1The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah; that year was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.2Jeremiah the prophet spoke it concerning all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:3From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this day, that is, the twenty-third year, the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.4The LORD has sent to you all his servants the prophets again and again, but you have not listened and have not inclined your ear to hear,5saying, Turn back, each one from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and dwell in the land that the LORD gave to you and to your fathers from of old and forever.6Do not go after other gods to serve them or to bow down to them, and do not provoke me to anger by the work of your hands, so that I will not bring harm upon you.7Yet you did not listen to me, declares the LORD, because you provoked me to anger by the work of your hands to your own harm.8Therefore thus says the LORD of Hosts: Because you have not listened to my words,9behold, I am about to send and bring all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations, and I will devote them to destruction and make them a horror, a hissing, and everlasting ruins.10I will remove from them the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.11This whole land will become a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.12Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation for their iniquity, and the land of Chaldea, declares the LORD, and I will make it everlasting desolations.13I will bring upon that land all the words I have spoken against it, everything written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.14For they themselves—many nations and great kings—have served them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.