Thematic Bible
Thematic Bible
Babylon » Predictions respecting » Conquests by
Jeremiah responded to them: Say the following Zedekiah: Jehovah the God of Israel says: Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war you control. The weapons you use to make war against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the wall. I will gather them into the center of this city. I will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm (with my great power). I will extend my anger, wrath and great indignation. read more.
I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They will die of a great pestilence.' Afterwards, declares Jehovah: I will hand over Judah's King Zedekiah, his officials, the people, and everyone else in this city who survives the plague, war, and famine. They will be handed over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. Nebuchadnezzar will kill them with swords. He will not spare them, show them compassion, or care for them.' Also say to this people, 'Jehovah says: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence. He who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live. He will have his own life as booty.' For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares Jehovah. It will be surrendered to the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.
I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They will die of a great pestilence.' Afterwards, declares Jehovah: I will hand over Judah's King Zedekiah, his officials, the people, and everyone else in this city who survives the plague, war, and famine. They will be handed over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. Nebuchadnezzar will kill them with swords. He will not spare them, show them compassion, or care for them.' Also say to this people, 'Jehovah says: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence. He who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live. He will have his own life as booty.' For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares Jehovah. It will be surrendered to the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.
This is what Jehovah said to me: Make leather straps and a wooden yoke, and strap the yoke on your neck. Then send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, with messengers who have come to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem. Give them an order for their masters: This is what Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Say this to your masters, read more.
I used my great strength and my powerful arm to make the earth along with the people and the animals on it. I give it to anyone I please. Now I have handed all these countries over to my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made wild animals serve him.
I used my great strength and my powerful arm to make the earth along with the people and the animals on it. I give it to anyone I please. Now I have handed all these countries over to my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have even made wild animals serve him.
This is what Jehovah says about the Kedar tribe and the desert villages that were conquered by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia: Listen, you people of Kedar and the other tribes of the eastern desert. I have told Nebuchadnezzar to attack and destroy you. His fearsome army will surround you. They will take your tents and possessions, your sheep and camels. Run and hide, you people of the desert who live in villages! Nebuchadnezzar has big plans for you. read more.
You have no city walls and no neighbors to help. You think you are safe. Therefore I told him to attack. Your camels and large herds will be yours no longer. People of the Arabian Desert, disaster will strike you from every side, and you will be scattered everywhere on earth. Hazor will be a place where only jackals live. It will become a permanent wasteland. No one will live there. No human will stay there.
You have no city walls and no neighbors to help. You think you are safe. Therefore I told him to attack. Your camels and large herds will be yours no longer. People of the Arabian Desert, disaster will strike you from every side, and you will be scattered everywhere on earth. Hazor will be a place where only jackals live. It will become a permanent wasteland. No one will live there. No human will stay there.
Son of man, mark two roads that the king of Babylon and his sword can take. Both of these roads should start from the same country. Make a signpost and put it at the fork of the roads that go toward the cities. Mark the road that the king and his sword can take to the Ammonite city of Rabbah. Then mark the road that leads to Judah and the fortified city of Jerusalem. The king of Babylon will stand where the roads branch off, at the fork in the road. Then he will look for omens. The king will stand at the branch of the roads where he will use divination. He will shake the arrows and ask the teraphim and look into the liver. read more.
The divination (omens) will indicate that he should go to the right, to Jerusalem. So he will set up his battering rams there, and give the order to kill. He will raise a battle cry and aim the battering rams against the city gates. He will put up ramps and set up blockades (siege walls). The people will think it is false divination and not believe this because they have made treaties with other nations. But the king of Babylon will remind them of their sins, and they will be captured. This is what the Lord Jehovah says: 'People remember how sinful you are because you openly do wrong. You show your sins in everything you do. Because of this you will be taken captive. You dishonest and wicked prince of Israel, the time for your final punishment has come. I, the Lord Jehovah, have spoken. Take off your crown and your turban. Nothing will be the same again. Raise the poor to power! Bring down those who are ruling! Bring low the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin! Yes, I will make the city a ruin. But this will not happen until the one comes whom I have chosen and who has the legal right to punish the city. To him I will give it. O son of man, prophesy. Announce what I, the Lord Jehovah, am saying to the Ammonites, who are insulting Israel. Say to them: A sword is ready to destroy. It is polished to kill and to flash like lightning. The visions that you see are false. The predictions you make are lies. You are wicked and evil. Your day is coming, the day of your final punishment. The sword is going to fall on your necks. Put up the sword (return it to its sheath)! I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land where you were born. You will feel my anger when I turn it loose on you like a blazing fire. And I will hand you over to brutal men, experts at destruction. You will be destroyed by fire. Your blood will be shed in your own country. No one will remember you any more. Jehovah has spoken!'
