Jeremiah

was the first year that Nebuchadnezzar was
king of Babylon. 2This is the message that Jeremiah
the prophet* spoke to all the people of
Judah and all the people of Jerusalem:
3I have given you messages from the Lord
again and again for these past 23 years. I have
been a prophet since the 13th year that Josiah
son of Amon was the king of Judah. I have
spoken messages from the Lord to you from
that time until today. But you have not listened.
4The Lord has sent his servants, the
prophets, to you over and over again. But you
have not listened to them. You have not paid
any attention to them.
5Those prophets said, “Change your lives
and stop doing evil! If you change, you can
return to the land that the Lord gave you and
your ancestors* long ago. He gave you this
land to live in forever. 6Don’t follow other
gods. Don’t serve or worship them. Don’t
worship idols* that someone has made. That
only makes me angry with you. By doing this
you only hurt yourselves.” a
7“But you did not listen to me.” This message
is from the Lord. “You worshiped idols
that someone made, and that made me angry.
And it only hurt you.”
8So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says,
“You have not listened to my messages. 9I will
soon send for all the tribes of the north. b”
This message is from the Lord. “I will soon
send for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
He is my servant. I will bring those people
against the land of Judah and against the
people of Judah. I will bring them against all
the nations around you too. I will destroy all
those countries. I will make those lands like
an empty desert forever. People will see those
countries, and whistle at how badly they were
destroyed. 10I will bring an end to the sounds
of joy and happiness in those places. There
will be no more happy sounds of the brides
and bridegrooms. I will take away the sound
of people grinding meal. I will take away the
light of the lamp. 11That whole area will be an
empty desert. All these people will be slaves
of the king of Babylon for 70 years.
12“But when the 70 years have passed, I
will punish the king of Babylon. I will punish
the nation of Babylon.” This message is
from the Lord. “I will punish the land of the
Babylonians for their sins. I will make that
land a desert forever. 13I said many bad things
will happen to Babylon, and all of them will
happen. Jeremiah spoke about those foreign
nations. And all the warnings are written in
this book. 14Yes,
JEREMIAH 25:2
the people of Babylon will
a 25:6 By doing this you only hurt yourselves This
is from the ancient Greek version. The standard
Hebrew text has “Then I will not hurt you.”
b 25:9 north The Babylonian army came from this
direction to attack Judah. Armies from countries
north and east of Israel often came this way to
attack Judah and Israel.
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have to serve many nations and many great
kings. I will give them the punishment they
deserve for all the things they have done.”
Judgment on the Nations of the World
15The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to
me: “Jeremiah, take this cup of wine from my
hand. It is the wine of my anger. I am sending
you to different nations. Make all the nations
drink from this cup. 16They will drink this
wine. Then they will vomit and act like crazy
people. They will do this because of the war
that I will soon bring against them.”
17So I took the cup of wine from the Lord’s
hand. I went to those nations and I made
them drink from the cup. 18I poured this
wine for the people of Jerusalem and Judah.*
I made the kings and leaders of Judah drink
from the cup. I did this so that they would
become an empty desert. I did this so that
place would be destroyed so badly that people
would whistle and say curses about it. And it
happened—Judah is like that now.
19I also made Pharaoh, the king of Egypt,
drink from the cup. I made his officials, his
important leaders, and all his people drink
from the cup of the Lord’s anger.
20I also made all the Arabs and all the kings
of the land of Uz drink from the cup.
I made all the kings of the land of the Philistines*
drink from the cup. These were the
kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron,
and what remains of the city Ashdod.
21Then I made the people of Edom, Moab,
and Ammon drink from the cup.
22I made all the kings of Tyre and Sidon
drink from the cup.
I also made all the kings of the faraway
countries drink from that cup. 23I made the
people of Dedan, Tema, and Buz drink from
the cup. I made all those who cut their hair at
their temples drink from the cup. 24I made all
the kings of Arabia drink from the cup. These
kings live in the desert. 25I made all the kings
from Zimri, Elam, and Media drink from the
cup. 26I made all the kings of the north, those
who were near and far, drink from the cup. I
made them drink one after the other. I made
all the kingdoms that are on earth drink from
the cup of the anger of the Lord. But the king
of Babylon will drink from this cup after all
these other nations.
27“Jeremiah, say to those nations, this is
what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of the
people of Israel, says: ‘Drink this cup of my
anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down
and don’t get up. Don’t get up because I am
bringing wars against you.’
28“They will refuse to take the cup from
your hand. They will refuse to drink it, but
you will tell them, ‘This is what the Lord All-
Powerful says: You will surely drink from this
cup! 29I am already making these bad things
happen to Jerusalem, the city that is called by
my name. Maybe you people think that you