Jeremiah 27:3-4

Jeremiah was then to send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys that had come from those places to visit King Zedekiah (cf. Jeremiah 25:21-22). [Note: ] These ambassadors were to take a message from Yahweh back to their masters. He apparently made one set of the object lesson, a yoke, for each of the ambassadors to take back home with him. These kingdoms had all been vassals or treaty partners with David and Solomon in the past (cf. 2 Samuel 8:11-12; 1 Kings 5; 1 Kings 7:13-47).

The Babylonian Chronicles illuminate the historical background of this situation. Two years earlier an unnamed enemy had attacked Nebuchadnezzar, and the following year he had to deal with a revolt within his borders. Smaller nations in the west saw this as an opportunity to throw off Babylon’s authority. The same nations had formed a confederacy to revolt against Assyria years earlier, so the purpose of these messengers seems to have been to form another treaty but this time against Babylon. [Note: Thompson, p. 532.] The recent accession of Psammetik II as Pharaoh of Egypt may have been another inducement to revolt. [Note: Feinberg, p. 544.]