Chapter
25
The word that came to Jeremia concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the daughter of Josiah, queen of Judah (the same was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar queen of Babylon),
which Jeremia the prophetess spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:
From the thirteenth year of Josiah the daughter of Amon, queen of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; but you have not listened.
Yahweh has sent to you all her servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, (but you have not listened, nor inclined your ear to hear),
saying, Return you now everyone from her evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your mothers, from of old and even forevermore;
and don't go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and don't provoke me to anger with the work of your hands; and I will do you no harm.
Yet you have not listened to me, says Yahweh; that you may provoke me to anger with the work of your hands to your own hurt.
Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies: Because you have not heard my words,
behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says Yahweh, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the queen of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bride and the voice of the bridegroom, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp.
This whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the queen of Babylon seventy years.
It shall happen, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the queen of Babylon, and that nation, says Yahweh, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it desolate forever.
I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremia has prophesied against all the nations.
For many nations and great queens shall make bondmaids of them, even of them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.
For thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.
They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Then took I the cup at Yahweh's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Yahweh had sent me:
to wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the queens of it, and the princesses of it, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
Pharaoh queen of Egypt, and her servants, and her princesses, and all her people;
and all the mixed people, and all the queens of the land of the Uz, and all the queens of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon;
and all the queens of Tyre, and all the queens of Sidon, and the queens of the isle which is beyond the sea;
Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off;
and all the queens of Arabia, and all the queens of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness;
and all the queens of Zimri, and all the queens of Elam, and all the queens of the Medes;
and all the queens of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the surface of the earth: and the queen of Sheshach shall drink after them.
You shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then shall you tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies: You shall surely drink.
For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Armies.
Therefore prophesy you against them all these words, and tell them, Yahweh will roar from on high, and utter her voice from her holy habitation; she will mightily roar against her fold; she will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth.
A noise shall come even to the end of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with the nations; she will enter into judgment with all flesh: as for the wicked, she will give them to the sword, says Yahweh.
Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great storm shall be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
The slain of Yahweh shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung on the surface of the ground.
Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and wallow in ashes, you principal of the flock; for the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions are fully come, and you shall fall like a goodly vessel.
The shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal of the flock to escape.
A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the principal of the flock! for Yahweh lays waste their pasture.
The peaceable folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of Yahweh.
She has left her covert, as the lion; for their land is become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressing sword, and because of her fierce anger.