the nations around it too. I will set them apart to be completely destroyed. I will make them a horror and something people hate. They will be a ruin forever. ¹⁰I will take away from them the sounds of joy and gladness. The voices of the bride and groom will be gone. The sound of the millstones grinding grain will stop. The light of the lamp will go out. ¹¹This whole land will become an empty waste. These nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. ¹²But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their guilt, says the LORD. That is the land of the Chaldeans. I will make it a ruin forever. ¹³I will bring on that land everything I have said against it. I will bring all that is written in this book. Jeremiah has prophesied it against all the nations. ¹⁴For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them too. I will pay them back for what they have done and for the work of their hands.'" ¹⁵This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: "Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my anger. Make all the nations I send you to drink from it. ¹⁶They will drink it and stumble around and go crazy. This is because of the sword I will send among them." ¹⁷So I took the cup from the LORD's hand. I made all the nations drink from it, each one the LORD had sent me to. ¹⁸This was to make them a ruin. They became a horror and something people hate and curse, as they still are today. First were Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, with its kings and officials. ¹⁹Then came Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his leaders, and all his people. ²⁰Then came all the mixed peoples and all the kings of Uz. Then came all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what was left of Ashdod. ²¹Then came Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites. ²²Then came all the kings of Tyre and Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands across the sea. ²³Then came Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the hair on the sides of their heads. ²⁴Then came all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples who live in the desert. ²⁵Then came all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media. ²⁶Then came all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another. All the kingdoms on the face of the earth drank. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.a ²⁷"Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'Drink, get drunk, and throw up. Fall down and never get up again. This is because of the sword I will send among you.' ²⁸They may refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it. Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: 'You surely must drink it! ²⁹Look, I am starting to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name. So how could you possibly go without punishment? You will not go unpunished. For I am calling for a sword to come on all the people of the earth, says the LORD of Hosts.' ³⁰So prophesy all these words against them. Say to them,
'The LORD will roar from on high.
He will thunder from his holy home.
He will roar loudly over his pasture.
He will shout like people stomping on grapes.
He will shout against all the people of the earth. ³¹The noise will echo to the ends of the earth.
For the LORD brings charges against the nations.
He judges all people.
He kills the wicked with the sword,'" says the LORD. ³²This is what the LORD of Hosts says:
"Look! Disaster is spreading
from one nation to the next.
A great storm is rising
from the ends of the earth." ³³On that day, those the LORD has killed will lie from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn them, gather them up, or bury them. They will be like dung lying on the ground. ³⁴Cry and wail, you shepherds!
Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock!
For the time for you to be slaughtered has come.
You will fall and break like fine pottery. ³⁵The shepherds will have no place to run.
The leaders of the flock will not escape. ³⁶Hear the cry of the shepherds
and the wailing of the leaders of the flock!
For the LORD is destroying their pasture. ³⁷The peaceful fields have gone silent
because of the LORD's burning anger. ³⁸Like a lion, he has left his den.
For their land has been made an empty waste
by the sword of the cruel enemy
and by the fierce anger of the LORD.