Jeremiah 22

Jeremiah 22
1-10 Exhortation to Repent
Note: According to some commentators, this is a generic warning to kings from Josiah to Zedekiah. James Rogers, whose outline I'm following for chronological order, states that chapter 22 and 23 are probably between Jehoiakim and Zedekiah.

• God tells Jeremiah to go to the king of Judah and tell him to act with justice and righteousness, delivering victims from their oppressors.
• If he obeys God, descendants of David will continue to sit on his throne.
• Yet even though Judah is like a fertile land to God, he will make it like a desert if they disobey.
• When nations pass by and ask why God has done this to his people, they will answer, "Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD."

10 Do not weep for him who is dead but for him who is sent away from his native land.

11-23 Message to the Sons of Josiah

• Concerning Shallum, son of Josiah, he will die in captivity.
  

Notes about the sons of Josiah (2 Kings 23-24): Shallum is the same person as Jehoahaz, who succeeded Josiah. After only 3 months on the throne, Pharaoh Neco, king of Egypt (who had killed Josiah in battle), deposes Jehoahaz and exiles him to Egypt, where he dies (just as Jeremiah prophesies here). Pharaoh Neco makes his brother Eliakim king in his place and changes his name to Jehoiakim.

When Jehoiakim dies, his son Jeconiah (Coniah) becomes king, and reigns only three months when Nebuchadnezzar captures him and makes his uncle, Zedekiah, king. Zedekiah is the last king of Judah.

So this means that three of Josiah's sons - Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah - and his grandson - Jehoiachin - are the last four kings of Judah before the Babylonian captivity. I don't know why that interests me. Maybe it's because I hadn't known it before. And I learned it not from reading history but a book of prophecy.

13-14 Woe to you because you have built your house by unrighteousness, forcing your neighbors to build it for nothing.
15-17 You're not a king because you live in a cedar house. It was well with your father because he was righteous and helped the cause of the poor and needy, but your eyes and heart are set only on dishonest gain.

• Concerning King Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, he will be buried like a donkey, thrown out of the gates of Jerusalem, and none shall mourn him.

20-23 God to Jeremiah: Go to Lebanon and cry out, I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you would not listen. Therefore your lovers will go into captivity, and you will groan like a woman in labor.

24-30 Judgment on Coniah (AKA Jehoiachin)

• Coniah, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would tear you off and give you into the hands of those who seek your life.
• I will "hurl" you and your mother into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and there you will die.

28-30 Is Coniah a vessel no one wants? He and his offspring are cast away. He might as well be childless, because none of his offspring will sit on the throne of David.