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 Jehovah, saying, 2 So says Jehovah to me, Make bonds and yokes for yourself, and put them on your neck. 3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 And command them to go to their masters, saying, So says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel: So you shall say to your masters, 5 I have made the earth, man, and the animals on the face of the earth, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed right to Me. 6 And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant. And I have also given him the beast of the field to serve him. 7 And all 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 enslave him.
8 And it shall be, the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish, says Jehovah, with the sword and with the famine, and with the plague, until I have destroyed them by his hand. 9 As for you, do not listen to your prophets, nor to your fortune tellers, nor to your dreamers, nor to your conjurers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You 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 you should perish. 11 But the nations who bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those I will leave on their own land, says Jehovah. And they shall work it and dwell in it.
12 I also 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 you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as Jehovah has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Therefore do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie to you. 15 For I have not sent them, says Jehovah; yet they prophesy a lie in My name, so that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.