2. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to all the people of Judah and to everyone who lived in Jerusalem. He said,
3. “For 23 years, from the time that Josiah, son of Amon, was in his thirteenth year as king of Judah until today, the Lord continued to speak his word to me. So I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.
4. “Even though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you, you haven’t listened or paid attention to them.
5. The prophets said, ‘Turn from your evil ways and the evil you have done, and live in the land that the Lord permanently gave to you and your ancestors.
6. Don’t follow other gods to serve and worship them. Don’t make me furious about the idols your hands have shaped. Then I won’t harm you.
7. But you haven’t listened to me, declares the Lord. You have made me furious about the idols your hands have shaped and ⌊have brought⌋ harm upon yourselves.’
8. “This is what the Lord of Armies says: You did not listen to my words,
9. so I’m going to send for all the families from the north. I will also send for my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, declares the Lord. I will bring the families from the north to attack this land, its people, and all these surrounding nations. I’m going to destroy them and turn them into something terrible, something ridiculed, and something permanently ruined.
10. I will take from them the sounds of joy and happiness, the sounds of brides and grooms, the sound of mills, and the light of lamps.
11. This whole land will be ruined and become a wasteland. These nations will serve the king of Babylon for 70 years.
12. “When the 70 years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their crimes, declares the Lord. I will turn Babylon into a permanent wasteland.
13. I will bring on that land all the disasters I threatened to do to it, everything that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations, everything written in this book.
14. Many nations and great kings will make slaves of the people of Babylon, and I will pay them back for what they have done.”
15. This is what the Lord God of Israel said to me: Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my fury, and make all the nations to whom I’m sending you drink from it.
16. When they drink from it, they will stagger and go insane because of the wars that I’m going to send them.
17. So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink from it:
18. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah as well as its kings and officials. When they drank from it, they became wastelands and ruins, something ridiculed and cursed, until today.
19. ⌊I also made these people drink from it:⌋ Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, officials, all his people,