The Hebrew Prophets

"'I will look after them for their good, I will bring them back to this land; I will build them up and not tear them down, plant them and not pull them up.

I will give them a heart to know me that I am ADONAI. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with all their heart.'

"But concerning the bad figs that are so bad as to be inedible, ADONAI says: 'I will make Tzidkiyahu the king of Y'hudah and his leaders resemble them, likewise the rest of Yerushalayim remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.

Everywhere I drive them I will make them an object of horror, repulsive to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace, a byword, a laughingstock and a curse;

and I will send sword, famine and plague among them until they have disappeared from the land I gave them and their ancestors.'"

This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Y'hudah in the fourth year of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah; this was also the first year of N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel.

Yirmeyahu the prophet proclaimed it before all the people of Y'hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim:

"For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y'hudah, until today, the word of ADONAI has come to me; and I have proclaimed it to you on numerous occasions; but you haven't listened.

Moreover, ADONAI sent you all his servants the prophets - again, on numerous occasions - but you didn't listen or pay attention.

The message was always: 'Every one of you, turn back from his evil way, from the evil of your actions. Then you will live in the land ADONAI gave you and your ancestors forever and ever.

Don't follow other gods by serving and worshipping them. "Don't provoke my anger with things your own hands have made; then I will do you no harm.

But you wouldn't listen to me," says ADONAI, "so that you could provoke me with the products of your hands, to your own harm."

"Therefore, here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'Because you haven't paid attention to what I've been saying,

I'm going to send for all the families of the north,' says ADONAI, 'and for my servant N'vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, and bring them against this land, against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them, making them an object of horror and ridicule, a perpetual ruin.

Moreover, I will silence among them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of lamps.

This entire land will become a ruin, a waste; and these nations will serve the king of Bavel for seventy years.

But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Bavel and that nation for their sin,' says ADONAI, 'and I will turn the land of the Kasdim into everlasting ruins.

I will inflict on that land all my words that I have decreed against it, everything written in this book, in which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations.

For they too will become slaves to many nations and to powerful kings; I will pay them back according to their deeds and the work of their own hands.'

"For here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to me: 'Take this cup of the wine of fury from my hand, and make all the nations where I am sending you drink it.

They will drink, stagger to and fro and behave like crazy people because of the sword that I will send among them.'"

Then I took the cup from ADONAI's hand and made all the nations drink, where ADONAI had sent me -

Yerushalayim and the cities of Y'hudah, along with their kings and leaders, to make them a ruin and an object of horror, ridicule and cursing, as it is today;

Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants and leaders and all his people, both native

and foreign; all the kings of the land of 'Utz; all the kings of the land of the P'lishtim, Ashkelon, 'Azah, 'Ekron and those remaining in Ashdod;