Judah to Serve Nebuchadnezzar
1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2 The LORD says to me, “Make bonds and bars and put them on your neck. 3 Then send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hands of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
4 Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters, 5 ‘I have made the earth, the men, and the animals that are on the face of the earth by my great power and by my outstretched arm. I give it to whom it seems right to me.
6 Now 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. 7 All 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 the LORD, ‘with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.
9 But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, to your diviners, to your dreams, to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon,” 10 for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land so that I would drive you out, and you would perish. 11 But the nation that brings their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation I will let remain in their own land,’ says the LORD, ‘and they will till it and dwell in it.’ ”
12 I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people and live. 13 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?
14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you. 15 For I have not sent them,” says the LORD, “but they prophesy falsely in my name, that I may drive you out and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you.”
16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all these people, saying, the LORD says, “Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘The vessels of the house of the LORD will now soon be brought back from Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?
18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of Hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon.
19 For the LORD of Hosts says concerning the pillars, concerning the sea, concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels that are left in this city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he took captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem, 21 Yes, the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, 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 the LORD, ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”