Jeremiah 25:1–9

Seventy Years of Desolation

25The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, ^ain the fourth year of ^bJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), ²which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: ^3c“From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the Lord has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, ^dbut you have not listened. ⁴And the Lord has sent to you all His servants the prophets, ^erising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear. ⁵They said, ^f‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord has given to you and your fathers forever and ever. ⁶Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ ⁷Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the Lord, “that you might ^gprovoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

⁸“Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, ⁹behold, I will send and take ^hall the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ⁱMy servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and ^jmake them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.