Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 27:2

Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,

2. bands and bars ] The former were to fasten the bars together, thus forming a yoke. For the symbolic action cp. 1Ki 22:11.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2 11. Certain kings having sent to invite Zedekiah to join them in an attempt to overthrow the power of Babylon, Jeremiah warns them to desist as the attempt would be futile. Du. points out that Zedekiah’s visit to Babylon (Jer 51:59) about this time, whether voluntary or at the requisition of Nebuchadnezzar, may have had for one purpose the clearing himself from suspicion of being implicated in the proposed revolt, an unrest that may well have received a stimulus from the change of ruler in Egypt, Psammetichus II. succeeding his father Pharaoh-necoh in b.c. 594.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Yokes – Two curved pieces of wood, the one put over the neck of the ox, the other under, and then fastened together by bonds or cords (compare Psa 2:3). Compare the marginal references.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 2. Make thee bonds and yokes] Probably yokes with straps, by which they were attached to the neck. This was a symbolical action, to show that the several kings mentioned below should be brought under the dominion of the Chaldeans.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

God commandeth the prophet to procure, either by his own labour, or with his money, some yokes, with bonds to make them more fast; and to put some one of them upon his own neck, that therein he might be a type both to his own people, and also the people afterward mentioned, that they should be in bondage to the king of Babylon, and their yoke should be so fastened with bonds, that they should not be able to slip them, or get them from off their necks.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

2. bondsby which the yoke ismade fast to the neck (Jer 5:5).

yokesliterally, thecarved piece of wood attached at both ends to the two yokes on thenecks of a pair of oxen, so as to connect them. Here the yokeitself. The plural is used, as he was to wear one himself, andgive the others to the ambassadors; (Jer 27:3;Jer 28:10; Jer 28:12)proves that the symbolical act was in this instance (though not inothers, Jer 25:15) actuallydone (compare Isa 20:2; Eze 12:3;Eze 12:11; Eze 12:18).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Thus saith the Lord to me, make thee bonds and yokes,…. The yokes were made of wood, as appears from Jer 28:13; and the bonds were strings or thongs, which bound the yoke together, that it might not slip off the neck, on which it was put:

and put them upon thy neck; not all of them together, but one after another, at different times; and this was very significant; for the prophet being seen abroad with a yoke upon his neck, it would be natural to inquire the meaning of it; when they would be told it was to signify the subjection of Judah, and so of other nations, to the king of Babylon; and that he did wear at times such a yoke, even fifteen years after, in the fourth of Zedekiah’s reign, appears from Jer 28:1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The yoke of the king of Babylon upon the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon. – Jer 27:2. “Thus said Jahveh to me: Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, Jer 27:3. And send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that are come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. Jer 27:4. And command them to say unto their masters, Thus hath Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Thus shall ye say unto your masters: Jer 27:5. I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched hand, and give it to whom it seemeth meet unto me. Jer 27:6. And how have I given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field also have I given him to serve him. Jer 27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his land come, and many nations and great kings serve themselves of him. Jer 27:8. And the people and the kingdom that will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and that will not put its neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon, with sword, with famine, and with pestilence I will visit that people, until I have made an end of them by his hand. Jer 27:9. And ye, hearken not to your prophets, and your soothsayers, and to your dreams, to your enchanters and your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying: Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon. Jer 27:10. For they prophesy a lie unto you, that I should remove you far from your land, and that I should drive you out and ye should perish. Jer 27:11. But the people that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and will serve him, that will I let remain in its land, saith Jahveh, to till it and to dwell therein.”

