Jeremiah 27

Jeremiah 27:1

E. The Sign of the Yoke (Chap. 27)27:1-11 This prophecy is dated in the time of Jehoiakim (v. 1) but the rest of the chapter places it in the reign of Zedekiah. Some explain it as a scribal error. The ambassadors of five Gentile kings had come to Jerusalem, perhaps to form an alliance against Babylon. They are told by the object lesson of bonds and yokes that the yoke of . . . Babylon will come upon them until Babylon is conquered by Medo-Persia, and that if they don’t submit to the yoke, they will be destroyedthis in spite of what the seers in these nations were saying. 27:12-22 Ryrie’s note on an ancient custom as it applied to the Jewish temple will clarify this passage: A conqueror customarily took the idols of a conquered people back to the temple of his own god. Since Judaism was an imageless religion, the vessels of the Temple were taken instead. Zedekiah is entreated by Jeremiah to submit to the Babylonians and not to believe the lying prophets who predict that the vessels of the LORD’s house will shortly be brought back from Babylon. Jeremiah suggested that the prophets prove their authority by asking God to prevent the vessels which are left in Jerusalem from being taken to Babylon. But it would be in vain. These vessels were going to be carried to Babylon and remain there till the end of the captivityseventy years later.