“Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?”
The full verse · Jeremiah 27:13 · KJV
Why will ye , thou and thy , by the , by the , and by the , as the hath against the that will not the of ?
Asked by
Asked to
King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials, with broader application to the entire nation of Judah who were considering rebellion against Babylonian vassalage.
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionJeremiah frames divine warning as a question to confront Zedekiah with the absurdity of choosing death over life. By asking rather than simply declaring judgment, the prophet forces the king to recognize his own agency in determining the nation’s fate and makes self-destructive rebellion appear irrational.
The Response
What Scripture recordsThe text does not record Zedekiah’s immediate verbal response to this question. Historically, Zedekiah initially heeded Jeremiah’s counsel to submit but later rebelled against Babylon in his ninth year (2 Kings 24:20, Jeremiah 52:3), demonstrating ultimate rejection of the prophet’s warning and resulting in the siege, famine, capture, and devastation Jeremiah had predicted.
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyJeremiah’s question exposes the self-destructive irrationality of resisting God’s declared will. Rather than issuing a flat command, the prophet employs interrogative rhetoric that makes Zedekiah complicit in evaluating his own policy. The Hebrew construction uses mût (die) emphatically, highlighting the certainty of death. Why choose death when submission offers survival? The triad of sword, famine, and pestilence invokes covenant curse language, reminding hearers that this is not arbitrary political advice but theological reality rooted in Deuteronomy’s blessings and curses. By framing divine warning as a question, Jeremiah refuses to let Zedekiah hide behind fatalism or blame. The king must recognize he is choosing death by choosing rebellion. The question’s theological weight rests in its revelation that human autonomy exercised against divine instruction is not freedom but suicide.
Sometimes God’s path forward looks like surrender, not victory. Jeremiah’s question confronts us when we cling to strategies that feel right but contradict God’s revealed will. Perhaps you’re holding onto a relationship, career path, or personal agenda that God has clearly opposed. The question penetrates: why choose slow death through resistance when life waits in surrender? Proverbs 14:12 warns that a way may seem right but its end is death. True wisdom recognizes that God’s counterintuitive commands, forgive that person, release that control, accept that limitation, are never calls to destruction but invitations to life. Submission to God’s authority, even when it requires relinquishing what we’ve built or dreamed, opens the door to His purposes that exceed our limited vision.
Built from the biblical text and checked against trusted commentaries and lexicons. References & Sources
Keep questioning
“What have I offended against thee, or against thy servants, or against this people, that ye have put me in prison ?”
“The king of Babylon shall not come against you, nor against this land?”
“If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death?”
“Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?”