Jeremiah 22

Judgment Against Wicked Kings

1 This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there:
2 ‘Hear the word of the LORD to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates.
3 This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people.
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.
16 He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.
17 “But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.”
18 Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
19 He will have the burial of a donkey— dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”
20 “Go up to Lebanon and cry out, let your voice be heard in Bashan, cry out from Abarim, for all your allies are crushed.
21 I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me.
22 The wind will drive all your shepherds away, and your allies will go into exile. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all your wickedness.
23 You who live in ‘Lebanon,[b] ’ who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor!
24 “As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Jehoiachin[c] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
25 I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.[d]
26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
27 You will never come back to the land you long to return to.”
28 Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know?
29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!
30 This is what the LORD says: “Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”

Cross References 68

  • 1. S Jeremiah 13:18; Jeremiah 34:2
  • 2. Amos 7:16
  • 3. S Jeremiah 17:25; Luke 1:32
  • 4. Jeremiah 17:20
  • 5. S Leviticus 25:17; Isaiah 56:1; Jeremiah 5:1; Ezekiel 33:14; Ezekiel 45:9; Hosea 12:6; Amos 5:24; Micah 6:8; Zechariah 7:9
  • 6. Psalms 72:4; Jeremiah 21:12
  • 7. S Exodus 22:22; S Isaiah 1:17; Jeremiah 5:28
  • 8. S Jeremiah 7:6
  • 9. S Jeremiah 17:25
  • 10. S Jeremiah 17:27
  • 11. S Genesis 22:16; Hebrews 6:13
  • 12. S Genesis 31:21; S Song of Songs 4:1
  • 13. S 1 Kings 7:2; S Isaiah 33:9
  • 14. Micah 3:12
  • 15. S Jeremiah 4:7; S Jeremiah 6:4
  • 16. Psalms 74:5; Isaiah 10:34
  • 17. S 2 Chronicles 36:19; Zechariah 11:1
  • 18. Deuteronomy 29:25-26; 1 Kings 9:8-9; Jeremiah 16:10-11
  • 19. S 1 Kings 9:9; Jeremiah 16:11; Ezekiel 39:23; 2 Kings 22:17; 2 Chronicles 34:25
  • 20. S Ecclesiastes 4:2
  • 21. ver 18; Ezekiel 24:16
  • 22. ver 27; Jeremiah 24:9; Jeremiah 29:18; Jeremiah 42:18
  • 23. S 2 Kings 23:31
  • 24. 2 Kings 23:34
  • 25. S Isaiah 5:8
  • 26. Micah 3:10; Habakkuk 2:9
  • 27. S Leviticus 19:13; James 5:4
  • 28. Isaiah 5:8-9
  • 29. S 2 Samuel 7:2
  • 30. Ezekiel 23:14
  • 31. 2 Kings 23:25
  • 32. Psalms 128:2; S Isaiah 3:10
  • 33. Ps 72:1-4,12-13; S Psalms 82:3; S Proverbs 24:23
  • 34. S Psalms 36:10
  • 35. S Isaiah 56:11
  • 36. S 2 Kings 24:4
  • 37. S Deuteronomy 28:33; Ezekiel 18:12; Micah 2:2
  • 38. S 2 Samuel 1:26
  • 39. 2 Kings 24:6
  • 40. Jeremiah 8:2; Jeremiah 36:30
  • 41. S Isaiah 57:13
  • 42. S Psalms 68:15
  • 43. S Numbers 27:12
  • 44. ver 22; Jeremiah 30:14; Lamentations 1:19; Ezekiel 16:33-34; Hosea 8:9
  • 45. Zechariah 7:7
  • 46. Deuteronomy 9:7; Psalms 25:7; Isaiah 54:4; Jeremiah 3:25; Jeremiah 31:19; Jeremiah 32:30
  • 47. S Jeremiah 3:13; Jeremiah 7:23-28; Zephaniah 3:2
  • 48. S Deuteronomy 28:64; S Job 27:21
  • 49. S Jeremiah 10:21
  • 50. S ver 20
  • 51. S Jeremiah 7:19
  • 52. S 1 Kings 7:2; Ezekiel 17:3
  • 53. S Jeremiah 4:31
  • 54. S 2 Kings 24:6,8; Jeremiah 37:1
  • 55. S Genesis 38:18
  • 56. S 2 Kings 24:16; S 2 Chronicles 36:10; Jeremiah 34:20
  • 57. S 1 Samuel 25:29; S 2 Kings 24:8; 2 Chronicles 36:10; S Isaiah 22:17; Ezekiel 19:9-14
  • 58. S 1 Kings 2:19
  • 59. S ver 10
  • 60. S 2 Kings 24:6
  • 61. Psalms 31:12; S Jeremiah 19:10; Jeremiah 25:34; Jeremiah 48:38; Hosea 8:8
  • 62. Jeremiah 15:1
  • 63. S Jeremiah 17:4
  • 64. S Jeremiah 6:19; Micah 1:2
  • 65. 1 Chronicles 3:18; Jeremiah 38:23; Jeremiah 52:10; Matthew 1:12
  • 66. Jeremiah 10:21
  • 67. S Job 18:19
  • 68. S Psalms 94:20

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Also called "Jehoahaz"
  • [b]. That is, the palace in Jerusalem (see 1 Kings 7:2)
  • [c]. Hebrew "Koniah," a variant of "Jehoiachin" ; also in verse 28
  • [d]. Or "Chaldeans"

Jeremiah 22 Commentaries

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