Discovery BoxJeremiah 27:2
Context27:2 The Lord told me, 1 “Make a yoke 2 out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and put it on your neck.
Jeremiah 27:8
Context27:8 But suppose a nation or a kingdom will not be subject to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Suppose it will not submit to the yoke of servitude to 3 him. I, the Lord, affirm that 4 I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it 5 with war, 6 starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. 7
Jeremiah 27:12
Context27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, 8 “Submit 9 to the yoke of servitude to 10 the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.
Jeremiah 30:8-9
Context30:8 When the time for them to be rescued comes,” 11
says the Lord who rules over all, 12
“I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. 13
I will deliver you from captivity. 14
Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.
30:9 But they will be subject 15 to the Lord their God
and to the Davidic ruler whom I will raise up as king over them. 16
Matthew 11:29
Context11:29 Take my yoke 17 on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Acts 15:10
Context15:10 So now why are you putting God to the test 18 by placing on the neck of the disciples a yoke 19 that neither our ancestors 20 nor we have been able to bear?
[27:2] 1 tn There is some disjunction in the narrative of this chapter. The introduction in v. 1 presents this as a third person narrative. But the rest of the passage reports the narrative in first person. Thus the text reads here “Thus the
[27:2] 2 sn The yoke is a common biblical symbol of political servitude (see, e.g., Deut 28:48; 1 Kgs 12:4, 9, 10). From the context of 1 Kgs 12 it is clear that it applied to taxation and the provision of conscript labor. In international political contexts it involved the payment of heavy tribute which was often conscripted from the citizens (see, e.g., 2 Kgs 15:19-20; 23:34-35) and the furnishing of military contingents for the sovereign’s armies (see, e.g., 2 Kgs 24:2). Jeremiah’s message here combines both a symbolic action (the wearing of a yoke) and words of explanation as in Jer 19:1-13. (See Isa 20:1-6 for an example outside of Jeremiah.) The casting off of the yoke has been used earlier in Jer 2:20, 5:5 to refer to Israel’s failure to remain spiritually “subject” or faithful to God.
[27:8] 3 tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.
[27:8] 4 tn Heb “oracle of the
[27:8] 5 tn Heb “The nation and/or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck in the yoke of the king of Babylon, by sword, starvation, and disease I will punish [or more literally, “visit upon”] that nation, oracle of the
[27:8] 6 tn Heb “with/by the sword.”
[27:8] 7 tc The verb translated “destroy” (תָּמַם, tamam) is usually intransitive in the stem of the verb used here. It is found in a transitive sense elsewhere only in Ps 64:7. BDB 1070 s.v. תָּמַם 7 emends both texts. In this case they recommend תִּתִּי (titi): “until I give them into his hand.” That reading is suggested by the texts of the Syriac and Targumic translations (see BHS fn c). The Greek translation supports reading the verb “destroy” but treats it as though it were intransitive “until they are destroyed by his hand” (reading תֻּמָּם [tummam]). The MT here is accepted as the more difficult reading and support is seen in the transitive use of the verb in Ps 64:7.
[27:12] 8 tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”
[27:12] 9 sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).
[27:12] 10 tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.
[30:8] 11 tn Heb “And it shall happen in that day.”
[30:8] 12 tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the title for God.
[30:8] 13 tn Heb “I will break his yoke from upon your neck.” For the explanation of the figure see the study note on 27:2. The shift from third person at the end of v. 7 to second person in v. 8c, d and back to third person in v. 8e is typical of Hebrew poetry in the book of Psalms and in the prophetic books (cf., GKC 351 §114.p and compare usage in Deut 32:15; Isa 5:8 listed there). The present translation, like several other modern ones, has typically leveled them to the same person to avoid confusion for modern readers who are not accustomed to this poetic tradition.
[30:8] 14 tn Heb “I will tear off their bands.” The “bands” are the leather straps which held the yoke bars in place (cf. 27:2). The metaphor of the “yoke on the neck” is continued. The translation reflects the sense of the metaphor but not the specific referent.
[30:9] 15 tn The word “subject” in this verse and “subjugate” are from the same root word in Hebrew. A deliberate contrast is drawn between the two powers that they will serve.
[30:9] 16 tn Heb “and to David their king whom I will raise up for them.”
[11:29] 17 sn A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers.
[15:10] 18 tn According to BDAG 793 s.v. πειράζω 2.c, “In Ac 15:10 the πειράζειν τὸν θεόν consists in the fact that after God’s will has been clearly made known through granting of the Spirit to the Gentiles (v. 8), some doubt and make trial to see whether God’s will really becomes operative.” All testing of God in Luke is negative: Luke 4:2; 11:16.
[15:10] 19 sn A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restriction that some in the early church wanted to place on Gentile converts to Christianity of observing the law of Moses and having males circumcised. The yoke is a decidedly negative image: Matt 23:4, but cf. Matt 11:29-30.
