Jeremiah 27:14

as the Lord has threatened shall be the case of any and everyone of the above nations that should refuse to be tributary to him; of which, no doubt, Zedekiah and his court had been apprized; see Jeremiah 27:8. Jeremiah 27:14 Ver. 14. Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets,.... The false prophets, as the Targum; such bad kings always had about them, to whom they listened, and which often proved of bad consequence to them: that speak unto you, saying; as follows: ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; ye ought not to do it, but cast off his yoke; to which if ye do not willingly submit, he will never be able to force you to it: for they prophesy a lie unto you; and therefore should not be hearkened to, particularly when they promise safety from the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 27:15 Ver. 15. For I have not sent them, saith the Lord,....

, saying, 2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, 3 And send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; 4 And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters; 5 I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it unto whom it seemed meet unto me. 6 And now have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him. 7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him. 8 And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9 Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the k

They had those among them at Jerusalem who pretended to be prophets, who bade them hold out and they should, in a little time, be too hard for the king of Babylon and recover all that they had lost. Now Jeremiah is sent to bid them yield and knock under, for that, instead of recovering what they had lost, they should otherwise lose all that remained; and to press them to this is the scope of these verses. I. Jeremiah humbly addresses the king of Judah, to persuade him to surrender to the king of Babylon. His act would be the people's and would determine them, and therefore he speaks to him as to them all (v. 12): Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and live. Is it their wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant, that they may secure the lives of their bodies? And is it not much more our wisdom to submit to the sweet and easy yoke of our rightful Lord and Master Jesus Christ, that we may secure the lives of our souls? Bring down your spirits to repentance and faith, and that is the way to bring up your spirits to heaven and glory.

27:12-18 Jeremiah persuades the king of Judah to surrender to the king of Babylon. Is it their wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant, that they may secure their lives; and is it not much more our wisdom to submit to the pleasant and easy yoke of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, that we may secure our souls? It were well if sinners would be afraid of the destruction threatened against all who will not have Christ to reign over them. Why should they die the second death, infinitely worse than that by sword and famine, when they may submit and live? And those who encourage sinners to go on in sinful ways, will perish with them.

Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets,.... The false prophets, as the Targum; such bad kings always had about them, to whom they listened, and which often proved of bad consequence to them: that speak unto you, saying; as follows: ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; ye ought not to do it, but cast off his yoke; to which if ye do not willingly submit, he will never be able to force you to it: for they prophesy a lie unto you; and therefore should not be hearkened to, particularly when they promise safety from the king of Babylon.

We shall find throughout all the Jewish story that wicked princes never wanted false prophets, ecclesiastical ministers who would entitle God to what they spake in humour to their governors. Such ministers they would have, and usually they proved fatal to them: so did Ahab’s prophets, that encouraged him to go up to Ramoth-gilead, and Zedekiah’s prophets, who persuaded him not to submit to the king of Babylon. Jeremiah persuades Zedekiah not to hearken to them; that is, not to believe them, nor follow their advice; and he giveth him a good reason, because what they said was false.

To King Zedekiah Jeremiah addressed words of like import, saying: "Bring your necks into the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and ye shall live. Jeremiah 27:13 . Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by sword, famine, and pestilence, as Jahveh hath spoken concerning the people that will not serve the king of Babylon? Jeremiah 27:14 . And hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you: Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon; for they prophesy a lie unto you. Jeremiah 27:15 . For I have not sent them, saith Jahveh, and they prophesy in my name falsely, that I might drive you out and ye might perish, ye and the prophets that prophesy unto you." - The discourse addressed to the king in the plural, "bring your necks," etc., is explained by the fact that, as Jeremiah 27:13 shows, in and along with the king of his people are addressed. The imperative וחיוּ intimates the consequence of the preceding command. Jeremiah 27:13 gives the application of the threat in Jeremiah 27:8 to King Zedekiah and his people; and Jeremiah 27:14 . gives the warning corresponding to Jeremiah 27:9 and Jeremiah 27:10 against the sayings of the lying prophets; cf. Jeremiah 14:14 and Jeremiah 23:16 , Jeremiah 23:21 .

ever gave them authority to speak any such things. And though possibly they do not design your ruin by these practices, for none can be thought to design their own ruin, yet that will be the end of it; for by this means your hearts are hardened against the revelations of my will, by which I shall be provoked to give you up to ruin; nor shall they escape, for they shall be ruined with you. ## Jeremiah 27:16 The prophet, like God’s faithful servant, spared none, but faithfully gave warning to all sorts, to take heed of the false prophets that undertook to fo retell that the vessels of the temple carried away in the time of Jehoiakim, and his son Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, of which we read 2Ch_36:7 ,10 , should be brought back again to Jerusalem in a short time. Jeremiah 27:17 Believe them not, but satisfy yourselves as to God’s providence with respect to you, and be content to be subject to the king of Babylon, so may you have your lives for a prey; though you be straitened as to your accommodations and plenteous and splendid way of life: if you do not, your city will certainly be laid waste; and why should you pull such a judgment upon your own head

Jeremiah 27:10 Let them come by their pretended knowledge which way they will, what they say is false; and the issue of your belief of what they say will be nothing but your carrying into captivity out of your own country, and your ruin and destruction. Jeremiah 27:11 Those that upon the first summons, or without making any hostile opposition, shall yield themselves servants to the king of Babylon, they shall remain still, and be left in the land to till the ground, and shall dwell therein. It is the time when God is resolved to put an end to the kingdom of Judah for a time, and to the other nations mentioned for ever: there is therefore no resisting of God’s counsels; those that most quietly yield will be in the best condition. Jer