⁴ Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Tell this to your masters: ⁵ “By my great strength and outstretched arm,^(A) I made the earth,^(B) and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please.^{[a](C) 6} So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of my servant^(D) Nebuchadnezzar,^(E) king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him. ⁷ All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him.^(F)

⁸ “‘“As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague—this is the Lord’s declaration—until through him I have destroyed it. ⁹ So you should not listen to your prophets, diviners,^(G) dreamers, fortune-tellers,^(H) or sorcerers^(I) who say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon!’ ¹⁰ They are prophesying a lie^(J) to you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish. ¹¹ But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate^[b] it and reside in it. This is the Lord’s declaration.”’”