Jeremiah 27

The Yoke of Babylon

Jeremiah puts a wooden yoke on his own neck and sends word to five neighboring kings, and to Judah's king and priests, that the Lord has given the region to Nebuchadnezzar and that the prophets promising otherwise are lying.

Verse 1 reads “the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim,” but the chapter itself belongs to the reign of Zedekiah (597–586 B.C. by the Bible Dictionary), probably the same year as Jeremiah 28:1, “the fourth year”; see the note on verse 1 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Zedekiah was a king appointed by Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had already taken Jehoiachin and the city's leading men to Babylon and had carried off treasure from the temple (2 Kgs.…

Zedekiah was a king appointed by Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar had already taken Jehoiachin and the city's leading men to Babylon and had carried off treasure from the temple (2 Kgs. 24:12–17), and he put Mattaniah on the throne in Jehoiachin's place, changing his name to Zedekiah. Zedekiah was not content to stay a vassal; he “rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kgs. 24:20).

In this chapter envoys from five neighboring kingdoms have come to Jerusalem “with the proposal that unitedly they could defeat Babylon.” Jeremiah answers them in the Lord's name: not by words alone but by wearing a yoke. He gives the same message three times, to the envoys' masters (verses 2–11), to Zedekiah (verses 12–15), and to the priests and people (verses 16–22). The word is the same each time: serve the king of Babylon and live, and do not listen to the prophets who say otherwise.

The chapter belongs to a group, Jeremiah 26–29, “on the false prophets.” Chapter 28 follows directly: the prophet Hananiah breaks Jeremiah's yoke, and the Lord answers. In short: “The Lord sends word to many nations that they are to serve Babylon—The vessels of the Lord's house will go into Babylon.”

The thread through the chapter

The chapter asks whose word the nations and Judah will believe about Babylon: the Lord's, through Jeremiah, or the comfortable word of the prophets who say the danger will pass.

The chapter asks whose word the nations and Judah will believe about Babylon: the Lord's, through Jeremiah, or the comfortable word of the prophets who say the danger will pass. The Lord states the claim first, and everything else follows from it. He made the earth and gives it “unto whom it seemed meet unto me” (verse 5); He has now given these lands to Nebuchadnezzar (verse 6). If that is so, resisting Babylon is resisting a decision the Lord has made, and the prophets who encourage resistance are not speaking for Him (verses 9–10, 14–15).

The same argument is made to three audiences, and each time the offer is the same: submit and live (verses 11, 12, 17). The last section turns on the temple's remaining furnishings. The prophets say they will soon come back from Babylon; the Lord says the rest will go there too, “until the day that I visit them” (verse 22), when He will bring them back. The test of the prophets is what they ask for. If they truly had the Lord's word, they would plead that nothing more be taken (verse 18), not promise that what was taken would come back at once.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–11

The yoke, and the message to five kings

In plain words

The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “Make yourself bonds and yokes and put them on your neck. Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, by the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah. Tell them to say to their masters: ‘I made the earth, and the people and animals on it, by my great power and outstretched arm, and I give it to whom I please. Now I have given all these lands to my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. All nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until the time for his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will make him serve them. Any nation that will not serve him and put its neck under his yoke I will punish with sword, famine, and plague until he has destroyed it. So do not listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, or sorcerers who tell you not to serve the king of Babylon. They prophesy a lie, which will get you removed from your land and killed. But the nation that bows its neck under Babylon's yoke and serves him, I will leave in its own land to farm it and live in it.’”

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

Context #

Jehoiakim or Zedekiah?

The heading names Jehoiakim, but the chapter belongs to Zedekiah's reign: “verses 3 and 12 suggest that it was given during Zedekiah's reign, not Jehoiakim's.”

The heading names Jehoiakim, but the chapter belongs to Zedekiah's reign: “verses 3 and 12 suggest that it was given during Zedekiah's reign, not Jehoiakim's.” Both verses name Zedekiah, and the chapter that follows opens by dating the same event: “the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month” (Jer. 28:1). Counted from the Bible Dictionary's date for Zedekiah's accession, 597 B.C., that is about 594 or 593 B.C.

