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Jeremiah 27

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 27 of 52•22 verses

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Jeremiah 27 Overview

Jeremiah wears yokes and sends them to surrounding kings, declaring that the LORD has given their lands to Nebuchadnezzar for a time; Judah is told not to believe prophets promising quick freedom but to submit to Babylon and preserve life.

JeremiahBook

27Chapter

22Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 27

Coming from

Jeremiah preaches at the temple that Jerusalem can become like Shiloh if the people refuse to repent; priests and prophets demand his death, but officials and elders defend him by recalling Micah and another prophet, Urijah, who was killed.

In this chapter

Leads into

The prophet Hananiah publicly predicts Babylon’s yoke will end within two years and breaks Jeremiah’s wooden yoke; Jeremiah initially says amen to the hoped-for peace but insists prophecy must prove true, then announces an iron yoke and Hananiah’s death.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The yoke sign addresses an international gathering during Zedekiah’s reign. Babylonian domination is presented as temporary but divinely appointed.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 27 is the chapter’s own movement: god’s sovereignty extends over international empires. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God’s sovereignty extends over international empires

He gives nations into Nebuchadnezzar’s hand while retaining ultimate ownership of the earth.

Resisting an appointed judgment can increase suffering

Submission is the path of survival because God has determined Babylon’s season.

False prophecy often promises premature relief

Claims that temple vessels will quickly return contradict Jeremiah’s word.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Daniel 2:37-38

Daniel likewise tells Nebuchadnezzar that God has given him kingdom, power, and authority.

Jeremiah 28

Hananiah directly challenges the yoke prophecy by breaking Jeremiah’s wooden yoke.

Romans 13:1

Paul’s statement that governing authority exists under God provides a broader New Testament sovereignty principle, though Jeremiah’s command was uniquely prophetic.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not infer that every conquering government should always be passively obeyed in every act.

Jeremiah gives a specific revealed command concerning Babylon’s appointed rule.

Do not mistake temporary divine use for permanent approval.

Babylon will later be judged.

Read Jeremiah 27 watching for…

the yoke on Jeremiah’s neck

messages to surrounding kings

Nebuchadnezzar called servant

false promises about temple vessels

submission linked with survival

Chapter outline2 sections

1-11Jeremiah’s yokes tell surrounding kings to submit to Nebuchadnezzar whom God has appointed 12-22Zedekiah and the priests are warned not to trust false promises that temple vessels will soon return

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,

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;

And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;

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.

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.

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.

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.

Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon:

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you.

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.

Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?

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.

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,

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;

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;

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.

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Jeremiah 27:2

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