Jeremiah 22:1-30 NIV
Judgment Against Wicked Kings
1This Is What The LORD Says:
3This Is What The LORD Says:
4For 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. 5But if you do not obey these Commands, Declares The LORD, I Swear By MYSELF that this palace will become a ruin.’ ”
6For 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.
7I 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?’9And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken The Covenant of The LORD their GOD and have worshiped and served other gods.’ ”
10Do 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.
11For This Is What The LORD Says about Shalluma son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place:
“He will never return. 12He 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.
14He 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.
16He 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.”
“They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’
They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
19He 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.
21I 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.
22The 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.
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, Jehoiachinc son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on MY Right Hand, I Would still Pull you Off. 25I Will Deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.d 26I 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. 27You will never come back to the land you long to return to.”
28Is 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?
29O land, land, land,
hear The WORD of The LORD!
“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.”
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, Jeremiah 22:1; but, on the contrary behavior, 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, Jeremiah 22:5; then of Shallum, who was then carried captive, it is predicted that he should never return to homeland, which was matter of greater lamentation than the death of his father Josiah, Jeremiah 22:10.
Next Jehoiakim, the present king on the throne, is reproved, and a woe denounced upon him for his injustice, luxury, covetousness, rapine, and murders, Jeremiah 22:13; and it is particularly threatened that he should die unlamented, and have no burial, Jeremiah 22:18; and then the people of the land are called upon to mourning and lamentation, their kings one after another being carried captive, Jeremiah 22:20; 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 David-Solomon's line should cease in him, Jeremiah 22:24.