The people of Judah will be slaves for 70 years
1The Lord talked to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah. It was in the 4th year after Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, had become king_of_Judah. It was also the first year after Nebuchadnezzar had become king of Babylon. 2The Lord spoke to Jeremiah about all the people of Judah and everyone who lived in Jerusalem, 3and Jeremiah said to them: ‘For 23 years the Lord has talked to me. He started talking to me in the 13th year after Josiah, son of Amon, had become king_of_Judah and I continued to tell you what He said, but you did not listen. 4The Lord sent all his servants, the prophets, to you. He continued to do that, but you did not listen. You disobeyed Him. 5The Lord said: “Turn away from the wrong way and the bad things that you are doing. Change your lives and come back to Me. Then you will always live in the land that I have given to you and your forefathers. 6Don't serve other gods or worship them, and don't make Me angry by making images of false gods with your hands. If you listen to Me, I will not make you suffer. 7But you did not listen to Me. You made Me angry by making images and that is why you are suffering.” 8The Lord who rules over all says: “Because you did that, because you did not listen to Me, 9I will send a message to all the nations in the north and to my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I will bring those people to fight against this land and all the people who live here and also against the nations around this land. They will attack you and kill you. I will destroy your land forever and people will be shocked when they see what has happened to this land. They will become afraid and whistle. These cities will become heaps of stones forever. 10No one will celebrate here and no one will marry. No one will grind wheat in the morning to bake bread and no one will light a lamp. 11The whole land will be full of heaps of stones and no one will live here. The people who lived here will have to work for the king of Babylon for 70 years. 12But after the 70 years I will punish the king of Babylon and his people in the land of Babylon for what they have done. Then there will be no people living in that land. 13I will do everything to that land that I said I would do, everything that Jeremiah said about those people that is written in this book. 14Then the Babylonian people will have to work for a lot of nations and important kings. I will punish them for what they have done to my people.” ’
The cup of wine with poison
15The Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: ‘I give you this cup of wine with poison in it. I am sending you to different nations and you must make them all drink from it. 16They will drink and their legs will tremble. They will become like people who are mad because I am sending people to go to war_against them.’
17I took the cup that the Lord gave me and I went to all those nations and I told them to drink. 18First I went to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and I told their kings and officials to drink. The cities then became heaps of stones and there was no one who lived there. People who walked there whistled. The Lord had cursed the land and that is why the land of Judah was destroyed.
19Then I gave the cup to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and he drank some of the wine, and so did his officials and all his people and everyone who lived near Egypt and had to work for Pharaoh. 20Then I told all these people to drink: the kings of the land of Uz and all the kings of the Philistines and the people from the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the people in Ashdod who were still_alive, 21and the people of Edom, Moab and Ammon, 22all the kings of Tyre and Sidon and the kings of the lands on the other side of the sea 23and the cities of Dedan, Buz and everyone who shaves the hair on the sides of his head, 24and all the kings of Arabia and the people who live in the desert, 25and all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media, 26and all the kings in the north, those who are far away and those who are near. All the kings in the world and the lands on earth had to drink from the cup. And after them, the king of Babylon had to drink.
27The Lord told me to say to them: ‘The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: “You will drink and get drunk and vomit and fall and you will not be able to get up again, because I am sending people to go to war_against you.” 28And if they don't want to take the cup and drink from it, then you must tell them: “The Lord who rules over all says: You will have to drink. 29I will start with the city that belongs to Me and I will make them suffer, but don't think that I will not punish you too. No, I will also punish you. I will bring people to go to war_against all nations on earth.” ’
This is what the Lord, who rules over all, says. 30The Lord also says: ‘And you, Jeremiah, you must give this message to them. You must tell them all these words and say:
“The Lord will shout_loudly,
like a lion that roars.
He will speak from heaven
where He lives in his holy place.
He will shout like people who trample grapes,
and He will talk to everyone who lives in the world.
31All people on earth will listen
to what He says because the Lord
is the Judge of all nations.
He will judge everyone who lives
and He will cause guilty people to die in war.” ’
This is what the Lord says.
32The Lord who rules over all says:
‘Look what will happen:
All the nations will start to suffer,
one nation after the other.
A big storm wind will come
from the furthest places on earth.
33On that day the Lord will kill
a lot of people,
and their bodies will lie all over the world.
No one will mourn them and no one
will go and bury them.
They will lie on the ground
like heaps of dung.’
34‘Shepherds, you will cry
and ask someone to help you.
You, who rule over people,
will lie down and roll in ashes
because the time has come,
and the enemies are going to kill you.
Enemies will chase you away
and you will flee.
You will break like a clay pot.
35The shepherds will not have
a place to which they can flee.
The leaders will not be able to run away.
36Listen to the cry of the shepherds.
They ask someone to help them.
Listen to the cry of the leaders.
The Lord has destroyed their land.
37The Lord is angry,
and He destroys the land
where they lived in peace.
38The Lord is like a lion
that comes from his cave.
The Lord became angry and
He sent enemies to defeat the lands
and to take the people away.’
