The prophet sends chains to divers kings, signifying that they must bend their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. The vessels of the temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried away.

1. 27:1Some translations have changed this text, ‘the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim,’ to read ‘the reign of Zedekiah,’ perhaps because the translators or editors thought it was a manuscript error. But notice the next two verses indicate a gap in time. Verse 2 has the Lord telling Jeremiah to make bands and chains, and place them on his neck. Verse 3 then tells Jeremiah to send these to the various kings. Why would he put these things on his neck if the purpose was to send them to other nations? The answer is most probably that this section of text (in infallible Sacred Scripture) was based on a prior source (written or verbal, but not infallible) which had a longer story: Jeremiah put the bands and chains on his neck, then he went about preaching the word of the Lord, and, as the Old Testament prophets often did, he used this act of wearing bands and chains as a sign, a king of living parable, of his message. The message, of course, is that the Babylonian captivity was next to occur. Much later, during the reign of Zedekiah, he then sent bands and chains to the various kings as a prophetic act, anticipating the imminent captivity of the nations. So verse 1 is correct that all this began in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.(Conte)
2. 27:1Joakim: This revelation was made to the prophet in the beginning of the reign of Joakim: but the bands were not sent to the princes here named before the reign of Sedecias, ver. 3.(Challoner)