Study Desk

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the ^(C1)fourth year of ^(C2)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the ^(C3)first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

the word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the ^(C1)people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

"From the ^(C1)thirteenth year of ^(C2)Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, ^(F1)these ^(C3)twenty-three years the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you ^(C4)again and again, but you have not listened.

"And the LORD has sent to you all His ^(C1)servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,

saying, '^(C1)Turn now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the land which the LORD has given to you and your forefathers ^(C2)forever and ever;

and ^(C1)do not follow other gods to ^(F1)serve them and to ^(F2)worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, then I will do you no harm.'

"Yet you have not listened to Me," declares the LORD, "in order to ^(C1)provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

"Therefore this is what the LORD of armies says: 'Because you have not obeyed My words,

behold, I will ^(C1)send and take all the families of the north,' declares the LORD, 'and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^(C2)My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will ^(F1)completely destroy them and ^(C3)make them an object of horror and ^(F2)hissing, and an everlasting place of ruins.

'Moreover, I will ^(C1)eliminate from them the voice of jubilation and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride, the ^(C2)sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

'^(C1)This entire land will be a place of ruins and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for ^(C2)seventy years.

'Then it will be ^(C1)when seventy years are completed I will ^(C2)punish the king of Babylon and that nation,' declares the LORD, 'for their wrongdoing, and the land of the Chaldeans; and ^(C3)I will make it an everlasting desolation.

'I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in ^(C1)this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against ^(C2)all the nations.

'(^(F1)For ^(C1)many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will ^(C2)repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)'"