Seventy Years of Captivity
Jeremiah 25The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (this was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem: From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years, the word of YHWH has come to me, and I have spoken to y’all again and again, but y’all have not listened.
YHWH has sent all ʜɪꜱ servants the prophets to y’all again and again, but y’all have not listened or inclined your* ear to hear, They said, “Turn now, each of y’all, from your* evil ways and evil of deeds, and dwell in the land that YHWH has given to y’all and to y’all’s ancestors, for ever and ever. Y’all must not go after other gods to serve them or worship them, and y’all must not provoke me to anger with the work of y’all’s hands. Then I will not harm y’all.”
“But y’all have not listened to me,” declares YHWH, “and y’all provoked me to anger with the work of y’all’s hands and brought disaster on yourselves*.”
Therefore YHWH Almighty says: “Because y’all have not listened my words, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says YHWH, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations. 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 sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. This whole land will be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
“When seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,” says YHWH, “for their iniquity. I will make the land of the Chaldeans desolate forever. I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations. For many nations and great kings will make bondservants of them, even of them. I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the work of their hands.”
The Cup of God’s Wrath
So YHWH, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. They will drink it, they will stagger, and go insane, because of the sword that I will send among them.”
Then I took the cup from YHWH’s hand, and made all the nations to whom YHWH had sent me drink it: Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, with its kings and its officials, to make them a desolation, an horror, a hissing, and a curse, as it is today; Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants, his princes, and all his people; and all the mixed people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon; and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea; Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have the corners of their beard cut off; and all the kings of Arabia, all the kings of the mixed people who dwell in the wilderness; and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the surface of the earth. The king of Sheshach will drink after them.
“You are to tell them, ‘YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel says: “Y’all are to drink, get drunk, and vomit. Then y’all will fall and rise no more, because of the sword I will send among y’all.”’ If they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you must tell them, ‘YHWH Almighty says: “You must drink-drink! Look! I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and y’all will go unpunished? Y’all will not be unpunished, for I will call down a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says YHWH Almighty.”’
“Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and tell them,
“‘YHWH will roar from on high, and utter ʜɪꜱ voice from ʜɪꜱ holy habitation. Hᴇ will mightily roar-roar against ʜɪꜱ fold. Hᴇ will shout like those who tread grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. An uproar will reach to the end of the earth, for YHWH has a controversy with the nations. He will enter into judgment with all flesh. As for the wicked, he will give them to the sword,”’ says YHWH.”YHWH Almighty says,
“Look! Disaster will go out from nation to nation, and a great storm will be raised up from the uttermost parts of the earth.”The slain of YHWH will be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They won’t be lamented. They won’t be gathered or buried. They will be dung on the surface of the ground.
Wail, y’all shepherds, and cry, wallow in dust, y’all leaders of the flock. For the time of y’all’s slaughter have fully come, Y’all will fall and be scattered like precious vase. The shepherds will have nowhere to flee. The leader of the flock will have no escape. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the wailing of the leader of the flock, for YHWH destroys their pasture. The peaceful folds are brought to silence because of the fierce anger of YHWH. He has left his covert, as the lion; for their land has become an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppression, and because of his fierce anger.