The Chaldeans Destroy Jerusalem

¹⁵ And Yahweh, the God of their fathers, ^(A)sent word to them ^[a]again and again by the hand of His messengers, because He had compassion on His people and on His habitation; ¹⁶ but they continually ^(B)mocked the messengers of God, ^(C)despised His words and scoffed at His prophets, ^(D)until the wrath of Yahweh arose against His people, until there was no remedy. ^17 (E)Therefore He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans who killed their choice men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on choice man or virgin, old man or infirm; He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (F)And all the articles of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, he brought them all to Babylon. ¹⁹ Then ^(G)they burned the house of God and tore down the wall of Jerusalem, and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its valuable articles. ²⁰ And those who had escaped from the sword he ^(H)took away into exile to Babylon; and ^(I)they were slaves to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ^21 (J)to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until ^(K)the land had made up for its sabbaths. ^(L)All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath ^[b](M)until seventy years were fulfilled.

The Proclamation of Cyrus

^22 (N)Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia—in order to complete the word of Yahweh ^(O)by the mouth of Jeremiah—Yahweh ^(P)stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he had a proclamation pass throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying, ²³ “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia,

¹² Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for ^(A)in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

³¹ So you bear witness against yourselves, that you ^(A)are ^[a]sons of those who murdered the prophets.

Lament over Jerusalem

³⁷ “^(A)Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who ^(B)kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, ^(C)the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you did not want it.