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: CEV
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 27
27
Serve Babylon or Perish. 1In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah,#Zedekiah: The Hebrew text actually has “Jehoiakim,” but the content of the chapter indicates that Zedekiah is intended. son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2The Lord said to me: Make for yourself thongs and yoke bars and put them on your shoulders. 3Send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, Tyre, and Sidon, through the ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah,#The time is the fourth year of Zedekiah, 594 B.C., the occasion of a delegation from the neighboring states, doubtless for the purpose of laying plans against Nebuchadnezzar. 4and command them to tell their lords: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Thus shall you say to your lords: 5It was I who made the earth, human being and beast on the face of the earth, by my great power, with my outstretched arm; and I can give them to whomever I think fit.#Jer 32:17. 6Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; even the wild animals I have given him to serve him.#Jer 25:9; 43:10; Ez 30:21, 25. 7All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time comes for him and his land; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.#Jer 25:11; 2 Chr 36:20. 8Meanwhile, the nation or the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, or bend its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and pestilence—oracle of the Lord—until I finish them by his hand.#Jer 25:9; Bar 2:22.
9You, however, must not listen to your prophets,#Your prophets: seers and diviners served non-Israelite kings just as the professional prophets served the kings of Judah. to your diviners and dreamers, to your soothsayers and sorcerers, who say to you, “Do not serve the king of Babylon.”#Jer 29:8. 10For they prophesy lies to you, so as to drive you far from your land, making me banish you so that you perish.#Jer 14:13–16. 11The people that bends the neck to the yoke of the king of Babylon to serve him, I will leave in peace on its own land—oracle of the Lord—to cultivate it and dwell on it.#Bar 2:21.
12To Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke the same words: Bend your necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, so that you may live.#Jer 38:17. 13Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and pestilence, in accordance with the word the Lord has spoken to the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?#Jer 24:8–10. 14Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, “Do not serve the king of Babylon.” They prophesy lies to you!#Jer 14:14; 23:21. 15I did not send them—oracle of the Lord—but they prophesy falsely in my name. As a result I must banish you, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.#Jer 20:6.
16#Jer 28:3; 2 Chr 36:7, 10, 18. To the priests and to all the people I said: Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you: “The vessels of the house of the Lord will soon be brought back from Babylon,” for they prophesy lies to you. 17Do not listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon that you may live. Why should this city become rubble? 18If they were prophets, if the word of the Lord were with them, then they would intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels remaining in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem should not also go to Babylon. 19For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels remaining in this city, 20which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take when he exiled Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— 21thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels remaining in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:#2 Kgs 25:13–17; 2 Chr 36:18, 22. 22To Babylon they shall go, and there they shall remain, until the day I look for them—oracle of the Lord; then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.
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