Jeremiah 22:5-15

5 But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’ ”

6 For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah: “Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited.

7 I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire.

8 “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’

9 And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’ ”

10 Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss; rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again.

11 For this is what the LORD says about Shallum^[a] son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: “He will never return.

12 He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”

13 “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.

14 He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.

15 “Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.

Jeremiah 22:5-15 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. S Jeremiah 17:27
• 2. S Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6:13
• 3. S Genesis 31:21; S Song of Songs 4:1
• 4. S 1 Kings 7:2; S Isaiah 33:9
• 5. Micah 3:12
• 6. S Jeremiah 4:7; S Jeremiah 6:4
• 7. Psalms 74:5; Isaiah 10:34
• 8. S 2 Chronicles 36:19; Zechariah 11:1
• 9. Deuteronomy 29:25-26; 1 Kings 9:8-9; Jeremiah 16:10-11
• 10. S 1 Kings 9:9; Jeremiah 16:11; Ezekiel 39:23; 2 Kings 22:17; 2 Chronicles 34:25
• 11. S Ecclesiastes 4:2
• 12. ver 18; Ezekiel 24:16
• 13. ver 27; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 42:18
• 14. S 2 Kings 23:31
• 15. 2 Kings 23:34
• 16. S Isaiah 5:8
• 17. Micah 3:10; Habakkuk 2:9
• 18. S Leviticus 19:13; James 5:4
• 19. Isaiah 5:8-9
• 20. S 2 Samuel 7:2
• 21. Ezekiel 23:14
• 22. 2 Kings 23:25
• 23. Psalms 128:2; S Isaiah 3:10

Footnotes

• [a]. Also called "Jehoahaz"