Jeremiah 27:1

JEREMIAH 27

JEREMIAH WEARS AN OX YOKE

We can hardly believe that no scholar whose works we have had the privilege of reading has discerned the most important lesson that shines like the sun at perihelion in such a passage as this. And what is that lesson? It is that all allegations of certain prophecies being "post eventum", or as having been written after the events prophesied, are absolutely devastated and destroyed by the behavior of the prophets who gave the prophecies.

For example, Micah the Morashtite rolled in the dust or the mud; he screamed like an ostrich and howled like a jackal; Isaiah went naked and barefoot for a period of two years; and here Jeremiah wears an ox yoke upon his own neck, and did so in the presence of the King of Judah and his court, including the ambassadors of five foreign nations! Such bizarre behavior was indulged by these prophets in connection with their declarations of predictive prophecy.

Basic intelligence makes it impossible to believe that such behavior would have marked the announcement by some interpolator of an event that had already occurred. Thus, God proves his own prophecies by such fantastic behavior on the part of his prophets.

Jeremiah 27:1-3

"In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiachim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Thus saith Jehovah to me: Make thee bonds and bars, and put them upon thy neck; and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers that came to Jerusalem unto the king of Judah."

Jeremiah 27:1 here places the events of this chapter in the accession year of Jehoiachim; but it is evident from Jeremiah 27:3 that Zedekiah was the king during the events of this chapter. What we have here is some kind of an error; and scholars usually agree that some ancient copyist accidentally copied the first verse of the preceding chapter. The Revised Standard Version is evidently correct, which gives the verse thus: "In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, etc."

Such errors are quite rare; and it is fortunate that the subsequent verses of the chapter enable the necessary correction to be made.

"Make thee bonds and bars ..." (Jeremiah 27:2). These are the elements of an ancient ox yoke which consisted of two pieces of wood, one to be place above the neck of the animal, and the other to placed under it, with both pieces held together by thongs of leather.

"And put them upon thy neck ..." (Jeremiah 27:2). An ox yoke was for two animals; and thus this contraption made quite a cumbersome and uncomfortable piece of wearing apparel for Jeremiah. He must have exhibited a startling spectacle at the court of' the king.

"Send them to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon ..." (Jeremiah 27:3). These were the neighboring kingdoms of Judah; and the presence of representatives from these kingdoms at this time in Judah was due to the political intrigue going on at that time against Babylon. There was a strong party in Judah who still regarded Jehoiachin as the rightful king of Judah and who hoped for his speedy return. The king of Babylon about the fourth year of Zedekiah's reign had encountered some opposition at home; and the vassal kingdoms, including Judah, were trying to form a coalition against Babylon with the hope of regaining their independence. Jeremiah was divinely inspired to oppose such a foolish maneuver.

"Send them ..." (Jeremiah 27:3). This indicates that five such yokes were to be made, not counting the one Jeremiah was wearing, and these were indeed sent to each of the five kings mentioned. Some dispute this; but we cannot interpret "them" as meaning only one yoke! After all, it would not be much harder to make six yokes than it would to make only one. If, as some say, only the messages were sent to the kings, the import of the instruction would have been the same either way.