¶ A Sermon that was given unto Ieremy, upon all the people of Iudah: In the fourth year of Iehoakim the son of Iosiah king of Iudah, that was, in the first year of Nebuchodonosor king of Babylon.
Which sermon, Ieremy the prophet made unto all the people of Iudah, and to all the inhabiters of Ierusalem, on this manner.
From the thirteenth year of Iosiah the son of Amon king of Iudah, 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.
Though 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.
He 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:
And 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.
Nevertheless, ye would not hear me (sayeth the LORD) but have defiled me with the works of your hands, to your own great harm.
¶ Wherefore thus sayeth the LORD of Hosts: Because, ye have not hearkened unto my word;
Lo, I will send out, and call for all the people, that dwell in the North, sayeth the LORD, and will prepare 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.
Moreover, 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 cresshettes:
and this whole land shall become a wilderness, and they shall serve the said people and the king of Babylon, three score years and ten.
When 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,
and will fulfil all my words upon that land which I have devised against it: yea all that is written in this book, which Ieremy hath prophesied of all people:
so 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.
¶ For 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:
that when they have drunken thereof, they may be mad, and out of their wits, when the sword cometh, that I will send among them.
Then took I the cup from the LORD's hand, and made all the people drink thereof, unto whom the LORD had sent me.
But first the city of Ierusalem, and all the cities of Iudah, their kings and princes: to make them desolate, waste, despised and cursed according as it is come to pass this day.
Yea and Pharao the king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and his people altogether one with another
and all kings of the land of Huz, all the kings of the Philistine's land, Ascalon, Azah, Accaron and the remnant of Asood,
the Edomites, the Moabites, and the Ammonites:
all the kings of Tirus, and Sidon: the kings of the Isles, that are beyond the sea,
Dedan, Thema, Buz and the shaven Ismaelites:
all the kings of Araby, and (generally) all the kings that dwell in the desert:
all the kings of Zamri, all the kings of Elam, all the kings of the Meedes,
all kings toward the north, whether they be far or nye, 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.
And 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.
But 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.
For 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.
¶ Therefore 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.
For 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.
For 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.
And 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.
Mourn (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.
The shepherds shall have no way to flee, and the rams of the flock shall not escape.
Then shall the shepherds cry horribly, and the rams of the flock shall mourn: for the LORD shall consume their pasture,
and their best fields shall lie dead because of the horrible wrath of the LORD.
They 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.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.