Jeremias 25
1 THE WORD THAT CAME TO JEREMIAS concerning all the people of Juda in the fourth year of Joakim, son of Josias, king of Juda;
This is the message that came to Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It concerned all the people of Judah.
2 which he spoke to all the people of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
So the prophet Jeremiah went and spoke to all the people of Judah and all of the people living in Jerusalem, telling them:
3 In the thirteenth year of Josias, son of Amos, king of Juda, even until this day for three and twenty years, I have both spoken to you, rising early and speaking,
From the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah, son of Amon, king of Judah until now, twenty-three years in total, messages from the Lord have come to me, and I have told you what he said time and again, but you have not listened.
4 and I sent to you my servants the prophets, sending them early; (but ye hearkened not, and listened not with your ears; ) saying,
Even though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you time and again, you don't bother to listen or pay any attention.
5 Turn ye every one from his evil way, and from your evil practices, and ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers, of old and for ever.
The consistent message has been: Give up your evil ways and the evil things you're doing so you can live in the country that the Lord has given to you and your forefathers forever.
6 Go ye not after strange gods, to serve them, and to worship them, that ye provoke me not by the works of your hands, to do you hurt.
Don't follow other gods and worship them, and don't anger me by making idols. Then I won't do anything to hurt you.
7 But ye hearkened not to me.
But you've hurt yourselves by not listening to me, declares the Lord, because you angered me by making idols.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Since ye believed not my words,
So this is what the Lord Almighty says: Because you have not obeyed what I told you,
9 behold I [will] send and take a family from the north, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all the nations round about it, and I will make them utterly waste, and make them a desolation, and a hissing, and an everlasting reproach.
watch as I summon all the people of the north, declares the Lord. I'm going to send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to attack this country and the people who live here, and all the surrounding nations. I will set them apart for destruction. I'm going to totally destroy you, and people will be horrified at what's happened to you and will mock you.
10 And I will destroy from [among] them the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the scent of ointment, and the light of a candle.
I will also put a stop to the cheerful sounds of celebration and the happy voices of the bride and bridegroom. No noise will come from millstones being used; no lamps will be lit.
11 And all the land shall be a desolation; and they shall serve among the Gentiles seventy years.
This whole country will become an empty wasteland, and Judah and these other nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
12 And when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will take vengeance on that nation, and will make them a perpetual desolation.
However, when these seventy years are over, I'm going to punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the country of Babylonia, for their sin, declares the Lord. I will completely destroy them.
13 And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken against it, [even] all things that are written in this book.
I will bring down on that country everything I threatened to do, everything that's written in this book which Jeremiah prophesied against all the different nations.
Many nations and powerful kings will make slaves of them, the Babylonians, and I will pay them back for the evil they've done.
This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, told me: Take this cup I'm handing to you. It contains the wine of my anger. You are to make all the nations I send you to drink from it.
They will drink and stumble around and go mad because of the war brought by the armies I'm sending to attack them.
I took the cup the Lord handed to me and made all the nations he sent me to drink from it:
To Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, destroying them so that people were horrified at what happened to them and mocked them and cursed them (and they are still like this today);
to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and his officials, leaders, all his people
and all the foreigners living there; to all the kings of the country of Uz; to all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what's left of Ashdod;
to Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;
to all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; to the kings of the Mediterranean sea coast;
to Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all those who trim their hair on the sides of their heads;
to all the kings of Arabia; and to all the kings of the different tribes living in the desert;
to all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;
to all the kings of the north; in fact to all the kingdoms on earth whether close or far away, one after another. After all of them, the king of Babylon will drink it too.
Tell them this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Drink, make yourselves drunk, and vomit. Because of the war you'll be killed, falling down never to get up again.
If they should refuse to take the cup and drink from it, tell them that this is what the Lord Almighty says: You can't avoid drinking it—you have to!
Can't you see that I'm about to bring disaster down on my own city, so do you really think you wouldn't be punished as well? You won't go unpunished, for I am bringing war to everyone on earth, declares the Lord Almighty.
Give this whole message as a prophecy against them. Tell them: The Lord will thunder from high above. He will thunder loudly from the holy place where he lives. He will give a great roar against the sheepfolds. He will give a loud shout like people treading the grapes, frightening everyone who lives on earth.
The sound will reach everywhere on the earth because the Lord is accusing the nations. He is judging everyone, executing the wicked, declares the Lord.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: Watch out! Disaster is falling on one nation after another; an immense storm is building up in the far distance.
Those killed by the Lord at that time will cover the earth from one end to the other. No one will mourn them, or collect them, or bury them. They will be like piles of manure lying on the ground.
34 THE PROPHECIES OF JEREMIAS AGAINST THE NATIONS OF AeLAM.
Cry out and weep, you shepherds! Roll around on the ground mourning, you leaders of the flock. The time for you to be killed has come; you will fall, smashed like the finest pottery.
35 Thus saith the Lord, The bow of Aelam is broken, [even] the chief of their power.
The shepherds won't be able to run away; the leaders of the flock won't escape.
36 And I will bring upon Aelam the four winds from the four corners of heaven, and I will disperse them toward all these winds; and there shall be no nation [to] which they shall not come—[even] the outcasts of Aelam.
Listen to the cries of the shepherds, the weeping of the leaders of the flock, for the Lord is destroying their pasturelands.
37 And I will put them in fear before their enemies that seek their life; and I will bring evils upon them according to my great anger; and I will send forth my sword after them, until I have utterly destroyed them.
The peaceful sheepfolds have been ruined because of the Lord's fierce anger.
38 And I will set my throne in Aelam, and will send forth thence king and rulers.
The Lord has left his den like a lion, because their country has been devastated by the invading armies, and because of the Lord's fierce anger.
39 But it shall come to pass at the end of days, that I will turn the captivity of Aelam, saith the Lord.
