12 Then I gave this same message to Zedekiah king of Judah: "Harness yourself up to the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people. Live a long life! 13 Why choose to get killed or starve to death or get sick and die, which is what God has threatened to any nation that won't throw its lot in with Babylon? 14 Don't listen to the prophets who are telling you not to submit to the king of Babylon. They're telling you lies, preaching lies. 15 God's Word on this is, 'I didn't send those prophets, but they keep preaching lies, claiming I sent them. If you listen to them, I'll end up driving you out of here and that will be the end of you, both you and the lying prophets.'" 16 And finally I spoke to the priests and the people at large: "This is God's Message: Don't listen to the preaching of the prophets who keep telling you, 'Trust us: The furnishings, plundered from God's Temple, are going to be returned from Babylon any day now.' That's a lie. 17 Don't listen to them. Submit to the king of Babylon and live a long life. Why do something that will destroy this city and leave it a heap of rubble? 18 If they are real prophets and have a Message from God, let them come to God-of-the-Angel-Armies in prayer so that the furnishings that are still left in God's Temple, the king's palace, and Jerusalem aren't also lost to Babylon.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 27:12-18
Commentary on Jeremiah 27:12-18
(Read Jeremiah 27:12-18)
Jeremiah persuades the king of Judah to surrender to the king of Babylon. Is it their wisdom to submit to the heavy iron yoke of a cruel tyrant, that they may secure their lives; and is it not much more our wisdom to submit to the pleasant and easy yoke of our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, that we may secure our souls? It were well if sinners would be afraid of the destruction threatened against all who will not have Christ to reign over them. Why should they die the second death, infinitely worse than that by sword and famine, when they may submit and live? And those who encourage sinners to go on in sinful ways, will perish with them.