The yoke Jeremiah is to make and lay on his neck is a plain emblem of the Babylonian yoke the nations are to bear. The words “bonds and yokes” denote together one yoke. are the two wooden beams or poles of the yoke, which were fastened together by means of the , bonds, ropes, so that the yoke might be laid on the beast’s neck; cf. Lev 26:13. That Jeremiah really put such a yoke on his neck and wore it, we see from Jer 28:10, Jer 28:12, where a false prophet breaks it for him. He is to send the yoke to the kings of Edom, Moab, etc., by means of envoys of those kings, who were come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah. And since Jeremiah laid a yoke on his own neck, and so carried out the commanded symbolical action in objective reality, there is no reason to doubt that he made yokes for the five kings named and gave them to their respective envoys. Chr. B. Mich., Hitz., Graf, hold this to be improbable, and suppose that Jeremiah only made a yoke for himself and put it on his neck; but by appearing abroad with it, he set before the eyes of the ambassadors, the yoke that was to be laid on their kings, and, in a certain sense, emblematically gave it to them. But even though this might have sufficed to accomplish the aim of the prophecy, it is difficulty to reconcile it with the wording of the text; hence Hitz. seeks arbitrarily to change into . And it is a worthless argument that Jeremiah cannot possibly have believed that the envoys would carry the yokes with them and deliver them to their masters. Why should not he have believed they would do so? And if they did not, it was their concern. The plur. “bands and yokes” may indeed mean a single yoke, but it may also mean many; and the verbs and , both with plural suffixes, indicate clearly that he was to make not merely one yoke for himself, but yokes for himself and the kings. In Jer 28:10 and Jer 28:12, where one yoke is spoken of, the singular is used; while, Jer 28:13, “yokes of wood hast thou broken,” does not prove that this plural has the same force as the singular.

We are not told for what purpose ambassadors from the kings named had come to Jerusalem; but we can discover what it was from the message Jeremiah gives them for their lords. From this it appears, without a doubt, that they were come to take counsel as to a coalition with the view of throwing off the Chaldean supremacy. By God’s command Jeremiah opposes this design with the announcement, that the God of Israel, the Creator of the world and of all creatures, has given all these lands (those of the kings named in Jer 27:3) into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar; that men, and even beasts, should serve him, i.e., that he might exercise unbounded dominion over these lands and all that belonged to them, cf. Jer 28:14. “My servant,” as in Jer 25:9. All nations are to serve him, his son and his grandson. These words simply express the long duration of the king of Babylon’s power over them, without warranting us in concluding that he was succeeded on the throne by his son and his grandson, cf. Deu 6:2; Deu 4:25. For, as we know, Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded by his son Evil-Merodach; then came his brother-in-law Neriglissar, who murdered Evil-Merodach, who was followed by his son Laborosoarchod, a child, murdered after a nine months’ reign by conspirators. Of these latter, Neboned ascended the throne of Babylon; and it was under his reign that the time for his land came that it should be made subject by many nations and great kings, cf. Jer 25:14. serves to strengthen the suffix on ; and the suffix, like , refers to Nebuchadnezzar.

(Note: Jer 27:7 is wanting in the lxx, and therefore Mov. and Hitz. pronounce it spurious. But, as Graf remarked, they have no sufficient reason for this, since, reference being had to Jer 27:16 and to Jer 28:3, Jer 28:11, this verse is very much in place here. It is not a vaticinium ex eventu , as Hitz. asserts, but was rather omitted by the lxx, simply because its contents, taken literally, were not in keeping with the historical facts. The lxx omit also the clause from “that will not serve” to “king of Babylon and,” which is accordingly, and for other subjective reasons of taste, pronounced spurious by Hitz.; but Graf justly opposes this.)

What is said in Jer 27:6 and Jer 27:7 is made sterner by the threatening of Jer 27:8, that the Lord will punish with sword, famine, and pestilence the people and kingdom that will not serve Nebuchadnezzar. introduces a second relative clause, the being here quite in place, since “the people and the kingdom” are accusatives made to precede absolutely, and resumed again by the ‘ , which belongs directly to the verb “visit.” With , cf. Jer 24:10 and , corresponding in meaning, in Jer 9:15.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(2) Make thee bonds and yokes.This method of vivid symbolic prediction had a precedent in the conduct of Isaiah when he walked naked and barefoot (Isa. 20:2). We have to realise the infinitely more vivid impression which the appearance of the prophet in this strange guise, as though he were at once a captive slave and a beast of burden, would make on the minds of men, as compared with simply warning them of a coming subjugation. The principle on which the prophet acted was that of Horace (Ep. ad Pis. 180):

Segnius irritant animos demissa per aures,

Quam qu sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et qu
Ipse sibi tradit spectator.

