The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar
In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
Thus said the LORD to me: Make for yourself bonds and yoke bars and put them on your neck.
And send them to the king of Edom and to the king of Moab and to the king of the sons of Ammon and to the king of Tyre and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
And command them for their masters, saying: Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus you will say to your masters:
I myself made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it is right in my eyes.
And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and even the beast of the field I have given him to serve him.
And all the nations will serve him and his son and the son of his son, until the time of his own land comes — and then many nations and great kings will make a servant of him.
And the nation and the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babylon — with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence I will attend to that nation — the utterance of the LORD — until I have finished them by his hand.
And you — do not listen to your prophets and to your diviners and to your dreams and to your soothsayers and to your sorcerers, who say to you, saying: You will not serve the king of Babylon.
For falsehood they are prophesying to you, so as to remove you far from your ground; and I will drive you out and you will perish.
But the nation that brings its neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him — I will leave it on its ground — the utterance of the LORD — and it will till it and dwell in it.
And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke according to all these words, saying: Bring your necks into the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Why should you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
And do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, saying: You will not serve the king of Babylon — for falsehood they are prophesying to you.
For I did not send them — the utterance of the LORD — and they are prophesying in my name for falsehood, so that I drive you out and you perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.
And to the priests and to all this people I spoke, saying: Thus says the LORD: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying: See, the vessels of the house of the LORD are being brought back from Babylon now, quickly — for falsehood they are prophesying to you.
Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a ruin?
And if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them entreat the LORD of hosts that the vessels remaining in the house of the LORD and the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem do not go to Babylon.
For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars and concerning the sea and concerning the stands and concerning the rest of the vessels remaining in this city,
which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he exiled Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem —
for thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels remaining in the house of the LORD and the house of the king of Judah and Jerusalem:
To Babylon they will be brought, and there they will be until the day I attend to them — the utterance of the LORD — and I will bring them up and bring them back to this place.