Godly King Josiah reigned for thirty-one years and sought to lead the people back to God. But the last four kings of Judah were wicked men, even though three of them were Josiah’s sons and one was his grandson (Jehoiachin).
Jehoahaz, or Shallum, succeeded Josiah and reigned only three months (Jer. 22:10–12; 2 Kings 23:30–33). Pharaoh Necho deported him to Egypt, where he died.
Jehoiakim, also called Eliakim, reigned for eleven years (Jer. 22:13–23; 2 Kings 23:34—24:6) and died in Jerusalem. He was followed by his son Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah and Coniah, whose reign lasted only three months (Jer. 22:24–30; 2 Kings 24:6–12). Nebuchadnezzar took him to Babylon, where eventually he died.
The last king of Judah was Zedekiah, who reigned eleven years and saw the kingdom and the Holy City destroyed by Babylon (Jer. 22:1–9; 2 Kings 24:17— 25:21). He was blinded and taken to Babylon to die. As Kipling wrote, “The captains and the kings depart.”
Jeremiah disclosed the truth about those four kings, but then he made a promise about Messiah—the Righteous Branch (King) who would one day reign and execute justice in the land.
Zedekiah—callousness (22:1–9). The king had sent messengers to Jeremiah, but the prophet went personally to the palace to deliver God’s message. Zedekiah was sitting on David’s throne, in David’s house of cedar (2 Sam. 5:11; 7:2,7), benefiting from the covenant God had made with David (2 Sam. 7), and yet the king wasn’t serving the Lord as David had served Him. Jeremiah repeated what he had preached before (Jer. 21:12), that it was time for the king and his nobles to obey God’s law and execute justice in the land. They were exploiting the poor and needy, shedding innocent blood, and refusing to repent and turn to God.
In 2 Samuel 7, there is a dual meaning to the word house: a literal building (the temple David wanted to construct for God) and the royal house (dynasty) God established through David by His gracious covenant. These same two meanings are woven into Jeremiah’s message: God will destroy both the royal palace and the Davidic dynasty because of the sins of the kings. The royal house of cedar would be cut down and burned as the Chaldean soldiers went through the city like men chopping down a forest in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Jeremiah appeared to be giving the leaders a small window of opportunity: If they would repent and do justice, God would deliver the city and establish David’s throne (Jer. 22:4). Their hearts, however, were hard, and they would not listen. The ruins of Jerusalem would be a monument to their wickedness.
Jehoahaz (Shallum)—hopelessness (22:10–12). The death of godly King Josiah a decade before had brought great sorrow to the people. Even Jeremiah had written a lamentation honoring the dead monarch (2 Chron. 35:25). But there was no hope for the nation in looking back and weeping over a dead past. Nor was there hope in trusting that King Jehoahaz (Shallum) would be released from Egypt, where he was prisoner of Pharaoh Necho (2 Chron. 36:1–4). Apparently there was a pro-Jehoahaz party in Judah that pinned their hopes on his return, and perhaps some of the false prophets encouraged this expectation. Jeremiah, however, announced that Jehoahaz would never return to Judah but would die in Egypt.
Instead of looking to a dead past or trusting in a deposed leader, the people should have been dealing with the issues of that hour and looking to the Lord for His help. Josiah was dead; Jehoahaz was exiled; it was time for Zedekiah to follow the example of his godly father, Josiah, and lead the people back to the worship of the true God.
Jehoiakim (Eliakim)—covetousness (22:13–23). During a time of international crisis, Jehoiakim was more concerned about building his own spacious palace than he was about building a righteous kingdom, and he even used unpaid Jewish slave labor to do it! It was against the law to hold back wages or to enslave fellow Jews (Ex. 21:1–11; Lev. 19:13; Deut. 24:14–15; James 5:1–6). The nation was decaying and dying while the king was admiring his palace, the spacious rooms, the large windows, and the decorated cedar paneled walls. Jehoiakim wasn’t much different from some modern politicians who profit from dishonest gain while they ignore the cries of the poor and needy.
“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?” (Jer. 22: niv) asked the prophet. Then he reminded him that his father, King Josiah, lived comfortably and still did what was just and right. Josiah defended the cause of the poor, and God blessed him, but Jehoiakim thought only of himself. It didn’t worry him that God watched as he robbed the poor, killed the innocent, and oppressed the just in order to satisfy his craving for luxury.
Jeremiah moved from “him” (third person) in verse 13 to “you” (second person) in verse 15, and then he named the king in verse 18. He announced that the king’s burial would be quite unlike that given to his beloved father. The nation mourned Josiah’s untimely death, but the Jews wouldn’t weep when Jehoiakim died, nor would they bury him like a king. Who would pay for an expensive funeral just to bury a donkey? The carcass would be thrown on the garbage dump, where the scavengers and vermin would devour it (Jer. 36:30). Even Jehoiakim’s end would be in fulfillment of the covenant curses (Deut. 28:26).
