14. Also all the chiefs of the priests and the people trespassed greatly in accord with all the abominations of the heathen, and they polluted the house of the Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem.
15. And the Lord, the God of their fathers, sent to them persistently by His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place.
16. But they kept mocking the messengers of God and despising His words and scoffing at His prophets till the wrath of the Lord rose against His people, till there was no remedy or healing.
17. Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed; He gave them all into his hand.
18. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the Lord's house, of the king, and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon.
19. And they burned God's house and broke down Jerusalem's wall and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its choice vessels.
20. Those who had escaped from the sword he took away to Babylon, where they were servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia was established there,
21. To fulfill the Lord's word by Jeremiah, till the land had enjoyed its sabbaths; for as long as it lay desolate it kept sabbath to fulfill seventy years. [Lev. 25:4; 26:43; Jer. 25:11; 29:10.]
22. Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
23. Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me, and He has charged me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all His people, may the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up [to Jerusalem].