⁸ “Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words, ⁹ behold, I will send and take ^(A)all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, ^(B)My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and ^(C)make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations. ¹⁰ Moreover I will ^[a]take from them the ^(D)voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, ^(E)the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy ^(F)years.

¹² ‘Then it will come to pass, ^(G)when ^[b]seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the Lord; ^(H)‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation. ¹³ So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations. ^14 (I)(For many nations ^(J)and great kings shall ^(K)be served by them also; ^(L)and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)’ ”

Judgment on the Nations

¹⁵ For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: “Take this ^(M)wine cup of ^[c]fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. ¹⁶ And ^(N)they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”

¹⁷ Then I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the Lord had sent me: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them ^(O)a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and ^(P)a curse, as it is this day; ¹⁹ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people; ²⁰ all the mixed multitude, all the kings of ^(Q)the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the ^(R)Philistines (namely, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and ^(S)the remnant of Ashdod); ^21 (T)Edom, Moab, and the people of Ammon; ²² all the kings of ^(U)Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are across the ^(V)sea; ^23 (W)Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who are in the farthest corners;

Cyrus, God’s Instrument

End of the Babylonian Captivity^(A)

1 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord ^(B)by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, ^(C)so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying,

⁵ Then the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all whose spirits ^(F)God ^[b]had moved, arose to go up and build the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem. ⁶ And all those who were around them ^[c]encouraged them with articles of silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with precious things, besides all that was ^(G)willingly offered.

^7 (H)King Cyrus also brought out the articles of the house of the Lord, ^(I)which Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem and put in the ^[d]temple of his gods; ⁸ and Cyrus king of Persia brought them out by the hand of Mithredath the treasurer, and counted them out to ^(J)Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah. ⁹ This is the number of them: thirty gold platters, one thousand silver platters, twenty-nine knives, ¹⁰ thirty gold basins, four hundred and ten silver basins of a similar kind, and one thousand other articles. ¹¹ All the articles of gold and silver were five thousand four hundred. All these Sheshbazzar took with the captives who were brought from Babylon to Jerusalem.