Jeremiah 13:18

18 Tell the king and the queen-mother, "Come down off your high horses. Your dazzling crowns will tumble off your heads."

Jeremiah 13:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 13:18

Say unto the king, and to the queen
Jehoiachin, and his mother Nehushta, as it is generally interpreted by the Jewish commentators, and others; who, with many princes and officers, were carried captive into Babylon, ( 2 Kings 24:12-15 ) or rather Zedekiah and his wife; since the captivity after threatened is a perfect and complete one, which Jehoiachin's was not: humble yourselves, sit down;
or, "sit down humbled" F4; come down from your thrones, and sit in the dust; humble yourselves before the Lord for your own sins, and the sins of the people; in times of general corruption, and which threatens a nation with ruin, it becomes kings and princes to set an example of repentance, humiliation, and reformation; though it may be this is rather a prediction of what would be, that they should descend from their throne, and lose their grandeur, and be in a low and abject condition, than an exhortation to what was their duty; since it follows: for your principalities shall come down;
their royal state and greatness, and all the ensigns of it; and especially such as they had upon their heads, as the word used denotes, and as the following explanation shows: even the crown of your glory;
or glorious crown, which should fall from their heads, or be taken from them, when they should be no more served in state, or treated as crowned heads.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (wbv wlypvh) "degite humiliter", Castalio; "abjectissime considite", Junius & Tremellius; "loco humili considite", Piscator

Jeremiah 13:18 In-Context

16 Let your lives glow bright before God before he turns out the lights, Before you trip and fall on the dark mountain paths. The light you always took for granted will go out and the world will turn black.
17 If you people won't listen, I'll go off by myself and weep over you, Weep because of your stubborn arrogance, bitter, bitter tears, Rivers of tears from my eyes, because God's sheep will end up in exile.
18 Tell the king and the queen-mother, "Come down off your high horses. Your dazzling crowns will tumble off your heads."
19 The villages in the Negev will be surrounded, everyone trapped, And Judah dragged off to exile, the whole country dragged to oblivion.
20 Look, look, Jerusalem! Look at the enemies coming out of the north! What will become of your flocks of people, the beautiful flocks in your care?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.