Jeremiah 27:14-20

27:14 Do not listen to the prophets who are telling you that you do not need to serve ¹  the king of Babylon. For they are prophesying lies to you. 27:15 For I, the Lord, affirm ²  that I did not send them. They are prophesying lies to you. If you ³  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.” ⁴ 

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 ⁵  the valuable articles taken from the Lord’s temple will be brought back from Babylon very soon. ⁶  But they are prophesying a lie to you. 27:17 Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you ⁷  will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?’” ⁸  27:18 I also told them, ⁹  “If they are really prophets and the Lord is speaking to them, ¹⁰  let them pray earnestly to the Lord who rules over all. ¹¹  Let them plead with him not to let the valuable articles that are still left in the Lord’s temple, in the royal palace, and in Jerusalem be taken away ¹²  to Babylon. 27:19 For the Lord who rules over all ¹³  has already spoken about the two bronze pillars, ¹⁴  the large bronze basin called ‘The Sea,’ ¹⁵  and the movable bronze stands. ¹⁶  He has already spoken about the rest of the valuable articles that are left in this city. 27:20 He has already spoken about these things that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he carried Jehoiakim’s son King Jeconiah of Judah and the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem away as captives. ¹⁷ 

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “oracle of the Lord.”

³ sn The verbs are again plural referring to the king and his royal advisers.

⁴ tn Heb “…drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying lies.”

³ 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.

⁴ 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).

⁴ 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.)

⁵ 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.”

⁵ tn The words “I also told them” are not in the text, but it is obvious from the fact that the Lord is spoken about in the third person in vv. 18, 19, 21 that he is not the speaker. This is part of Jeremiah’s own speech to the priests and the people (v. 16). These words are supplied in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Heb “the word of the Lord is with them.”

⁷ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

⁸ tn Heb “…speaking to them, let them entreat the Lord…so that the valuable articles…will not go to Babylon.” The long original sentence has been broken up for the sake of English style.

⁶ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.” For the significance of this title see the note at 2:19.

⁷ tn The words “two bronze” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to help identify the referent.

⁸ tn The words “the large bronze basin called” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to help identify the referent.

⁹ tn The words “movable bronze” are not in the text. They have been supplied in the translation to help identify the referent. See the study note for further reference.

⁷ tn 27:19-20 are all one long sentence in Hebrew. It has been broken up for the sake of English style. Some of the sentences still violate contemporary English style (e.g., v. 20) but breaking them down any further would lose the focus. For further discussion see the study note on v. 21.