2 chronicles 36:9-10 and jeremiah 22

Read 2 Chronicles 36:9-10 and Jeremiah 22 at Bible Gateway.

Hebrew paragraph divisions

2 Chr 36:9-10 {p} The reign of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim 3 months doing evil, taken captive to Babylon

Jer 22:1-5 {p} King of Judah: Execute righteousness, and you will endure, but if not, your house will be desolate
Jer 22:6-9 {s} King of Judah: I will make you a wilderness, because you have forsaken the covenant of your God
Jer 22:10-12 {s} Shallum, king of Judah, who was taken captive, shall not return but die in the land of his captivity
Jer 22:13-17 {s} Woe to him who build by injustice: Josiah did justice + it was well, but you practice oppression
Jer 22:18-19 {s} Therefore Jehoiakim king of Judah shall not be lamented but cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem
Jer 22:20-27 {p} I spoke to you in your prosperity but you would not hear/ Coniah your son given to his enemies
Jer 22:28-29 {p} Record Coniah as childless, for none of his descendants shall sit on the throne of David

Jer 22:1-29 {p+sx4+p+p} chiastic structure

1A) Jer 21:11-22:5 {p} King of Judah: Execute righteousness, and you will endure, but if not, your house will be desolate;

1B) Jer 22:6-9 {s} King of Judah: I will make you a wilderness, because you have forsaken the covenant of your God;

1C) Jer 22:10-12 {s} Shallum, king of Judah, who was taken captive, shall not return but die in the land of his captivity;

1D) Jer 22:13-15a Woe to him who build by injustice;

1E) Jer 22:15b Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness?

1F) Jer 22:15c Then it was well with him;

CENTRAL AXIS) Jer 22:16a He judged the cause of the poor and needy;

2F) Jer 22:16b Then it was well;

2E) Jer 22:16c Was not this knowing Me? says the Lord;

2D) Jer 22:17 {s} But you practice oppression;

2C) Jer 22:18-19 {s} Therefore Jehoiakim king of Judah shall not be lamented but cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem;

2B) Jer 22:20-27 {p} I spoke to you in your prosperity but you would not hear/ Coniah your son given to his enemies;

2A) Jer 22:28-29 {p} Record Coniah as childless, for none of his descendants shall sit on the throne of David.

Please notice the E pair! To the LORD, doing justice and righteousness (defined by way of commandment in Torah) is the definition of knowing Him!

In Jer 22 the LORD addresses Josiah’s grandson who is now king of Judah. This is what has transpired in Judah since the death of Josiah at the hands of Pharaoh Necho, while on his way to war with the Babylonian general Nebuchadnezzar:

When Josiah was killed, the people quickly placed his son Jehoahaz (Shallum) on the throne, for fear that Pharaoh would invade their country in the absence of a king. This king served all the idols which his father had pulled down, which called forth Jeremiah’s entreaties to return to the LORD.

When the people did not repent, Jeremiah foretold that Jehoahaz would be taken captive (Jer 22:11-12), and that the city and Temple would be destroyed at the hands of the Babylonians. This prophecy made the king so angry, that he had Jeremiah arrested and put into prison. The prophet was released, however, when the judges ruled that a prophet of the LORD had the right to say anything he wished without retaliation.

It was not long before Jeremiah’s prophecy was fulfilled. The Egyptians, angry that Judah had interfered in its war with Babylon, attacked Jerusalem, removed Jehoahaz from being king, and placed his brother Jehoiakim on the throne instead (610 BC). Pharaoh took Jehoahaz in chains to Egypt, where he remained in prison until he died.

The new king also did evil, and refused to repent at the preaching of Jeremiah. He was the king who had so much disdain for the word of the LORD, that when hearing the words of the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies, cut them off and burned them in the fire until the whole scroll was consumed (Jer 36). By this time the Babylonians had fought and defeated the Egyptians, and marching into Judah, they now laid siege to Jerusalem and took the city after a short resistance. Nebuchadnezzar was still general, and not king yet at this epoch. Jehoiakim was allowed to keep the throne on the condition that he would be the vassal of Babylon.

But Jehoiakim soon made a fresh alliance with Egypt, and revolted against Nebuchadnezzar, who by this time had become the king of Babylon upon the death of his father (605 BC). As the new king, he was busy just then with another war, and so paid no heed at first to this uprising.

When the war was ended, however, he marched against Jerusalem and put Jehoiakim to death in the way that Jeremiah had foretold (Jer 22:18-19, 599 BC). He installed his son Jeconiah as king of Judah upon the condition that he would be vassal to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar again departed Jerusalem without destroying the city — for the second time. Jeconiah was only eight years old when he began to reign, and as his courtiers and advisers were neither good nor wise, the king continued in the evil way of his father, and this was the state of affairs when Jeremiah prophesied that Jeconiah would die a captive in another land not his own (Jer 22:26-27).

This chapter was written at a time when Jeconiah was king in his father’s place (Jer 22:24). The reason it seems to also be speaking as if Jehoiakim was still king before his death, was that the first part of the chapter was in the scroll that Jehoiakim burned. After that, the LORD commanded Jeremiah to write the scroll again, with all the words that were on the first scroll (Jer 36:28). When he did, he added the prophecy about Jeconiah, so show the king that what had been prophesied about both his uncle and his father had come to pass, therefore what was prophesied about Jeconiah would also come to pass, unless he repent.