Jeremiah 21-23 is a leadership judgment before it is a leadership theory. Kings ask for rescue while refusing justice. Royal houses build with exploitation. Shepherds scatter the flock. Against this failure the Lord promises the righteous Branch, the king who will reign, understand, and execute righteousness.
These chapters move around Jerusalem’s royal and temple world: the king’s house, the gates, Lebanon’s cedars, exile lands, and the north from which God will gather His people. Geography becomes theology. The house of David cannot hide inside Jerusalem if it abandons justice, and exile cannot prevent the Lord from gathering His flock.
Zedekiah seeks a miracle while the city refuses repentance. The earlier reigns of Jehoahaz, also called Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin expose the house of David’s neglect of the wronged. Alongside these kings stand shepherds and false prophets who scatter and reassure falsely; over against them stands the promised righteous Branch.
Source: Original schematic chart created for this Jeremiah guide from 2 Kings 23-25, 2 Chronicles 36, Jeremiah 22, 24, 37, and 52.
This is a teaching chart, not an exhaustive genealogy. It helps readers keep the late kings straight: Pharaoh Neco renames Eliakim as Jehoiakim, and Nebuchadnezzar renames Mattaniah as Zedekiah. The chart should serve Jeremiah’s theological point: failed Davidic rulers intensify the longing for the righteous Branch.
Jeremiah 21 - The way of life and the house of David
1 The Word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, when King Sedekias sent to him Paschor the Son of Melchias, and Sophonias Son of Basæas, the Priest, saying,
2 Enquire of the Lord for us; for the king of Babylon has risen up against us; if the Lord will do according to all his wonderful works, and the king shall depart from us.
3 And Jeremias said to them, Thus shall ye say to Sedekias king of Juda, 4 Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war wherewith ye fight against the Chaldeans that have besieged you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the midst of this city. 5 And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, with wrath and great anger. 6 And I will smite all the dwellers in this city, both men and cattle, with grievous pestilence: and they shall die. 7 And after this, thus saith the Lord; I will give Sedekias king of Juda, and his servants, and the people that is left in this city from the pestilence, and from the famine, and from the sword, into the hands of their enemies, that seek their lives: and they shall cut them in pieces with the edge of the sword: I will not spare them, and I will not have compassion upon them.
8 And thou shalt say to this people, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I have set before you the way of life, and the way of death. 9 He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by famine: but he that goes forth to advance to the Chaldeans that have besieged you, shall live, and his life shall be to him for a spoil, and he shall live. 10 For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good: it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall consume it with fire.
11 O house of the king of Juda, hear ye the word of the Lord. 12 O house of David, thus saith the Lord; Judge judgment in the morning, and act rightly, and rescue the spoiled one from the hand of him that wrongs him, lest mine anger be kindled like fire, and it burn, and there be none to quench it. 13 Behold, I am against thee that dwellest in the valley of Sor; in the plain country, even against them that say, Who shall alarm us? or who shall enter into our habitation? 14 And I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.
Zedekiah wants Jeremiah to inquire whether the Lord will do wonders and make Babylon depart. The answer is severe because the king wants rescue without repentance. The weapons of war will not save a people whose covenant life is already broken.
The phrase “the way of life, and the way of death” is startling here. Life means surrendering to the hard word of God rather than defending the city in false confidence. The house of David is then told what royal faithfulness would have looked like: judge rightly and rescue the spoiled one from the hand of the wrongdoer.
Jeremiah 22 - Royal injustice and the collapse of false glory
1 Thus saith the Lord; Go thou, and go down to the house of the king of Juda, and thou shalt speak there this word, 2 and thou shalt say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest on the throne of David, thou, and thy house, and thy people, and they that go in at these gates:
3 thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and justice, and rescue the spoiled out of the hand of him that wrongs him: and oppress not the stranger, and orphan, and widow, and sin not, and shed no innocent blood in this place. 4 For if ye will indeed perform this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they, and their servants, and their people. 5 But if ye will not perform these words, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that this house shall be brought to desolation.
6 For thus saith the Lord concerning the house of the king of Juda; Thou art Galaad to me, and the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a desert, even cities that shall not be inhabited: 7 and I will bring upon thee a destroying man, and his axe: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. 8 And nations shall pass through this city, and each shall say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done thus to this great city? 9 And they shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped strange gods, and served them.
10 Weep not for the dead, nor lament for him: weep bitterly for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native land. 11 For thus saith the Lord concerning Sellem the son of Josias, who reigns in the place of Josias his father, who has gone forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more: 12 but in that place whither I have carried him captive, there shall he die, and shall see this land no more.
