Jeremiah 22
22
1 Thus says the Lord: "Descend to the house of the king of Judah, and there you shall speak this word.
2 And you shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits upon the throne of David: you and your servants, and your people, who enter through these gates.
3 Thus says the Lord: Exercise judgment and justice, and free anyone who is oppressed by violence from the hand of a false accuser. And do not be willing to sadden the new arrival, or the orphan, or the widow, nor should you burden them unfairly. And you shall not shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you will indeed accomplish this word, then there will enter through the gates of this house kings from the stock of David, sitting on his throne, and riding on chariots and on horses: they, and their servants, and their people.
5 But if you will not listen to these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house will be in desolation.
6 For thus says the Lord about the house of the king of Judah: You are to me like Gilead, the head of Lebanon. Certainly, I will make you desolate, with uninhabitable cities.
7 And I will sanctify over you the destroying man and his weapons. And they will cut down your select cedars and throw them violently into the fire.
8 And many nations will pass through this city. And each one will say to his neighbor: 'Why has the Lord acted in this way toward this great city?'
9 And they will answer: 'It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and they adored strange gods and served them.'
10 You should not choose to weep for the dead, nor should you mourn over them with tears. Lament for him who is departing, for he will return no more, nor will he see his native land again.
11 For thus says the Lord to Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned in place of his father, who has departed from this place: He will not return here again.
12 Instead, he will die in the place to which I have transferred him, and he will not see this land anymore.
13 Woe to one who builds his house with injustice and his upper rooms without judgment, who oppresses his friend without cause and does not pay him his wages.
14 And he says: 'I will build a broad house for myself, with spacious upper rooms.' He makes windows for himself, and he builds the roof out of cedar, and he paints it with red ocher.
15 Will you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar? Did your father not eat and drink, and act with judgment and justice, so that it would be well with him?
16 He judged the case of the poor and the indigent for their good. Was this not because he knew me, says the Lord?
17 Yet truly, your eyes and your heart are toward avarice and the shedding of innocent blood, and toward false accusations and the pursuit of evil deeds.
18 Because of this, thus says the Lord toward Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not mourn for him by saying, 'Alas,' to a brother, or, 'Alas,' to a sister. They will not make a noise for him and say, 'Alas,' to a master, or, 'Alas,' to a nobleman.
19 He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, having rotted and been thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Ascend to Lebanon and cry out! And utter your voice in Bashan, and cry out to those passing by. For all your lovers have been crushed.
21 I spoke to you in your abundance, and you said, 'I will not listen.' This has been your way from your youth, for you have not listened to my voice.
22 The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. And then you will be confounded, and you will be ashamed of all your wickedness.
23 You who sit in Lebanon, and who nest in the cedars, in what way did you mourn when suffering came to you, like the suffering of a woman giving birth?
24 As I live, says the Lord, if Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a ring on my right hand, I would remove him from there.
25 And I will deliver you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you dread, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will send you, and your mother who conceived you, into a foreign land, in which you were not born, and there you shall die.
27 And to the land about which they lift up their mind, thinking to return there, they shall not return.
28 Is this man, Jeconiah, a broken earthenware vessel? Is he a vessel which is entirely unpleasing? Why have they been cast out, he and his offspring, cast out even into a land that they have not known?
29 O earth, O earth, O earth! Listen to the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord: Write: this man is barren; he is a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from among his offspring who will sit upon the throne of David, or have authority in Judah, anymore."
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Jeremiah 22: CPDV
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Jeremiah 22
22
1Thus says the Lord: Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and there deliver this word: 2You shall say: Listen to the word of the Lord, king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your ministers, and your people who enter by these gates!#Jer 17:20. 3Thus says the Lord: Do what is right and just. Rescue the victims from the hand of their oppressors. Do not wrong or oppress the resident alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.#Jer 21:12; Ex 22:21–24; Dt 24:17. 4If you carry out these commands, kings who succeed to the throne of David will continue to enter the gates of this house, riding in chariots or mounted on horses, with their ministers, and their people. 5But if you do not obey these commands, I swear by myself—oracle of the Lord: this house shall become rubble. 6For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:
Though you be to me like Gilead,
like the peak of Lebanon,
I swear I shall turn you into a waste,
with cities uninhabited.
7Against you I will send destroyers,
each with their tools:
They shall cut down your choice cedars,
and cast them into the fire.#Jer 21:14.
8Many nations will pass by this city and ask one another: “Why has the Lord done this to so great a city?”#Dt 29:24–27. 9And they will be told: “Because they have deserted their covenant with the Lord, their God, by worshiping and serving other gods.”#Jer 19:4; 40:2–3.
Jehoahaz
10Do not weep for him who is dead,#Him who is dead: Josiah. His successor, Jehoahaz, was deported by Pharaoh Neco to Egypt, where he died (2 Kgs 23:33–34).
nor mourn for him!
Weep rather for him who is going away;
never again to see
the land of his birth.#2 Chr 35:23–25.