How Jehoiakim's name came to stand here is a textual question. One reading is that a copyist had in mind the opening of chapter 26, where Jehoiakim's reign is named, and wrote his name by mistake; the Syriac translation and one Hebrew manuscript read Zedekiah here. This is a reasonable explanation and not a certainty. What matters for reading is that the events are Zedekiah's, so the plotting envoys, the rebellion, and the vessels still in the temple all fit that reign, after the first removal of treasure in Jehoiachin's time.

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

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

Imagery #

The yoke on Jeremiah's neck

A yoke “is something put on the neck for the purpose of carrying burdens,” and here it “symbolized captivity or slavery.”

A yoke “is something put on the neck for the purpose of carrying burdens,” and here it “symbolized captivity or slavery.” Jeremiah was to make one from a crossbar and straps, put it around his own neck, and wear it “in the presence of King Zedekiah and Jerusalem's ambassadorial corps.” He really wore it: in the next chapter Hananiah “took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah's neck, and brake it” (Jer. 28:10).

The command is in the plural, “bonds and yokes,” and verse 3 tells Jeremiah to send them to the five kings. One reading takes the wording at face value: he made yokes for the five kings as well and gave them to their envoys. Either way the message is acted out before it is spoken.

Sources: Jeremiah 27–28: The Yoke of Babylon, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 161. Jean A. Tefan, “Jeremiah: As Potter’s Clay”, Ensign, October 2002, 11. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

3 And 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;

Context #

Why five kings sent envoys

The envoys came to plan a revolt against Babylon, bringing “the proposal that unitedly they could defeat Babylon.”

The envoys came to plan a revolt against Babylon, bringing “the proposal that unitedly they could defeat Babylon.” The five kingdoms named are Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon. Zedekiah did rebel (2 Kgs. 24:20), and “once again the Babylonians came against Jerusalem,” so Jeremiah's yoke answered the policy that ended in the city's fall.

The yoke was to show “that it was the Lord's will that they submit to their would-be conquerors.” Jeremiah's counsel to submit, here and later in the siege, was not a political preference: “Jeremiah was not speaking from a political point of view; he spoke for the Lord.”

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

5 I 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.

Related Scriptures #

The Lord who gives kingdoms

Verse 5 grounds everything in the Lord's authority over creation and over rulers: He made the earth and gives it to whom He chooses.

Verse 5 grounds everything in the Lord's authority over creation and over rulers: He made the earth and gives it to whom He chooses. The same teaching is found elsewhere in scripture, in the passages the footnotes to this verse point to. Nephi tells his brothers, “the Lord hath created the earth that it should be inhabited; and he hath created his children that they should possess it. And he raiseth up a righteous nation, and destroyeth the nations of the wicked” (1 Ne. 17:36–37). Daniel says of God, “he removeth kings, and setteth up kings” (Dan. 2:21), and the psalmist, “God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another” (Ps. 75:7).

So the kings who listen to Jeremiah are being told that the shape of the political world is not decided in their council rooms. This is why the Babylonian conquest is something to submit to, not merely an event to survive.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 And 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.

Language #

Nebuchadnezzar, “my servant”

“My servant” names Nebuchadnezzar as the one through whom the Lord carries out His decree; it is not praise of the king.

“My servant” names Nebuchadnezzar as the one through whom the Lord carries out His decree; it is not praise of the king. The title is the same in Jer. 25:9, where the Lord says He will send “Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant” against Judah and the nations around. (The KJV spells his name both ways; this chapter uses Nebuchadnezzar.) The lands were assigned to Babylon “until that country ripened in iniquity and reaped its own reward,” and the same prophecy in chapter 25 gives the end of that rule: “when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity” (Jer. 25:12).

The Lord's use of a pagan king does not make the king good. It does mean that Judah's refusal to submit is a refusal of what the Lord has decreed for this period.

7 And 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.

Language #

“His son, and his son's son”

The words describe how long Babylon would rule, not a literal line of three kings.

The words describe how long Babylon would rule, not a literal line of three kings. One reading is that they “simply express the long duration of the king of Babylon's power over them, without warranting us in concluding that he was succeeded on the throne by his son and his grandson.” Elsewhere Jeremiah gives the period as seventy years (Jer. 25:11–12; Jer. 29:10). The verse also looks past it: “many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him,” so Babylon's turn to be ruled would come.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

8 And 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.

9 Therefore 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:

Language #

Five kinds of false guidance

The list of prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers covers every claimed source of knowledge about the future.

