1A Sermon that was given unto Jeremy, upon all the people of Judah: In the fourth year of Jehoakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was, in the first year of Nebuchodonosor king of Babylon.
2Which sermon, Jeremy the prophet made unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabiters of Jerusalem, on this manner.
3From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, unto this present day, (that is even twenty third year) the word of the LORD hath been committed unto me. And so I have spoken to you, I have risen up early, I have given you warning in season, but ye would not hear me.
4Though the LORD hath sent his servants, all the prophets unto you in season: Yet would ye not obey, ye would not incline your ears to hear.
5He said: turn again every man from his evil way, and from your wicked imaginations, and so shall ye dwell for ever in the land, that the LORD promised you and your forefathers:
6And go not after strange gods, serve them not, worship them not, and anger me not with the works of your hands: then will not I punish you.
7Nevertheless, ye would not hear me (sayeth the LORD) but have defiled me with the works of your hands, to your own great harm.
8Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts: Because, ye have not hearkened unto my word;
9Lo, I will send out, and call for all the people, that dwell in the North, sayeth the LORD, and will prepare(prepayre) Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant, and will bring them upon this land, and upon all that dwell therein, and upon all the people that are about them, and will utterly root them out. I will make of them a wilderness, a mockage, and a continual desert.
10Moreover, I will take from them the voice of gladness and solace, the voice of the bridegroom, and the bride, the voice of the anointed, with the cressets:
11and this whole land shall become a wilderness, and they shall serve the said people and the king of Babylon, three score years and ten.
12When the seventy years are expired, I will visit also the wickedness of the king of Babylon and his people sayeth the LORD: yea and the land of the Caldees, and will make it a perpetual wilderness,
13and will fulfil all my words upon that land which I have devised against it: yea all that is written in this book, which Jeremy hath prophesied of all people:
14so that they also shall be subdued unto divers nations and great kings, for I will recompense them, according to their deeds and works of their own hands.
15For thus hath the LORD God of Israel spoken unto me: Take this wine cup of indignation from my hand, that thou mayest cause all the people, to whom I send thee, for to drink of it:
16that when they have drunken thereof, they may be mad, and out of their wits, when the sword cometh, that I will send among them.
17Then took I the cup from the LORD's hand, and made all the people drink thereof, unto whom the LORD had sent me.
18But first the city of Jerusalem, and all the cities of Judah, their kings and princes: to make them desolate, waste, despised and cursed according as it is come to pass this day.
19Yea and Pharao the king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and his people altogether one with another
20and all kings of the land of Huz, all the kings of the Philistine's land, Ascalon, Azah,(Gaza) Accaron and the remnant of Asood,
21the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites:
22all the kings of Tirus, and Sidon: the kings of the Isles, that are beyond the sea,
23Dedan, Thema, Buz and the shaven Ismaelites:
24all the kings of Araby, and (generally) all the kings that dwell in the desert:
25all the kings of Zamri, all the kings of Elam, all the kings of the Meedes,
26all kings toward the north, whether they be far or nigh, everyone with his neighbours: Yea and all the kingdoms that are upon the whole earth. The king of Sezach, said he, shall drink with them also.
27And say thou unto them: This is the commandment of the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: Drink and be drunken, spew and fall, that ye never rise: and that thorow the sword, which I will send among you.
28But if they will no receive the cup of thy hand, and drink it, then tell them: Thus doth the LORD of Hosts threaten you: drink it ye shall, and that shortly.
29For lo, I begin to plague the city, that my name is given unto: think ye then, that I will leave you unpunished? Ye shall not go quite. For why, I call for a sword upon all the inhabiters of the earth, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.
30Therefore tell them all these words, and say unto them: The LORD shall cry from above, and let his voice be heard from his holy habitation. With a great noise shall he cry from his court regal. He shall give a great voice (like the grape gatherers) and the sound thereof shall be heard unto the ends of the world.
31For the LORD hath a judgement to give upon all people, and will hold his court of justice with all flesh and punish the ungodly, sayeth the LORD.
32For thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts: Behold, a miserable plague shall go from one people to another, and a great stormy water shall arise from all the ends of the earth.
33And the same day shall the LORD himself slay them, from one end of the earth to another. There shall no moan be made for any of them, none gathered up, none buried: but shall lie as dung upon the ground.
34Mourn (O ye shepherds) and cry: sprinkle yourselves with ashes, O ye rams of the flock: for the time of your slaughter is fulfilled, and ye shall fall like vessels cunningly made for pleasure.
35The shepherds shall have no way to flee, and the rams of the flock shall not escape.
36Then shall the shepherds cry horribly, and the rams of the flock shall mourn: for the LORD shall consume their pasture,
37and their best fields shall lie dead because of the horrible wrath of the LORD.
38They shall forsake their folds like as a lion: for their lands shall be waste, because of the wrath of the destroyer, and because of his fearful indignation.