1 ARST Soon after Zedekiah son of Josiah became the king of Judah, Yahweh gave a message to me. BSB BSB: At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD.
2 ARST This is what he said to me:“Make a yoke and bonds, then fasten them around your own neck. BSB BSB: This is what the LORD said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck.
3 ARST Then send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon, and give them to the ambassadors from those countries who have come to Jerusalem to talk to King Zedekiah. BSB BSB: 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.
4 ARST Tell them to give this message to their kings: This is what Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, whom Israel worships, says: BSB BSB: Give them a message from the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, to relay to their masters:
5 ARST ‘With my very great power I created the earth and the people and the animals that are on the earth. And I can give those things to anyone whom I want to. BSB BSB: By My great power and outstretched arm, I made the earth and the men and beasts on the face of it, and I give it to whom I please.
6 ARST And now I am going to enable King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who does what I want him to do, to control your countries. I am going to enable him to rule everything, even the wild animals. BSB BSB: So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I have even made the beasts of the field subject to him.
7 ARST The people of all the nations will work for him, and later for his son, and later for his grandson, until the time for them to rule is finished. Then the armies of many great kings from many nations will conquer Babylon.’ BSB BSB: All nations will serve him and his son and grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
8 ARST But now I tell you that you must do what the king of Babylon wants you to do, like an ox that has a yoke on its neck must do what its master wants it to do. I will punish any nation that refuses to do that. I will cause those people to experience war and famine and diseases, until the armies of Babylon have conquered that nation. BSB BSB: As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
9 ARST So, do not pay attention to your false prophets and fortune tellers and people who predict what will happen by working magic or by talking with spirits of dead people. Those people say not to serve him because the king of Babylon will not conquer your country. BSB BSB: But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums, or your sorcerers who declare, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’
10 ARST Those people are all liars. If you believe what they say, it will result in your being exiled from your land. I will cause you to be taken from your land, and you will die far away. BSB BSB: For they prophesy to you a lie that will serve to remove you from your land; I will banish you and you will perish.
11 ARST But the people of any country who do what the king of Babylon wants them to do will remain in their own country and be able to plant their crops as they always have done. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.” BSB BSB: But the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave in its own land, to cultivate it and reside in it, declares the LORD.”
12 ARST After I gave that message to those ambassadors, I gave the same message to King Zedekiah of Judah. I said to him,“If you want to remain alive, do what the king of Babylon and his officials want you to do. BSB BSB: And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke the same message: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live!
13 ARST It would be foolish for you not to do that, because the result would be that you and your people would die by your enemies’ swords or by famine or diseases, which Yahweh will cause any nation to experience that refuses to allow the king of Babylon to rule them. BSB BSB: Why should you and your people die by sword and famine and plague, as the LORD has decreed against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?
14 ARST Do not pay attention to those prophets who say to you,‘Do not obey the king of Babylon since he will not conquer your country.’ They are liars. BSB BSB: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who say, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying to you a lie.
15 ARST This is what Yahweh says:‘I have not appointed those prophets. They are saying that I gave them messages, but they are lying. So, if you believe them, I will expel you from this land. And you and all those prophets will die in Babylon!’” BSB BSB: For I have not sent them, declares the LORD, and yet they are prophesying falsely in My name; therefore I will banish you, and you will perish—you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”
16 ARST Then I spoke to the priests and the other people, and I said,“This is what Yahweh says:‘Do not believe your prophets who tell you that all the gold items that were taken from my temple by soldiers from Babylon will soon be returned from Babylon, because what they are prophesying is a lie. BSB BSB: Then I said to the priests and to all this people, “This is what the LORD says: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, ‘Look, very soon now the articles from the house of the LORD will be brought back from Babylon.’ They are prophesying to you a lie.
17 ARST Do not pay attention to what they say. Surrender to the king of Babylon. If you do that, you will remain alive. If you do not do that, this entire city will be destroyed. BSB BSB: Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin?
18 ARST If they are really prophets who speak messages from me, tell them to plead to me, Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, that the soldiers from Babylon will not be allowed to take away to Babylon the valuable items that still remain in the temple and in the king’ s palace and in the other palaces in Jerusalem. BSB BSB: If they are indeed prophets and the word of the LORD is with them, let them now plead with the LORD of Hosts that the articles remaining in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, not be taken to Babylon.
19 ARST I say this because the huge pillars that are in front of the temple and the large tank that was called“The Sea” and the ten water carts and all the other items that are used for offering sacrifices are still in this city. BSB BSB: For this is what the LORD of Hosts says about the pillars, the sea, the bases, and the rest of the articles that remain in this city,
20 ARST King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon left those things here when he exiled Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, to Babylon, along with all the other leaders of Jerusalem and the leaders of other places in Judah. BSB BSB: which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.
21 ARST Yahweh, commander of the angel armies, says this about all those valuable things that are still outside the temple and in the palace of the king of Judah: BSB BSB: Yes, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the house of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
22 ARST They will all be carried away to Babylon. And they will stay there until I say that they should be brought back to Jerusalem. Then they will be brought back here. That is what I, Yahweh, say.’” BSB BSB: ‘They will be carried to Babylon and will remain there until the day I attend to them again,’ declares the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.’”
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