Jeremiah 22
OGCREVIEW OF CHAPTER TWELVE
I. Facts to Master.
The occasion of the oracle addressed to king Zedekiah (Jeremiah 21:1-2).
The two ways God placed before the people (Jeremiah 21:8),
That which Jeremiah urged the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do (Jeremiah 21:9).
The identity of Shallum and his fate (Jeremiah 22:11-12).
The type of burial predicted for Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:19).
Identity of the lovers in Jeremiah 22:20-21.
Identity of Coniah and his fate (Jeremiah 22:25).
Identity of the shepherds who had scattered the flock of God (Jeremiah 23:2).
Description of the King whom God would raise Up (Jeremiah 23:5).
Three activities of the coming King (Jeremiah 23:5).
The name of the coming King (Jeremiah 23:6).
The group of leaders to whom a long sermon is addressed in chapter 23.
The two wicked cities to which God compares the inhabitants of Judah (Jeremiah 23:14).
The basic message of the false prophets (Jeremiah 23:17).
Test of the veracity of a prophet (Jeremiah 23:22).
Two metaphors depicting the Word of God (Jeremiah 23:29).
The expression which Jeremiah is no longer to use (Jeremiah 23:33-36).
That which the Lord showed Jeremiah (Jeremiah 24:1-2).
The significance of the good and bad figs (Jeremiah 24:4-10).
The date of the messages in chapter 25 (Jeremiah 25:1).
The length of time Jeremiah had thus far been preaching (Jeremiah 25:3).
The commander of the armies of the north (Jeremiah 25:9).
The length of time the nations would serve the king of Babylon (Jeremiah 25:11).
That which would transpire after the seventy years (Jeremiah 25:12-14).
That which Jeremiah was to cause the nations to drink (Jeremiah 25:15).
II. Questions to Ponder.
Was Jeremiah a traitor in view of the counsel which he offered the people in time of war? Jeremiah 21:9.
To the reign of what king can Jeremiah 21:11 to Jeremiah 22:9 be as signed? In this passage what is (a) the exhortation, (b) the promise, (c) the warning?
What can you deduce about the reign of Jehoiakim from Jeremiah 22:13-17?
Did Jehoiachin have children? See Jeremiah 22:30; 1 Chronicles 3:17-18; and Jehoiachin tablets in Documents from Old Testament Times. pp. 84-86. In what sense would he be childless?
What is the New Exodus predicted in Jeremiah 23:8? How does it exceed the great Exodus from Egypt?
Why does Jeremiah react as he does in Jeremiah 23:9?
How were the prophets of Jerusalem worse than the prophets of Samaria? Jeremiah 23:13-14.
By what methods did the false prophets try to imitate the true prophets? Is this true today as well? see Jeremiah 23:23-32.
Why is Jeremiah told to abandon the prophetic terminology burden of the Lord? (Jeremiah 23:33-38) What good Bible terms are misused or misapplied today? Should such terms continue to be used by New Testament Christians?
Should chapter 25 be dated before or after the battle of Carchemish? See Jeremiah 25:1.
Did Jeremiah literally take a cup and pass it among the nations? (Jeremiah 25:15; Jeremiah 25:17; Jeremiah 25:28) How might this have been possible?
What peculiarity is to be found in the Septuagint version of chapter 25?
Who was the king of Sheshach? Jeremiah 25:26.
What judgment is being described in Jeremiah 25:30-38?
SPECIAL STUDY JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES AND THE SEVENTY YEARS PROPHECY
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made Jeremiah’s seventy years prophecy the basis for all chronology prior to 539 B.C., the year that Babylon fell to Cyrus. They assume that the seventy years are to be counted back from 537 B.C., the date they assign to the return of the Jews in the first year of Cyrus. This yields the date 607 for the 18th (or 19th) year of Nebuchadnezzar when Jerusalem was destroyed (Jeremiah 52:29; Jeremiah 52:12). So certain are the Witnesses that their methodology is correct that they are willing to toss aside all the standard chronological works and declare that they alone have the key to Bible chronology.
It is important to note that these students accept 539 B.C. uncritically as an absolute date from which to begin their count. They never state WHY they accept 539 as a starting point or WHY 539 is an absolute date. They fail to realize that 539 was reached by the same methodology which they reject for the years prior to 539. The truly absolute years in antiquity are those in which astronomers can pin-point an eclipse of the sun. The year 539 was not such a year. It was computed by adding together the regnal years of dozens of kings, both Assyrian and Babylonian and adding them (or subtracting them as the case might be) to some absolute year. Now if this process is accepted for arriving at the year 539, why is it invalid for the years prior to 539? Since the Jehovah’s Witnesses repudiate standard chronology, they are faced with the embarrassing prospects of talking about kings who were taken off thrones before they were ever put on thrones and men dying before they were born. Though they never mention this in their books, the Witnesses are forced to redate every Egyptian, Assyrian, Hittite, and Mitannian king prior to 539. It never seems to occur to these people that their understanding of Jeremiah’s seventy year prophecy might just be faulty. Most Bible believing Christians are perfectly at home within the framework of the standard chronology which has been painstakingly established by means of astronomy, archaeology, and scientific historiography. They find the seventy years prophecy a marvelous confirmation of the word of God. They do not have to resort to manipulation of ancient history and juggling of years as do the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In the interest of truth, and with a sincere desire to aid those who want to know the plain truth, this special study is offered.
