 1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of King Josiah of Judah, this Word came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, 2 Thus says the Lord to me, Make bonds and yokes for yourself, and put them on your neck. 3 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 Tyre and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who came to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. 4 Command them to go to their masters, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: So you shall say to your masters, 5 I have made the earth, man, and the animals on the face of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed right to me. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of my servant King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I have also given him the beast of the field to serve him. 7 All nations shall serve him and his son and his son's son until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will enslave him. 8 The nation and kingdom that will not serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword and with the famine and with the plague until I have destroyed them by his hand, says the Lord. 9 Therefore, do not listen to your prophets nor to your fortune+ tellers nor to your dreamers nor to your conjurers+ nor to your sorcerers who speak to you saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon. 10 For they prophesy a lie to you to remove you far from your land saying that I would drive you out and you would perish. 11 But the nations who bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, those I will leave on their own land, says the Lord. They shall work it and live in it. 12 I also spoke to King Zedekiah 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 you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague, as the Lord has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Therefore do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you saying, You shall not serve the king of Babylon. For they prophesy a lie to you. 15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord. Yet they prophesy a lie in my name, so that I might drive you out, and that you might perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you. 16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all the people saying, Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord's house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon. For they prophesy a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. For why should this city be laid waste? 18 But if they are prophets, and if the Word of the Lord is with them, let them now pray 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, may not go to Babylon. 19 For thus says the Lord of hosts, concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the rest of the vessels which remain in this city, 20 which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take when he exiled Jeconiah the son of King Jehoiakim of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem; 21 yes, thus says 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 they shall be there until the day that I visit them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them up and give them back to this place.
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