27:1 The reference to the “beginning of the reign of Zedekiah” correlates to the next chapter’s mention of “that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year” (28:1). Zedekiah began his reign in 598 BC, when Babylon placed him on Judah’s throne as a puppet king. The present chapter and the next are therefore set in 594 BC, as Zedekiah is having second thoughts on continuing as Babylon’s vassal. He will eventually be convinced to rebel against Babylon by false prophets claiming that Yahweh will soon overthrow Babylon (cf. 27:14; 28:2–4; 37:19). This fatal mistake will lead to the fall of Judah in 587 BC (chs. 39; 52).

27:2–7 The proposal at hand that concerns Zedekiah, though, is more political rather than theological in nature. This king of Judah has convened a secret summit of foreign envoys (v. 3) who desire to forge an alliance either diplomatic or military in nature. Against these attempts to mitigate the Babylonian threat, Yahweh directs Jeremiah to perform a sign-act using a prisoner’s restraints (v. 2), reflecting the message that these envoys must take home to their countries (v. 3): the God of Israel is the sovereign deity over both history and creation (vv. 4–5) and has placed all nations under Babylon’s authority (vv. 6–7).

Incredibly, these verses assert that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is both “my servant” (v. 6; cf. 25:9), a title Yahweh reserves for faithful instruments such as Moses and David (e.g., Num. 12:7; Josh. 1:2; 2 Sam. 7:5), and a ruler whose empire will experience its own downfall after serving as Yahweh’s agent of judgment (Jer. 27:7; cf. 25:26; chs. 50–51). Ministering in roughly the same period, the prophet Habakkuk wrestles with the same dilemma of how Yahweh could describe Babylon as both the destroyer and the destroyed in successive eras of history.

27:8–11 However, destruction for Judah and other nations attending the summit need not be inevitable. Yahweh offers a genuine choice to all nations: either (1) rebel against Babylon’s yoke and suffer destruction (vv. 8–10) or (2) yield to Babylon’s yoke and continue living in their own land (v. 11). The critical difference between death and life lies in each nation’s reaction to the many false teachers who claim, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon” (v. 9). Believing this lie will result in exile and death (v. 10), for Yahweh has already decreed that Babylon will subdue all nations and creatures (cf. v. 6). At this stage of the Babylonian crisis, the only open question is whether those who must be Nebuchadnezzar’s vassals will submit willingly in their own land or unwillingly in exile.

27:12–15 Jeremiah then applies Yahweh’s general principle for the nations (vv. 8–11) to his own people. The prophet exhorts King Zedekiah to do the counterintuitive: submit to the greatest empire of his time (v. 12) in order to live rather than die (v. 13). The problem, however, is that Jeremiah is hardly the only prophet who has the ears of Zedekiah or of the rest of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. Others are making the more attractive prediction, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon” (v. 14)—but listening to them would be a fatal mistake. Their message will result in exile and destruction, for Yahweh never commissioned prophets with such a message of unconditional prosperity and deliverance (v. 15). A confrontation between Jeremiah and one such false prophet, Hananiah the son of Azzur, will ensue in chapter 28.

27:16–22 Now addressing the priests and the people as a whole, Jeremiah provides further warnings against the wiles of the false prophets. Perhaps to appear credible, they make the specific prediction that the temple vessels taken by Nebuchadnezzar will soon return to Jerusalem (v. 16). Jeremiah warns a gullible people not only that they are speaking falsely (v. 17) but also that any true prophet would have possessed the authority to intercede for Jerusalem’s behalf and keep both the taken and the remaining vessels from going to Babylon in the first place (v. 18). The opposite being the case, these prophets must be false, and Yahweh confirms that Judah’s historical trend of judgment will continue, with all remaining temple vessels going into exile (vv. 19–20).

On this note, Nebuchadnezzar’s first deportation of people and temple vessels to Babylon in 605 BC (Dan. 1:2; 5:2) was clearly partial rather than complete. Although this powerful empire returns in 598 and ultimately finishes its destructive work in 587, Yahweh has already promised in 594 that the temple vessels residing in Babylon will do only so temporarily. He will visit them there and return them to Jerusalem at the appointed time (Jer. 27:21–22). In other passages of the book the duration of Judah’s stay in exile is set at seventy years (25:11; 29:10).