Jeremiah;- The yoke for all nations (ch27)

“At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah” (ch27 v1).

But the next chapter, continuing the story, takes place “in the same year, at the beginning of the reign, in the fifth month of the fourth year”. So this must be an early month in the fourth year.

“Make yourself things and yoke-bars and out them on your neck” (v2).
Jeremiah is commanded to prepare a sustained campaign of “acted out” prophecy. I don’t think these are the kind of yoke-bars that are placed on the necks of oxen pulling ploughs. That’s not the image. I believe the thongs indicate the outfit as the kind of yoke won by human servants when they are carrying liquids. The thongs allow them to suspend a vessel from each end of the bar, for the sake of balance. Like the old-fashioned English milkmaid, as illustrated in books of nursery rhymes. In Joshua ch9 the Gibeonites were enslaved by making them hewers of wood and drawers of water. (Oh, come on, Spellcheck. HEWER- someone who hews) So Jeremiah is representing the water-collecting slave.

The envoys of other kings are in Jerusalem. Moab, Edom, Ammon, Tyre and Sidon. That little circle of states between Egypt and Syria. Perhaps they are there under cover of taking part in the “first month” religious celebrations, but they are probably plotting to put themselves under Egyptian protection and rebel against the Babylonians. Jeremiah knows what is happening, and one must hope that Babylonian spies have not guessed the secret as well.

The Lord has a yoke-related message for these kings, and it is to be delivered through their envoys. These letters probably got read, because the envoys would not have had instructions to refuse to carry them.

In this message, the Lord identifies himself as the Creator of the world, with the right to dispose of all lands. He wants them to know that he has given all the lands of their cultural world to Nebuchadnezzar. This covers all the beasts of the field, and the nations who live on those lands will also be expected to serve him.

A parenthesis; this bondage will last for the reigns of Nebuchadnezzar, his son and grandson, and then the time will come when the other nations will make the current king of Babylon their own slave.

Any nation in that region which does not “put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon” will be consumed with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence (the same fates already promised for Judah).

These other nations have their own prophets, diviners, dreamers, soothsayers, and sorcerers, claiming various techniques for learning the future, and these frauds are all giving the assurances their customers want to hear; “You shall not serve the king of Babylon”. This is a lie. If they believe the lie, they will find themselves being removed from their lands. But any nation that submits to the yoke will be allowed by the Lord to remain at home undisturbed (v11)

Jeremiah also spoke to his own king Zedekiah, presenting the same message. This was probably in a private audience, which would have been impossible in the reign of his brother. There are local prophets who are offering the same assurances as the diviners and dreamers of the other nations. The king must not listen to them, because the Lord has not sent them and they are prophesying falsely. If he is convinced by these prophets, then he and they will be driven out of the land, sharing the fate of the kings who have sent their envoys.

We may understand from this message that the Lord was not interested in protecting the political independence of Judah. In fact genuine independence would not have been possible in this “cold war” environment between Egypt and Babylon. The only real choice was between sending tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and sending tribute to Pharaoh, and there was no good reason for preferring the second option.

God’s promise to his people was that they would live in the land (if they were obedient), not that they would be free from the political control of outsiders. He would have been keeping that promise if they had submitted to the condition of v11. So the Zealotism of the time of Jesus was wrong in theology; as long as the Jews were living in the land, God’s promise remained in place, and there should have been no offence in the mere existence of a Roman occupation. Independence and democracy are important in our modern humanistic religion, but they are not specified by the Bible.

This chapter begins with the words “In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah”.
The previous chapter began with the words “In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah”.
Ch20 began with a reference to Pashhur son of Immer.
Ch21 began with a reference to Pashhur son of Malchiah.
I don’t know how the chapters in Jeremiah are meant to be ordered, but the order is certainly not chronological.
Did a later editor have a fetish about keeping together chapters with similar openings?

Interesting.

Perhaps, editorially, the verses were placed there for convenience until their proper place could be decided.

Could that grouping be evidence of a disruption of an editorial process that was left unfinished?

a reply to: DISRAELI

the yoke represents servanthood and bondage
instead of being free and independent, Israel would serve other nations
their punishment for their spiritual adultery

amazing, the parallels between Israel and modern USA. will we be bearing someone's yoke soon?

a reply to: Dalamax
There are certainly signs that most of these prophecies were "published" in different anthologies before the books were brought together. I suspect that many of them first appeared as individual "pamphlets", handed out as an alternative to speaking on the streets. It seems that Jeremiah himself made the first collections, since there are at least three references to writing a book, and I think they are different books. E.g. the manuscript which Jehoiakim burnt, and the collections of prophecies "on the nations".

The posthumous editorial work may have happened in several stages, perhaps through more than one person, as more manuscripts came into the hands of the collectors.

I have deliberately not looked over commentaries on this book, but I'm sure there will be academic theories on the editing.

Thank you. Your threads are always appreciated

a reply to: DISRAELI