13 He that builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not with judgment, who works by means of his neighbour for nothing, and will by no means give him his reward. 14 Thou hast built for thyself a well-proportioned house, airy chambers, fitted with windows, and wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15 Shalt thou reign, because thou art provoked with thy father Achaz? they shall not eat, and they shall not drink: it is better for thee to execute judgment and justice. 16 They understood not, they judged not the cause of the afflicted, nor the cause of the poor: is not this thy not knowing me? saith the Lord. 17 Behold, thine eyes are not good, nor thine heart, but they go after thy covetousness, and after the innocent blood to shed it, and after acts of injustice and slaughter, to commit them.
18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim son of Josias, king of Juda, even concerning this man; they shall not bewail him, saying, Ah brother! neither shall they at all weep for him, saying, Alas Lord. 19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass; he shall be dragged roughly along and cast outside the gate of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Libanus, and cry; and utter thy voice to Basan, and cry aloud to the extremity of the sea: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21 I spoke to thee on occasion of thy trespass, but thou saidst, I will not hearken. This has been thy way from thy youth, thou hast not hearkened to my voice. 22 The wind shall tend all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; for then shalt thou be ashamed and disgraced because of all thy lovers. 23 O thou that dwellest in Libanus, making thy nest in the cedars, thou shalt groan heavily, when pangs as of a travailing woman are come upon thee.
24 As I live, saith the Lord, though Jechonias son of Joakim king of Juda were indeed the seal upon my right hand, thence would I pluck thee; 25 and I will deliver thee into the hands of them that seek thy life, before whom thou art afraid, into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast forth thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a land where thou wast not born; and there ye shall die. 27 But they shall by no means return to the land which they long for in their souls. 28 Jechonias is dishonoured as a good-for-nothing vessel; for he is thrown out and cast forth into a land which he knew not.
29 Land, land, hear the word of the Lord. 30 Write ye this man an outcast: for there shall none of his seed at all grow up to sit on the throne of David, or as a prince yet in Juda.
Jeremiah 22 makes knowing God inseparable from justice. The king who builds his house by unpaid labor, innocent blood, and oppression does not merely fail politically. He fails the knowledge of God. “Is not this thy not knowing me?” is one of the strongest lines in the unit.
The royal succession becomes a theological lesson. Jehoahaz will not return. Jehoiakim receives disgrace. Jehoiachin is plucked off like a seal ring. Davidic privilege is real, but it is not magic. A throne can become judgment when it abandons the character of the Lord.
Jeremiah 23 - Bad shepherds and the righteous Branch
1 Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that tend my people; Ye have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and ye have not visited them: behold, I will take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices. 3 And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied. 4 And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, saith the Lord.
5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. 6 In his days both Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Josedec among the prophets.
9 My heart is broken within me; all my bones are shaken: I am become as a broken-down man, and as a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord, and because of the excellence of his glory. 10 For because of these things the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is become evil, and so also their strength. 11 For priest and prophet are defiled; and I have seen their iniquities in my house. 12 Therefore let their way be to them slippery and dark: and they shall be tripped up and fall in it: for I will bring evils upon them, in the year of their visitation.
13 And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds; they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray. 14 Also in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: as they committed adultery, and walked in lies, and strengthened the hands of many, that they should not return each from his evil way: they are all become to me as Sodoma, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will feed them with pain, and give them bitter water to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has defilement gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Hearken not to the words of the prophets: for they frame a vain vision for themselves; they speak from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say to them that reject the word of the Lord, There shall be peace to you; and to all that walk after their own lusts, and to every one that walks in the error of his heart, they have said, No evil shall come upon thee. 18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen his word? who has hearkened, and heard? 19 Behold, there is an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly. 20 And the Lord’s wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it.
21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had hearkened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices.
23 I am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. 24 Shall any one hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.
25 I have heard what the prophets say, what they prophesy in my name, saying falsely, I have seen a night vision. 26 How long shall these things be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, when they prophesy the purposes of their own heart? 27 who devise that men may forget my law by their dreams, which they have told every one to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot my name in the worship of Baal. 28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; and he in whom is my word spoken to him, let him tell my word truly: what is the chaff to the corn? so are my words, saith the Lord. 29 Behold, are not my words as fire? saith the Lord; and as an axe cutting the rock?
30 Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, saith the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets that put forth prophecies of mere words, and slumber their sleep. 32 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy false dreams, and have not told them truly, and have caused my people to err by their lies, and by their errors; yet I sent them not, and commanded them not; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all.
