⁶ so you go, and on a fast day in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come up from their towns.

²³ As Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.

²⁸ Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned.^(A)

⁹ Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me,

³ For twenty-three years, from the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah to this day, the word of the Lord has come to me, and I have spoken persistently to you, but you have not listened.^(A)

⁹ I am going to send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, even for King Nebuchadrezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these nations around; I will utterly destroy them and make them an object of horror and of hissing and an everlasting disgrace.^{[a](A) 10} And I will banish from them the sound of mirth 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.^{(B) 11} This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. ¹² Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord, making the land an everlasting waste.^{(C) 13} I will bring upon that land all the words that I have uttered against it, everything written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings shall make slaves of them also, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.^(D)

The Cup of God’s Wrath

¹⁵ For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.^{(E) 16} They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.^(F)

¹⁷ So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: ¹⁸ Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, an object of hissing and of cursing, as they are today;^{(G) 19} Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; ²⁰ all the mixed people;^[b] all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;^{(H) 21} Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;^{(I) 22} all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea;^{(J) 23} Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaved temples;^{(K) 24} all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples^[c] that live in the desert;^{(L) 25} all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; ²⁶ all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach^[d] shall drink.^(M)

²⁷ Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink; get drunk and vomit; fall and rise no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.^(N)

²⁸ And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink! ²⁹ See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.^(O)

Sixth Vision: The Flying Scroll

5 Again I looked up and saw a flying scroll.^(A)