27:12 I told King Zedekiah of Judah the same thing. I said, 4 “Submit 5 to the yoke of servitude to 6 the king of Babylon. Be subject to him and his people. Then you will continue to live.
1 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God Israel.”
sn Compare the use of similar titles in 2:19; 5:14; 6:6 and see the explanation in the study note at 2:19. In this instance the title appears to emphasize the
2 tn Or “Make good your ways and your actions.” J. Bright’s translation (“Reform the whole pattern of your conduct”; Jeremiah [AB], 52) is excellent.
3 tn Heb “place” but this might be misunderstood to refer to the temple.
4 tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”
5 sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).
6 tn Heb “put their necks in the yoke of.” See the study note on v. 2 for the figure.
7 tn This is the verb (פָּקַד, paqad) that has been met with several times in the book of Jeremiah, most often in the ominous sense of “punish” (e.g., 6:15; 11:22; 23:24) but also in the good sense of “resume concern for” (e.g., 27:22; 29:10). Here it is obviously in the ominous sense referring to his imprisonment and ultimate death (52:11).
sn Compare Jer 34:2-3 for this same prophecy. The incident in Jer 34:1-7 appears to be earlier than this one. Here Jeremiah is confined to the courtyard of the guardhouse; there he appears to have freedom of movement.
8 tn Heb “Oracle of the
9 sn The pronouns are plural here, referring to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Jeremiah had counseled that they surrender (cf. 27:12; 21:8-10) because they couldn’t succeed against the Babylonian army even under the most favorable circumstances (37:3-10).
10 tn Heb “The Chaldeans.” See the study note on 21:4 for further explanation.