Jeremiah 27–29

Nebuchadnezzar Is Made Ruler

27The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah soon after Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah. ²This is what the Lord said to me: “Make a yoke out of straps and poles, and put it on the back of your neck. ³Then send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon by their messengers who have come to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴Tell them to give this message to their masters: ‘The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “Tell your masters: ⁵I made the earth, its people, and all its animals with my great power and strength. I can give the earth to anyone I want. ⁶Now I have given all these lands to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant. I will make even the wild animals obey him. ⁷All nations will serve Nebuchadnezzar and his son and grandson. Then the time will come for Babylon to be defeated, and many nations and great kings will make Babylon their servant.

⁸“ ‘ “But if some nations or kingdoms refuse to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and refuse to be under his control, I will punish them with war, hunger, and terrible diseases, says the Lord. I will use Nebuchadnezzar to destroy them. ⁹So don’t listen to your false prophets, those who use magic to tell the future, those who explain dreams, the mediums, or magicians. They all tell you, ‘You will not be slaves to the king of Babylon.’ ¹⁰They are telling you lies that will cause you to be taken far from your homeland. I will force you to leave your homes, and you will die in another land. ¹¹But the nations who put themselves under the control of the king of Babylon and serve him I will let stay in their own country, says the Lord. The people from those nations will live in their own land and farm it.” ’ ”

¹²I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah. I said, “Put yourself under the control of the king of Babylon and serve him, and you will live. ¹³Why should you and your people die from war, hunger, or disease, as the Lord said would happen to those who do not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴But the false prophets are saying, ‘You will never be slaves to the king of Babylon.’ Don’t listen to them because they are prophesying lies to you! ¹⁵‘I did not send them,’ says the Lord. ‘They are prophesying lies and saying the message is from me. So I will send you away, Judah. And you and those prophets who prophesy to you will die.’ ”

¹⁶Then I, Jeremiah, said to the priests and all the people, “This is what the Lord says: Those false prophets are saying, ‘The Babylonians will soon return what they took from the Temple of the Lord.’ Don’t listen to them! They are prophesying lies to you. ¹⁷Don’t listen to those prophets. But serve the king of Babylon, and you will live. There is no reason for you to cause Jerusalem to become a ruin. ¹⁸If they are prophets and have the message from the Lord, let them pray to the Lord All-Powerful. Let them ask that the items which are still in the Temple of the Lord and in the king’s palace and in Jerusalem not be taken away to Babylon.

¹⁹“This is what the Lord All-Powerful says about those items left in Jerusalem: the pillars, the large bronze bowl, which is called the Sea, the stands that can be moved, and other things. ²⁰Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take these away when he took as captives Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other important people from Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon. ²¹This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says about the items left in the Temple of the Lord and in the king’s palace and in Jerusalem: ²²‘All of them will also be taken to Babylon. And they will stay there until the day I go to get them,’ says the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back and return them to this place.’ ”

The False Prophet Hananiah

28It was in that same year, in the fifth month of Zedekiah’s fourth year as king of Judah, soon after he began to rule. The prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple of the Lord in front of the priests and all the people. He said: ²“The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke the king of Babylon has put on Judah. ³Before two years are over, I will bring back everything that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took to Babylon from the Lord’s Temple. ⁴I will also bring back Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah and all the other captives from Judah who went to Babylon,’ says the Lord. ‘So I will break the yoke the king of Babylon put on Judah.’ ”

⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in front of the priests and all the people who were standing in the Temple of the Lord. ⁶He said, “Amen! Let the Lord really do that! May the Lord make the message you prophesy come true. May he bring back here everything from the Lord’s Temple and all the people who were taken as captives to Babylon.

⁷“But listen to what I am going to say to you and all the people. ⁸There were prophets long before we became prophets, Hananiah. They prophesied that war, hunger, and terrible diseases would come to many countries and great kingdoms. ⁹But if a prophet prophesies that we will have peace and that message comes true, he can be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord.”

¹⁰Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off Jeremiah’s neck and broke it. ¹¹Hananiah said in front of all the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He put that yoke on all the nations of the world, but I will break it before two years are over.’ ” After Hananiah had said that, Jeremiah left the Temple.

¹²The Lord spoke his word to Jeremiah after the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off of the prophet Jeremiah’s neck. ¹³The Lord said, “Go and tell Hananiah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You have broken a wooden yoke, but I will make a yoke of iron in its place! ¹⁴The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will be slaves to him. I will even give Nebuchadnezzar control over the wild animals.’ ”

¹⁵Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you have made the people of Judah trust in lies. ¹⁶So this is what the Lord says: ‘Soon I will remove you from the earth. You will die this year, because you taught the people to turn against the Lord.’ ”

¹⁷Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.

A Letter to the Captives in Babylon

29This is the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders who were among the captives, the priests, and the prophets. He sent it to all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had taken as captives from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²(This letter was sent after all these people were taken away: Jehoiachin the king and the queen mother; the officers and leaders of Judah and Jerusalem; and the craftsmen and metalworkers from Jerusalem.) ³Zedekiah king of Judah sent Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. So Jeremiah gave them this letter to carry to Babylon:

⁴This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says to all those people I sent away from Jerusalem as captives to Babylon: ⁵“Build houses and settle in the land. Plant gardens and eat the food they grow. ⁶Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons, and let your daughters be married so they also may have sons and daughters. Have many children in Babylon; don’t become fewer in number. ⁷Also do good things for the city where I sent you as captives. Pray to the Lord for the city where you are living, because if good things happen in the city, good things will happen to you also.” ⁸The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let the prophets among you and the people who do magic fool you. Don’t listen to their dreams. ⁹They are prophesying lies to you, saying that their message is from me. But I did not send them,” says the Lord.

¹⁰This is what the Lord says: “Babylon will be powerful for seventy years. After that time I will come to you, and I will keep my promise to bring you back to Jerusalem. ¹¹I say this because I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future. ¹²Then you will call my name. You will come to me and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³You will search for me. And when you search for me with all your heart, you will find me! ¹⁴I will let you find me,” says the Lord. “And I will bring you back from your captivity. I forced you to leave this place, but I will gather you from all the nations, from the places I have sent you as captives,” says the Lord. “And I will bring you back to this place.”

¹⁵You might say, “The Lord has given us prophets here in Babylon.”

¹⁶But the Lord says this about the king who is sitting on David’s throne now and all the other people still in Jerusalem, your relatives who did not go as captives to Babylon with you. ¹⁷The Lord All-Powerful says: “I will soon send war, hunger, and terrible diseases against those still in Jerusalem. I will make them like bad figs that are too rotten to eat. ¹⁸I will chase them with war, hunger, and terrible diseases. I will make them hated by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will curse them and be shocked and will use them as a shameful example wherever I make them go. ¹⁹This is because they have not listened to my message,” says the Lord. “I sent my message to them again and again through my servants, the prophets, but they did not listen,” says the Lord.

²⁰You captives, whom I forced to leave Jerusalem and go to Babylon, listen to the message from the Lord. ²¹The Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says this about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah: “These two men have been prophesying lies to you, saying that their…