Jeremiah 27–29

CHAPTER 27

The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar

¹In the beginning of the reign of ^1aZedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying—

²thus says Yahweh to me—“Make for yourself ^abonds and the ^bbars of a yoke and put them on your neck,

³and you shall send ¹word to the king of ^aEdom, to the king of ^bMoab, to the king of the sons of ^cAmmon, to the king of ^dTyre, and to the king of ^eSidon by the hand of messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴“And you shall command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, thus you shall say to your masters,

⁵“^aI have made the earth, the men, and the animals which are on the face of the earth ^bby My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I will ^cgive it to the one who is right in My eyes.

⁶“So now, I ^ahave given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ^bMy servant, and I have given him even the ^cwild beasts of the field to serve him.

⁷“^aAll the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson ^buntil the time of his own land comes; then ^cmany nations and great kings will ¹make him their servant.

⁸“And it will be, that the nation or the kingdom which ^awill not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the ^bsword, with famine, and with pestilence,” declares Yahweh, “until I have brought ¹it to an end by his hand.

⁹“But as for you, ^ado not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your ¹dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’

¹⁰“For they prophesy a ^alie to you in order to ^bremove you far from your land; and I will banish you, and you will perish.

¹¹“But the nation which will ^abring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will ^bleave it on its land,” declares Yahweh, “and they will serve it and inhabit it.” ’ ”

¹²I spoke words like all these to ^aZedekiah king of Judah, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live!

¹³“Why will you ^adie, you and your people, by the sword, famine, and pestilence, as Yahweh has spoken to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴“So ^ado not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a ^blie to you;

¹⁵for ^aI have not sent them,” declares Yahweh, “but they ^bprophesy a lie in My name, in order that I may ^cbanish you and that you may perish, ^dyou and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

¹⁶Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says Yahweh: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Behold, the ^avessels of the house of Yahweh will now shortly be returned from Babylon’; for they are prophesying a ^blie to you.

¹⁷“Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city ^abecome a waste place?

¹⁸“But ^aif they are prophets, and if the word of Yahweh is with them, let them now ^bintercede with Yahweh of hosts that the vessels which are left in the house of Yahweh, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.

¹⁹“For thus says Yahweh of hosts concerning the ^apillars, concerning the sea, concerning the stands, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he ^acarried away into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

²¹“Indeed, 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 ^abrought to Babylon, and they will be there until the ^bday I ¹visit them,’ declares Yahweh. ‘Then I will ^cbring them up and return them to this place.’”

CHAPTER 28

Hananiah’s Rebellion Against Yahweh

¹Now it happened in the same year, ^ain the beginning of the reign of ^bZedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that ^cHananiah the son of Azzur, the prophet, who was from ^dGibeon, spoke to me in the house of Yahweh in the sight of the priests and all the people, saying,

²“^aThus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

³‘Within two years I am going to return to this place ^aall the vessels of the house of Yahweh, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.

⁴‘I am ^aalso going to return to this place ^bJeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the ^cexiles of Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for I will break the ^dyoke of the king of Babylon.’”

⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the sight of the priests and in the sight of all the people who were standing in the ^ahouse of Yahweh,

⁶and the prophet Jeremiah said, “^aAmen! May Yahweh do so; may Yahweh establish your words which you have prophesied to return the vessels of the house of Yahweh and all the exiles, from Babylon to this place.

⁷“Yet ^ahear now this word which I am about to speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people!

⁸“The prophets who were before me and before you from ancient times ^aprophesied against many lands and against great kingdoms, of war and of calamity and of pestilence.

⁹“The prophet who prophesies of peace, ^awhen the word of the prophet comes to pass, then that prophet will be known as one whom Yahweh has truly sent.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah the prophet took ^athe bar of the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.

¹¹And Hananiah spoke in the sight of all the people, saying, “^aThus says Yahweh, ‘Even so will I break within two full years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’” Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

¹²Then the ^aword of Yahweh came to Jeremiah after Hananiah the prophet had broken the bar of the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“Go and speak to Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You have broken the bars of a yoke made of wood, but you have made in their place the ^abars of a yoke made of iron.”

¹⁴‘For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “I have put a ^ayoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will ^bserve him. And ^cI have even given him the beasts of the field.” ’ ”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen now, Hananiah, Yahweh has not sent you, and ^ayou have made this people trust in a lie.

¹⁶“Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘^aBehold, I am about to ¹remove you from the face of the earth. This year you are going to ^bdie because you have ^cspoken rebellion against Yahweh.’”

¹⁷So Hananiah the prophet died in the same year in the seventh month.

CHAPTER 29

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Exiles

¹Now these are the words of the ^aletter which Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the rest of the elders of the exile, the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

²(This was after King ^aJeconiah and the ^bqueen mother, the court officials, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had gone out from Jerusalem.)

³The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan and Gemariah the son of ^aHilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,

⁴“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have ^asent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon,

⁵‘^aBuild houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their fruit.

⁶‘Take ^awives and ¹become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.

⁷‘^aSeek the peace of the city where I have sent you into exile, and ^bpray to Yahweh on its behalf; for in its peace you will have peace.’

⁸“For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Do not let your ^aprophets who are in your midst and your diviners ^bdeceive you, and do not listen to ^cyour dreams which you dream.

⁹‘For they ^aprophesy a lie to you in My name; ^bI have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh.

¹⁰“For thus says Yahweh, ‘When ^aseventy years have been fulfilled for Babylon, I will ¹visit you and establish My ^bgood word to you, to return you to this place.

¹¹‘For I know the ^aplans that I ¹have for you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for ^bpeace and not for calamity, to give you a future and a ^chope.

¹²‘Then you will ^acall upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will ^blisten to you.

¹³‘You will ^aseek Me and find Me when you ^bsearch for Me with all your heart.

¹⁴‘I will be ^afound by you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will ^1breturn your ²fortunes and will ^cgather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have banished you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will ^dcause you to return to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

¹⁵“Because you have said, ‘Yahweh has raised up ^aprophets 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 brothers who did ^anot go with you into exile—

¹⁷thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Behold, I am sending upon them the ^asword, famine, and pestilence, and I will make them like ^bsplit-open figs that cannot be eaten due to rottenness.

¹⁸‘I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will ^agive them over to be a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a ^bcurse and an object of horror and of ^chissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have banished them,

¹⁹because they have ^anot listened to My words,’ declares Yahweh, ‘which I sent to them by ^bMy slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending; but you did…