1 At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 This is what the LORD said to me: “Make yourself bonds and yoke bars, and put them on your neck. 3 Send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the messengers coming to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Give them this charge for their masters: This is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says: This is what you are to tell your masters: 5 I made the earth, the people and the animals on the surface of the earth, by my great power and my outstretched arm, and I give it to whoever seems right to me. 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant. I have also given him the wild animals to serve him. 7 All the nations will serve him, his son, and his son’s son, until the time for his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will enslave him. 8 But the nation or kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon or put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon—that nation I will punish with sword, famine, and plague, declares the LORD, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreams, those who interpret omens for you, or your sorcerers, who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’ 10 For they prophesy lies to you, to remove you far from your land, so that I drive you out and you perish. 11 But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will leave in its own land, declares the LORD. It will cultivate it and live in it.” 12 I also spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live. 13 Why should you and your people die by sword, famine, and plague, as the LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who tell you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy lies to you. 15 ‘I did not send them, declares the LORD, yet they prophesy lies in my name, so that I drive you out and you perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.’ ” 16 I also spoke to the priests and all this people: “This is what the LORD says: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, ‘Look, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now be brought back from Babylon very soon,’ for they prophesy lies to you. 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a ruin? 18 If they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them intercede with the LORD of hosts, so that the vessels left in the LORD’s house, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem do not go to Babylon.

19 For this is what the LORD of hosts says concerning the pillars, the Sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels left in this city, 20 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 this is what the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels left in the LORD’s house, the house of the king of Judah, and Jerusalem: 22 ‘They will be brought to Babylon and remain there until the day I attend to them, declares the LORD. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”