Jeremiah 27
27
Slaves of Nebuchadnezzar
1-2 #
2 K 24.18-20; 2 Ch 36.11-13. Not long after Zedekiah became king of Judah,#27.1,2 Not long after Zedekiah became king of Judah: A few manuscripts and one ancient translation; most Hebrew manuscripts “Not long after Jehoiakim became king of Judah”; most manuscripts of another ancient translation do not have these words. Jehoiakim ruled 609–598 b.c., and Zedekiah ruled 598–586 b.c. the Lord told me:
Jeremiah, make a wooden yoke#27.1,2 yoke: A wooden collar that fits around the neck of an ox, so the ox can be made to pull a plow or a cart. with leather straps, and place it on your neck. 3Then send a message#27.3 a message: Hebrew “them.” to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. Some officials from these countries are in Jerusalem, meeting with Zedekiah. 4So have them tell their kings that I have said:
I am the All-Powerful Lord God of Israel, 5and with my power I created the earth, its people, and all animals. I decide who will rule the earth, 6-7#Ba 3.16,17. and I have chosen my servant King Nebuchadnezzar#27.6,7 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. of Babylonia to rule all nations, including yours. I will even let him rule the wild animals. All nations will be slaves of Nebuchadnezzar, his son, and his grandson. Then many nations will join together, and their kings will make slaves of the Babylonians.
8This yoke stands for the power of King Nebuchadnezzar, and I will destroy any nation that refuses to obey him. Nebuchadnezzar will attack, and many will die in battle or from hunger and disease. 9You might have people in your kingdom who claim they can tell the future by magic or by talking with the dead or by dreams or messages from a god. But don't pay attention if any of them tell you not to obey Nebuchadnezzar. 10If you listen to such lies, I will have you dragged far from your country and killed. 11But if you and your nation are willing to obey Nebuchadnezzar, I will let you stay in your country, and your people will continue to live and work on their farms.
12After I had spoken to the officials from the nearby kingdoms, I went to King Zedekiah and told him the same thing. Then I said:
Zedekiah, if you and the people of Judah want to stay alive, you must obey Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. 13But if you refuse, then you and your people will die from war, hunger, and disease, just as the Lord has warned. 14Your prophets have told you that you don't need to obey Nebuchadnezzar, but don't listen to their lies. 15Those prophets claim to be speaking for the Lord, but he didn't send them. They are lying! If you do what they say, he will have both you and them dragged off to another country and killed. The Lord has spoken.
16When I finished talking to the king, I told the priests and everyone else that the Lord had said:
Don't listen to the prophets when they say that very soon the Babylonians will return the things they took from my temple. Those prophets are lying! 17If you choose to obey the king of Babylonia, you will live. But if you listen to those prophets, this whole city will be nothing but a pile of rubble.
18If I really had spoken to those prophets, they would know what I am going to do. Then they would be begging me not to let everything else be taken from the temple and the king's palace and the rest of Jerusalem. 19-21After all, when Nebuchadnezzar took King Jehoiachin#27.19-21 Jehoiachin: Hebrew “Jeconiah” (see the note at 24.1). to Babylonia as a prisoner, he didn't take everything of value from Jerusalem. He left the bronze pillars, the huge bronze bowl called the Sea, and the movable bronze stands in the temple, and he left a lot of other valuable things in the palace and in the rest of Jerusalem.
But now I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, say that all these things 22will be taken to Babylonia, where they will remain until I decide to bring them back to Jerusalem. I, the Lord, have spoken.
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Jeremiah 27: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Yirmeyahu (Jer) 27
27
1At the beginning of the reign of Y’hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y’hudah, this word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2“Adonai says this to me: ‘Make yourself a yoke of straps and crossbars, and put it on your neck. 3Send [similar yokes] to the kings of Edom, of Mo’av, of the people of ‘Amon, of Tzor, and of Tzidon by means of the envoys they send to Yerushalayim, and to Tzidkiyahu king of Y’hudah. 4Give them this message for their masters by telling their envoys that Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says for them to tell their masters:
5“‘“I made the earth, humankind, and the animals on the earth by my great power and my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me. 6For now, I have given over all these lands to my servant N’vukhadnetzar the king of Bavel; I have also given him the wild animals to serve him. 7All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until his own country gets its turn — at which time many nations and great kings will make him their slave. 8The nation and kingdom that refuses to serve this N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, I will punish,” says Adonai “with sword, famine and plague, until I have put an end to them through him.
9“‘“You, therefore, don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, magicians or sorcerers, when they tell you that you won’t be subject to the king of Bavel; 10for they are prophesying lies to you that will result in your being removed far from your land, with my driving you out, so that you perish. 11But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel and serves him, that nation I will allow to remain on their own soil,” says Adonai. “They will farm it and live there.”’”
12Then I spoke to Tzidkiyahu king of Y’hudah in just the same way: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, serve him and his people, and you will live. 13Why would you want to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague — which is what Adonai has decreed for the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel? 14Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, ‘You will not serve the king of Bavel’; because they are prophesying lies to you. 15‘For I have not sent them,’ says Adonai, ‘and they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish — you and the prophets prophesying to you.’”
16I also spoke to the cohanim and to all this people; I said, “This is what Adonai says: ‘Don’t listen to the words of the prophets prophesying to you that the articles from Adonai’s house will soon be returned from Bavel; because they are prophesying lies to you. 17Don’t listen to them. Serve the king of Bavel, and stay alive; why should this city become a ruin?’ 18But if they are in fact prophets, and if the word of Adonai is with them, then let them now intercede with Adonai-Tzva’ot that the articles still remaining in the house of Adonai and in the palace of the king of Y’hudah will not go off to Bavel. 19For this is what Adonai-Tzva’ot says concerning the columns, the Sea, the bases and the rest of the articles still here in this city, 20that N’vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel did not seize when he carried off captive Y’khanyahu the son of Y’hoyakim, king of Y’hudah, from Yerushalayim to Bavel, along with all the leading men of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim — 21yes, this is what Adonai Shaddai, the God of Isra’el, says about the things remaining in the house of Adonai, in the palace of the king of Y’hudah and in Yerushalayim: 22‘They will be carried to Bavel; and there they will stay until the day I remember them, bring them back and restore them to this place,’ says Adonai.”
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