Jeremiah 26–52

Jeremiah Escapes Death

26At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came from Yahweh, saying,^{a 2}“Thus says Yahweh: ‘Stand in the courtyard of the house of Yahweh, and you must speak to all the cities of Judah that come to bow in worship in the house of Yahweh all the words that I command you to speak to them. You must not omit a word. ³Perhaps they will listen and turn back each from his evil way, and I will relent of the disaster that I am planning to do to them because of their evil deeds. ⁴And you shall say to them, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set^b before you,^{c 5}to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I have sent to you, over and over again,^d though you have not listened, ⁶then I will make this house like Shiloh, and this city I will make a curse for all the nations of the earth.’ ” ’ ”

⁷And the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of Yahweh. ⁸And then^e as Jeremiah finished speaking all that Yahweh had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying,^f “You will die! ⁹Why have you prophesied in the name of Yahweh, saying,^g ‘This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be in ruins, without^h inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the temple of Yahweh.

¹⁰When the officials of Judah heard these things, they came up from the house of the king to the temple of Yahweh, and they sat in the entrance of the New Gate of Yahweh’s temple. ¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, saying,ⁱ “This man deserves the death sentence,^j because he has prophesied against this city as that which you have heard with your ears.”

¹²Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, saying,^k “Yahweh sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard. ¹³Now therefore^l amend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of Yahweh your God, and Yahweh will relent of the disaster that he has spoken over you. ¹⁴But as for me, look, I am in your hand, do to me what is good and right in your eyes. ¹⁵Only you must certainly know that if you put me to death, you will bring on yourselves innocent blood, and on this city and on its inhabitants, for truly^m Yahweh sent me to you to speak all these words in your ears.”

¹⁶Then the officials and all the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man does not deserveⁿ a sentence of death, for in the name of Yahweh our God, he has spoken to us.” ¹⁷Then men from the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people, saying,^{o 18}“Micah the Morashtite was prophesying in the days of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and he said to all the people of Judah, saying:^p

‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts:

“Zion will be plowed as a field,

and Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins,

and the mountain of the temple^q as high places of wood.” ’

¹⁹Did Hezekiah, the king of Judah, and all Judah actually put him to death? Was he not in fear of Yahweh? And he entreated the face of Yahweh, and Yahweh relented of the disaster that he had spoken against them. But we are about to do great disaster to ourselves.”

²⁰Indeed, there also was a man prophesying in the name of Yahweh, Uriah, the son of Shemaiah, from Kiriath-Jearim, and he prophesied against this city and against this land like all the words of Jeremiah. ²¹And when King Jehoiakim, and all his warriors, and all the officials heard his words, then the king sought to put him to death. But Uriah heard, and he was afraid, and he fled and went to Egypt. ²²Then King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt. Elnathan, the son of Achbor, and men with him went to Egypt. ²³And they brought out Uriah from Egypt and they brought him to King Jehoiakim, and he struck him down with the sword, and he threw his dead body into the burial sites of the sons of the people. ²⁴However, the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that he was not given into the hand of the people to put him to death.

Jeremiah Uses Fetters and Yokes to Illustrate His Message of Submission

27In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying^a— ²thus said Yahweh to me—“Make for yourself fetters and yokes and put them on your neck, ³and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites,^b and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon in the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. ⁴And you must command them for their masters, saying,^c ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, this you shall say to your masters: ⁵“I have made the earth with humankind and animals^d that are on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and I give it to whomever is right in my eyes. ⁶And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and also the animals^e of the field I have given to him to serve him. ⁷And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his grandson,^f until the coming of the time of his own^g land. Then many nations and great kings will let him work.

⁸“But it will be that the nation or kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, and with the famine, and with the plague,” declares^h Yahweh, “until I have destroyed it with my hand. ⁹And you, you must not listen to your prophets, and to your diviners, and to your dreamers, and to your interpreters of signs, and to your sorcerers who are saying,ⁱ ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰For they are prophesying to you a lie, so that you will be removed from your land, and I will drive you away, and you will perish. ¹¹But the nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and will serve him, yet will I leave it on its land,” declares^j Yahweh, “and they will till it, and they will live in it.” ’ ”

¹²And I spoke words like these to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, saying,^k “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. ¹³Why should you die—you and your people—by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Yahweh has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴And you must not listen to the words of the prophets who are speaking to you, saying,^l ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵For I have not sent them,” declares^m Yahweh, “but they are prophesying in my name falsely,ⁿ so that I will drive them away. And you will perish—you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.”

The Vessels of the Temple

¹⁶Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying,^o “Thus says Yahweh, ‘You must not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying,^p “Look, the vessels of the house of Yahweh are about to be quickly brought back from Babylon”, for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷And you must not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a site of ruins? ¹⁸But if they are prophets, and if there is with them the word of Yahweh, let them please plead with Yahweh of hosts, that the vessels that are left over in the temple^q of Yahweh, and the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, must not go to Babylon.’

¹⁹For thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the stands, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, ²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, did not take when he deported Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with^r all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of Yahweh, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²²‘They will be brought to Babylon, and there they will stay until the day of my attending to them,’ declares^s Yahweh. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”

Hananiah, the False Prophet

28And it was in that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that Hananiah, the son of Azzur, the prophet who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of Yahweh before the eyes of the priests and all the people, saying,^{a 2}“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, saying,^b ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³Within two years^c I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the house of Yahweh which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon took away from this place and brought to Babylon. ⁴And Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, and all the exiles^d from Judah who went to Babylon, I will bring back to this place,’ declares^e Yahweh, ‘For I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”

⁵Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people who were standing in the house of Yahweh, ⁶and Jeremiah the prophet said, “Amen! May Yahweh do so; may Yahweh fulfill your words that you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles^f from Babylon to this place. ⁷Nevertheless listen please to this word that I am speaking in your hearing^g and in the hearing^h of all the people, ⁸The prophets who were beforeⁱ me and before^j you from ancient times prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms of war, and of disaster, and of plague. ⁹The prophet who prophesies peace, at the coming of the word of the prophet, will become known as…