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Judah Will Serve Nebuchadnezzar

¹ In the beginning of the rule of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord. ² The Lord said to me, "Make ropes and a cross-bar for carrying a load, and put them on your neck. ³ Then send word to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the sons of Ammon, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon. Send them with the men who bring news to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah. ⁴ Tell them to go to their leaders, saying, ‘This is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, and this is what you should say to your leaders: ⁵ "I have made the earth, and the men and the animals that are on it by My great power and by My long arm. And I will give it to the one who is right in My eyes. ⁶ Now I have given all these lands to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant. And I have given him the wild animals of the field to serve him. ⁷ All the nations will serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time for his land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their servant. ⁸ But if any nation will not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and will not put its neck under the load of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, hunger, and disease," says the Lord, "until I have destroyed it by his hand. ⁹ So do not listen to your men who tell of their special dreams, your men who tell what is going to happen in the future, or your wonder workers who use their secret ways. They say to you, ‘You must not serve the king of Babylon.' ¹⁰ But they are lying to you, and will cause you to be taken far from your land. I will drive you out, and you will die. ¹¹ But the nation that brings its neck under the cross-bar of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let stay on its own land," says the Lord. "And its people will take care of the fields and live there."'"

¹² I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way, saying, "Bring your necks under the cross-bar of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and live! ¹³ Why will you and your people die by the sword, hunger, and disease, as the Lord has said would happen to that nation which will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Do not listen to the men who tell of their dreams and say to you, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.' For they are telling you a lie. ¹⁵ I have not sent them," says the Lord. "They speak false words in My name, so that I may drive you out, and that you may die, both you and the men who tell these things to you."

¹⁶ Then I said to the religious leaders and to all these people, "The Lord says: Do not listen to the men who speak in God's name saying, ‘See, the objects of the Lord's house will soon be returned from Babylon,' for they are telling you a lie. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city be destroyed? ¹⁸ But if they are true men of God, and if the Word of the Lord is with them, let them now pray to the Lord of All. Let them ask that the objects which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what the Lord of All says about the pillars, the brass pool, the stands, and the rest of the objects that are left in this city. ²⁰ Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take these things from Jerusalem to Babylon when he took Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹ So this is what the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says about the objects that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem. He says, ²² ‘They will be carried to Babylon, and they will be there until the day I visit them,' says the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back to this place.'"