Bible Strands
Jeremiah 27:12
And to Zedekiah king of Judah I spoke the same message: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon; serve him and his people, and live!
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to Zedekiah king of Judah, delivering a consistent directive during his reign. The message is given amid a broader prophetic warning about national survival under Babylonian domination.
The words — The text identifies the recipient as צִדְקִיָּ֤ה (tzid.ki.Yah), literally Zedekiah, and states דִּבַּ֔רְתִּי (di.Bar.ti), meaning I spoke. These terms anchor the divine communication to a specific historical ruler.
The thread — This command to submit to Babylon reappears in Jeremiah 38:17, where surrender is explicitly tied to survival. The historical backdrop of Zedekiah’s reign is noted in 2 Chronicles 36:11, while the timing aligns with events recorded in Jeremiah 28:1.
Why it lands — The text demands immediate physical submission to Babylonian authority as the only path to avoid sword, famine, and plague. It requires the reader to accept that political surrender, not resistance, is the prescribed means of preservation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 28:1 In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:
- Jeremiah 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.
- 2 Chronicles 36:11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years.
- Proverbs 1:33 But whoever listens to me will dwell in safety, secure from the fear of evil.”
- Jeremiah 27:2 This is what the LORD said to me: “Make for yourself a yoke out of leather straps and put it on your neck.
- Jeremiah 27:8 As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and does not place its neck under his yoke, I will punish that nation by sword and famine and plague, declares the LORD, until I have destroyed it by his hand.
- Ezekiel 17:11 Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,