¹At the start of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, as follows ²– this is what the Lord said to me – : “Make yourself fetters and yoke beams, and put them on your neck. ³And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the sons of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the agency of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. ⁴And command them to say to their masters, ‘This is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel says.’ This is what you shall say to your masters: ⁵‘I made the earth, man, and the fauna which are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and my outstretched arm, and I have given the land to him who is upright in my sight. ⁶And now I have delivered all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I have also given the wildlife to him, so as to serve him. ⁷And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his grandson, until the time of his own country comes – even his – when many nations will impose servitude on him, including great kings. ⁸And it will come to pass for any nation or kingdom which will not serve him – Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon – and for anyone who will not put his neck into the king of Babylon's yoke, that I will visit that nation with the sword and with famine and with a plague, says the Lord, until I have annihilated them by his hand. ⁹So don't you listen to your prophets or to your diviners or to your dreams, or to your fortune-tellers from clouds, or your magicians, who speak to you and say, «You will not serve the king of Babylon.» ¹⁰For they prophesy a lie to you, so as to remove you from your land, so that I should drive you out, and you should perish. ¹¹But as for any nation which brings its neck into the king of Babylon's yoke and serves him, I will let it remain on its land, says the Lord, and they will till it and remain on it.’ ” ¹²And I spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words and said, “Bring your necks to the king of Babylon's yoke, and serve him and his people, and live. ¹³Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine and by a plague, as the Lord has pronounced against any people which will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴And do not listen to the words of the prophets, who speak to you and say, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon’, for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁵‘For I did not send them, says the Lord, and they are prophesying in my name falsely, so that I will drive you out, and you will perish – you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.’ ” ¹⁶And I spoke to the priests and to the whole of this people and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, «Look, the articles of the house of the Lord will soon be quickly brought back from Babylon», for they are prophesying a lie to you. ¹⁷Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?’ ¹⁸And if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them then entreat the Lord of hosts that the remaining articles in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, should not go to Babylon. ¹⁹For this is what the Lord of hosts says concerning the columns and concerning the artificial sea and concerning the plinths and concerning the rest of the equipment which remains in this city, ²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem ²¹– indeed this is what the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says concerning the equipment which remains in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem – : ²²‘They will be brought to Babylon, and there they will be until the day when I visit them, says the Lord, and I bring them up and bring them back to this place.’ ”