Jeremiah 28:2

28:2 “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹  says, ‘I will break the yoke of servitude ²  to the king of Babylon.

Jeremiah 27:11

27:11 Things will go better for the nation that submits to the yoke of servitude to ³  the king of Babylon and is subject to him. I will leave that nation ⁴  in its native land. Its people can continue to farm it and live in it. I, the Lord, affirm it!”’” ⁵ 

Jeremiah 30:8

30:8 When the time for them to be rescued comes,” ⁶ 

says the Lord who rules over all, ⁷ 

“I will rescue you from foreign subjugation. ⁸ 

I will deliver you from captivity. ⁹ 

Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.

Jeremiah 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ¹⁰  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ¹¹ 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ¹² 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 5:5

5:5 I will go to the leaders ¹⁴ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ¹⁵ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ¹⁶ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 27:12

27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, ¹⁸  “Submit ¹⁹  to the yoke of servitude to ²⁰  the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.

Jeremiah 28:4

28:4 I will also bring back to this place Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and all the exiles who were taken to Babylon.’ Indeed, the Lord affirms, ²¹  ‘I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon.’”

Jeremiah 28:11

28:11 Then he spoke up in the presence of all the people. “The Lord says, ‘In the same way I will break the yoke of servitude of all the nations to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon ²²  before two years are over.’” After he heard this, the prophet Jeremiah departed and went on his way. ²³ 

Jeremiah 28:14

28:14 For the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ²⁴  says, “I have put an irresistible yoke of servitude on all these nations ²⁵  so they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. And they will indeed serve him. I have even given him control over the wild animals.”’” ²⁶ 

Jeremiah 27:8

27:8 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 ²⁷  him. I, the Lord, affirm that ²⁸  I will punish that nation. I will use the king of Babylon to punish it ²⁹  with war, ³⁰  starvation, and disease until I have destroyed it. ³¹ 

[28:2]  ¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for the explanation of this title.

[28:2]  ² sn See the study note on 27:2 for this figure. Hananiah is given the same title “the prophet” as Jeremiah throughout the chapter and claims to speak with the same authority (compare v. 2a with 27:21a). He even speaks like the true prophet; the verb form “I will break” is in the “prophetic perfect” emphasizing certitude. His message here is a contradiction of Jeremiah’s message recorded in the preceding chapter (compare especially v. 3 with 27:16, 19-22 and v. 4 with 22:24-28). The people and the priests are thus confronted with a choice of whom to believe. Who is the “true” prophet and who is the “false” one? Only fulfillment of their prophecies will prove which is which (see Deut 18:21-22).

[27:11]  ³ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[27:11]  ⁴ tn The words “Things will go better for” are not in the text. They are supplied contextually as a means of breaking up the awkward syntax of the original which reads “The nation which brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and subjects itself to him, I will leave it…”

[27:11]  ⁵ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[30:8]  ⁵ tn Heb “And it shall happen in that day.”

[30:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.” See the study note on 2:19 for explanation of the title for God.

[30:8]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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.

[2:20]  ⁷ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ⁹ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[5:5]  ⁹ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ¹² tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.

[27:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

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

[27:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[28:4]  ¹³ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[28:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from upon the necks of all the nations.”

[28:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Then the prophet Jeremiah went his way.”

[28:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.” See the study notes on 2:19 and 7:3 for this title.

[28:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “An iron yoke I have put on the necks of all these nations.”

[28:14]  ¹⁹ sn The emphasis is on the absoluteness of Nebuchadnezzar’s control. The statement is once again rhetorical and not to be taken literally. See the study note on 27:6.

[27:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.

[27:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

[27:8]  ²¹ 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 Lord.” The long complex Hebrew sentence has been broken up in conformity with contemporary English style and the figures interpreted for the sake of clarity. The particle אֵת, the sign of the accusative, before “which will not put…” is a little unusual here. For its use to introduce a new topic (here a second relative clause) see BDB 85 s.v. אֵת 3.α.

[27:8]  ²² tn Heb “with/by the sword.”

[27:8]  ²³ 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.