11Thus says the Lord concerning Shallum,#Shallum: i.e., Jehoahaz; cf. 1 Chr 3:15. This may have been his name at birth, in which case Jehoahaz would have been his throne name. son of Josiah, king of Judah, his father’s successor, who left this place: He shall never return, 12but in the place where they exiled him, there he shall die; he shall never see this land again.
Jehoiakim
13Woe to him who builds his house on wrongdoing,
his roof-chambers on injustice;
Who works his neighbors without pay,#Without pay: either by forced labor in public works, or by defrauding the workers. Despite the impoverishment caused in Judah by the payment of foreign tribute, Jehoiakim embarked on a building program in Jerusalem (v. 14); cedar was an expensive building material which had to be imported. Social injustice is the cause of much of the prophetic condemnation of the kings (v. 17).
and gives them no wages.#Lv 19:13; Dt 24:14; Hb 2:9, 12.
14Who says, “I will build myself a spacious house,
with airy rooms,”
Who cuts out windows for it,
panels it with cedar,
and paints it with vermilion.
15Must you prove your rank among kings#The rule of Josiah, Jehoiakim’s father, shows that authentic kingship is rooted in knowledge of the Lord and creates a society in which the most disadvantaged can expect and receive justice.
by competing with them in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink,
And act justly and righteously?
Then he prospered.#2 Sm 5:11; 7:2; 2 Kgs 23:25.
16Because he dispensed justice to the weak and the poor,
he prospered.
Is this not to know me?—
oracle of the Lord.#Prv 31:9.
17But your eyes and heart are set on nothing
except your own gain,
On shedding innocent blood
and practicing oppression and extortion.#Ez 22:13, 27.
18Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They shall not lament him,
“Alas! my brother”; “Alas! sister.”#“Alas! my brother”; “Alas! sister”: customary cries of mourning.
They shall not lament him,
“Alas, Lord! alas, Majesty!”#Jer 16:4–7; 1 Kgs 13:30.
19The burial of a donkey#The burial of a donkey: no burial at all, except to be cast outside the city as refuse. This prophecy describes the popular feeling toward Jehoiakim rather than the actual circumstances of his burial. According to 2 Kgs 24:5 he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem. he shall be given,
dragged forth and cast out
beyond the gates of Jerusalem.#Jer 36:30.
Jeconiah
20Climb Lebanon and cry out,#The prophet first bids Jerusalem to scale Lebanon, Bashan, and Abarim, i.e., the highest surrounding mountains to the north, northeast, and southeast, and gaze on the ruin of its lovers, i.e., the false leaders of Judah, called its shepherds (v. 22); cf. 2:8. Jerusalem still stands (v. 23), apparently as secure as the heights of Lebanon, but destruction is to follow (cf. v. 6).
in Bashan lift up your voice;
Cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers are crushed.#Jer 30:14–15; Dt 32:49.
21I spoke to you when you were secure,
but you answered, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way from your youth,
not to listen to my voice.
22The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
your lovers shall go into exile.
Surely then you shall be ashamed and confounded
because of all your wickedness.
23You who dwell on Lebanon,
who nest in the cedars,
How you shall groan when pains come upon you,
like the pangs of a woman in childbirth!
24As I live—oracle of the Lord—even if you, Coniah,#Coniah: a shortened form of Jeconiah, the name Jeremiah gives King Jehoiachin (cf. 24:1). A signet ring: the seal used by kings and other powerful figures—a symbol of their power and status—mounted in a ring worn constantly on the hand. The Lord says that even were Jehoiachin such a precious possession, he would reject him. Hg 2:23 uses the same imagery to signal the restoration of Zerubbabel. The words in Jer 22:24–30 date from the short three-month reign of Jehoiachin, before he was deported by Nebuchadnezzar. son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring#Hg 2:23. on my right hand, I would snatch you off. 25I will hand you over to those who seek your life, to those you dread: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans.#Jer 21:7; 34:20. 26I will cast you out, you and the mother who bore you,#You and the mother who bore you: the queen mother held a special position in the monarchy of Judah, and in the Books of Kings she is invariably mentioned by name along with the king (1 Kgs 15:2; 2 Kgs 18:2). Jehoiachin did indeed die in Babylon. into a land different from the land of your birth; and there you will die;#2 Kgs 24:15. 27Neither shall return to the land for which they yearn.#Jer 44:14.
28Is this man Coniah a thing despised, to be broken,
a vessel that no one wants?
Why are he and his offspring cast out?
why thrown into a land they do not know?
29O land, land, land,
hear the word of the Lord—
30Thus says the Lord:
#Jer 36:30; 1 Chr 3:16–17; Mt 1:12. Write this man down as childless,#Childless: Jehoiachin is considered childless because none of his seven sons became king. His grandson Zerubbabel presided for a time over the Judahite community after the return from exile, but not as king. According to Ezekiel, whose oracles are dated by Jehoiachin’s fictitious regnal years, the people expected Jehoiachin to return. Jeremiah’s prophecy dispels this hope, despite the words of Hananiah (28:4).
a man who will never prosper in his life!
Nor shall any of his descendants prosper,
to sit upon the throne of David,
to rule again over Judah.
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