Jeremiah 25
Living Bible
25 This message for all the people of Judah came from the Lord to Jeremiah during the fourth year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah (son of Josiah). This was the year Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, began his reign.
2-3 For the past twenty-three years, Jeremiah said, from the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (son of Amon) king of Judah, until now, God has been sending me his messages. I have faithfully passed them on to you, but you haven’t listened. 4 Again and again down through the years, God has sent you his prophets, but you have refused to hear. 5 Each time the message was this: “Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then can you continue to live here in this land which the Lord gave to you and to your ancestors forever. 6 Don’t anger me by worshiping idols; but if you are true to me, then I’ll not harm you.” 7 But you won’t listen; you have gone ahead and made me furious with your idols. So you have brought upon yourselves all the evil that has come your way.
8-9 And now the Lord God says: Because you have not listened to me, I will gather together all the armies of the north under Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon (I have appointed him as my deputy), and I will bring them all against this land and its people and against the other nations near you, and I will utterly destroy you and make you a byword of contempt forever. 10 I will take away your joy, your gladness, and your wedding feasts; your businesses shall fail, and all your homes shall lie in silent darkness. 11 This entire land shall become a desolate wasteland; all the world will be shocked at the disaster that befalls you. Israel and her neighboring lands shall serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
12 Then, after these years[a] of slavery are ended, I will punish the king of Babylon and his people for their sins; I will make the land of Chaldea an everlasting waste. 13 I will bring upon them all the terrors I have promised in this book—all the penalties announced by Jeremiah against the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings shall enslave the Chaldeans, just as they enslaved my people; I will punish them in proportion to their treatment of my people.
15 For the Lord God said to me: “Take from my hand this wine cup filled to the brim with my fury, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. 16 They shall drink from it and reel, crazed by the death blows I rain upon them.”
17 So I took the cup of fury from the Lord and made all the nations drink from it—every nation God had sent me to; 18 I went to Jerusalem and to the cities of Judah, and their kings and princes drank of the cup so that from that day until this they have been desolate, hated, and cursed, just as they are today. 19-20 I went to Egypt, and Pharaoh, his servants, the princes, and the people—they too drank from that terrible cup, along with all the foreign population living in his land. So did all the kings of the land of Uz and the kings of the Philistine cities: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what remains of Ashdod, 21 and I visited the nations of Edom, Moab, and Ammon; 22 and all the kings of Tyre and Sidon, and the kings of the regions across the sea; 23 Dedan, Tema, and Buz, and the other heathen there; 24 and all the kings of Arabia and of the nomadic tribes of the desert; 25 and all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; 26 and all the kings of the northern countries, far and near, one after the other; and all the kingdoms of the world. And finally, the king of Babylon himself drank from this cup of God’s wrath.
27 Tell them, “The Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink from this cup of my wrath until you are drunk and vomit and fall to rise no more, for I am sending terrible wars upon you.” 28 And if they refuse to accept the cup, tell them, “The Lord of heaven’s armies says you must drink it! You cannot escape! 29 I have begun to punish my own people, so should you go free? No, you shall not evade punishment. I will call for war against all the peoples of the earth.”
30 Therefore prophesy against them. Tell them the Lord will shout against his own from his holy temple in heaven and against all those living on the earth. He will shout as the harvesters do who tread the juice from the grapes. 31 That cry of judgment will reach the farthest ends of the earth, for the Lord has a case against all the nations—all mankind. He will slaughter all the wicked. 32 See, declares the Lord Almighty, the punishment shall go from nation to nation—a great whirlwind of wrath shall rise against the farthest corners of the earth. 33 On that day those the Lord has slain shall fill the earth from one end to the other. No one shall mourn for them nor gather up the bodies to bury them; they shall fertilize the earth.
34 Weep and moan, O evil shepherds; let the leaders of mankind beat their heads upon the stones, for their time has come to be slaughtered and scattered; they shall fall like fragile women. 35 And you will find no place to hide, no way to escape.
