Jeremiah 27

¹ (At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiahfrom Yahweh:)

² Yahweh said this to me, 'Make yourself thongs and yokes and put them on your neck.

³ Then send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre,and the king of Sidon, through their envoys accredited to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

⁴ Give them the following message for their masters, "Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says this: Youmust tel your masters this:

⁵ I by my great power and outstretched arm made the earth, the human beings and the animals that areon earth, and I give them to whom I please.

⁶ For the present, I have handed al these countries over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, myservant; I have even put the wild animals at his service.

⁷ (Al the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until the time for his own country comes in itsturn, when mighty nations and great kings wil enslave him.)

⁸ Any nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and will not bow its neck tothe yoke of the king of Babylon, I shall punish that nation with sword, famine and plague, Yahweh declares, untilI have destroyed it by his hand.

⁹ For your own part, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, dreamers, magicians and sorcerers,who tel you: You wil not be enslaved by the king of Babylon.

¹⁰ They prophesy lies to you, the result of which wil be that you wil be banished from your soil, that Ishall drive you out, and you will perish.

¹¹ The nation, however, that is prepared to bend its neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon and servehim, I shal leave in peace on its own soil, Yahweh declares, to farm it and stay on it." '

¹² To Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke in exactly the same terms. 'Bend your necks', I told him, 'to theyoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people and you wil survive.

¹³ (Why so anxious to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague, with which Yahweh hasthreatened the nation refusing to serve the king of Babylon?)

¹⁴ Do not listen to the words the prophets say to you, "You will not be enslaved by the king of Babylon."They prophesy lies to you.

¹⁵ Since I have not sent them, Yahweh declares, they prophesy untruths to you in my name. The resultwil be that I shal drive you out, you wil perish, and so wil the prophets who prophesy to you.'

¹⁶ I also spoke to the priests and to al this people as fol ows, 'Yahweh says this, "Do not listen to thewords of your prophets who prophesy to you as fol ows: Look, the vessels of the Temple of Yahweh wil veryshortly be brought back from Babylon. They prophesy lies to you.

¹⁷ (Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and you wil survive. Why should this city become aruin?)

¹⁸ If they are real prophets, if Yahweh's word is real y with them, they ought now to be pleading withYahweh Sabaoth that the remaining vessels in the Temple of Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah andelsewhere in Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon too!

¹⁹ For this is what Yahweh Sabaoth says about (the pil ars, the Sea, the stands and) the other vesselsstill remaining in this city,

²⁰ those not carried off by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim,king of Judah, into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon (with al the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem).

²¹ Yes, this is what Yahweh Sabaoth, God of Israel, says about the vessels stil remaining in the Templeof Yahweh, in the palace of the king of Judah and elsewhere in Jerusalem:

²² They wil be carried off to Babylon (and stay there until the day I punish them), Yahweh declares.(Then I shal bring them back and restore them to this place.)" '