Jeremiah 22 - Introduction

Jeremiah 22:1 to Jeremiah 23:8. Judgements on the kings of Judah of the period

The compiler has brought together Jeremiah's utterances of various dates on successive kings. They form a mixture of poetic and prose elements, and contain some amount of editorial matter. The section may be subdivided as follows. (i) Jeremiah 22:1-5. Jeremiah is sent to the palace by Jehovah to bid the king and his subjects of all classes to practise justice and to abstain from their various wrong doings. On their compliance the State shall prosper. Otherwise the palace shall be laid in ruins. (ii) Jeremiah 22:6. Under the figure of the destruction of noble forests, the overthrow of the monarchy is foretold. Other nations, astonished, shall learn the reason, viz. idolatry. (iii) Jeremiah 22:10. Prediction of Jehoahaz's exile and death. (iv) Jeremiah 22:13. Contrast of Jehoiakim's selfish exactions and luxury with the upright rule of Josiah. Prediction of the fate of the former. (v) Jeremiah 22:20. Lament, O people, for the loss of thy lovers. Thy sufferings, the result of thy faithlessness, shall be great. Jehoiachin shall be carried captive to Babylon and shall die in hopeless exile, despised and having no successor. (vi) Jeremiah 23:1-4. Jehovah denounces the rulers of Judah, and promises to raise up faithful rulers in their stead. (vii) Jeremiah 22:5. Prosperity shall be attained under a righteous King of David's line, and there shall be a return of exiles so glorious as to eclipse even the memories of the Exodus.

1 9 form a general introduction to the prophecies concerning individual kings. They bear marks of a later hand, whether that of Baruch or a subsequent editor. Jeremiah 22:2 f. are closely akin to Jeremiah 21:11 f. as well as to Jeremiah 17:19 ff. (see introd. note on the question of the genuineness of that section). Co. considers the commonplace character of the utterance in general, as well as the style of the prediction in Jeremiah 22:4, to be suspicious. Moreover, in Jeremiah 22:1 there is still room for the averting of doom. In 6 9 this is no longer the case. Thus the component parts of the passage are not homogeneous as to date. See further in individual notes.