Jeremiah 27:12-17

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ¹  “Submit ²  to the yoke of servitude to ³  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live. 27:13 There is no reason why you and your people should die in war ⁴  or from starvation or disease! ⁵  That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation ⁶  that will not be subject to the king of Babylon. 27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ⁷  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ⁸  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ⁹  listen to them, I will drive you and the prophets who are prophesying lies out of the land and you will all die in exile.” ¹⁰ 

27:16 I also told the priests and all the people, “The Lord says, ‘Do not listen to what your prophets are saying. They are prophesying to you that ¹¹  the valuable articles taken from the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. ¹²  But they are prophesying a lie to you. 27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ¹³  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ¹⁴ 

[27:12]  ¹ tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

[27:12]  ² sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

[27:12]  ³ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[27:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

[27:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “Why should you and your people die…?” The rhetorical question expects the answer made explicit in the translation, “There is no reason!”

[27:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “…disease according to what the Lord spoke concerning the nation that…”

[27:14]  ⁷ tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS 508 §31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.

[27:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:15]  ⁹ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

[27:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

[27:16]  ¹¹ tn Heb “don’t listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you….” The sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style and one level of embedded quotes has been eliminated to ease complexity.

[27:16]  ¹² sn This refers to the valuable articles of the temple treasury which were carried off by Nebuchadnezzar four years earlier when he carried off Jeconiah, his family, some of his nobles, and some of the cream of Judean society (2 Kgs 24:10-16, especially v. 13 and see also vv. 19-20 in the verses following).

[27:17]  ¹³ tn The imperative with vav (ו) here and in v. 12 after another imperative are a good example of the use of the imperative to introduce a consequence. (See GKC 324-25 §110.f and see Gen 42:18. This is a common verb in this idiom.)

[27:17]  ¹⁴ tn According to E. W. Bullinger (Figures of Speech, 954) both this question and the one in v. 13 are examples of rhetorical questions of prohibition / “don’t let this city be made a pile of rubble.”