Jeremiah 25:1-11 - Seventy Years Of Servitude

¹ This message from the LORD came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah. (This was also the first year of the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.) ² This is what Jeremiah the prophet told all the people of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem: ³ "From the thirteenth year of the reign of Ammon's son Josiah, the king of Judah, until the present time, for 23 years this message from the LORD has come to me, and I've spoken to you again and again, but you haven't listened. ⁴ Again and again, the LORD sent all his servants, the prophets, to you, but you wouldn't listen or even turn your ears in my direction to hear. ⁵ They said, "Turn, each one of you, from your evil habits and evil deeds, and live in the land that the LORD gave to you and your ancestors forever and ever. ⁶ Don't follow other gods to serve and worship them. Don't provoke me with the idols you make with your hands, and I won't bring disaster on you.'

⁷ But you didn't listen to me," declares the LORD, "so as to provoke me with the idols you make with your hands to your own harm.

⁸ "Therefore, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Because you haven't listened to my message, ⁹ I'm now sending for all the tribes from the north, declares the LORD, and for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I'll bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I'll utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting desolation. ¹⁰ I'll destroy the sounds of gladness and rejoicing from them, the sounds of the bridegroom and the bride, the sound of the hand mill and also the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This entire land will be a desolation and a waste, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.