36 Listen to the frantic cries of the shepherds and to the leaders shouting in despair, for the Lord has spoiled their pastures. 37 People now living undisturbed will be cut down by the fierceness of the anger of the Lord. 38 He has left his lair like a lion seeking prey; their land has been laid waste by warring armies—because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 25:12 after these years, literally, “after the seventy years.” I will punish the king of Babylon. This event is further described in Daniel 5. The troops of Cyrus the Great entered Babylon in 539 B.C. and killed Belshazzar, the last Babylonian ruler.
Jeremiah 25
Revised Geneva Translation
25 The Word that came to Jeremiah, concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel.
2 which Jeremiah the Prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,
3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, king of Judah, to this day (that is, the twenty-third year), the Word of the LORD has come to me. And I have spoken it to you, rising early and speaking. But you would not hear.
4 “And the LORD has sent to you all His servants, the Prophets, rising early and sending them. But you would not hear or incline your ears to obey.
5 “They said, ‘Everyone turn back now from his evil way, and from the wickedness of your inventions, and you shall dwell in the land that the LORD has given you, and to your fathers, forever and ever.
6 ‘And do not go after other gods, to serve them and to worship them. And do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, and I will not punish you.
7 Nevertheless, you would not hear Me,’ says the LORD, ‘but have provoked Me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.’
8 “Therefore, thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My Words,
9 ‘behold, I will send and take all the families of the North,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babel, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations all around and will destroy them and make them an astonishment and a hissing and a continual desolation.
10 ‘Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the noise of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11 ‘And this whole land shall be desolate, and an astonishment. These nations shall serve the king of Babel for seventy years.
12 ‘And when the seventy years are completed, I will reckon with the king of Babel and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquities,’ says the LORD, ‘and will make it a perpetual desolation.
13 ‘And I will bring upon that land all My Words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this Book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all nations.
14 ‘For many nations and great kings shall be served by them. Thus will I recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands.’
15 For thus has the LORD God of Israel spoken to me: ‘Take this cup of wine of indignation from My Hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
16 ‘And they shall drink and be moved and be 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 people drink to whom the LORD had sent me:
18 Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them desolate, an astonishment, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day,
19 Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people,
20 and all sorts of people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod,
21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites,
22 and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the Isles who are beyond the sea,
23 and Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who dwell in the uttermost corners,
24 and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of Arabia who dwell in the desert,
25 and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of [u]Elam, and all the kings of the Medes.
26 And all the kings of the North, far from and near to one another, and all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the Earth, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
27 “Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Drink and be drunken, and spew and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”
28 ‘But if they refuse to take the cup from your hand, to drink, then tell them, “Thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘You shall certainly drink.
29 ‘For lo, I begin to plague the city where My Name is called upon. And should you go free? You shall not go acquitted. For I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the Earth,’ says the LORD of Hosts.”
30 ‘Therefore, prophesy all these words against them, and say to them, “The LORD shall roar from above and thrust out His Voice from His holy habitation. He shall roar upon His habitation, and cry aloud, as those who press the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the Earth.
31 “The sounds shall come to the ends of the Earth. For the LORD has a controversy with the nations and will enter into judgment with all flesh. He will give to the sword those who are wicked,” says the LORD.’
32 “Thus says the LORD of Hosts: ‘Behold, a plague shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the Earth.
33 ‘And the slain of the LORD shall be on that day from one end of the Earth to the other end of the Earth. They shall be neither mourned nor gathered nor buried but shall be as the dung upon the ground.
34 ‘Howl, you shepherds, and cry! And wallow in the ashes, you leader of the flock! For your days of slaughter and dispersion are fulfilled, and you shall fall like precious vessels.
35 ‘And the shepherds shall have no refuge, and the leader of the flock no escape.
36 ‘A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the leader of the flock, shall be heard. For the LORD has destroyed their pasture.
37 ‘And the best pastures are destroyed because of the wrath and indignation of the LORD.
38 He has forsaken His covert, as the lion. For their land is waste because of the wrath of the oppressor, and because of the wrath of His indignation.’”
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