The prophet sends chains to divers kings, signifying that they must
bend their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. The vessels of
the temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried
away.
27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, this word came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
Joakim. . .This revelation was made to the prophet in the beginning of
the reign of Joakim: but the bands were not sent to the princes here
named before the reign of Sedecias, ver. 3.
27:2. Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains: and thou
shalt put them on thy neck.
27:3. And thou shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of
Tyre, and to the king of Sidon: by the hand of the messengers that are
come to Jerusalem to Sedecias the king of Juda.
27:4. And thou shalt command them to speak to their masters: Thus saith
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your
masters:
27:5. I made the earth, and the men and the beasts that are upon the
face of the earth, by my great power, and by my stretched out arm: and
I have given it to whom it seemed good in my eyes.
27:6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon my servant: moreover also the beasts of
the field I have given him to serve him.
27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son:
till the time come for his land and himself: and many nations and great
kings shall serve him.
His son. . .Viz., Evilmerodach; and his son's son, Nabonydus, or
Nabonadius, the Baltassar of Daniel, chap. 5., and the last of the
Chaldean kings.
27:8. But the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, and whosoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon: I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and
with famine, and with pestilence, saith the Lord: till I consume them
by his hand.
27:9. Therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and
dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall
not serve the king of Babylon.
27:10. For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your
country, and cast you out, and to make you perish.
27:11. But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon, and shall serve him: I will let them remain in
their own land, saith the Lord: and they shall till it, and dwell in
it.
27:12. And I spoke to Sedecias the king of Juda according to all these
words, saying: Bend down your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and you shall live.
27:13. Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by
famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the
nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
27:14. Hearken not to the words of the prophets that say to you: You
shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they tell you a lie.
27:15. For I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy in
my name falsely: to drive you out, and that you may perish, both you,
and the prophets that prophesy to you.
27:16. I spoke also to the priests, and to this people, saying: Thus
saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that
prophesy to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the Lord shall now in a
short time be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto
you.
27:17. Therefore hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon,
that you may live. Why should this city be given up to desolation?
27:18. But if they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them:
let them interpose themselves before the Lord of hosts, that the
vessels which were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of
the king of Juda, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.
27:19. For thus saith the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea,
and to the bases, and to the rest of the vessels that remain in this
city:
27:20. Which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon did not take, when he
carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the great men of Juda and Jerusalem.
27:21. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to the
vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the
king of Juda and Jerusalem:
27:22. They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until
the day of their visitation, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to
be brought, and to be restored in this place.