Jeremiah 27:1-22
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,
2 Thus saitha the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,
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;
4 And command them to sayb 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.
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.
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.
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,c nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:
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.
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.
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 lied in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.
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.
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.
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,
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.
Jeremiah 27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. In the twelfth verse it is added, “I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah.” These occurrences induce some critics to believe that Jehoiakim has been mis-written for Zedekiah.
Jeremiah 27:2. Make thee bonds and yokes and send them to the king of Moab, &c. There were at this time in Jerusalem ambassadors from those kings, soliciting Zedekiah to join them in a league against the king of Babylon. On this league the cunning Hananiah seems to have grounded his prediction in the next chapter.
Jeremiah 27:9. Hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners. This passage is levelled entirely against the false prophets, who practised those detestible arts. We find two words applied to divination. נחשׁ nichaish, he divined. Genesis 44:5; Genesis 44:15. Wot ye not, said Joseph, that such a man as I could certainly divine? But Jeremiah uses the word קסם kesem, which is understood in an ill sense, like that which Balaam practised against the Israelites. Numbers 23:23. And which Moses prohibited. Deuteronomy 18:10. Samuel also says, rebellion is as the sin of divination. Therefore the false prophets are accused of lying divinations. Jeremiah 14:14; Ezekiel 13:6. The dreamers, the enchanters, the sorcerers, or evilworkers, are the same characters using different arts. All the surrounding nations had their prophets, their learned scribes and diviners, enchanters and sorcerers. Many among the Jews got a wretched pittance of bread by divinations. St. Jude notices these with the epithet of “filthy dreamers.”
REFLECTIONS.
We here find the holy prophet hard at work again, diversifying his ministry by signs, fighting with nations, and splendidly foretelling Nebuchadnezzar's conquests, to save his country in the hopeless struggle. We see, on the other hand, the villainous efforts of the false prophets, who consulted their present interests by following the popular voice. The ministry of the one contributed to ruin their country, while that of the faithful prophet tended to save it. Alas, alas, for the court preachers who go with the times, instead of maintaining the rights of God, amidst all the fluctuations of time. When the Lord put the necks of oriental nations under the yoke of the king of Babylon he reminds them that he himself was the only ruler, the Lord who made the heavens and the earth. This is consolation to the church, that he who scourges has but a limited commission. Zion has yet a final appeal to that bar which shall redress all her wrongs.