I. WHAT WAS THE SEVENTY YEARS PERIOD?
In order to ascertain the precise significance of the seventy years period it will be necessary to examine carefully each of the verses in the Old Testament which speak of this period.
When seventy years are completed for (literally, to) Babylon, I will visit you (the Israelites).
This verse shows that the seventy years is allotted to Babylon i.e., to the world dominion of the Neo-Babylon empire. NO MENTION IS MADE HERE OF ANY SEVENTY YEARS OF DESOLATION IN JERUSALEM.
NOW I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him. All nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes.
Surely this passage is dealing with the seventy years. The nations will serve Nebuchadnezzar for a set period of time. At the end of that period of time, Babylon will be overthrown. Now this prophecy was given in the reign of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 27:3) and it appears that the prophet is saying that the period of service to the Babylonian king has already begun.
This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Then after seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the LORD, making the land an everlasting waste.
Again these verses do not assert that the land of Judah and Jerusalem would lie desolate for seventy years. The seventy years are THE YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE KING OF BABYLON BY ALL THE NATIONS. After the seventy years, the king of Babylon will be destroyed.
The seventy year period need not be a literal period of that length. It may be a symbolic number or round number. The use of round numbers in the Bible is not uncommon. In Genesis 15:13, for example, the figure 400 years is given for the length of the Egyptian bondage of the Israelites. This Egyptian bondage actually lasted 430 years (Exodus 12:40). It is not difficult to discover why the figure seventy years was chosen by Jeremiah for his prophecy of the LENGTH OF BABYLONIAN WORLD POWER. Seven in the Bible is a perfect number and ten appears to be the number of worldly power. So ten times seven is seventy, the complete number of years which God allotted to the dominion of Babylon. The number seventy in Jeremiah’s prophecy is symbolic and there is no reason to assume a priori that it was ever intended to be understood as seventy years to the day.
D. Daniel 9:2
In the first year of his reign (Darius, the Mede) I Daniel perceived in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
This passage simply tells us that at the end of seventy years the desolation in Palestine must cease. Jeremiah had predicted that at the end of the seventy years of Babylonian world dominion, God would destroy the king of Babylon and deliver His people from bondage (Jeremiah 29:10 f). Thus Daniel knew that shortly the Jews would be returning to rebuild the waste places of Judah since the seventy years were completed.
II. WHEN DID THE SEVENTY YEARS BEGIN?
The seventy years could not have begun before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, for this was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 25:1). The Babylonian king took the throne in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 B.C.). This was also the year in which he invaded the Hatti land (Syria-Palestine) and received heavy tribute from ALL the kings there.[232] In this year he besieged the city of Jerusalem, succeeded in binding Jehoiakim the king of Judah with fetters to carry him to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6-7) but finally allowed him to remain as a Babylonian vassal of Judah (2 Kings 24:1). Apparently Jehoiakim was forced to render tribute to his new master and to send hostages to Babylon according to the custom of that time (Daniel 1:1-2).
[232] See Documents from Old Testament Times, op cit.,p. 79.
Thus the FOURTH YEAR OF JEHOIAKIM (first year of Nebuchadnezzar) was a crucial year for Judah. This was the year that brought Jerusalem, and Judah under the yoke of Babylon. It was the beginning of the service to the king of Babylon prophesied by Jeremiah.
The prophecy of the seventy years was first given in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1). Jeremiah predicted that Nebuchadnezzar would come (Jeremiah 25:9) and he did come, that very year. This was the year that Judah and all the kingdoms of Syria-Palestine began to SERVE THE KING OF BABYLON (Jeremiah 25:11). The nations which Jeremiah had in mind are mentioned in Jeremiah 25:18-26. These nations were not all conquered nor left desolate in a year or even several years. They were gradually brought under the control of Babylon. But when did this service to the king of Babylon begin? Most of the nations mentioned came under the control of Babylon in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign when he marched victoriously in the Hatti land. The city of Ashkelon, mentioned by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:20), was in fact CAPTURED in the first year of Nebuchadnezzar.[233] Ashkelon’s service to the king of Babylon must have begun in that year not some nineteen years later as required in the chronology of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
[233] Ibid.
Jeremiah seems to indicate that he considered the desolation to have already begun in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. In Jeremiah 25:18 the prophet states: Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and princes, to make them a desolation, and a waste, a hissing and a curse AS AT THIS DAY. Since this prophecy was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 25:1) what more conclusive proof is needed on the matter of when the desolations were to begin?
