Jeremiah 22:11-30

Message to the Sons of Josiah

11 For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and ¹who went away from this place: "He shall return here no more,

12 but ²in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again."

13 ³"Woe to him who builds his house by ⁴unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, ⁵who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,

14 who says, 'I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,' who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and ⁶painting it with vermilion.

15 Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and ⁷do justice and righteousness? ⁸Then it was well with him.

16 ⁹He judged the cause of the poor and needy; ¹⁰then it was well. Is not this ¹¹to know me? declares the LORD.

17 But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, ¹²for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence."

18 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ¹³"They shall not lament for him, saying, ¹⁴'Ah, my brother!' or 'Ah, sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, ¹⁵'Ah, lord!' or 'Ah, his majesty!'

19 With the burial of a donkey ¹⁶he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem."

20 "Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from ¹⁷Abarim, for all ¹⁸your lovers are destroyed.

21 I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, 'I will not listen.' ¹⁹This has been your way from ²⁰your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.

22 ²¹The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and ²²your lovers shall go into captivity; ²³then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil.

23 O inhabitant of ²⁴Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you, ²⁵pain as of a woman in labor!"

24 ²⁶"As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were ²⁷the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off

25 and ²⁸give you ²⁹into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26 ³⁰I will hurl you and ³¹the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.

27 But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return."

28 Is this man ³²Coniah a despised, broken pot, a ³³vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a ³⁴land that they do not know?

29 ³⁵O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

30 Thus says the LORD: "Write this man down as ³⁶childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, ³⁷for none of his offspring shall succeed ³⁸in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."

Jeremiah 22:11-30 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 22

This chapter is a prophecy of what should befall the sons of Josiah, Jehoahaz or Shallum; Jehoiakim and Jeconiah. It begins with an exhortation to the then reigning prince, Jehoiakim, his family and court, to do justice, relieve the oppressed, and refrain from doing injury to any; with a promise of prosperity upon so doing, Jer 22:1-4; but, on the contrary behaviour, the king's family, however precious they had been in the sight of the Lord, should be destroyed, by persons described as fit for such work, which would occasion others to inquire the cause of such destruction; when it would be told them, it was for their apostasy from the Lord, their breaking covenant with him, and their idolatry, Jer 22:5-9; then of Shallum, who was then carried captive, it is predicted that he should never return more, which was matter of greater lamentation than the death of his father Josiah, Jer 22:10-12; next Jehoiakim, the present king on the throne, is reproved, and a woe denounced upon him for his injustice, luxury, covetousness, rapine, and murders, Jer 22:13-17; and it is particularly threatened that he should die unlamented, and have no burial, Jer 22:18,19; and then the people of the land are called upon to mourning and lamentation, their kings one after another being carried captive, Jer 22:20-23; also Jeconiah the king's son, and who succeeded him, is threatened with rejection from the Lord, and a delivery of him up into the hand of the king of Babylon, with exile in a strange country, and death there, and that without children; so that Solomon's line should cease in him, Jer 22:24-30.

Cross References

• 1. [2 Kings 23:34; 2 Chronicles 36:4; Ezekiel 19:4]
• 2. [See ver. 11 above]
• 3. Habakkuk 2:12; See Isaiah 5:18-23
• 4. [Micah 3:10]
• 5. Leviticus 19:13; Leviticus 25:39, 40; Deuteronomy 24:14, 15; James 5:4
• 6. Ezekiel 23:14
• 7. [2 Kings 23:25]
• 8. Psalms 128:2; Ecclesiastes 8:12; Isaiah 3:10
• 9. Proverbs 31:9; [Isaiah 1:17]
• 10. [See ver. 15 above]
• 11. [Judges 2:10]
• 12. ver. 3; [Jeremiah 26:15]
• 13. Psalms 78:64; See Jeremiah 16:4-6
• 14. [1 Kings 13:30]
• 15. [Jeremiah 34:5]
• 16. Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 36:30; [Isaiah 14:19]
• 17. Numbers 27:12; Deuteronomy 32:49
• 18. [Jeremiah 3:1]
• 19. Jeremiah 3:25
• 20. Psalms 129:1, 2
• 21. Jeremiah 23:1; [Ezekiel 34:10]
• 22. [See ver. 20 above]
• 23. Jeremiah 3:25
• 24. ver. 6
• 25. Jeremiah 6:24; See Isaiah 13:8
• 26. Isaiah 49:18; See Ezekiel 5:11
• 27. 1 Kings 21:8; Song of Songs 8:6; Haggai 2:23
• 28. Jeremiah 34:20
• 29. Jeremiah 39:17; [Deuteronomy 1:17]
• 30. 2 Kings 24:15; 2 Chronicles 36:10
• 31. [2 Kings 24:8]
• 32. ver. 24
• 33. [Jeremiah 48:38; Psalms 31:12; Hosea 8:8]
• 34. See Jeremiah 15:14
• 35. Isaiah 1:2
• 36. [1 Chronicles 3:17; Matthew 1:12]
• 37. Jeremiah 36:30
• 38. Jeremiah 36:30