33 And if this people, or the priest, or the prophet, should ask, What is the burden of the Lord? then thou shalt say to them, Ye are the burden, and I will dash you down, saith the Lord. 34 As for the prophet, and the priests, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even take vengeance on that man, and on his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, what has the Lord said? 36 And do ye name no more the burden of the Lord; for his own word shall be a man’s burden. 37 But wherefore, say ye, has the Lord our God spoken? 38 Therefore thus saith the Lord our God; Because ye have spoken this word, The burden of the Lord, and I sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; 39 therefore, behold, I will seize, and dash down you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you an everlasting reproach, and everlasting disgrace, which shall not be forgotten. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but The Lord lives, who has gathered the whole seed of Israel from the north land, and from all the countries whither he had driven them out, and has restored them into their own land.
The woe against shepherds is not only about incompetence. These leaders destroy and scatter the Lord’s flock. They preserve religious language while failing visitation, care, truth, and repentance. False prophecy then deepens the harm by saying “peace” to those who reject the word of the Lord.
The righteous Branch stands in direct contrast. The Lord Himself will gather the remnant and raise up a king from David who executes judgment and righteousness. In Brenton’s wording, the name appears as “Josedec among the prophets,” a Septuagint form that should be noted without forcing a separate doctrine from the name alone. The theological center is clear: the failed shepherds make the Church long for Christ, the true Shepherd-King.
Gems from the Fathers 💎
Eusebius of Caesarea reads this promise as the advent of Christ from David’s seed, not merely another successor to Judah’s failed rulers. He attends to the Greek image behind the Branch: a righteous rising, like the dawn. Jeremiah calls the promised King “the rising,” with the adjective “just,” Eusebius explains, “as though he were to shine forth from the sun of righteousness.”1 The promise reaches beyond a change of ruler to the coming of the Word of God in the flesh. His righteousness answers the shepherds’ failure: the scattered need the King who can truly gather them, judge justly, and heal the life their leaders have wounded.
The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪
Jeremiah 22:29-23:6 is read at the First Hour of Good Friday. The placement is spiritually fitting: in the Passion, the Church beholds the rejected King who truly gathers the scattered and judges in righteousness. The failed shepherds are not only ancient rulers. They are a warning to every servant who holds office without care.
Spiritual Fruit 🍇
Zedekiah wants rescue from Babylon without the repentance, justice, and obedience the Lord requires. Jeremiah exposes the temptation to seek a miracle that preserves the same life unchanged. When we ask God to save a ministry, family, role, or reputation, the first question is not how to keep control but whether our ways have become just and truthful before Him.
The kings are judged by their treatment of the vulnerable, and the shepherds by what happens to the flock. Authority is never a private possession. Parents, clergy, servants, managers, and older siblings all receive people to protect, gather, and help flourish. To scatter through neglect, manipulation, false reassurance, or self-protection is to answer to the Shepherd who says, “ye have scattered my sheep.” Knowing the Lord takes visible form in judgment for the poor and mercy toward those who lack protection.
The righteous Branch is therefore more than a replacement administrator. Christ is the King who reigns with understanding, executes judgment and righteousness, and gathers the scattered into safety. Lord Jesus, true Shepherd and righteous Branch, expose every desire for title without care and peace without truth. Gather those my failures have scattered, teach me to use authority as service, and let Your righteousness become the shape of my life. Amen.
Teaching Notes
Jeremiah 21 - The way of life and the house of David
- Ask: Why is Zedekiah’s request for help rejected?
- Emphasize: God is not a crisis tool for leaders who refuse justice.
- Watch for: Reducing the passage to politics. Jeremiah is exposing covenant betrayal.
- Connect: Christ is the King who accepts judgment and saves His people through truth.
- Show: Use the royal succession chart to place Zedekiah in the late-Judah crisis.
Jeremiah 22 - Royal injustice and the collapse of false glory
- Ask: How does Jeremiah define knowing God in this chapter?
- Emphasize: Justice for the wronged, stranger, orphan, and widow is not optional royal charity. It is covenant knowledge.
- Watch for: Letting the royal names become trivia. Each king shows failed trust and failed care.
- Connect: Christ fulfills Davidic kingship without exploitation or innocent bloodshed.
- Show: Use the royal succession chart to distinguish Jehoahaz / Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin.
Jeremiah 23 - Bad shepherds and the righteous Branch
Ask: What makes a shepherd false in Jeremiah 23?
Emphasize: False prophecy strengthens people in evil by promising peace without repentance.
Watch for: Using leadership critique only against others. The chapter searches every form of entrusted care.
Connect: Christ is the righteous Branch and true Shepherd who gathers the remnant.
Show: Point from failed shepherds to Good Friday’s rejected King and the promised Branch.
Sources
Embedded Scripture is from Brenton’s English Septuagint (LXX).