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¹ In the beginning of the reign of Yehoiakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Yehudah, came this word to Yirmeyahu from the LORD, saying, ² Thus says the LORD to me: Make you bonds and bars, and put them on your neck; ³ and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Mo'av, and to the king of the children of `Ammon, and to the king of Tzor, and to the king of Tzidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Yerushalayim to Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah; ⁴ and give them a charge to their masters, saying, Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, Thus shall you tell your masters: ⁵ I have made the eretz, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the eretz, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me. ⁶ Now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nevukhadnetztzar the king of Bavel, my servant; and the animals of the field also have I given him to serve him. ⁷ All the nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own land come: and then many nations and great kings shall make him their bondservant. ⁸ It shall happen, that the nation and the kingdom which will not serve the same Nevukhadnetztzar king of Bavel, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel, that nation will I punish, says the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. ⁹ But as for you, don't you listen to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreams, nor to your soothsayers, nor to your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Bavel: ¹⁰ for they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out, and you should perish. ¹¹ But the nation that shall bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel, and serve him, that [nation] will I let remain in their own land, says the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein.

¹² I spoke to Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, 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 pestilence, as the LORD has spoken concerning the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel? ¹⁴ Don't listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, You shall not serve the king of Bavel; for they prophesy a lie to you. ¹⁵ For I have not sent them, says the LORD, but they prophesy falsely in my name; that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you, and the prophets who prophesy to you. ¹⁶ Also I spoke to the Kohanim and to all this people, saying, Thus says the LORD: Don't 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 Bavel; for they prophesy a lie to you. ¹⁷ Don't listen to them; serve the king of Bavel, and live: why should this city become a desolation? 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 Yehudah, and at Yerushalayim, don't go to Bavel. ¹⁹ For thus says the LORD of Hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that are left in this city, ²⁰ which Nevukhadnetztzar king of Bavel didn't take, when he carried away captive Yekhonyah the son of Yehoiakim, king of Yehudah, from Yerushalayim to Bavel, and all the nobles of Yehudah and Yerushalayim; ²¹ yes, thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el, concerning the vessels that are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Yehudah, and at Yerushalayim: ²² They shall be carried to Bavel, and there shall they be, until the day that I visit them, says the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.