JeremiahChapter 27

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¹This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD at the start of the rule of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah. ²This is what the LORD said to me: "Make a yoke out of leather straps. Put it on your neck. ³Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. Send it by the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to see Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴Give them a message from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel. Tell them to give it to their masters: ⁵By my great power and my strong arm, I made the earth. I made the people and animals on it. And I give it to anyone I choose. ⁶So now I have put all these lands under the rule of my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even put the wild animals under his control. ⁷All nations will serve him and his son and his grandson. This will last until the time comes for his own land. Then many nations and great kings will make him their slave. ⁸But some nation or kingdom may not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. It may not put its neck under his yoke. I will punish that nation with the sword, hunger, and plague, says the LORD. I will do this until I have destroyed it by his hand. ⁹But as for you, do not listen to your prophets or your fortune-tellers. Do not listen to those who explain dreams, or to your mediums, or to your sorcerers. They tell you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon.' ¹⁰For they are telling you a lie. It will only get you taken far from your land. I will drive you out, and you will die. ¹¹But some nation may put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him. I will let that nation stay in its own land. They will farm it and live there, says the LORD." ¹²I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah. I said, "Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live! ¹³Why should you and your people die by the sword, hunger, and plague? The LORD has said this will happen to any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon. ¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets who tell you, 'You must not serve the king of Babylon.' They are telling you a lie. ¹⁵I have not sent them, says the LORD. Yet they are telling lies in my name. So I will drive you out, and you will die. You and the prophets who prophesy to you will die." ¹⁶Then I spoke to the priests and to all these people. I said, "This is what the LORD says: Do not listen to your prophets. They tell you, 'Look, very soon the things from the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon.' They are telling you a lie. ¹⁷Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon, and you will live! Why should this city become a ruin? ¹⁸If they really are prophets and have the word of the LORD, let them pray hard to the LORD of Hosts. Let them ask that the things still left in Jerusalem not be taken to Babylon. That means the things left in the house of the LORD and in the palace of the king of Judah. ¹⁹For this is what the LORD of Hosts says about the things that are still in this city. He speaks about the pillars, the bronze Sea, the stands, and the other things left here. ²⁰Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take them when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah away from Jerusalem. He took him to Babylon as a captive, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹Yes, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about the things left in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²²'They will be carried to Babylon. They will stay there until the day I come for them again,' says the LORD. 'Then I will bring them back and put them in this place again.'"