Why does the Lord tell Jeremiah to make a yoke and put it around his neck and to send word to several kings by the hand of their envoys who have come to Jerusalem?

The Lord instructs Jeremiah, Make yourself straps and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck. This is another symbolic act that the prophet has to perform (see Jeremiah 13:1–11; Jeremiah 16:1–9; Jeremiah 19:1–13; Jeremiah 25:15–29). A yoke was a device placed on the necks of oxen so that they could be harnessed as working animals for ploughing and pulling carts. The word yoke is also used in the Old Testament to describe a person or a nation that is subject to another (Deuteronomy 28:48; 1 Kings 22:10–11; Ezekiel 7:23).¹

The Lord instructs Jeremiah to then send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. The text does not explain why these kings from neighbouring kingdoms have come to Jerusalem, but in 594/593 BC there was an attempt in the region at an uprising against Babylon. It seems that envoys from these nations have come to Jerusalem to try and get Zedekiah’s support in the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar.² The Lord tells Jeremiah to walk into this gathering with a yoke around his neck and give the envoys a message that they must take back to their kings. The fact that the plural is used for straps and yoke-bars suggests that Jeremiah had to not only make one for himself to wear on his neck, but that he had to present one to each envoy to take back to their kings with the message from the Lord.³