Jeremiah 25

¹ The word that was addressed to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (that is to say the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon).

² The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed it before all the people of Judah and all the citizens of Jerusalem:

³ ‘For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until today, the word of Yahweh has been addressed to me and I have persistently spoken to you (but you have not listened.

⁴ Furthermore, Yahweh has persistently sent you all his servants the prophets, but you have not listened, or paid attention.)

⁵ The message was this, “Turn back, each of you, from your evil behaviour and your evil actions, and you will stay on the soil Yahweh long ago gave to you and to your ancestors for ever.

⁶ (And do not follow alien gods to serve and worship them, do not provoke me by what your own hands have made; then I will not harm you.)

⁷ But you have not listened to me (it is Yahweh who speaks – so that you have now provoked me by what your own hands have made, and thus harmed yourselves).

⁸ “So – this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says: Since you have not listened to my words,

⁹ I will now send for all the clans of the North (it is Yahweh who speaks – referring to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant) and bring them down on this land and its inhabitants (and on all these surrounding nations): I will lay the ban on them and make them an object of horror, of scorn, of lasting shame.

¹⁰ I will put an end for them to the shouts of rejoicing and mirth, to the voices of bridegroom and bride, to the sound of the millstone and to the light of the lamp.

¹¹ The whole land shall be devastated and reduced to a desert, while they will stay in slavery among the nations for seventy years.

¹² (But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation – it is Yahweh who speaks – for the wrong they have done; and punish the land of the Chaldaeans too, and make it a desert for ever.)

¹³ I will bring down on that country all the words I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book.”‘

¹⁴ (‘For these in their turn are to be enslaved to powerful nations and great kings, and I will pay them back as their deeds and their handiwork deserve.’)

¹⁵ Yahweh the God of Israel said this to me, ‘Take this cup of wine from my hand and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it,

¹⁶ let them drink and reel and lose their wits at the sword I am sending among them’.

¹⁷ I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and made all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me drink it

¹⁸ (Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and its nobles, to make them into a desolation and a waste, a thing of scorn, a curse, as is so today):

¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants, his nobles, and all his people,

²⁰ the whole crowd of foreigners besides (all the kings of the land of Uz); all the kings of the country of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and what still remains of Ashdod;

²¹ Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon;

²² (all) the kings of Tyre, (all) the kings of Sidon, the kings of the islands across the sea;

²³ Dedan, Tema, Buz, all the Crop-Heads,

²⁴ all the kings of Arabia who live in the desert;

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

²⁶ all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another; and all the kingdoms that are on the face of the earth. (As for the king of Sheshak, he shall drink last of all.)

²⁷ ‘You are to say to them, “Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Drink! Get drunk! Vomit! Fall, never to rise, at the sword that I am sending among you!”

²⁸ If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, you are to say to them, “Yahweh Sabaoth says this: You must drink!

²⁹ Since I am now making a beginning of disaster with the city that bears my name, do you think you are likely to go unpunished? You certainly shall not, for I will next summon a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth – it is Yahweh Sabaoth who speaks.”

³⁰ ‘Let your prophecy to them contain all these words, and tell them: “Yahweh roars from on high, he makes his voice heard from his holy dwelling place, he roars loud against his sheepfold, he shouts aloud like those who tread the grape. The sound reaches all the inhabitants of the earth,

³¹ to the far ends of the world. For Yahweh is indicting the nations, arraigning all flesh for judgement; the wicked he abandons to the sword – it is Yahweh who speaks.

³² Yahweh Sabaoth says this: See! The disaster spreads from nation to nation, a mighty tempest rises from the far ends of the world.

³³ “Those slaughtered by Yahweh that day will be scattered across the world from end to end. No dirge will be raised for them; no one will gather them or bury them; they will stay lying on the surface like dung.

³⁴ “Howl, shepherds, shriek, roll on the ground, you lords of the flock, for the days have arrived for your slaughter, like the finest rams you will fall.

³⁵ No refuge now for the shepherds, no escape for the lords of the flock!

³⁶ Listen! A shout from the shepherds, a howl from the lords of the flock! For Yahweh has laid their pastures waste,

³⁷ their quiet sheepfolds are in ruins.

³⁸ The lion has left his lair, their land is a wasteland now, thanks to the destroying sword, and the fierce anger of Yahweh.”‘