⁷ At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,

⁴ Thus you shall say to him, “Thus says the Lord: I am going to break down what I have built and pluck up what I have planted—that is, the whole land.^(A)

⁹ I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and of hissing and an everlasting disgrace.^{[a](A) 10} And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.^{(B) 11} This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.^{(C) 13} I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.^(D)

¹⁴ Thus says the Lord concerning all my evil neighbors who touch the heritage that I have given my people Israel to inherit: I am about to pluck them up from their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.^{(A) 15} And after I have plucked them up, I will again have compassion on them, and I will bring them again to their heritage and to their land, every one of them.^{(B) 16} And then, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, “As the Lord lives,” as they taught my people to swear by Baal, then they shall be built up in the midst of my people.^{(C) 17} But if any nation will not listen, then I will completely uproot it and destroy it, says the Lord.^(D)

⁴ Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”