Generally in Bible prophecy desolation which is predicted upon a country comes on the country gradually, not all at once. Take the Babylon prophecies for instance. At the end of seventy years God promises to visit Babylon and make it an everlasting desolation (Jeremiah 25:12). But at the end of seventy years Babylon was merely captured. It did not become a desolation immediately. For some years the city thrived but during all those years Babylon was GRADUALLY becoming a complete desolation. The same applies to Jerusalem and Judah. With Nebuchadnezzar’s attack in 605 the land GRADUALLY began to become desolate. That desolation of course reached its height in 587 when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed. But the desolation BEGAN in 605, the first year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
The desolation which Jerusalem was to experience was to involve MORE THAN ONE KING. The plural kings and princes in Jeremiah 25:18 is important. Again this points to 605, the fourth year of Jehoiakim (first year of Nebuchadnezzar), as the beginning of the seventy year period. Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah would all be involved in the fulfillment. Even when Jehoiakim attempted to rebel against the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar sent warriors to ravish the land of Judah (2 Kings 24:1-2). How could the desolation of Jerusalem be said to involve KINGS if in fact it began in the 11th year of Zedekiah, last king of Judah, as the Jehovah’s Witnesses claim.
Important in this discussion is the passage found in 2 Chronicles 36:20-21,
He (Nebuchadnezzar) took into exile unto Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they were servants to him and his sons until the dominion of the kingdom of Persia (21) to fulfill (literally, to fill up) the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept its sabbaths, to fulfill (literally, to fill up) the seventy years. At the time of the destruction of Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar took additional exiles to Babylon. There they were servants to the king of Babylon. This FILLED UP the prophecy of Jeremiah. This verse does not say that the service to the king of Babylon BEGAN with the deportation after the destruction of Jerusalem. Both the Bible and secular history agree that the Jews BEGAN to serve the king of Babylon some nineteen years earlier. This service in exile was to FILL UP the seventy years prophecy of Jeremiah, i.e., to fill up the remaining years of service to the king of Babylon. The service to the king of Babylon was to last until the beginning of the dominion of the Persian empire.
This service to the king of Babylon was also to last until the land of Palestine had enjoyed its sabbaths. This is an obvious reference to Leviticus 25. The Law of Moses provided for a sabbatical year (every seventh year) in which the land went untilled. At the end of seven sabbaths of years (49 years) a year of jubilee was celebrated in which captives went free and land reverted back to the original owners. According to the standard chronology Jerusalem fell in 587 and the captives returned home to claim their land in 538, exactly 49 years. During the last part of Jeremiah’s seventy year period the land of Palestine did keep its sabbaths-seven sabbatical years of time. These 49 years of sabbath rest for the land and continued service to the king of Babylon in Babylonia, filled up the remaining portion of Jeremiah’s prophecy of seventy years of service to the king of Babylon.
In the first year of Cyrus (538-537) the captives experienced their jubilee yearthey were released from their servitude and returned to their original possessions.
III. WHEN DID THE SEVENTY YEARS END?
The seventy years plainly ended with the overthrow of Babylon, not the return of the Jews as claimed by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Then AFTER seventy years are complete, I will punish the king of Babylon. Babylon was punished in 539. Thus this must be the end of the seventy year period. The Jehovah’s Witnesses acknowledge that Babylon fell in 539. They claim that the seventy years began in 607. This is a period of only 68 years. How do the Witnesses explain that AFTER seventy years the king of Babylon will be punished? Was Jeremiah wrong? OR are the Jehovah’s Witnesses wrong when they insist on interpreting the seventy years literally as seventy years to the day?
When seventy years are completed FOR BABYLON, I will visit you (the Israelites). The seventy year period allotted to Babylon ended when Babylon fell in 539. It is AFTER that period is completed that God visits His people.
NOW in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom.
The proclamation of Cyrus releasing the Jews filled up the words of Jeremiah because Jeremiah had predicted that AFTER the seventy year period the Jews would be released. This verse does not indicate that the year or so between the fall of Babylon and the actual return of the Jews to Palestine was to be INCLUDED in the seventy year period as the Witnesses claim.
IV. THE SEVENTY YEARS OF INDIGNATION
In addition to Jeremiah’s prophecy of the seventy years of service to the king of Babylon there is a second, altogether different, seventy years period mentioned in Zechariah 1:12; Zechariah 7:5.
How long will You not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah against which You have had indignation these seventy years?
This question was asked by the angel of the Lord in a vision seen by Zechariah in the second year of Darius, 520 B.C. Jerusalem still had not been fully restored. The Temple had not even been built yet. Because the Temple of the Lord was being neglected the people were under the wrath of God. God had sent a desolation (Hebrew chorev). See Haggai 1:3-11. There was drought and crop failure. This was the seventy years of indignation which began with the destruction of the Temple and ended with the rebuilding of that same Temple in 516 B.C.
