Jeremiah 27

¹ (At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh:)

² Yahweh said this to me, ‘Make yourself ropes and a yoke and put them on your neck.

³ Then send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, through their envoys accredited to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

⁴ Give them the following message for their masters, “Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: You must tell your masters this:

⁵ I by my great power and outstretched arm made the earth, man and the animals that are on earth. And I can give it to whom I please.

⁶ For the present, I have handed all these countries over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; I have even put the wild animals at his service.

⁷ (All the nations will be subject to him, to his son and to his grandson, until the time for his own country comes in its turn, when mighty nations and great kings will enslave him.)

⁸ Any nation or kingdom that will not submit to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and will not bow its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon, I shall punish with sword, famine and plague – it is Yahweh who speaks – until I have delivered it into his power.

⁹ For your own part, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, dreamers, soothsayers, or sorcerers, who tell you: You will not be subjects of the king of Babylon.

¹⁰ They prophesy lies to you, the result of which will be that you will be banished from your soil, that I shall expel you, and you will perish.

¹¹ The nation, however, that bends its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon and submits to him, I shall leave in peace on its own soil – it is Yahweh who speaks – to farm it and stay in it.”‘

¹² To Zedekiah king of Judah I had the same to say. ‘Bend your necks,’ I told him ‘to the yoke of the king of Babylon; submit to him and to his people and you will live.

¹³ (Why so anxious to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague, with which Yahweh has threatened the nation that will not submit to the king of Babylon?)

¹⁴ Do not listen to the words the prophets say to you, “You will not be subjects of the king of Babylon”. They prophesy lies to you.

¹⁵ Since I have not sent them – it is Yahweh who speaks – they prophesy untruths in my name. The result will be that I shall expel you, you will perish, and so will the prophets who prophesy to you.’

¹⁶ Next I spoke to the priests and all the people as follows, ‘Yahweh says this, “Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you as follows: Look, the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh will (soon) be brought back from Babylon: they prophesy lies to you.

¹⁷ (Do not listen to them; submit to the king of Babylon and you will live; why should this city become a waste?)

¹⁸ If they were prophets, if they had the word of Yahweh, they would now be praying to Yahweh Sabaoth that the remaining vessels in the Temple of Yahweh, in the royal palace of Judah and in Jerusalem should not go to Babylon.

¹⁹ For this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about (the pillars, the sea, the stands and) the other vessels still remaining in this city,

²⁰ those not carried off by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon when he led away Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (with all the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem).

²¹ Yes, this is what Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says about the vessels still remaining in the Temple of Yahweh, in the royal palace of Judah, and in Jerusalem:

²² They will be carried off to Babylon (and stay there until the day I fetch them) – it is Yahweh who speaks. (Then I shall bring them back and restore them to this place).”‘