mself to prophesy unto
you? 28. Hath he not sent to us in Babylon saying, "It(509) is
long! Build ye houses and settle down, and plant gardens and eat
their fruit." 29. And Sephaniah read this letter in the ears of
Jeremiah; [30] and the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah saying,
[31] Send to the exiles saying: Thus saith the Lord concerning
Shemaiah the Nehemalite, Because Shemaiah hath prophesied unto
you, although I did not send him, and hath led you to trust in a
lie; [32] therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold I am about to
visit upon Shemaiah and upon his seed; there shall not be a man to
them in your midst to see the good which I am going to do
you.(510)

In one respect Jeremiah has not changed. His denunciation of individuals
who oppose the Word of the Lord by himself is as strong as ever, and still
more dramatically than in the case of Shemaiah it appears in his treatment
of the prophets within Jerusalem, who flouted his counsels of subjection
to Nebuchadrezzar, Chs. XXVII-XXVIII. In this narrative or narratives (for
the whole seems compounded of several, perhaps not all referring to the
same occasion) the differences between the Greek and Hebrew texts are even
more than usually great. The Greek again attracts our preference by its
freedom from superfluous titles, repetitions and redundances, and is
probably nearer than the Hebrew to the original of Baruch's Memoirs of the
Prophet. But it is obviously not complete, missing out clauses, the
presence of which is implied by subsequent ones.(511) The following is the
substance of what Baruch reports.

It was the fourth year of Sedekiah, 593, when messengers from the
neighbouring nations came to Jerusalem to intrigue under Egyptian
influence for revolt against Babylon. Jeremiah was commanded to make a
yoke of bars and thongs, and having put it on his neck to charge the
messengers to tell their masters--

XXVII. 4. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: [5] I
have made the Earth by My great power and Mine outstretched arm,
and I give it unto whom it seems right to Me. 6. So now I have
given all these lands(512) into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king
of Babylon, to serve him,(513) and even the beasts of the field to
serve him. 8. And it shall be that the nation and kingdom, which
will not put their neck into the yoke of the king of Babylon, with
the sword and with the famine(514)