Jer 27 | EE | STEP | The LORD spoke to Jeremiah soon after Zedekiah became king. Zedekiah was the son of Josiah and he had become king of Judah.

Jeremiah 27

God tells Jeremiah that people from many countries will become Nebuchadnezzar’s servants

1 The LORD spoke to Jeremiah soon after Zedekiah became king. Zedekiah was the son of Josiah and he had become king of Judah. 2 The LORD said to me, ‘Make a yoke from wood and leather, and put it on your neck. 3 Then send for the messengers in Jerusalem. They have come from other countries to see Zedekiah, king of Judah. The kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon sent them here. 4 Give to them a message for their masters. Say, “The great powerful LORD, the God of Israel, says this: ‘Tell this to your masters: 5 I made this earth with my long arm and with my great power. I made the people and the animals on the earth. And I will give it to anyone that I choose. 6 Now I will give all your countries to my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. He will have power over you and even over the wild animals. 7 People from all countries will serve him and his son and his grandson. They will serve him and his sons for as long as I let him and his sons rule. Then people from many countries will join together and they will take away his power.

8 If the people from any country will not serve Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, I will punish those people. I will send soldiers or illness or I will destroy their food. I will cause Nebuchadnezzar to do that if the people in that country will not be his servants. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, or to your people. They think that they know about future things. But they do not know. Do not listen to those who ask spirits for help. Do not listen to those who try to understand dreams. They might tell you that you will not become servants of the king of Babylon. 10 They would not be telling you what is true. That would make it sure that an enemy would take you a long way from your own country. I would send you away and you would die there. 11 But the people from a country might decide to obey the king of Babylon. They might become his servants. Then I would let those people remain in their own country. They could continue to live there’”’, says the LORD.

12 I gave the same message to the king of Judah. I said, ‘Put on the yoke of the king of Babylon. You and your people must become his servants. Then you will live. 13 You and your people do not want to die. Any people who do not serve the king of Babylon will die. The LORD has promised this. He will kill those people with soldiers or with illness. Or they will die because they do not have any food. 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say, “You will not serve the king of Babylon.” They are prophesying lies. 15 “I have not sent those prophets”, says the LORD. “They are using my name. But they are saying things that are not true. So I will send you away and you will die. You and the prophets who are prophesying to you will die.”’

16 Then I spoke to the priests and to all the people. I said, ‘The LORD says, “Do not listen to the prophets. They tell you that people will soon bring back from Babylon the things from the LORD‘s house. But the things that they say are not true. 17 Do not listen to them. If you serve the king of Babylon, you will live. You do not want him to destroy this city! 18 Proper prophets who had heard the LORD‘s message would ask him for help. They would ask the great powerful God to let the things still in the LORD‘s house stay there. They would ask him not to let people take them to Babylon. They would ask that the things from the king’s house and in Jerusalem would remain there.” 19 The LORD says that there are beautiful things of stone and metal still in the city. 20 Nebuchadnezzar let them remain here when he took Jehoiakim, king of Judah, away. He took him then with all the great people in Judah and in Jerusalem. He took them from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 Yes, the LORD says. He says this about all the things that they had let remain in the LORD‘s house and in the king’s palace: 22 “Nebuchadnezzar’s people will take them to Babylon. They will stay there until I come for them. Then I will bring them and I will put them back in this place.”’