The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

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- Chapter 27 -

Soon after Zedekiah son of Josiah became the king of Judah, Yahweh gave a message to me.

This is what he said to me: “Make a yoke and bonds, then fasten them around your own neck.

Then send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, and give them to the ambassadors from those countries who have come to Jerusalem to talk to King Zedekiah.

Tell them to give this message to their kings: This is what Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, whom Israel worships, says:

’With my very great power I created the earth and the people and the animals that are on the earth. And I can give those things to anyone whom I want to.

And now I am going to enable King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who does what I want him to do, to control your countries. I am going to enable him to rule everything, even the wild animals.

The people of all the nations will work for him, and later for his son, and later for his grandson, until the time for them to rule is finished. Then the armies of many great kings from many nations will conquer Babylon.’

But now I tell you that you must do what the king of Babylon wants you to do, like an ox that has a yoke on its neck must do what its master wants it to do. I will punish any nation that refuses to do that. I will cause those people to experience war and famine and diseases, until the armies of Babylon have conquered that nation.

So, do not pay attention to your false prophets and fortune tellers and people who predict what will happen by working magic or by talking with spirits of dead people. Those people say not to serve him because the king of Babylon will not conquer your country.

Those people are all liars. If you believe what they say, it will result in your being exiled from your land. I will cause you to be taken from your land, and you will die far away.

But the people of any country who do what the king of Babylon wants them to do will remain in their own country and be able to plant their crops as they always have done. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

After I gave that message to those ambassadors, I gave the same message to King Zedekiah of Judah. I said to him, “If you want to remain alive, do what the king of Babylon and his officials want you to do.

It would be foolish for you not to do that, because the result would be that you and your people would die by your enemies’ swords or by famine or diseases, which Yahweh will cause any nation to experience that refuses to allow the king of Babylon to rule them.

Do not pay attention to those prophets who say to you, ‘Do not obey the king of Babylon since he will not conquer your country.’ They are liars.

This is what Yahweh says: ‘I have not appointed those prophets. They are saying that I gave them messages, but they are lying. So, if you believe them, I will expel you from this land. And you and all those prophets will die in Babylon!’”

Then I spoke to the priests and the other people, and I said, “This is what Yahweh says: ’Do not believe your prophets who tell you that all the gold items that were taken from my temple by soldiers from Babylon will soon be returned from Babylon, because what they are prophesying is a lie.

Do not pay attention to what they say. Surrender to the king of Babylon. If you do that, you will remain alive. If you do not do that, this entire city will be destroyed.

If they are really prophets who speak messages from me, tell them to plead to me, Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, that the soldiers from Babylon will not be allowed to take away to Babylon the valuable items that still remain in the temple and in the king’s palace and in the other palaces in Jerusalem.

I say this because the huge pillars that are in front of the temple and the large tank that was called “The Sea” and the ten water carts and all the other items that are used for offering sacrifices are still in this city.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon left those things here when he exiled Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, to Babylon, along with all the other leaders of Jerusalem and the leaders of other places in Judah.

Yahweh, Commander of the angel armies, says this about all those valuable things that are still outside the temple and in the palace of the king of Judah:

They will all be carried away to Babylon. And they will stay there until I say that they should be brought back to Jerusalem. Then they will be bought back here. That is what I, Yahweh, say.’”

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

the LORD says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck.

Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters:

‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.

Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.

All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

“‘“‘It will happen that I will punish the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon,’ says the LORD, ‘with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

But as for you, don’t listen to your prophets, to your diviners, to your dreams, to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon;”

for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, so that I would drive you out, and you would perish.

But the nation that brings their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says the LORD; ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’”’”

I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.

Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

For I have not sent them,” says the LORD, “but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, the LORD says, “Don’t listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought again from Babylon;’ for they prophesy a lie to you.

Don’t listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city become a desolation?

But if they are prophets, and if the LORD’s word is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of Armies, that the vessels which are left in the LORD’s house, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, don’t go to Babylon.

For the LORD of Armies says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—

yes, the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in the LORD’s house, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem:

‘They will be carried to Babylon, and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,’ says the LORD; ‘then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.’”