Seventy Years of Captivity

1THE WORD THAT CAME TO JEREMIAS concerning all the people of Juda in the fourth year of Joakim, son of Josias, king of Juda; 2which he spoke to all the people of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 3In the thirteenth year of Josias, son of Amos, king of Juda, even until this day for three and twenty years, I have both spoken to you, rising early and speaking, 4and I sent to you my servants the prophets, sending them early; (but ye hearkened not, and listened not with your ears;) saying, 5Turn ye every one from his evil way, and from your evil practices, and ye shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers, of old and for ever. 6Go ye not after strange gods, to serve them, and to worship them, that ye provoke me not by the works of your hands, to do you hurt. 7But ye hearkened not to me.

8Therefore thus saith the Lord; Since ye believed not my words, 9behold I will send and take a family from the north, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants of it, and against all the nations round about it, and I will make them utterly waste, and make them a desolation, and a hissing, and an everlasting reproach. 10And I will destroy from among them the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the scent of ointment, and the light of a candle. 11And all the land shall be a desolation; and they shall serve among the Gentiles seventy years.

12And when the seventy years are fulfilled, I will take vengeance on that nation, and will make them a perpetual desolation. 13And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have spoken against it, even all things that are written in this book. 14(OMITTED TEXT)

The Cup of God’s Wrath

15(32:15) Thus said the Lord God of Israel; Take the cup of this unmixed wine from mine hand, and thou shalt cause all the nations to drink, to whom I send thee. 16(32:16) And they shall drink, and vomit, and be mad, because of the sword which I send among them.

17(32:17) So I took the cup out of the Lord's hand, and caused the nations to whom the Lord sent me to drink: 18(32:18) Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings of Juda, and his princes, to make them a desert place, a desolation, and a hissing; 19(32:19) and Pharao king of Egypt, and his servants, and his nobles, and all his people; 20(32:20) and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus, 21(32:21) and Idumea, and the land of Moab, and the children of Ammon, 22(32:22) and the kings of Tyre, and the kings of Sidon, and the kings in the country beyond the sea, 23(32:23) and Daedan, and Thaeman, and Ros, and every one that is shaved round about the face, 24(32:24) and all the mingled people lodging in the wilderness, 25(32:25) and all the kings of Aelam, and all the kings of the Persians, 26(32:26) and all the kings from the north, the far and the near, each one with his brother, and all the kingdom s which are on the face of the earth.

27(32:27) And thou shalt say to them, Thus said the Lord Almighty; Drink ye, be ye drunken; and ye shall vomit, and shall fall, and shall in nowise rise, because of the sword which I send among you. 28(32:28) And it shall come to pass, when they refuse to take the cup out of thine hand, to drink it, that thou shalt say, Thus said the Lord; Ye shall surely drink. 29(32:29) For I am beginning to afflict the city whereon my name is called, and ye shall by no means be held guiltless: for I am calling a sword upon all that dwell upon the earth.

30(32:30) And thou shalt prophesy against them these words, and shalt say, The Lord shall speak from on high, from his sanctuary he will utter his voice; he will pronounce a declaration on his place; and these shall answer like men gathering grapes: and destruction is coming on them that dwell on the earth,

31(32:31) even upon the extreme part of the earth; for the Lord has a controversy with the nations, he is pleading with all flesh, and the ungodly are given to the sword, saith the Lord.

32(32:32) Thus said the Lord; Behold, evils are proceeding from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind goes forth from the end of the earth.

33(32:33) And the slain of the Lord shall be in the day of the Lord from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth.

The Cry of the Shepherds

34(32:34) Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and lament, ye rams of the flock: for your days have been completed for slaughter, and ye shall fall as the choice rams.

35(32:35) And flight shall perish from the shepherds, and safety from the rams of the flock.

36(32:36) A voice of the crying of the shepherds, and a moaning of the sheep and the rams: for the Lord has destroyed their pastures.

37(32:37) And the peaceable abodes that remain shall be destroyed before the fierceness of my anger.

38(32:38) He has forsaken his lair, as a lion: for their land is become desolate before the great sword.