25 This is the message that came to Yirmeyah (Jeremiah) concerning all the people of Yehudah (Judah) in the fourth year of the reign of Yehoyakim (Jehoiakim, son of Yehudah’s King Yoshiyah (Josiah)), which was the first year of the reign of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar. 2 The prophet Yirmeyah proclaimed this to all the people across Yehudah including all of Yerushalem’s inhabitants, saying: 3 Yahweh’s messages have been coming to me for twenty-three years since the thirteenth year of the reign of Yehudah’s king Yoshiyah (Josiah, Amon’s son), and I’ve passed them on to you all over and over again, but you haven’t taken any notice of them. 4 Yahweh sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, but you all haven’t listened or paid any attention. 5 Those prophets said, ‘Let everyone turn from their wicked ways and their evil activities, and return to the land that Yahweh gave in ancient times to your ancestors and to all of you as a permanent inheritance. 6 So don’t walk after other gods to worship them or to bow down to them, and don’t provoke him with things you make with your hands, and then he won’t harm you all.’ 7 But Yahweh declares that you all haven’t listened to me, because with what you’ve made, you’ve provoked me to do harm to you.

8 So Commander-in-chief Yahweh says this: Since all of you haven’t listen to my messages, 9 listen, I’m about to send out a command to fetch all the northern peoples. Yahweh declares that I will bring my servant, the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and his armies against this land and its inhabitants, and against all the nations around you. I will mark them for destruction and turn them into a horror—something to be hissed at, and permanent ruins. 10 I’ll put an end to the sounds of gladness and celebration, the sounds of brides and grooms, and the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.[ref] 11 Then all of this land will become a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the Babylonian king for seventy years.[ref]

12 Then after seventy years have passed, then I’ll punish the king of Babylon and that nation—the land of the Chaldeans—for their wickedness, and make it into a permanent wasteland. That is Yahweh’s declaration. 13 Then I’ll carry out all the messages that I’d spoken against that land, and everything written in this document that Yirmeyah has prophesied against all the nations. 14 Yes many other nations and great kings will also make slaves out of those nations. I’ll repay them for everything they’ve done.