12. And he did evil in the eyes of Yahweh his God. He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for Yahweh.
13. And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
14. All the leaders of the priests and the people likewise increased in unfaithfulness according to all the detestable things of the nations. And they polluted the house of Yahweh that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.
15. And Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, had repeatedly and persistently sent to them by the hand of his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.
16. But they were mocking the messengers of God and despising his words and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of Yahweh rose against his people until there was no remedy.
17. Therefore he brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, and he killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He showed no mercy on a young man, a virgin, the elderly, or decrepit. He delivered all into his hand.
18. And all the vessels of the house of God, the great and the small, the storehouses of the house of Yahweh, and the storehouses of the king and his princes, these all he brought to Babylon.
19. And they burned the house of God. And they shattered the walls of Jerusalem and burned its citadels with fire and destroyed all the vessels of its treasuries.
20. And he took those who escaped the sword to Babylon. And they became servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,
21. to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land has enjoyed its Sabbaths. All the days of desolation it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
22. And in the first year of Cyrus, the king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of Yahweh by the mouth of Jeremiah, Yahweh stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also in writing, saying:
23. “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: ‘Yahweh the God of heaven has given to me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has appointed me to build a house for him at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you from all his people, may Yahweh his God go up with him.’ ”