14. The people of Judah and even the priests who were their leaders became more unfaithful. They followed the disgusting example of the nations around them and made the Lord's holy temple unfit for worship.
15. But the Lord God felt sorry for his people, and instead of destroying the temple, he sent prophets who warned the people over and over again about their sins.
16. But the people only laughed and insulted these prophets. They ignored what the Lord God was trying to tell them, until he finally became so angry that nothing could stop him from punishing Judah and Jerusalem.
17. The Lord sent King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to attack Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar killed the young men who were in the temple, and he showed no mercy to anyone, whether man or woman, young or old. God let him kill everyone in the city.
18. Nebuchadnezzar carried off everything that was left in the temple; he robbed the treasury and the personal storerooms of the king and his officials. He took everything back to Babylon.
19. Nebuchadnezzar's troops burnt down the temple and destroyed every important building in the city. Then they broke down the city wall.
20. The survivors were taken to Babylonia as prisoners, where they were slaves of the king and his sons, until Persia became a powerful nation.
21. Judah was an empty desert, and it stayed that way for seventy years, to make up for all the years it was not allowed to rest. These things happened just as Jeremiah the Lord's prophet had said.
22. In the first year that Cyrus was king of Persia, the Lord told Cyrus to send a message to all parts of his kingdom. This happened just as Jeremiah the Lord's prophet had promised.
23. The message said:I am King Cyrus of Persia.The Lord God of heaven has made me the ruler of every nation on earth. He has also chosen me to build a temple for him in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. The Lord God will watch over any of his people who want to go back to Judah.