A Warning to Judah’s Kings
1This is what Yahweh says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there, 2saying, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you and your officials and your people who enter these gates. 3This is what Yahweh says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.
4For if you will indeed carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses—they and their officials and their people. 5But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by Myself, declares Yahweh, that this house will become a pile of rubble.’”
A Warning about the Palace
6For this is what Yahweh says concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are like Gilead to Me,
like the summit of Lebanon;
but I will surely turn you into a desert,
like cities that are uninhabited.
7I will appoint destroyers against you,
each man with his weapons,
and they will cut down the choicest of your cedars
and throw them into the fire.
8And many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why has Yahweh done such a thing to this great city?’
9Then people will reply, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of Yahweh their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’”
- JER 22:9[DEMONIC]Jerusalem fell because they served other gods
A Warning about Shallum
10Do not weep for him who is dead;
do not mourn his loss.
Weep bitterly for him who is exiled,
for he will never return
to see his native land.
11For this is what Yahweh says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah but has gone forth from this place: “He will never return, 12but he will die in the place to which he was exiled; he will never see this land again.”
- JER 22:11[PROPHECY]Shallum, also called Jehoahaz, would die in exile and never see Judah again → 2KI 23:34
A Warning about Jehoiakim
13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
and his upper rooms without justice,
who makes his countrymen serve without pay,
and fails to pay their wages,
14who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace,
with spacious upper rooms.’
So he cuts windows in it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with vermilion.
15Does it make you a king to excel in cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
He administered justice and righteousness,
and so it went well with him.
16He took up the cause of the poor and needy,
and so it went well with him.
Is this not what it means to know Me?”
declares Yahweh.
17“But your eyes and heart are set on nothing
except your own dishonest gain,
on shedding innocent blood,
on practicing extortion and oppression.”
18Therefore this is what Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
“They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’
They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
- JER 22:18[PROPHECY]Jehoiakim would be buried with the burial of a donkey → HISTORY: Nebuchadnezzar killed King Jehoiakim and had his body thrown outside the walls of Jerusalem without burial, about 598 BC. Recorded by Josephus, Antiquities 10.6.3.MEDIUM
19He will be buried like a donkey,
dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
raise your voice in Bashan;
cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers have been crushed.
21I warned you when you were secure.
You said, ‘I will not listen.’
This has been your way from youth,
that you have not obeyed My voice.
22The wind will drive away all your shepherds,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your wickedness.
23O inhabitant of Lebanon,
nestled in the cedars,
how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you,
agony like a woman in labor.”
A Warning to Coniah
24“As surely as I live,” declares Yahweh, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you off. 25In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who want to take your life—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die. 27You will never return to the land for which you long.”
- JER 22:24[PROPHECY]Coniah and his mother would be hurled into a foreign land and die there → 2KI 24:15; JER 52:31-34
28Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot,
a jar that no one wants?
Why are he and his descendants hurled out
and cast into a land they do not know?
29O land, land, land,
hear the word of Yahweh!
30This is what Yahweh says:
“Enroll this man as childless,
a man who will not prosper in his lifetime.
None of his descendants will prosper
to sit on the throne of David
or to rule again in Judah.”
- JER 22:30[PROPHECY]Coniah (Jehoiachin) → HISTORY: King Jehoiachin was taken to Babylon in 597 BC, and none of his descendants ever ruled as king in Jerusalem. Babylonian ration tablets found in Babylon name him and his sons as captives.
- JER 22:30[NOTE]CHILDLESS. Not that Coniah had no children; he had seven sons, 1 Chronicles 3:17 to 18. None of them would sit on David's throne. Matthew traces Jesus' legal line through Jeconiah to Joseph, Matthew 1:11 to 12. Many Christians say Jesus is David's Son by blood through Mary, from David's son Nathan, Luke 3:31, so the curse is kept and the promise too. Others answer it in other ways, like God lifting the curse in Haggai 2:23.