9. So I will soon send for all the peoples of the north,” says the Lord. “I will soon send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them all against Judah and all the nations around you, too. I will completely destroy all those countries. I will leave them in ruins forever. People will be shocked when they see how badly they will be destroyed.
10. I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and happiness. There will be no more happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms. I will take away the sound of people grinding meal. And I will take away the light of the lamp.
11. That whole area will be an empty desert. And these nations will be slaves of the king of Babylon for 70 years.
12. “But when the 70 years have passed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation,” says the Lord. “I will punish the Babylonians for their evil. I will make that land a desert forever.
13. I have said many terrible things will happen to Babylonia. All of them will happen. Jeremiah prophesied about those foreign nations. And the warnings are written in this book.
14. The Babylonians will have to serve many nations and many great kings. I will give them the punishment they deserve. They will be punished for all the things they do.”
15. The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to me: “My anger is like the wine in a cup. Take it from my hand. I am sending you to all the nations. Make them drink all of my anger from this cup.
16. They will drink my anger like wine. Then they will not be able to walk straight. They will act like madmen. They will do this because of the war that I am going to send among them.”
17. So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I went to those nations. And I made them drink from the cup.
18. I poured this wine for the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. I made the kings and officers of Judah drink from the cup. I did it so that they would become a ruin. People would be shocked when they saw how badly they were destroyed. People would insult them and speak evil of them. And it happened. Judah is like that now.
19. I also made these people drink from that cup of my anger: the king of Egypt, his servants, his officers and all his people;
20. all the Arabs, and all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (the kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the people left at Ashdod);
21. the people of Edom, Moab and Ammon;
22. all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the faraway countries;
23. the people of Dedan and Tema and Buz; all who cut their hair short;
24. all the kings of Arabia; and the kings of the people who live in the desert;
25. all the kings of Zimri, Elam and Media;
26. and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. I made all the kingdoms on earth drink from the cup of the Lord’s anger. But the king of Babylon will drink from this cup after all the others.
27. “Then say this to them: ‘This is what the Lord of heaven’s armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink this cup of my anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down and don’t get up. Don’t get up because I am sending a war to kill you!’