The list of prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers covers every claimed source of knowledge about the future. One reading is that Jeremiah does not mean five separate trades: “The enumeration of the multifarious means and methods for forecasting the future is designed to show the multitude of delusive schemes for supplying the lack of true and real divine inspiration.”

The word “your” is pointed. These are each nation's own guides, and in verse 14 the Lord says the same of Judah's prophets: “the prophets that speak unto you.” A later letter to the exiles uses the same categories, with “your prophets and your diviners… your dreams” (Jer. 29:8).

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

11 But 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.

Verses 12–15

To King Zedekiah

In plain words

“I gave the same message to Zedekiah king of Judah: ‘Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live. Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and plague, as the Lord has said of any nation that will not serve Babylon? Do not listen to the prophets who say you will not serve the king of Babylon. They are prophesying a lie. I have not sent them,’ says the Lord, ‘yet they prophesy lies in my name, so that I will drive you out and you and those prophets will perish.’”

12 I 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.

Context #

“Serve him… and live”

The message to Zedekiah offers life, not only a threat. “Serve him and his people, and live” (verse 12) is the same promise made to the nations: those that submit “will I let…

The message to Zedekiah offers life, not only a threat. “Serve him and his people, and live” (verse 12) is the same promise made to the nations: those that submit “will I let remain still in their own land… and they shall till it, and dwell therein” (verse 11). The question that follows, “Why will ye die, thou and thy people?” (verse 13), puts the king's choice plainly: the sword, famine, and pestilence in verse 8 are not inevitable for Judah.

Zedekiah chose otherwise. He “rebelled against the king of Babylon” (2 Kgs. 24:20). By then “Twice Nebuchadnezzar had come, and twice he had humbled Judah,” and “it should have been obvious that Jeremiah's prophecies were coming to pass.” The offer in these verses was real, and what followed was Zedekiah's refusal of it.

13 Why 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?

14 Therefore 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.

15 For 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.

Related Scriptures #

Prophets the Lord did not send

Speaking in the Lord's name does not make a prophet true. Verse 15 repeats what the Lord said earlier of other prophets: “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not,…

Speaking in the Lord's name does not make a prophet true. Verse 15 repeats what the Lord said earlier of other prophets: “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them” (Jer. 14:14), and what He would say to the exiles: “I have not sent them” (Jer. 29:9).

The law of Moses gave a test for the other kind of case: if a prophet speaks in the Lord's name and “the thing follow not, nor come to pass,” then he has spoken “presumptuously” (Deut. 18:22). The point of verse 15 is that “not every message that is claimed to be from God truly is… nor does every messenger bring His word.” In this chapter the two predictions stand side by side, and events would show which was the Lord's: the prophets say the vessels will come back soon; the Lord says the rest will go to Babylon too.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Related Scriptures #

Prophets who said Jerusalem would stand

Jeremiah's opposition by comforting prophets is the world Lehi enters.

Jeremiah's opposition by comforting prophets is the world Lehi enters. Nephi dates his father's call to “the first year of the reign of Zedekiah,” when “many prophets” came “prophesying unto the people that they must repent, or the great city Jerusalem must be destroyed” (1 Ne. 1:4). The same period had false prophets such as Hananiah, who gave “the opposite message—that God would preserve them from their enemies,” telling people “what they wanted to hear and not what the Lord wanted them to know.” That was the belief of Laman and Lemuel, who “did not believe that Jerusalem, that great city, could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets” (1 Ne. 2:13; Nephi is speaking).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture Central, “Why Did Some in Lehi’s Time Believe that Jerusalem Could Not Be Destroyed?”, KnoWhy #451.

Verses 16–22

To the priests and the people, about the temple's vessels

In plain words

“I also said to the priests and all this people: ‘Do not listen to your prophets who say the vessels of the Lord's house will soon be brought back from Babylon. They are prophesying a lie. Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city be made a ruin? If they are prophets and have the Lord's word, let them plead with the Lord of hosts that the vessels still left in the Lord's house, in the king's house, and in Jerusalem do not go to Babylon. For this is what the Lord of hosts says about the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels still in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar did not take when he carried Jeconiah and Judah's nobles to Babylon: they will be carried to Babylon, and will stay there until the day I visit them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them up and return them to this place.’”

16 Also 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.

Context #

The vessels already taken

Some temple vessels were already in Babylon, and the prophets said they would be back soon.