This passage alone is sufficient to prove that the Jehovah’s Witnesses chronology is completely wrong. They place the destruction of the Temple in 607. But the Temple was not rebuilt until 516, a period of NINETY-ONE YEARS. How can the Witnesses fit this seventy year period mentioned by Zechariah into their chronology?
Say to all the people of the land to the priests, When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?
Again the seventy year period since the destruction of the Temple is referred to. In this chapter the people are concerned as to whether it is any longer necessary to observe certain fast days now that the Temple was being rebuilt. For seventy years, 587-516 they had been observing fasts in the 5th and 7th month (Jeremiah 7:5) as well as in the 4th and 10th month (Jeremiah 8:19). These are not fasts required in the Law of Moses but fasts which commemorated events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. They had a fast to bewail the beginning of the siege of Jerusalem (10th month), the breech in the walls of Jerusalem (4th month), the burning of the city (5th month), and the death of Gedaliah (7th month). Now that the Temple was being rebuilt they wanted to know whether or not they should keep these fasts.
Again let it be noted that the period from the destruction of the Temple to the rebuilding of some was seventy years, NOT NINETY-ONE YEARS AS NECESSITATED BY THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES.
V. OBJECTIONS To THE JEHOVAH’S WITNESS-’ VIEW THAT JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED AND ZEDEKIAH REMOVED FROM THE THRONE IN 607 B.C.
NOTE: Page references in the following comments refer to Babylon the Great bus Eden published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society.
The Jehovah Witnesses have a profound misunderstanding of the means by which ancient chronology is established. On page 138 the writers assert that chronologers base their calculations on the astronomical Canon of Ptolemy whose system of astronomy has long since been exploded (p. 138). As a matter of fact the exact reigns of certain Assyrian kings can be computed on the basis of astronomical data contained in Assyrian King Lists which are contemporary with the events which they recorded. For example, an eclipse of the sun is recorded in the 9th year of the Assyrian king Ashurdan III. By means of astronomy this can be computed to have been on June 15, 763. This date is confirmed by the Canon of Ptolemy. From this date the reigns of all the Assyrian kings and neo-Babylonian kings can be computed by means of various king lists and building inscriptions. It is interesting that one of the truly absolute dates in antiquity Isaiah 853 the famous battle of Qarqar at which king Ahab was present. He is actually named in the records of king Shalmaneser III. But according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses Ahab died in 922SIXTY-NINE YEARS BEFORE HE WAS PRESENT AT THE BATTLE OF QARQAR. The misunderstanding of Jeremiah’s seventy year prophecy has thrown off the chronology of the Witnesses.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses twist the Scriptures to make them fit predetermined theories of history. On page 136-37 the Witnesses assert that there were no captives taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. In order to maintain this false position the Witnesses twist Daniel 1:1. They assert that the third year of Jehoiakim mentioned here is not the third year of Jehoiakim’s reign but the third year of his vassalship to Nebuchadnezzar.
BUT NO OTHER PLACE IN THE BIBLE OR IN THE LITERATURE OF THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST DID ANY KING DATE HIS REIGN ACCORDING To HIS VASSALSHIP TO A FOREIGN RULER.
Here again the Witnesses reveal their ignorance of simple facts about the ancient Near East. To any unprejudiced mind Daniel 1:1 plainly means that Nebuchadnezzar did take hostages to Babylon in the first year of his reign which was also the 3rd year of Jehoiakim by the Babylonian method of reckoning regnal years.
In repudiating the scientific chronology prior to 539 the Witnesses make no attempt to point out where the reasoning of the historians has gone astray (p. 372). Now there is nothing wrong with suggesting that every chronologer outside the Witnesses-’ sect is wrong. But it would only seem fair that anyone who would make such a suggestion would indicate where everyone else went wrong in their thinking. THIS THE WITNESSES NEVER BOTHER TO DO. It is known from Babylonian records that Nebuchadnezzar reigned 43 years, his son Amel-Marduk reigned two years. The next king reigned 4 years, his son three months and Nabonidus, the last king of Babylon, seventeen years. This totals 66+ years. BUT THE WITNESSES MAKE THE BABYLONIAN EMPIRE LAST FOR 85 YEARS. Where do these additional years fit in? Was there some king who reigned for 20 years about whom the cuneiform sources, the Bible, the classical historians, and Jewish tradition knew nothing? What king that reigned 20 years could have been COMPLETELY forgotten? Did any of the five kings mentioned above reign more than the time assigned to them by the historians? If so, which one? The Witnesses are silent. Not one shred of proof is offered. The Witnesses ASSUME (without evidence) that the Hebrew word translated desolation means without inhabitant. They further ASSUME that when the Jews made their hasty exit to Egypt following the death of Gedaliah that ALL the people left the country. Judah was left without inhabitant (pp. 163, 64).
