Jeremiah 27

₁The Lord talked to me, Jeremiah. It was not long after Zedekiah, son of Josiah, had become king_of_Judah. ₂The Lord said to me: ‘You must make a few yokes and tie one onto your neck with leather ropes. ₃Then you must send the other yokes to the kings of the lands of Moab, Ammon and the towns of Tyre and Sidon. You must send them with the messengers who came to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king_of_Judah. ₄Tell them to say to their kings: “The Lord who rules over all, the God of Israel, says: ₅It is I who made the world and the people and animals on earth. I did it with my own great strength and I can give lands to anyone that I want. ₆I have given all these lands to my servant, to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and I also gave the wild animals to him to work for him. ₇All the nations will have to work for Nebuchadnezzar and for his son and for his grandson. They will have to do it until the time comes when the people of his own land Babylon will have to work for other nations and for other important kings. ₈I will punish any nation and land who do not want to work for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and serve him. I will punish that nation with war, famine and diseases. I will continue doing this until Nebuchadnezzar has killed them all. ₉And you, don't listen to your prophets, to people who say they had dreams, to magicians and fortune-tellers. Do not listen to people who say they know what dreams and signs mean and say they can do magic. They tell you not to serve the king of Babylon, ₁₀but they bring false messages. If you listen to them, I will take you far away from your land. I will chase you away and you will flee all over the world and you will die. ₁₁But if a nation is willing to serve the king of Babylon and bow down in front of him, I will let them stay in their own land and work in their own fields and live there.” ’

₁₂Then I, Jeremiah, went to Zedekiah, king_of_Judah, to tell him what the Lord had said. I told him: ‘You must carry the yoke of the king of Babylon and you must serve him, and then you will stay alive. ₁₃Why do you and your people want to die in war or from famine or diseases? The Lord said that will happen to any nation that does not want to serve the king of Babylon. ₁₄Don't listen to the prophets who say you must not serve the king of Babylon, because those prophets bring false messages. ₁₅The Lord says: “I did not send them, but they say they bring messages that come from Me. Those messages are false. If you listen to them, I will chase you away and you will have to flee and I will cause you all to die, you and the prophets who bring those false messages to you.” ’

₁₆Then I talked to the priests and all the people and I told them: ‘The Lord says: Don't listen to the prophets who bring you messages and tell you that the Babylonians will soon give everything back that they took from the temple. Those prophets are telling lies. ₁₇Don't listen to them. You must serve the king of Babylon, and then you will stay alive. But if you listen to those prophets, this whole city will be destroyed and will become a heap of stones.

₁₈If those people are really prophets, and if they really tell people what I say and really know what the Lord is going to do, then they must pray to the Lord who rules over all, and beg Him that the enemies will not take to Babylon everything that is left over in the temple and in the king's palace.

₁₉Because the Lord who rules over all said what will happen to the things that are still in the temple and in the city. ₂₀King Nebuchadnezzar did not take all of these things when he took King Jehoiachin, son of Jehoiakim, king_of_Judah, to Babylon, as a prisoner with all the important people from Judah and Jerusalem. ₂₁This is what the Lord, who rules over all, the God of Israel, says. He said this is what will happen to everything that is still in the temple and in the palace of the king of Judah and Jerusalem. ₂₂The Lord says: “The enemies will carry all these things away to Babylon and they will stay there until I decide to bring them back to Jerusalem.” ’