Jeremiah 27–29

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 the prophet that Yahweh has truly^k sent.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. ¹¹Then Hananiah said before the eyes of all the people, saying,^l “Thus says Yahweh, ‘This is how I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, within two years,^m from the neck of all the nations.’ ” And Jeremiah the prophet went on his way.

¹²And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet broke the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet, saying,^{n 13}“Go, and you must say to Hananiah, saying,^o ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in place of them yoke bars of iron.” ¹⁴For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, to serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they will serve him, and I have even given the animals^p of the open field to him.” ’ ”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Please listen, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. ¹⁶Therefore^q thus says Yahweh, ‘Look, I am going to send you from the face of the earth. This year you will die because you have spoken rebellion against Yahweh.’ ” ¹⁷And Hananiah the prophet died in that same year in the seventh month.

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles in Babylon

29And these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the exiles,^a and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, ²after the going out of Jeconiah the king, and the queen mother, and the court officials, the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, and the artisans,^b and the smiths^c from Jerusalem, ³by the hand of Elasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, the king of Judah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, to Babylon, saying,^{d 4}“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles^e whom I have deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, ⁵‘Build houses and live in them,^f and plant gardens and eat their fruit. ⁶Take wives and father sons and daughters, and take for your sons wives, and give your daughters to men that they may bear sons and daughters, and multiply there, and you must not be few. ⁷And seek the prosperity of the city where I have deported you, and pray on behalf of it to Yahweh, for in its prosperity you will have prosperity.’

⁸For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your prophets who are in your midst, and your diviners, deceive you, and you must not listen to your dreams that you are causing them to dream. ⁹For they are prophesying falsely^g to you in my name; I have not sent them,’ declares^h Yahweh. ¹⁰For thus says Yahweh, ‘As soon as the time has passed,ⁱ seventy years^j for Babylon, I will attend to you, and I will fulfill my good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ¹¹For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares^k Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give to you a future and a hope. ¹²Then when you call me, and you come and pray to me, then I will listen to you. ¹³When you search for me, then you will find me, if you seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴And I will let myself be found by you,’ declares^l Yahweh, ‘and I will restore your fortunes,^m and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places to which I have driven you,’ declaresⁿ Yahweh, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from which I deported you.’

¹⁵Because you have said, ‘Yahweh has raised up prophets for us in Babylon’— ¹⁶for thus says Yahweh concerning the king who sits on the throne of David and concerning all the people who live in this city, your fellow kinsmen who did not go with you into the exile— ¹⁷thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Look, I am going to send among them the sword, the famine, and the plague, and I will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten because of their bad quality. ¹⁸And I will pursue them with the sword, with the famine, and with the plague, and I will make them a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth,…