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Jeremiah 27

KJV · Chapter 27/52

1In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

2Thus saith the Lord to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,

3And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah;

4And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

5I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me.

6And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.

7And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.

8And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the Lord, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

9Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

10For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish.

11But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the Lord; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

12I spake also 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.

13Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

14Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

15For I have not sent them, saith the Lord, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.

16Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

17Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

18But if they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.

19For thus saith the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city,

20Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, 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;

21Yea, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;

22They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the Lord; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Jeremiah wears a wooden yoke on his own neck as a prophetic sign, advising Judah and neighboring nations to submit peacefully to the king of Babylon, since resisting would be futile.

Explanation

The yoke was a physical object used on oxen for farm labor, and wearing one publicly as a sign was a dramatic way of communicating submission. Jeremiah's advice sounded almost treasonous to nationalist ears: accept Babylonian rule instead of resisting. But his prophetic logic was that resisting a judgment already decreed by God would only prolong the suffering. The chapter also warns against the prophets who promised a swift return of the sacred vessels of the temple, already taken to Babylon — a lie that offered false hope instead of real preparation for the situation.

Fun facts

  • The wooden yoke, literally used on draft oxen, was immediately understood by anyone in that agrarian society as a symbol of submission and forced labor.
  • The reference to the 'vessels of the house of the LORD' (pillars, the bronze sea, the stands) describes real objects from Solomon's temple, later detailed in 2 Kings 25 and Jeremiah 52.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Jeremiah 27:1The text says “Jehoiakim” here, but it is a well-known ancient copying error: the rest of the chapter (verses 3 and 12) makes clear it is the reign of Zedekiah, the last king before the fall of Jerusalem.
  2. Jeremiah 27:2Jeremiah makes and wears wooden yokes, and sends copies to the neighboring kings (Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon). The uncomfortable message is that Nebuchadnezzar acts as God’s instrument in this phase of history, so resisting him for now would be fighting against God’s own plan — not because Babylon was good, but because it was time to submit.
  3. Jeremiah 27:3Jeremiah was to send the same yoke warning to the neighboring kings — Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon — through their ambassadors who were in Jerusalem visiting Zedekiah, probably plotting an alliance against Babylon.
  4. Jeremiah 27:4The messengers were to carry God’s message back to the very kings who sent them — the warning was not only for Judah; the order to submit to Babylon applied to the whole region.
  5. Jeremiah 27:5God presents Himself as the creator of everything to justify the authority He is handing out: if He made the earth and the animals, He has the right to decide who rules over whom, even giving power to a pagan king.
  6. Jeremiah 27:6Calling Nebuchadnezzar “my servant” is shocking: a foreign king being used as God’s instrument to punish Judah, even without knowing or acknowledging it.
  7. Jeremiah 27:7Babylonian domination would not be eternal: it would last until Babylon’s own turn to fall came, which would happen decades later, at the hands of the Persians.
  8. Jeremiah 27:8A direct warning: whoever resists Nebuchadnezzar will be destroyed by sword, famine, and plague — the same triad of disasters Jeremiah repeats throughout the book to describe the siege.
  9. Jeremiah 27:9Diviners, dreams, and soothsayers were common political consulting practices at the time. Jeremiah warns that the religious advisers who promised deliverance from Babylon were, in practice, pushing the people out of their own land.
  10. Jeremiah 27:10The prophets who promised deliverance from Babylon were lying: following that advice would end in exile anyway, only without God’s protection.
  11. Jeremiah 27:11The promise is almost counterintuitive: whoever agreed to serve Babylon would keep living in their own land, planting and harvesting — it is resistance that would bring destruction.
  12. Jeremiah 27:12Jeremiah repeats the same message now directly to King Zedekiah: accepting Babylonian rule was the only way to survive, not a political act of cowardice.
  13. Jeremiah 27:13A rhetorical question: why die resisting when surrender means living? Jeremiah insists that surrender is not betrayal, it is the only realistic way out.
  14. Jeremiah 27:14The warning against listening to the false prophets appears again because that was the real pressure on Zedekiah: optimistic voices promising a quick deliverance that was not going to happen.
  15. Jeremiah 27:15God makes clear that He did not send these prophets: they speak in His name without authorization, and the result of the lie will be exile for everyone, including the prophets themselves.
  16. Jeremiah 27:16The priests were also hearing prophecies that the sacred vessels of the temple, already carried off by Nebuchadnezzar in an earlier raid, would soon return — Jeremiah says it is a lie.
  17. Jeremiah 27:17Once again the direct instruction: accepting Babylon is the difference between the city remaining standing or becoming a wasteland.
  18. Jeremiah 27:18A concrete challenge to the false prophets: if they really speak for God, let them pray that the vessels still remaining in the temple not be carried off as well — a test they would not pass.
  19. Jeremiah 27:19A historical detail: the pillars, the “sea” (a giant bronze basin), and the bases were massive pieces from Solomon’s temple, still standing at this time — it is about them that the next oracle speaks.
  20. Jeremiah 27:20Context: Nebuchadnezzar had already carried out a first wave of deportation in 597 BC, taking King Jehoiakim (Jeconiah) and the nobility, but without yet emptying the whole temple treasury.
  21. Jeremiah 27:21A repetition of the formal address before the final oracle about the fate of the temple vessels still remaining in Jerusalem.
  22. Jeremiah 27:22The prophecy ends with a hidden hope in the middle of the warning: the vessels are going to Babylon, but one day God will bring them back — anticipating the end of the exile.

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