Jeremiah 22:19-29

19 He shall be buried with the burying of an ass, he shall be rotten, and cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem. (He shall be buried like the burying of a donkey, yea, he shall be rotten, and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.)

20 Ascend thou on the Lebanon, and cry thou, and give thy voice in Bashan, and cry to them that pass forth, for all thy lovers be all-broken. (Go thou up to Lebanon, and cry thou, and give thy voice in Bashan, and cry to those who pass forth, for all thy allies be all-broken.)

21 I spake to thee in thy plenty, and thou saidest, I shall not hear (I will not listen to thee); this is thy way from thy youth, for thou heardest not my voice.

22 Wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; (The wind shall carry away all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; and then thou shalt be shamed, and ashamed for all thy malice,)

23 and then thou that sittest in the Lebanon, and makest (thy) nest in cedars, shalt be shamed, and ashamed of all thy malice. How wailedest thou, when sorrows were come to thee, as the sorrow of a woman travailing of child? (thou who sittest in Lebanon, and makest thy nest in cedars. How thou shalt wail, when sorrows shall come to thee, like the sorrow of a woman in labour!)

24 I live, saith the Lord, for thou Jeconiah , the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were (as) a ring in my right hand, from thence I shall draw away him. (As I live, saith the Lord, for thou Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were the ring on my right hand, but now I shall draw thee away from there.)

25 And I shall give thee in the hand of them that seek thy life, and in the hand of them whose face thou dreadest, and in the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and in the hand of Chaldees. (And I shall give thee into the hands of those who seek thy life, and into the hands of those whose faces thou fearest, and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans.)

26 And I shall send thee, and thy mother that engendered thee, into an alien land, in which ye were not born, and there ye shall die; (And I shall send thee, and thy mother who begat thee, into a foreign, or a strange, land, where ye were not born, and ye shall die there;)

27 and they shall not turn again into the land, to which they raise their soul(s), that they turn again thither. (and they shall never return to the land, to which they raise up their souls, that they could return there.)

28 Whether this man Jeconiah is (but) an earthen vessel, and all-broken? whether a vessel without all-liking? (but a vessel all despised?) Why (else) be he and his seed cast away, and cast forth into a land which they knew not?

29 Earth, earth, earth, hear thou the word of the Lord. (O land, land, land, hear thou the words of the Lord.)

Jeremiah 22:19-29 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.