Now these ASSUMPTIONS are hard to reconcile with the plain statement of Jer 52:30 which records a deportation of Jews to Babylon FIVE YEARS AFTER JERUSALEM WAS DESTROYED. But here again the Witnesses twist the evidence. They assert without a shred of proof that these were not taken off the land of Judah but were captured when Nebuchadnezzar made nations that bordered on the desolated land of Judah drink of the bitter potion of being violently conquered (p. 167). Any unprejudiced mind can see here an effort to MAKE the Bible say what one WANTS it to say. Jeremiah 52:28-30 records three deportations of the Jews, the first two of which were off the land of Judah. By what rule of interpretation is one to assume that the third deportation mentioned here was not off the land of Judah?
Conclusion
There are in the Bible TWO SEVENTY YEAR periods. The first of these was prophesied by Jeremiah in 605 and began in that year. It lasted until 539, the year in which the Neo-Babylonian Empire came to an end. The prophet uses a symbolic number to represent the period of Babylonian domination. The second seventy year period began with the destruction of the Temple (587) and lasted until the rebuilding of the Temple (516). The Jehovah’s Witnesses declare that there were 2,520 years in the times of the Gentiles. (Your will be done On Earth, p. 104). Adding these years to 607 they arrive at the year 1914 for the beginning of the reign of Christ. But since the Witnesses are wrong about the date of the fall of Jerusalem, then THE WITNESSES MUST BE WRONG ABOUT THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES ENDING IN 1914.
Now since the Witnesses have been using both 607 and 1914 as foundation stones in their system of prophetic interpretation, and since they are WRONG on both dates, one certainly has ground for suspicion that their whole system of prophetic interpretation is questionable.
Jeremiah 22:1-9
B. General Remarks Regarding the Royal House
TRANSLATION
(1) Thus says the LORD: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, (2) And say, Hear 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 these gates. (3) Thus says the LORD: Execute justice and righteousness and deliver the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor. And do not oppress or do violence to the stranger, orphan or widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. (4) For if you completely comply with this commandment, then kings sitting in David’s stead shall pass through the gates of this house riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. (5) But if you do not hearken to these words, I swear by Myself (oracle of the LORD) that this house shall become a desolation. (6) For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: A Gilead are you to Me, the top of Lebanon! Surely I will make you a wilderness, as cities uninhabited. (7) And I will appoint against you destroyers each man and his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars and cast them upon the fire. (8) And many nations shall pass by this city; and they will say one to another, Why did the LORD deal with this great city in this manner? (9) Then they will say, Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and they bowed down to other gods and served them.
COMMENTS
At some point during the reign of Jehoiakim God sent Jeremiah to the house of the king with an oracle directed to the royal family (Jeremiah 22:1). In this oracle Jeremiah stresses the obligations of the royal house (Jeremiah 22:2-3) and promises that if these obligations are met then the dynasty of David would continue (Jeremiah 22:4). But if the words of God are ignored then the nation is doomed to destruction (Jeremiah 22:5-9).
- Obligations (Jeremiah 22:2-3)
The king and princes who passed through the gates of the palace each day may have been the lineal descendants of David but they certainly were not his spiritual descendants. They were not men after God’s own heart nor were they amenable to the rebuke of a prophet. With Nathan-like boldness Jeremiah meets the king on his own ground to deliver to him the word of the Lord (Jeremiah 22:2). Under the old covenant theocracy the laws of the state were the laws of God. The king was responsible for enforcing those laws and establishing social justice in the land. Specifically the king was to be the defender of the poor and the helpless. But under the tyrant Jehoiakim, the Solomon of the last days of Judah, the people were being ruthlessly oppressed through governmental taxation in order that the king might undertake lavish building projects. (see Jeremiah 22:13 ff.). Jeremiah cries out the necessity for the king to cease oppressing the helpless ones of societythe strangers, orphans and widows. Other nations looked with suspicion on strangers but the Bible teaches tolerance for those of other nationalities. Jeremiah also demands in the name of his God that Jehoiakim cease his violence and the shedding of innocent blood (Jeremiah 22:3). That innocent blood was shed during this period is evident from case of Uriah the prophet who was executed because he spoke out against the king. Jeremiah was putting his life on the line when he preached this sermon at the gates of the royal palace!
- Promise (Jeremiah 22:4)
To his list of royal obligations Jeremiah adds a promise which he has previously made (see Jeremiah 17:25). If the monarch will only heed the message of the prophet the Davidic line will continue to reign in Jerusalem. The king and his servants and attendants would continue to pass through the gate of the palace even as they were doing while Jeremiah spoke these words.
