and on through the time of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, up to the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
This is the Lord's message that came to Jeremiah in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah's reign, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar's reign.
Listen! I will give the order, declares the Lord, and bring them back to Jerusalem. They will attack it, capture it, and burn it. I'm going to destroy the towns of Judah so nobody will live there.
On the fifth day of the tenth month of the twelfth year of our exile, a refugee who'd escaped from Jerusalem arrived and told me, “The city has been captured!”
Put an iron plate between yourself and the city so it's like an iron wall. Face the city and demonstrate that it's under siege, and that you are the one attacking it. This is a symbolic warning to the people of Israel.
Once the days of the siege have finished, burn up one third of the hair inside the city; slash at another third with a sword around the city; and scatter another third in the wind. I will let loose a sword behind them to chase them.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: The fasts you observe in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth month will become times of joy and happiness for the people of Judah—they will be festivals of celebration. But love truth and peace.