Jeremiah 27

27 ¹When Zedekiah son of Josiah began to reign as king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from our Father:

²This is what our Father said to me: Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck. ³Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴Command them to tell their masters: This is what the Father of heaven's armies says: "Tell your masters this: ⁵I myself made the earth, with the people and animals on its surface, by my great power and extended arm, and I give it to whoever seems right to me. ⁶Now I have given all these lands to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; even the wild animals of the field I have given him to serve him. ⁷All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson, until his own land's time comes; then many nations and great kings will make him serve them."

⁸But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or put its neck under his yoke, that nation I will punish with sword, famine, and plague, declares our Father, until I destroy them by his hand. ⁹"So don't listen to your prophets, fortune-tellers, dreamers, soothsayers, or witches, who tell you, 'You won't serve the king of Babylon.' ¹⁰They are prophesying lies to you, sending you far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will die. ¹¹But the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of Babylon's king and serves him, I'll leave on its own land, declares our Father, to work it and live in it."

¹²I spoke these same words to Zedekiah king of Judah: Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live. ¹³Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and plague, as our Father has said about the nation that will not serve Babylon's king?

¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets who tell you, 'You will not serve the king of Babylon,' for they prophesy lies to you. ¹⁵I have not sent them, declares our Father, yet they prophesy falsely in my name, so I will drive you out and you will perish—you and the prophets who prophesy to you.

¹⁶Then I told the priests and all these people: This is what our Father says: Do not listen to your prophets who prophesy, 'Look, the vessels of our Father's house will soon be brought back from Babylon'—they are prophesying lies to you. ¹⁷Don't listen to them. Serve Babylon's king and live. Why let this city become ruins?

¹⁸But if they are prophets, and the word of our Father is with them, let them plead with the Father of heaven's armies that the vessels left in his house, the house of Judah's king, and Jerusalem not go to Babylon. ¹⁹For this is what the Father of heaven's armies says about the pillars, the Sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels left in this city, ^a a v19 Here "the Sea" is not a body of water but the huge bronze basin that stood in the temple courtyard, used by the priests for washing.

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he exiled Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem,

²¹yes, this is what the Father of heaven's armies says about the vessels left in the house of our Father, the house of Judah's king, and Jerusalem:

²²They will be carried to Babylon and stay there until the day I come for them, declares our Father. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.