- Threat (Jeremiah 22:1-9)
If the royal family chooses to reject their obligations then the most dire punishments will befall Jerusalem. Because He could sware by no greater, God swears by Himself[218] that the royal dwelling of the king of Judah would become desolate (Jeremiah 22:5). Because of the height of this building and because it was constructed from cedar-wood the prophet calls it figuratively Gilead. the top of Lebanon. Both Gilead and Lebanon were noted in antiquity for their stately forests. Such forests were often denuded in time of war to provide fuel and weapons for an attacking army. So God would bring destruction upon the kingdom of Judah, making that land a virtual wilderness (Jeremiah 22:6). The divinely appointed destroyers will take their weapons and cut down the choice cedars of the land i.e., the princes and leaders of the nation (Jeremiah 22:7). Foreigners who pass by the ruins of Jerusalem will ask one another why the Lord has dealt with the once proud city in this manner (Jeremiah 22:8). They will rightly conclude that the destruction has come upon the land because the people of the Lord forsook their covenant with Him and worshiped other gods (Jeremiah 22:9). Jeremiah is definitely influenced in these last two verses by Deuteronomy 29:23 ff.
[218] The same expression occurs in Jeremiah 49:13; Genesis 22:16; and Isaiah 45:23. A similar expression occurs in Amos 6:8 and Jeremiah 51:14.
Jeremiah 22:10-12
C. Oracles Concerning Specific Kings Jeremiah 22:10-30
Three separate oracles concerning specific kings have been gathered together in Jeremiah 22:10-30. Here Jeremiah speaks of the future of Jehoahaz (Jeremiah 22:10-12), the folly of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13-23) and the fate of Jehoiachin (Jeremiah 22:24-30).
- The future of Jehoahaz (Jeremiah 22:10-12)
TRANSLATION
(10) Do not weep for the dead nor bewail him! Weep bitterly for the one who goes away; for he shall never again see the land of his birth. (11) For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He shall no more return! (12) For in the place where they took him captive, there shall he die and this land he shall not see again.
COMMENTS
After the untimely death of the godly king Josiah at the pass of Megiddo in 609 B.C., the people of the land selected his son Jehoahaz to occupy the throne of Judah. Jehoahaz had reigned but three months when Pharaoh Necho summoned him to Riblah, put him in chains, and deported him to Egypt (2 Kings 23:30 ff.). Jeremiah’s oracle must have been delivered shortly after the deportation of Jehoahaz.
The death of Josiah was bitterly lamented. Even Jeremiah himself joined in the lamentation for this righteous man (2 Chronicles 35:25). But as far as Jeremiah was concerned, tears were more appropriate for Jehoahaz than for Josiah. By his premature death Josiah would be delivered from the horrors of those final years of Judah’s history. But Jehoahaz would live out his life as a captive in a foreign land (Jeremiah 22:10). Though some people apparently believed that Jehoahaz would shortly return from Egypt to reclaim his throne, Jeremiah knows that this will not be the case. He shall not return, cries the prophet. He will never see this land again (Jeremiah 22:11-12). That Shallum here is identical with the Jehoahaz of II Kings is made clear by 1 Chronicles 3:15. Shallum was his given name; Jehoahaz was his throne name.
Jeremiah 22:13-23
- The folly of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13-23)
TRANSLATION
(13) Woe to him that builds his house with unrighteousness and his upper chambers with injustice; who makes his neighbor serve for nothing and does not give his wages to him; (14) who says, I will build for myself a roomy house, with spacious upper rooms, and cuts windows for it, paneling it with cedar, and painting it red. (15) Shall you continue to reign because you are striving earnestly to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and establish justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him. (16) He judged the cause of the poor and needy. Then it was well. Is not this what it means to know Me (oracle of the LORD)? (17) But your eyes and your heart are fixed solely upon your ill-gotten gain, and upon shedding innocent blood and upon practicing oppression and violence. (18) Therefore, thus says the LORD to Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament for him: Ah my brother! or Ah sister! They shall not lament for him: As lord! or Ah his glory! (19) With the burial of an ass shall he be buried, dragged and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (20) Go up to Lebanon and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan, cry out from Abarim! for all of your lovers are destroyed! (21) I spoke unto you in your prosperity. But you said, I will not harken. This has been your way from your youth, that you have not hearkened to My voice. (22) The wind shall shepherd all of your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity; surely then you will be ashamed and perplexed because of all of your evil. (23) O inhabitant of Lebanon, You who make your nest among the cedars, how you are to be pitied when pangs come on you, travail like a woman in childbirth.
COMMENTS
Jehoiakim was placed on the throne of Judah by Pharaoh Necho when Jehoahaz was deported to Egypt in 609 B.C. The stupidity of this monarch was only equaled by his pride, cruelty and covetousness. Jehoiakim was not satisfied to occupy the palace which his father Josiah had occupied before him. He wanted a bigger and more luxurious home like the rulers of Egypt or Babylon. With Solomon-like zeal this puny prince set about to build a magnificent palace. Contrary to the teaching of the law and the prophets he forced his countrymen to labor on this ill-conceived project without remuneration. The Hebrew prophets denounced this practice which was common in the ancient Near East. Not even a king could demand unpaid services from his subjects! Thus Jehoiakim was building his house with unrighteousness and injustice (Jeremiah 22:13). And what a house that was to bea roomy house with upper chambers and windows, the interior paneled with cedar and painted red (Jeremiah 22:14).
