¹At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying:

²This is what Yahweh said to me: Make for yourself bonds and yoke-bars, 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 hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem, to Zedekiah king of Judah.

⁴And charge them for their lords, saying: Like this Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Like this you will say to your lords:

⁵I myself made the land, the man, and the livestock that are upon the face of the land, by my great strength and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whoever is pleasing in my eyes.

⁶And now I myself have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and I have also given him the beasts of the field, to serve him.

⁷And all the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his land comes, even his own; and many nations and great kings will put him to work.

⁸And it will be that the nation and the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put its neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon — with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence I will visit it upon that nation, the utterance of Yahweh, until I have finished them off by his hand.

⁹And you, do not listen to your prophets, or to your diviners, or to your dreams, or to your soothsayers, or to your sorcerers, who are saying to you: You will not serve the king of Babylon.

¹⁰For they are prophesying falsehood to you, so as to put you far away from off your ground; and I will drive out you, and you will perish.

¹¹And the nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will settle it on its own ground, the utterance of Yahweh; and it will till it and dwell in it.

¹²And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke 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.

¹³Why should you die, you and your people, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, just as Yahweh has spoken to the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

¹⁴And do not listen to the words of the prophets who say to you: You will not serve the king of Babylon; for it is falsehood they are prophesying to you.

¹⁵For I did not send them, the utterance of Yahweh, yet they are prophesying falsehood in my name, so that I drive you out and you perish — you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.

¹⁶And to the priests and to all this people I spoke, saying: Like this Yahweh said: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying: Behold, the articles of the house of Yahweh are about to be brought back from Babylon now, quickly; for it is falsehood they are prophesying to you.

¹⁷Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a ruin?

¹⁸And if they are prophets, and if the word of Yahweh is with them, let them please entreat Yahweh of hosts that the articles that remain in the house of Yahweh and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem not go to Babylon.

¹⁹For like this Yahweh of hosts said concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the stands, and concerning the rest of the articles that remain in this city,

²⁰which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he took Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem.

²¹For like this Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, said concerning the articles that remain in the house of Yahweh and in the house of the king of Judah and in Jerusalem:

²²To Babylon they will be brought, and there they will remain until the day when I attend to them, the utterance of Yahweh; and I will bring them up and bring them back to this place.