“Thus Yahweh said to me.
‘Make yourself
A yoke of straps!
Make yourself
A yoke of bars!
Put them on your neck.”
Yahweh wanted Jeremiah to put a yoke around his neck that had straps and bars on it. The ancient yoke had two wooden bars strapped together. This common yoke was used for the oxen when they were working with a plow attached to them. Once again, we see a symbolic action by a prophet. Jeremiah was to come under the yoke of the King of Babylon.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 