25 This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Y’hudah in the fourth year of Y’hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y’hudah; this was also the first year of N’vukhadretzar king of Bavel. ² Yirmeyahu the prophet proclaimed it before all the people of Y’hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim: ³ “For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y’hudah, until today, the word of Adonai has come to me; and I have proclaimed it to you on numerous occasions; but you haven’t listened. ⁴ Moreover, Adonai sent you all his servants the prophets — again, on numerous occasions — but you didn’t listen or pay attention. ⁵ The message was always: ‘Every one of you, turn back from his evil way, from the evil of your actions. Then you will live in the land Adonai gave you and your ancestors forever and ever. ⁶ Don’t follow other gods by serving and worshipping them. “Don’t provoke my anger with things your own hands have made; then I will do you no harm. ⁷ But you wouldn’t listen to me,” says Adonai, “so that you could provoke me with the products of your hands, to your own harm.”

⁸ “Therefore, here is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says: ‘Because you haven’t paid attention to what I’ve been saying, ⁹ I’m going to send for all the families of the north,’ says Adonai, ‘and for my servant N’vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, and bring them against this land, against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them, making them an object of horror and ridicule, a perpetual ruin. ¹⁰ Moreover, I will silence among them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of lamps. ¹¹ This entire land will become a ruin, a waste; and these nations will serve the king of Bavel for seventy years. ¹² But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Bavel and that nation for their sin,’ says Adonai, ‘and I will turn the land of the Kasdim into everlasting ruins. ¹³ I will inflict on that land all my words that I have decreed against it, everything written in this book, in which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For they too will become slaves to many nations and to powerful kings; I will pay them back according to their deeds and the work of their own hands.’