Jeremiah 27:1–11

The Yoke of Babylon

27At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah ^dson of Josiah, king of Judah, ^ethis word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ^f2“This is what the Lord said to me: Make chains and yoke bars ^gfor yourself and put them on your neck. ^h3Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon ⁱthrough messengers who are coming to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. ⁴Command them to go to their masters, saying: This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: This is what you must say to your masters: ⁵By My great strength and outstretched arm, ^jI made the earth, ^kand the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please. ^lm6So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant ⁿNebuchadnezzar, ^oking of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him. ⁷All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him. ^p

⁸“As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“until through him I have destroyed it. ⁹But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, diviners, ^qdreamers, fortune-tellers, ^ror sorcerers ^swho say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon!’ ¹⁰for they prophesy a lie ^tto you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish. ¹¹But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate ^uit and reside in it.” This is the Lord’s declaration.