Jeremiah 22
Really bad news for Judah’s kings
Jeremiah’s message for the king
1The Lord told Jeremiah: Go to the palace of the king of Judah and deliver this message.2“Listen. The Lord has something for the king of Judah who rules from king David's throne. It's for your officials, too, and for everyone else here. 3Be fair in the way you settle disagreements. Defend people who have been robbed. Don't harm immigrants, orphans, or widows in any way. And don't kill any innocent people here.
4If you can comply with this, then David's family dynasty will continue to rule here. They'll continue to ride their royal chariots and their horses. Life will go on as usual, for their servants and the citizens as well. 5But if you ignore what I'm telling you, I swear to God—and I am God—I'll destroy this royal palace.”
Judah’s palace to join the desert
6This is the Lord's message for the king of Judah’s royal family:You are as important to me
as the rolling hills and fields of Gilead,
and as the mountains of Lebanon.
But I swear I will turn you into a desert,
A land full of ghost towns.
and I'll load them up on weapons.
They will cut you down
Like they’re chopping cedar. Then they'll throw you in the fire. 8People passing by from other nations will look at the ruins of Jerusalem in awe. They'll say, “What on earth made the Lord do that to such a great city?”
9Others will answer, “They broke their contract with God. They stopped worshipping their God and started worshipping other gods.”
Bad news for Jehoahaz
10Don't cry for the one who’s gone.
Don’t grieve for dead King Josiah. [1]
Save your tears for the one who’s going.
King Jehoahaz, [2] his captive son, will never return.
Bad news for King Jehoiakim
13There’s bad news for King Jehoiakim [4]
Who built his elegant palace on bedrock evil
And filled the rooms with injustice.
He forced his neighbors to work for nothing.
No wages. No tips. No thanks.
He cut out holes for windows.
He paneled the walls with cedar
And painted it red.
15So what if you have the house with the most cedar?
Does all that cedar make you a king?
Your dad ate and drank like everyone else.
He was a good man who ruled with justice.
His life went well.
16He treated the poor and most vulnerable to justice.
His life was better for it.
People who know me will do the same.
This is the LORD’s message.
17But from your eyeballs to your heart
All you care about is getting richer
By any dishonest means necessary:
Murdering the innocent,
Cheating the poor,
Attacking anyone who gets in your way. 18So this is what the LORD says about that man, Judah’s King Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah:
No one will mourn his death
Like they’re crying over someone they love.
“Oh, my brother is gone.” “Oh no, my sister.”
They won’t say, “Our master is dead,”
Or “Oh no, it’s his majesty.”
And bury it with a donkey. [5]
20Cry for yourselves.
And cry to your allies,
North, East, and South:
Lebanon, Bashan, and the Abarim Mountains of Moab. [6]
Never mind. They’re all dead.
21I talked to you when everything was going well.
But you said, “God who?”
You’ve been a bad boy since childhood.
You wouldn’t listen to me.
22I’ll scatter your officials
Like shepherds in a cyclone.
As for the allies you love,
They’re headed for captivity.
That’s what it will take to get your attention.
Finally, you’ll see your evil
And you’ll be ashamed of yourself.
23You live among the cedars of Lebanon
With your wall-to-wall paneling.
But when the Big Hurt comes,
You’re going to squeal
Like a woman giving birth.
Bad news for King Jehoiachin
24As sure as I’m the living LORD, Jehoiachin [7]—son of Judah’s King Jehoiakim—will never become king. If he was a signet ring on my right hand, I’d pluck him off. 25Then I’d pitch him into the hands of some terrifying people who wanted to kill him. I’m talking about Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar and his army.26I’m going to throw you and your mother from here to Babylon. You’ll both die there. 27You’ll never return to this land. 28
When you look at Jehoiachin
You’re looking at a cracked pot. [8]
Who wants a cracked pot?
So, can you see why I’m sending his family away
To a kingdom they’ve never even seen? [9]
Listen to the LORD’s message.
30The LORD says:
Get it on the record.
This man has no children. [11]
None of his sons will succeed him as king.
They’ll never rule Judah from David’s throne.
Footnotes
Jeremiah doesn’t include the names of Josiah and his son Jehoahaz. But many scholars say they fit perfectly into the Jeremiah’s story and timeline. Josiah ruled Judah from about 641-609 BC. He died in what many scholars say was an unnecessary and unprovoked battle with the Egyptian army. The Egyptians were trying to pass peacefully through the land to reinforce Assyrians who had been run out of their homeland by Babylonians and Medes. See 2 Kings 23.
When Josiah died, the people crowned his son Jehoahaz the next king of Judah. But Egyptian King Neco chose another son of Josiah to serve as king: Eliakim. Then he changed the new king’s name to Jehoiakim. Neco took Jehoahaz with him back to Egypt, where he could keep an eye on him (2 Chronicles 36:1, 4). Jehoahaz died there.
The text says Josiah’s son was “Shallum.” But given Shallum’s description, many scholars say “Shallum” is another name for Jehoahaz.
Jehoiakim ruled from about 609-598 BC, ending about a dozen years before Babylon leveled Jerusalem and the Temple in 586 BC. He was the second son of King Josiah and the great-great grandson of Hezekiah. Egyptian King Neco appointed him king after deposing his brother, King Jehoahaz. See the relevant note for 22:10.
There’s no record of this happening. He was likely dead by the time Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar arrived in December of 598 BC. He had rebelled against Babylon, and some scholars suggest that if Jeremiah got the history right, and he was buried in shame with a donkey, perhaps some group assassinated him to appease Babylon. But that’s speculation.
The “Abarim Mountains of Moab” are literally only “Abraim.” The Abraim Mountain Range in Moab, overlooks the Dead Sea. Moses apparently stood on this range, at Mount Nebo, when he looked across the Jordan River Valley into the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 32:49).
The Hebrew text calls him by what sounds like a nickname: Coniah.
This image is reminiscent of Jeremiah breaking pottery to make a point in 19:10-13.
Babylon was located in what is now Iraq.
Some scholars say this reads like a mourner’s dirge, perhaps grieving over how invaders decimated the lands they took. They sometimes burned orchards, salted the farmland, and turned cities into burned-out ghost towns.
He had seven sons at one point (1 Chronicles 3:17-18). And a surviving Babylonian receipt for oil that Babylon provided to his family reports he had five sons at that time. But none of his sons became king after him.
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