1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
2. Yahweh says to me: “Make bonds and bars, and put them on your neck.
3. Then 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 who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
4. Give them a command to their masters, saying, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “You shall tell your masters:
5. ‘I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power and by my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.
6. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and I have also given the animals of the field to him to serve him.
7. All the nations will serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the time of his own land comes. Then many nations and great kings will make him their bondservant.