Seventy Years of Servitude

25 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, 2 which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,[fn] 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah, the son of Amon, the king of Judah, even up to this day, these twenty-three years[fn] the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you over and over again,[fn] but you have not listened. 4 And though Yahweh has sent all his servants the prophets to you over and over again[fn] you have not listened, and you have not inclined your ear to hear, 5 saying,[fn] ‘Turn back please, each one from his evil way, and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land that Yahweh has given to you and to your ancestors[fn] from a long time back and until forever, 6 and you must not go after other gods to serve them, and to bow in worship to them, and you must not provoke me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will not do something bad to you.’ 7 ‘Yet you have not listened to me,’ declares[fn] Yahweh, ‘so that you[fn] have provoked me to anger with the work of your hands for your own harm.’

8 Therefore[fn] thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed my words, 9 look, I am going to send and take all the clans[fn] of the north,’ declares[fn] Yahweh, ‘and I will send[fn] to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations all around, and I will destroy them, and I will make them a horror, and an object of hissing, and everlasting ruins.[fn] 10 And I will exterminate from them the sound of jubilation, and the sound of joy, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the lamp. 11 And all this land will become a site of ruins, a desolation, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.[fn]