Things that we hear less stir the inmost soul,
Than what the eye sees dramatised in act.

So Agabus bound himself with Pauls girdle (Act. 21:11). So Ezekiel dug through the wall of his house and carried out his stuff (Eze. 12:5-7). We find from Jer. 28:10 that the prophet obeyed the command quite literally.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

2. Bonds and yokes The yoke was made of two curved pieces of wood, placed the one over and the other under the neck of the animal, and fastened together with cords. See Psa 2:3.

Put them upon thy neck In the manner in which they were worn by animals when used to draw a load. The “yoke,” as here employed, was the appropriate symbol of bondage. This command was literally obeyed. See Jer 28:10. Some hold that Jeremiah obeyed these literally as to himself, but not for the different kings mentioned. But this does great violence to the text, which is as explicit for one as the other.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jeremiah Was To Make Simulated Yokes And Bonds And Wear Them On His Neck ( Jer 27:2 ).

The plural of yokes possibly indicates the top and bottom bars of the yoke which would be bound together round the neck by the ropes (bonds). But if what follows is taken literally (the sending of yokes to five kings and the retention of the one worn by Jeremiah) a number of yokes and bonds would be required. They need not have been the size required for yoking animals. The very sight of even a small yoke would be sufficient to indicate bondage.

Jer 27:2

“Thus says YHWH to me, Make for yourself bonds and bars, and put them on your neck,”

YHWH’s call to Jeremiah was initially that he make and wear bonds and yokes which were to fit on his neck. That he carried it out literally is clear from Jer 28:10. The plural nouns, and what later happens, suggest that he made a number of sets. His wearing of them (not necessarily continually, but certainly on special occasions such as the great feasts) was probably intended to be a continual indication to Judah that it was now under permanent bondage, first to Egypt and then to Babylon because of its rebellion against YHWH. (YHWH had already indicated that the death of Josiah would end any guarantee of peace for Judah – 2Ki 22:20; 2Ki 23:26-27). It would be typical of Jeremiah to feel that while his people suffered bondage, he should do the same.

It will be noted that here the command was to wear them, whereas in Jer 27:3 he was to send them to various kings. There is thus an interval between the two acts, and there is no reason why it should not have been a period of twelve years or more. Such rapid jumps in the narrative are often made in Scripture causing problems to modern man who likes to enter into historical detail. But Kings continually presents history in this way with huge but unidentified gaps between events during the lives of the kings. Compare also how Isaiah walked ‘naked and barefoot’ for three years, possibly wearing only a loincloth, in order to convey a similar message (Isa 20:2-3), and how Ezekiel lay on his side for well over a year (Eze 4:4-5).

We are not called on to wear yokes as a symbol of our submission to God, but we are called on to ‘wear His yoke’ (Mat 11:28-30) and to walk humbly before God, revealing that we are true followers of the One Who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many (Mar 10:45).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Jer 27:2. Make thee bonds and yokes See ch. Jer 28:10 and the note on ch. Jer 25:15. The yoke was a pole which went over the shoulders of a man, and was fastened by bands to the neck: it was used by slaves to carry burdens, which were suspended at the extremities of the pole; so that it resembled that which is made use of by milkmen in our metropolis to carry their pails. This was an information by action, instead of words, says Bishop Warburton, foretelling the conquers of Nebuchadnezzar over Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jer 27:2 Thus saith the LORD to me; Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck,

Ver. 2. Make thee bonds and yokes, ] i.e., Yokes with bonds, such as they are wont to be fastened with.

And put them upon thy neck. ] This was to the prophet, saith the Jesuit, molesta et probrosa poenitentia, a a troublesome and disgraceful penance. But this was no will worship, say we; and much handsomer than the penances they put the people to in Italy, where you may see them go along the streets, saith mine author, b with a great rope about their necks, as if they were dropped down from the gallows. And sometimes they wear a sausage or a swine’s pudding in place of a silver or gold chain, for a sign of their mortification, and that they may merit.

a A Lapide.

b Bee Hive of Rome.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)