In Jeremiah 22:15 Jeremiah drives home the point that there is more to being a king than surrounding oneself with luxury. Jehoiakim need not think that he is entitled to reign merely because he can rival others in the building of cedar houses. By way of contrast to the pompous plans of Jehoiakim, Jeremiah points to the way that good king Josiah had conducted the affairs of the kingdom. Josiah ate and drank, i.e., he enjoyed the comforts of his regal status. But at the same time he established justice and righteousness in the land. He understood the responsibilities of kingship and performed those duties. He recognized the rights of other men and respected them. As a result Josiah prospered and was blessed of God because he put first things first (Jeremiah 22:15). He judged the cause of the poor and needy, i.e., he was cognizant of the rights and needs of the less fortunate. A man who really knows the Lord will see and seek to alleviate human suffering (Jeremiah 22:16).
Jehoiakim was the exact opposite of his godly father. He was determined to restore the glory of the throne and the splendor of the court. Any little people who stood in his way were ruthlessly eliminated. His covetous eye and wicked heart were fixed on ill-gotten gain. He would stop at nothing, even murder, to enlarge his holdings (Jeremiah 22:17).
Because of his flagrant wickedness Jehoiakim would meet with an exceedingly shameful end. It was customary in Judah as in all other countries of the ancient Near East for kings and nobles to be interred with regal pomp and to have special dirges recited over their graves. Because he was universally loved, the whole nation lamented the death of godly king Josiah (2 Chronicles 35:25). But no one will shed a tear when Jehoiakim passes from the scene. The word Ah is part of the vocabulary of lamentation and signifies extreme distress and sorrow. Ah my brother! or Ah sister! was no doubt a lament commonly uttered by relatives and friends of the deceased (1 Kings 13:30) while the cry Ah lord! or Ah his majesty! was presumably an expression of grief reserved for the death of a king (cf. Jeremiah 34:5). No mourners will assemble at the tomb of Jehoiakim to express sympathy for one another upon the loss of a great king. Still less would any lamentation be heard at his death that mentioned the lordship of Jehoiakim or his glory (Jeremiah 22:18). On the contrary Jehoiakim who loved to live in pomp and splendor would be buried with the burial of an ass, The burial of an ass would be no burial. The carcass of the animal would simply be left to rot in the open field. No specific passage states that this prophecy was fulfilled. But 2 Kings 24:6 does state Jehoiakim slept with his fathers[219] without mentioning the Place of his burial. In most cases the Book of Kings mentions where the kings of Judah were buried. The fact that in the case of Jehoiakim this detail was omitted suggests that he did not receive the customary burial. If this last indignity was heaped upon Jehoiakim after his death (and there is no good reason to think otherwise), then it was perpetrated by the people of Judah, not by the Chaldeans. Jehoiakim died just before the armies of Nebuchadnezzar arrived at the walls of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. Another, though less likely, possibility is that the Babylonians dug up the body of the recently buried Jehoiakim as a final act of vengeance against him for violating the terms of his vassal treaty with Nebuchadnezzar.
[219] The same terminology is used of Ahab who died a violent death at the hands of the Syrians (1 Kings 22:40).
Divine punishment awaits the nation as well as the king. Under the figure of a woman, Israel is called upon to ascend the heights and bewail the fate of the country. The places namedLebanon, Bashan, Abarimwere locations through which the Chaldeans would shortly pass on their sweep southward toward Judah. The Lebanon mountains were the northern entrance to Palestine. The Chaldeans would then pass through the hills of Bashan in the northeast. The Abarim is the mountain range southeast of the Dead Sea in which Mt. Nebo was one of the prominent peaks. Everywhere the cry of lamentation is taken Up as the enemy moves toward Jerusalem. No help arises from any quarter for all the lovers have been destroyed (Jeremiah 22:20). These lovers are nations which had foolishly banded together in some sort of political pact to withstand Nebuchadnezzar.
God had spoken to Israel in times of prosperity but the nation had stubbornly refused to hearken to His words. From the time when Israel became a nation she had refused to give heed to the word of God (Jeremiah 22:21). Judah’s shepherds, her political and religious leaders, will be driven by the wind as they are swept away into exile. Normally shepherds drive the flock before them. But God will shepherd the shepherds of Israel by means of the wind of divine judgment. The political lovers, allied nations in whom Israel trusted, will also go into captivity. The men of Judah will be ashamed and perplexed as they come to realize the terrible evil which they have committed against their God (Jeremiah 22:22). Hitherto Jerusalem had enjoyed security like a bird nestled among the cedars in the high mountains of the Lebanon range. For this reason Jeremiah addresses the residents of Jerusalem as inhabitant of Lebanon. The use of the figure Lebanon for Jerusalem is also appropriate in view of the fact that so many of the palaces and official buildings of that city were built of cedar wood from the Lebanon mountains (1 Kings 7:2; 1 Kings 10-17, 21). Jeremiah has nothing but pity for the proud city as he contemplates the terrible agony which she must shortly endure, an agony comparable only to that suffered by a woman in travail (Jeremiah 22:23).
