Jeremiah 22:18-28

18 This is God's epitaph on Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: "Doom to this man! Nobody will shed tears over him, 'Poor, poor brother!' Nobody will shed tears over him, 'Poor, poor master!'

19 They'll give him a donkey's funeral, drag him out of the city and dump him. You've Made a Total Mess of Your Life

20 "People of Jerusalem, climb a Lebanon peak and weep, climb a Bashan mountain and wail, Climb the Abarim ridge and cry - you've made a total mess of your life.

21 I spoke to you when everything was going your way. You said, 'I'm not interested.' You've been that way as long as I've known you, never listened to a thing I said.

22 All your leaders will be blown away, all your friends end up in exile, And you'll find yourself in the gutter, disgraced by your evil life.

23 You big-city people thought you were so important, thought you were 'king of the mountain'! You're soon going to be doubled up in pain, pain worse than the pangs of childbirth.

24 "As sure as I am the living God" - God's Decree - "even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I'd pull you off

25 and give you to those who are out to kill you, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans,

26 and then throw you, both you and your mother, into a foreign country, far from your place of birth. There you'll both die.

27 "You'll be homesick, desperately homesick, but you'll never get home again."

28 Is Jehoiachin a leaky bucket, a rusted-out pail good for nothing? Why else would he be thrown away, he and his children, thrown away to a foreign place?

Jeremiah 22:18-28 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.