Past Prophetic Warnings Have Not Deterred Sin

¹The word which came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim son of Josiah of Judah, which was the first year of King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon. ²This is what the prophet Jeremiah said to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:

³From the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, to this day—these twenty-three years—the word of the Lord has come to me. I have spoken to you persistently, but you would not listen. ⁴Moreover, the Lord constantly sent all his servants the prophets to you, but you would not listen or incline your ears to hear ⁵when they said, “Turn back, every one, from your evil ways and your wicked acts, that you may remain throughout the ages on the soil which the Lord gave to you and your fathers. ⁶Do not follow other gods, to serve them and worship them. Do not vex Me with what your own hands have made,^a and I will not bring disaster upon you.” ⁷But you would not listen to Me—declares the Lord—but vexed Me with what your hands made, to your own hurt.

⁸Assuredly, thus said the Lord of Hosts: Because you would not listen to My words, ⁹I am going to send for all the peoples of the north—declares the Lord—and for My servant, King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, and bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all those nations roundabout. I will exterminate them and make them a desolation, an object of hissing—ruins for all time. ¹⁰And I will banish from them the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride, and the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp. ¹¹This whole land shall be a desolate ruin.

And those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹²When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their sins—declares the Lord— and I will make it a desolation for all time. ¹³And I will bring upon that land all that I have decreed against it, all that is recorded in this book—that which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.¹⁴For they too shall be enslaved by many nations and great kings; and I will requite them according to their acts and according to their conduct.