The divination (omens) will indicate that he should go to the right, to Jerusalem. So he will set up his battering rams there, and give the order to kill. He will raise a battle cry and aim the battering rams against the city gates. He will put up ramps and set up blockades (siege walls). The people will think it is false divination and not believe this because they have made treaties with other nations. But the king of Babylon will remind them of their sins, and they will be captured. This is what the Lord Jehovah says: 'People remember how sinful you are because you openly do wrong. You show your sins in everything you do. Because of this you will be taken captive. You dishonest and wicked prince of Israel, the time for your final punishment has come. I, the Lord Jehovah, have spoken. Take off your crown and your turban. Nothing will be the same again. Raise the poor to power! Bring down those who are ruling! Bring low the high one. A ruin, a ruin, a ruin! Yes, I will make the city a ruin. But this will not happen until the one comes whom I have chosen and who has the legal right to punish the city. To him I will give it. O son of man, prophesy. Announce what I, the Lord Jehovah, am saying to the Ammonites, who are insulting Israel. Say to them: A sword is ready to destroy. It is polished to kill and to flash like lightning. The visions that you see are false. The predictions you make are lies. You are wicked and evil. Your day is coming, the day of your final punishment. The sword is going to fall on your necks. Put up the sword (return it to its sheath)! I will judge you in the place where you were created, in the land where you were born. You will feel my anger when I turn it loose on you like a blazing fire. And I will hand you over to brutal men, experts at destruction. You will be destroyed by fire. Your blood will be shed in your own country. No one will remember you any more. Jehovah has spoken!'
Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder was rubbed bare. But he and his army had no wages from Tyre for the labor that he had performed against it. The Lord Jehovah says: 'I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off her wealth and capture her spoil and seize her plunder. It will serve as wages for his army. I have given him the land of Egypt for the labor he performed, because they acted for me,' declares the Lord Jehovah.
Zedekiah » Made king of judah by nebuchadnezzar » Seeks the intercession of jeremiah with God on his behalf
King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to the prophet Jeremiah. They asked him: Please pray to Jehovah our God for us.
Verse Concepts
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah. King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah. The king said to Jeremiah: Please inquire of Jehovah on our behalf. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us. Perhaps Jehovah will deal with us with all his wonderful acts, so that the enemy will withdraw from us. Jeremiah responded to them: Say the following Zedekiah:
On another occasion King Zedekiah had me brought to him at the third entrance to the temple. He said: I am going to ask you a question, and I want you to tell me the whole truth. I answered: If I tell you the truth, you will put me to death, and if I give you advice, you will not pay any attention. So King Zedekiah promised me in secret: I swear by the living God, the God who gave us life, that I will not put you to death or hand you over to the men who want to kill you. read more.
Then I told Zedekiah that Jehovah, the God of Israel said: If you surrender to the king of Babylon's officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned down. Both you and your family will be spared. But if you do not surrender, then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians. They will burn it down, and you will not escape from them. The king answered: I am afraid of our own people who have deserted to the Babylonians. I may be handed over to them and tortured. I said: You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey Jehovah's message. Then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. Jehovah has shown me in a vision what will happen if you refuse to surrender. In it I saw all the women left in Judah's royal palace being led out to the king of Babylonia's officers. Listen to what they were saying as they went. The king's best friends misled him, they overruled him. And now that his feet have sunk in the mud, his friends have left him. Then I added: All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians. You will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia. And this city will be burned to the ground. Zedekiah replied: Do not let anyone know about this conversation, and your life will not be in danger. If the officials hear that I have talked with you, they will come and ask you what we said. They will promise not to put you to death if you tell them everything. Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there. Then all the officials came and questioned me. I told them exactly what the king had told me to say. There was nothing else they could do, because no one had overheard the conversation.
Then I told Zedekiah that Jehovah, the God of Israel said: If you surrender to the king of Babylon's officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned down. Both you and your family will be spared. But if you do not surrender, then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians. They will burn it down, and you will not escape from them. The king answered: I am afraid of our own people who have deserted to the Babylonians. I may be handed over to them and tortured. I said: You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey Jehovah's message. Then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. Jehovah has shown me in a vision what will happen if you refuse to surrender. In it I saw all the women left in Judah's royal palace being led out to the king of Babylonia's officers. Listen to what they were saying as they went. The king's best friends misled him, they overruled him. And now that his feet have sunk in the mud, his friends have left him. Then I added: All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians. You will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia. And this city will be burned to the ground. Zedekiah replied: Do not let anyone know about this conversation, and your life will not be in danger. If the officials hear that I have talked with you, they will come and ask you what we said. They will promise not to put you to death if you tell them everything. Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there. Then all the officials came and questioned me. I told them exactly what the king had told me to say. There was nothing else they could do, because no one had overheard the conversation.