Some temple vessels were already in Babylon, and the prophets said they would be back soon. When Jehoiachin surrendered, Nebuchadnezzar “carried out thence all the treasures of the house of the Lord… and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple” (2 Kgs. 24:13). In the next chapter Hananiah makes the promise itself: “Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the Lord's house” (Jer. 28:3).

Jeremiah's point was that “his promises of captivity were realistic, whereas the promises of delivery from Babylon made by the false prophets ignored reality, since the Babylonians had already proven they could conquer Judah with impunity.” The promise was comforting and dated. What the Lord said was that the vessels would return, but not yet (verse 22).

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

18 But 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.

Context #

A test of the prophets

Jeremiah's challenge is that real prophets would try to save what was left, not promise what was lost.

Jeremiah's challenge is that real prophets would try to save what was left, not promise what was lost. “Make intercession” is to plead with the Lord. Jeremiah was telling Zedekiah that the prophets who said Babylon would not take Judah “should try to preserve the remnant of temple treasures left from the first and second conquests of Nebuchadnezzar.” If they had the Lord's word, they would know what the Lord had decided and would be pleading for what remained, not announcing that all was well.

Sources: Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

19 For 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,

Context #

What was left, and what happened to it

The pillars, the sea, and the bases are the large bronze (KJV “brass”) furnishings “which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord” (Jer. 52:20), and they were still in…

The pillars, the sea, and the bases are the large bronze (KJV “brass”) furnishings “which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord” (Jer. 52:20), and they were still in Jerusalem after Jehoiachin's captivity (Jer. 27:19–20). Jeremiah says they would go to Babylon. They did: “the pillars of brass that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in the house of the Lord, did the Chaldees break in pieces, and carried the brass of them to Babylon” (2 Kgs. 25:13), and again in Jer. 52:17.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

20 Which 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;

21 Yea, 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;

22 They 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.

Related Scriptures #

The vessels come back

The chapter ends with a promise, not only a loss. The vessels will stay in Babylon “until the day that I visit them,” and then the Lord will “bring them up, and restore them to this place.”

The chapter ends with a promise, not only a loss. The vessels will stay in Babylon “until the day that I visit them,” and then the Lord will “bring them up, and restore them to this place.” The same promise stands for the people: “after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place” (Jer. 29:10). The vessels' return is told in Ezra 1:7–8: “Cyrus the king brought forth the vessels of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had brought forth out of Jerusalem,” and gave them to Sheshbazzar, prince of Judah. Hananiah's promise was “within two full years” (Jer. 28:3); the Lord's is dated by His own visit.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 27

The Lord who says “I have made the earth” and gives it “unto whom it seemed meet unto me” is Jehovah, and the Bible Dictionary teaches that “Jehovah is the premortal Jesus Christ.” Scripture says that He does as He says here: He sets up and removes kings (Dan. 2:21), and He raises up and destroys nations (1 Ne. 17:36–37). The chapter's last promise, that the Lord will “restore them to this place,” is also His: the vessels of His house return when He visits them, as Ezra reports (Ezra 1:7–8).

Worth exploring next

Read Jer. 28 next, where Hananiah breaks the yoke and the Lord answers. The call to submit and live comes back in Jer. 38:17–18. For the same contest in Lehi's Jerusalem, see 1 Ne. 1:4 and 1 Ne. 2:13; the KnoWhy on why some in Lehi's time believed Jerusalem could not be destroyed treats the false prophets of this period.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

1 Ne. 1:4 — The Book of Mormon dates Lehi's call to the first year of Zedekiah, when many prophets said Jerusalem must be destroyed unless it repented. This chapter, in Zedekiah's fourth year, shows the same contest between true and false prophets.
1 Ne. 2:13 — Laman and Lemuel did not believe that Jerusalem could be destroyed according to the words of the prophets, the same belief Jeremiah's opponents encouraged.

Sources & further reading

Chapter 24: The Babylonian Captivity (Jeremiah 20–22; 24–29; 32; 34–45; 52; Lamentations), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Jeremiah 27–28: The Yoke of Babylon, Old Testament Seminary Student Study Guide, 161.
Jean A. Tefan, “Jeremiah: As Potter’s Clay”, Ensign, October 2002, 11.
Scripture Central, “Why Did Some in Lehi’s Time Believe that Jerusalem Could Not Be Destroyed?”, KnoWhy #451.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

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