1. Soon after Josiah's son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord told me
2. to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck.
3. Then the Lord told me to send a message to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah.
4. The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the Lord had said:
5. “By my great power and strength I created the world, the human race, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose.
6. I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him.
7. All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.
8. “But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely.