Jeremiah 22

This is what the LORD says: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and speak this message there.

1Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

Note"Go down" is literal geography: the temple, where Jeremiah normally spoke, stood on higher ground than the royal palace just south of it.

2Say: Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on David's throne, you, your officials, and your people who come in through these gates.

2And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

Note"David's throne" means the royal line descended from King David, which had ruled Judah from Jerusalem for roughly four hundred years by Jeremiah's day. A promise attached to that line is the background of the whole chapter.

3This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue the person who has been robbed from the one who is crushing him. Do no wrong and no violence to the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow. Do not kill innocent people in this place.

3Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

NoteThe foreigner, the orphan and the widow are a standard trio in Israel's law: people with no family head or landholding to defend them in court, and so the test case for whether a king's justice was real. "Just and right" (Hebrew mishpat and tsedaqah) was the traditional job description of a king, deciding cases fairly and protecting the weak.

4If you really do this, then kings who sit on David's throne will keep coming in through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, the king, his officials, and his people.

4For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

NoteChariots and horses here are the equipment of a working royal court on parade, not warfare; the picture is of the dynasty still functioning generations later.

5But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the LORD, that this palace will become a heap of ruins.

5But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

NoteTo "swear by myself" is to name the highest possible guarantee of an oath. A person swore by someone greater than himself; the speaker here has no one greater, so the oath cannot be appealed above.

6This is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah: To me you are like Gilead, like the top of Lebanon. Even so, I will surely turn you into a desert, like towns where no one lives.

6For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.

NoteGilead was the well-watered highland east of the Jordan, proverbial for pasture and balsam; Lebanon was the mountain range north of Israel, famous for its cedar forests. Both stand for lush, valuable, well-timbered country, and the palace itself was famously built of Lebanon cedar, so the comparison is a pun on the building.

7I will set apart men to destroy you, each one with his weapons. They will cut down your finest cedar beams and throw them into the fire.

7And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

NoteCedar from Lebanon was imported luxury timber, used for beams and panelling in palaces and the temple. Cutting the beams out and burning them means stripping the building of exactly what made it grand.

8Many nations will pass by this city, and each person will ask the one next to him, "Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?"

8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city?

9And they will answer, "Because they abandoned the agreement with the LORD their God, and worshiped and served other gods."

9Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.

NoteThe "agreement" (usually translated covenant) was the formal, treaty-shaped bond between the LORD and Israel, with stated obligations on both sides and stated penalties for breaking it. Worshiping other gods counted as breaking its central term.

10Do not weep for the dead; do not mourn for him. Weep bitterly for the one who is being taken away, because he will never come back or see the land where he was born.

10Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

NoteThe dead king is Josiah, killed in battle at Megiddo in 609 BC and buried with honor in Jerusalem. The one being taken away is his son, deposed and deported after three months on the throne, exile, the saying implies, is the worse fate of the two.

11This is what the LORD says about Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king after his father Josiah and who has been taken away from this place: he will never come back here.

11For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:

NoteShallum is the personal name of the king known elsewhere as Jehoahaz. He succeeded Josiah in 609 BC, reigned three months, and was removed by Pharaoh Neco of Egypt and taken to Egypt, where he died.

12He will die in the place where they took him as a prisoner, and he will never see this land again.

12But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

13How terrible for the man who builds his palace by doing wrong and adds his upper rooms by cheating, who makes his own countrymen work for nothing and does not pay them for their labor.

13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

NoteForcing subjects to work on royal building projects without pay was a real and resented practice; Israelite law required a hired man's wages to be paid the same day. The "upper rooms" are the cooler second-story chambers of a large house, a mark of wealth.

14He says, "I will build myself a huge palace with roomy upper rooms." So he cuts out windows for it, lines it with cedar, and paints it bright red.

14That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

NoteCutting windows into thick walls, panelling the interior with imported cedar, and painting with vermilion, a costly bright red pigment, are the three showiest and most expensive touches available to a builder of the period. The king being described is Jehoiakim, who built while his country was paying heavy tribute.

15Does being king mean outdoing everyone in cedar? Your father had plenty to eat and drink, and he did what was just and right, and things went well for him.

15Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

Note"Your father" is Josiah, remembered as a just king. "Had plenty to eat and drink" is not a criticism: it means he enjoyed a secure, prosperous reign without needing to display it in architecture.

16He took up the case of the poor and needy, and things went well. Is that not what it means to know me? says the LORD.

16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.

17But your eyes and your heart are set on nothing except your own dishonest gain, on killing innocent people, and on crushing and cheating others.

17But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

Note"Dishonest gain" translates a Hebrew word for profit cut out of other people by force or fraud, the proceeds of extortion rather than of trade.

18So this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: No one will mourn for him and say, "Oh, my brother!" or "Oh, my sister!" No one will mourn and say, "Oh, my master!" or "Oh, his splendor!"

18Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

Note"Oh, my brother!" and "Oh, my master!" are set formulas cried aloud at a funeral, the fixed words of a public lament. To say no one will cry them is to say he will get no funeral at all.

19He will be buried the way a donkey is buried, dragged away and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

NoteA donkey's carcass was simply dragged outside the city and left. Denial of proper burial (and burial outside the city, away from the family tomb) was among the deepest disgraces imaginable in this culture, especially for a king.

20Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from the mountain passes, because everyone who loved you has been crushed.

20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.

NoteLebanon in the north, Bashan in the northeast, and the mountain passes (the Hebrew may name the Abarim range east of the Dead Sea) are the high ground on three sides of Judah, high places from which a cry carries. "Those who loved you" are the allied nations Judah had courted for protection; the same word is used elsewhere for unfaithful lovers.

21I spoke to you when you were safe and doing well, but you said, "I will not listen." This is how you have acted since you were young; you have not obeyed me.

21I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

22The wind will carry off all your shepherds, and those who loved you will be taken away as prisoners. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all the evil you have done.

22The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

Note"Shepherds" was ordinary ancient political vocabulary for kings and officials, not a religious term. There is a pun in the Hebrew: the word for wind (ruach) plays against the word for shepherd (ro'eh).

23You who live in Lebanon, nesting among the cedars, how you will groan when the pains grip you, pain like a woman giving birth.

23O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

NoteJerusalem's palace is addressed as though it were Lebanon itself, because it was built of Lebanon cedar, a bird nesting high and safe among the beams, about to be brought down.

24As surely as I live, says the LORD, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off.

24As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

NoteConiah is a shortened form of Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah: Jehoiakim's son, king for three months before being deported to Babylon in 597 BC. A signet ring was engraved with its owner's personal seal and used to stamp documents into law; it was kept on the hand at all times and was effectively the owner's identity and authority in physical form.

25I will hand you over to those who want to kill you, to the men whose faces you dread, to Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans.

25And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

NoteNebuchadrezzar is a spelling closer to the Babylonian original than the more familiar Nebuchadnezzar; they are the same king. "Chaldeans" is the term used throughout Jeremiah for the Babylonians, after the southern Mesopotamian people from whom that dynasty came.

26I will throw you out, along with the mother who gave birth to you, into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you will both die.

26And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.

NoteThe king's mother held a recognized position at court in Judah, ranking above the king's wives; naming her alongside him means the whole ruling household is being removed. Jehoiachin's mother was Nehushta, and the record of the 597 BC deportation lists her among the captives.

27And they will never come back to the land they long to return to.

27But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.

28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot? Is he a jar that nobody wants? Why are he and his children thrown out, tossed into a country they do not know?

28Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?

NoteBroken pottery had no value and no use: unlike metal it could not be melted down and remade, so a cracked jar was simply thrown on the rubbish heap. The verse is a question, and it is not clear whether the speaker is the prophet, the crowd, or the LORD.

29Land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!

29O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

NoteThe Hebrew word repeated three times, 'erets, means both the ground and the country. Threefold repetition is the strongest emphasis the language has, and the form is that of a public summons, calling the land itself to hear the verdict.

30This is what the LORD says: Record this man as childless, a man who will not succeed in his lifetime. None of his descendants will succeed in sitting on David's throne or ruling in Judah again.

30Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

Note"Record" is the language of an official register or legal roll. Jehoiachin did in fact have sons in exile, so "childless" here is a dynastic verdict rather than a biological one: no son of his will ever hold the throne.