Before going on to discuss the next king, Jeremiah paused to address the people of Jerusalem and describe their terrible plight (Jer. 22:20–23). The advance of the Chaldean army had crushed their allies (“lovers”), who also would be sent into exile. Like the desert wind, the Babylonian soldiers would “round up” Judah’s evil leaders and sweep them away. The king and his nobles, living carelessly in the cedar palace (“Lebanon”), would soon suffer terrible pain like a woman in travail. The Lord had warned them, but they felt so secure that they wouldn’t listen. The peace promised by the false prophets would never materialize. For the city of Jerusalem, it was the end.
Jehoiachin (Coniah, Jeconiah)—childlessness (22:24–30). The son of Jehoiakim, he reigned only three months and ten days before he was deported with the queen mother to Babylon and replaced by his uncle, Zedekiah (2 Chron. 36:9–10; 2 Kings 24:8–17). Jehoiachin was a wicked man, and Jeremiah 22: suggests that his mother was as much to blame as his ungodly father. Jeremiah had warned both the king and the queen mother, but they wouldn’t listen (13:18–19).
If the king were the very signet ring on God’s right hand God would casually take it off and hand it to the Babylonians (22:24–27). The signet ring was valuable because it was used to prove authority, identify possessions, and “sign” official documents, but Jehoiachin was useless to the Lord, fit only to be thrown away in Babylon.
The question in verse 28 is constructed in such a way that “no” is the answer expected. The people of Judah didn’t consider Jehoiachin a broken pot to be tossed away on the trash heap. In fact, one of the false prophets predicted that Jehoiachin would return to Judah, deliver the nation, and reign once again in power (28:1–4). God, however, had another plan for this evil man and his family; the king, his mother, and his sons were all deported to Babylon, where they died.
Jehoiachin had at least seven children (1 Chron. 3:17–18) by several wives (2 Kings 24:15), but none of them would sit on the throne of David. God declared that He would treat Jehoiachin as if the man were childless. Zedekiah, the last king of Judah, saw the Babylonians slay his sons, and it’s likely that he himself died before Jehoiachin was freed from prison (Jer. 52:10–11, 31–34). This means that Jehoiachin was the last surviving king in David’s line.
Of course, Jesus Christ is the “son of David” (Matt. 1:1; Rom. 1:3) and one day will restore the fortunes of Israel and reign from David’s throne (Luke 1:30–33, 67–79). The genealogy in Matthew 1 traces Christ’s ancestry through His legal father, Joseph. Since Jehoiachin is in that family tree (Matt. 1:11), however, none of his descendants can claim the throne because of the curse pronounced in Jeremiah 22:24–30. Our Lord gets His Davidic throne rights through His mother, Mary, whose genealogy is given in Luke 3:21–38. From Abraham to David, the lists are similar, but from David on, they differ. Luke traced the line through David’s son Nathan and thus avoided Jehoiachin, a descendant of Solomon. Jesus Christ has every right to David’s throne, and His future reign is what Jeremiah dealt with in the next section.
Messiah the King—righteousness (23:1–8). Jeremiah denounced all the leaders (“shepherds”) of Judah for the ruthless way they treated the helpless people (vv. 1–4). Instead of leading the flock in love, they drove it mercilessly and exploited it. The shepherds didn’t visit (“care for”) the sheep, but God would visit the leaders with punishment. Because the leaders disobeyed the law and refused to trust God, they destroyed the nation and scattered the flock among the Gentiles. God, however, promised to regather His people and transform the remnant into a nation. (The word remnant is used nineteen times in Jeremiah.) A remnant did return to Judah after the captivity, rebuild the temple, and restore national life.
Jeremiah, however, promised a much greater regathering of the Jews—a greater miracle than their deliverance from Egypt (vv. 7–8; see 16:14–15). God will call His people from the nations of the world, gather them in their land, purge them, and then send them their promised Messiah (Jer. 30; Isa. 2:1–5; 4:1–6; 9:1–7; 11:1–12:6; Zech. 12—14). David’s “family tree” might have been cut down, but a “branch” (shoot) would grow from the stump and become Ruler of the nation (Isa. 11:1; 53:2).
In contrast to the unrighteous kings Jeremiah had been describing, this King will be righteous and rule justly. The kingdoms of Israel (northern) and Judah (southern) will be united into one nation; they will experience salvation and they will live in peace and safety. The name of this King is “Jehovah Tsidkenu— The Lord our Righteousness” (see Jer. 33:15–16). According to 1 Corinthians 1: and 2 Corinthians 5:21, this exalted name applies only to Jesus Christ. When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, His righteousness is put into your account and you are declared righteous before God. This is called “being justified by faith” (Rom. 3:21—5:11).
No matter how dark the day may be, God sends the light of hope through His promises. The godly remnant in Judah must have been encouraged when they heard Jeremiah’s words, and the promises must have sustained them during the difficult days of the captivity. The return of the Jews to their land after the captivity was but a foreshadowing of the great worldwide regathering that will occur in the last days when “He shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matt. 24:31).