Jeremiah 22:1-9

B. General Remarks Regarding the Royal House

Jeremiah 22:1-9

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).

1. 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!

2. 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.

3. 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.