Jeremiah 25–26

The Enemy from the North

25^*In the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah, I received a message from the Lord concerning all the people of Judah. (This was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylonia.) ²I said to all the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, ³“For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year that Josiah son of Amon was king of Judah until this very day, the Lord has spoken to me, and I have never failed to tell you what he said. But you have paid no attention. ⁴You would not listen or pay attention, even though the Lord has continued to send you his servants the prophets. ⁵They told you to turn from your wicked way of life and from the evil things you are doing, so that you could go on living in the land that the Lord gave you and your ancestors as a permanent possession. ⁶They told you not to worship and serve other gods and not to make the Lord angry by worshipping the idols you had made. If you had obeyed the Lord, then he would not have punished you. ⁷But the Lord himself says that you refused to listen to him. Instead, you made him angry with your idols and have brought his punishment on yourselves.

⁸“So then, because you would not listen to him, the Lord Almighty says, ⁹‘I am going to send for all the peoples from the north and for my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. I am going to bring them to fight against Judah and its inhabitants and against all the neighbouring nations. I am going to destroy this nation and its neighbours and leave them in ruins for ever, a terrible and shocking sight. I, the Lord, have spoken. ^10*I will silence their shouts of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. They will have no oil for their lamps, and there will be no more corn. ^11*This whole land will be left in ruins and will be a shocking sight, and the neighbouring nations will serve the king of Babylonia for seventy years. ¹²After that I will punish Babylonia and its king for their sin. I will destroy that country and leave it in ruins for ever. ¹³I will punish Babylonia with all the disasters that I threatened to bring on the nations when I spoke through Jeremiah—all the disasters recorded in this book. ¹⁴I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done, and many nations and great kings will make slaves of them.’ ”

God’s Judgement on the Nations

¹⁵The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me, “Here is a wine cup filled with my anger. Take it to all the nations to whom I send you, and make them drink from it. ¹⁶When they drink from it, they will stagger and go out of their minds because of the war I am sending against them.”

¹⁷So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, gave it to all the nations to whom the Lord had sent me, and made them drink from it. ¹⁸Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah, together with its kings and leaders, were made to drink from it, so that they would become a desert, a terrible and shocking sight, and so that people would use their name as a curse—as they still do.

¹⁹Here is the list of all the others who had to drink from the cup:

the king of Egypt, his officials and leaders;

all the Egyptians ²⁰and all the foreigners in Egypt;

all the kings of the land of Uz;

all the kings of the Philistine cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod;

²¹all the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon;

²²all the kings of Tyre and Sidon;

all the kings of the Mediterranean lands;

²³the cities of Dedan, Tema, and Buz;

all the people who cut their hair short;

²⁴all the kings of Arabia;

all the kings of the desert tribes;

²⁵all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

²⁶all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another.

Every nation on the face of the earth had to drink from it. Last of all, the king of Babylonia will drink from it.

²⁷Then the Lord said to me, “Tell the people that I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, am commanding them to drink until they are drunk and vomit, until they fall down and cannot get up, because of the war that I am sending against them. ²⁸And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink from it, then tell them that the Lord Almighty has said that they will still have to drink from it. ²⁹I will begin my work of destruction in my own city. Do they think they will go unpunished? No, they will be punished, for I am going to send war on all the people on earth. I, the Lord Almighty, have spoken.

³⁰“You, Jeremiah, must proclaim everything I have said. You must tell these people,

‘The Lord will roar from heaven

and thunder from the heights of heaven.

He will roar against his people;

he will shout like a man treading grapes.

Everyone on earth will hear him,

³¹and the sound will echo to the ends of the earth.

The Lord has a case against the nations.

He will bring all people to trial

and put the wicked to death.

The Lord has spoken.’ ”

³²The Lord Almighty says that disaster is coming on one nation after another, and a great storm is gathering at the far ends of the earth. ³³On that day the bodies of those whom the Lord has killed will lie scattered from one end of the earth to the other. No one will mourn for them, and they will not be taken away and buried. They will lie on the ground like piles of manure.

³⁴Cry, you leaders, you shepherds of my people, cry out loud! Mourn and roll in the dust. The time has come for you to be slaughtered,^c and you will be butchered like rams.^{d 35}There will be no way for you to escape. ^36–37You moan and cry out in distress because the Lord in his anger has destroyed your nation and left your peaceful country in ruins. ³⁸The Lord has abandoned his people^e like a lion that leaves its cave. The horrors of war and the Lord’s fierce anger have turned the country into a desert.

Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

26^*Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah, ²the Lord said to me, “Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything. ³Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds.”

⁴The Lord told me to say to the people, “I, the Lord, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you, ⁵and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said. ^6*If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh,^f and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.”

⁷The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple, ⁸and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they seized me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this! ⁹Why have you said in the Lord’s name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded round me.

¹⁰When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate. ¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”

¹²Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city. ¹³You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you. ¹⁴As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right. ¹⁵But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”

¹⁶Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”

¹⁷After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had assembled, ^18*“When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said,

‘Zion will be ploughed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,

and the Temple hill will become a forest.’ ¹⁹King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honoured the Lord and tried to win his favour. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”

²⁰(There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did. ²¹When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt. ²²King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah. ²³They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

²⁴But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed.