7. But you wouldn’t listen to me, making me angry by what you do and bringing disaster upon yourselves, declares the Lord.
8. Therefore, this is what the Lord of heavenly forces says: Because you haven’t listened to my words,
9. I am going to muster all the tribes of the north and my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, declares the Lord, and I will bring them against this country and its residents as well as against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and will make them an object of horror, shock, and ruins for all time.
10. I will silence the sounds of joy and laughter and the voices of the bride and the bridegroom. Yes, I will silence the millstones and snuff out the lamplight.
11. This whole country will be reduced to a wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.
12. When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their wrongdoing, declares the Lord. I will reduce the land of the Babylonians to a wasteland for all time.
13. I will unleash upon that land everything I decreed, all that is written in this scroll, which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.
14. Yes, many great nations and powerful kings will enslave them, and I will pay them back in full for what they have done and made with their hands.
15. This is what the Lord, God of Israel, said to me: Take this seething cup of wine from my hand and make all the nations gulp it down where I’m sending you.
16. They will drink and stagger about half-crazed because of the sword that I am sending against them.
17. So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand, and I made all the nations drink from it where the Lord had sent me:
18. Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials. This was to make them a wasteland, an object of horror, shock, and cursing, as it is today;
19. Pharaoh, Egypt’s king, his attendants and officials, and all his people,
20. including the foreigners living there; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what’s left of Ashdod;