Jeremiah 27:1-15 - Jeremiah Uses Fetters And Yokes To Illustrate His Message Of Submission

¹ In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from LORD, saying, ² Thus says LORD to me: Make thee bonds and bars, and put them upon thy neck. ³ And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴ And give them a charge to their masters, saying, Thus says LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus ye shall say to your masters: ⁵ I have made the earth, the men and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and I give it to whom it seems right to me. ⁶ And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. And the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. ⁷ And all the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land comes. And then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondman.

⁸ And it shall come to pass, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish, says LORD, ⁹ But as for you, hearken ye not to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. ¹⁰ For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. ¹¹ But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, that [nation] I will let remain in their own land, says LORD, and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

¹² And I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. ¹³ Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ And hearken not to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophesy a lie to you. ¹⁵ For I have not sent them, says LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name, that I may drive you out, and that ye may perish, ye, and the prophets who prophesy to you.