Jeremiah 22:24-30
- The fate of Jehoiachin (Jeremiah 22:24-30)
TRANSLATION
(24) As I live (oracle of the LORD), even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah was a signet upon My right hand, I would pull you off; (25) and I will place you in the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. (26) And I will cast you and the mother who bore you into another land where You were not born, and there you shall die. (27) But to the land where they long to return, they shall not return. (28) Is this man Coniah a despised and broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which there is no delight? For what reason were he and his seed hurled away, and cast into a land which they do not know? (29) O land, land, land! Hear the word of the LORD! (30) Thus says the LORD: Write this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for he shall not be successful in having one of his descendants sit on the throne of David or rule again over Judah.
COMMENTS
Having spoken of the future of Jehoahaz (Jeremiah 22:10-12) and the folly of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13-23) Jeremiah now adds an oracle dealing with the fate of Coniah whose throne name was Jehoiachin.[220] Jehoiachin apparently was a carbon copy of his father (2 Kings 24:9), For this reason God declares that even if Coniah were a signet upon His finger He would pull him off and cast him away. Because of its importance the signet ring in antiquity was highly valued and guarded against any possible 10SS. That ring impressed into a bit of warm wax on a document made the document legally binding. The signet was the equivalent of the modern day signature. The king of Judah was the earthly representative of the invisible King of Judah, the Lord of hosts. He exercised authority in the name of the Almighty and hence could be compared to a signet on the hand of the Lord. But God swears with an oath formula (as I live) that Jehoiachin will be removed from this royal dignity (Jeremiah 22:24).
[220] Jeremiah 52:31. This monarch is also designated as Jeconiah (Jeremiah 27:20), Jeconiahu (Jeremiah 24:1) and Joiakin (Ezekiel 1:2). The name in its various forms means The Lord will establish.
Not only will God remove Jehoiachin from the throne of Judah, but He will see to it that the king is delivered into the hands of the ruthless Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 22:25). He along with the queen-mother, the influential Nehushta,[221] will be taken into the distant land of Babylon where they will die (Jeremiah 22:26). To die in a foreign land was considered one of the worst fates which could befall a man. The prophecy was fulfilled in 597, B.C. when Jehoiachin and the royal family were deported in chains to Babylon. Jehoiachin remained a captive of Babylon throughout the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. He was released after thirty-seven years of captivity by the son and successor of Nebuchadnezzar, Evil-merodach (2 Kings 25:27-30). Jehoiachin must have died in Babylon before the restoration of the Jews in 537 B.C. or else he surely would have been made the leader of the returnees at that time.
[221] See Jeremiah 29:2; 2 Kings 24:8. An oracle has already been delivered to this prominent woman in Jeremiah 13:18.
Jeremiah 22:24-26 speak of the exile of king Jehoiachin as something in the future. But Jeremiah 22:27-30 presuppose that the exile has already begun. Here, as so often in prophetic literature, the prophet has projected himself into the future beyond 597 B.C. when Jehoiachin would be taken into captivity. He describes what he knows the attitude of the captives will be. They will long to return to Palestine but will not be permitted to do so (Jeremiah 22:27).
Jeremiah finds it hard to believe the words of his own prophecy. By means of a favorite literary device, a series of questions,[222] he expresses his incredulity. In astonishment he asks, Is Coniah no better than a cracked piece of pottery which one might cast on the top of a trash pile? Why must Jehoiachin and his seed suffer the terrible fate of deportation to a foreign land? Jeremiah seems in Jeremiah 22:28 to be reflecting a great deal of sympathy toward the young king who was destined to reign only three months on the throne of Judah (2 Kings 24:8). Though Jehoiachin was but eighteen years old when taken captive he had wives (2 Kings 24:15) and apparently seed, i.e., children.
[222] Jeremiah elsewhere employs the repeated question to state an unnatural, incomprehensible fact. See Jeremiah 8:4 f.; Jeremiah 8:22; Jeremiah 14:19.
As Jeremiah reaches the climax of his pronouncement against Jehoiachin he dramatically calls the entire land to listen to the announcement of the tragic fate of this king. O land, land, land! Hear the word of the Lord! (Jeremiah 22:29). The three-fold repetition of land anticipates the solemnity of the message which follows. Write this man childless, i.e., enter Jehoiachin in the register of the citizens as one who has no heirs. The word childless is not to be taken here in the absolute sense since Jeremiah 22:28 already has mentioned the seed or children of Jehoiachin. Rather the meaning is that as far as the throne is concerned Jehoiachin would be childless. The rest of the verse makes this perfectly clear. No son of Jehoiachin would ever rule over Judah. It is interesting to note that Zerubbabel, the grandson of Jehoiachin, did serve as governor of the restored community once the exile in Babylon had ended.