The Yoke of Nebuchadnezzar on Judah

1In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying, 2YHWH says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck. 3Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the children of Ammon, 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. 4You are to command them to go to their masters and say, ‘YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel says, “Y’all must tell your* masters: 5‘I have made the earth, the humans, and the animals that are on the surface of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me. 6Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him. 7All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.

8“‘“‘It will happen that I will punish the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon,’ says YHWH, ‘with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9But y’all, shouldn’t listen to your* prophets, your* diviners, your* dreamers, your* soothsayers, or your* sorcerers, who tell y’all, “Y’all do not need to serve the king of Babylon.” 10They are prophesying a lie to y’all which will remove y’all far from your* land. I will banish y’all, and y’all will perish. 11But the nation that submits their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says YHWH; ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’”’”

12I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Y’all must submit your* necks to the yoke of the king of Babylon, and y’all must serve him and his people, and live. 13Why will y’all die, your and your people, by the sword, famine, and plague, as YHWH has said of any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14Y’all must not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to y’all, saying, ‘Y’all will not serve the king of Babylon.’ They are prophesying a lie to y’all. 15For I have not sent them,” says YHWH, “but they prophesy falsely in my name. Therefore, I will banish y’all, and y’all will perish, both y’all and the prophets who prophesy to y’all.”

16Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, YHWH says, “Y’all must not listen to the words of your* prophets who prophesy to y’all, saying, ‘Look, the vessels of the house of YHWH will be brought back from Babylon very soon.’ They are prophesying a lie to y’all. 17Y’all must not listen to them. Y’all are to serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? 18But if they are prophets and if the word of YHWH is with them, let them now plead with YHWH Almighty, that the vessels which are left in the house of YHWH, in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem, don’t go to Babylon. 19For YHWH Almighty says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon didn’t take when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— 21yes, YHWH Almighty, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in the house of YHWH, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem: 22‘They will be carried to Babylon, and there they will be, until the day that I visit them,’ says YHWH; ‘then I will bring them up, and restore them to this place.’”