Jeremiah 13:18
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Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
The fall of the kingdom, the captivity of Judah, with upbraidings against Jerusalem for her grievous guilt in the matter of idolatry. - Jer 13:18. "Say unto the king and to the sovereign lady: Sit you low down, for from your heads falls the crown of your glory. Jer 13:19. The cities of the south are shut and no man openeth; Judah is carried away captive all of it, wholly carried away captive. Jer 13:20. Lift up your eyes and behold them that come from midnight! Where is the flock that was given thee, thy glorious flock? Jer 13:21. What wilt thou say, if He set over thee those whom thou hast accustomed to thee as familiar friends, for a head? Shall not sorrows take thee, as a woman in travail? Jer 13:22. And if thou say in thine heart, Wherefore cometh this upon me? for the plenty of thine iniquity are thy skirts uncovered, thy heels abused. Jer 13:23. Can an Ethiopian change his skin, and a leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to doing evil. Jer 13:24. Therefore will I scatter them like chaff that flies before the wind of the wilderness. Jer 13:25. This is thy lot, thine apportioned inheritance from me, because thou hast forgotten me and trustedst in falsehood. Jer 13:26. Therefore will I turn thy skirts over thy face, that thy shame be seen. Jer 13:27. Thine adultery and thy neighing, the crime of thy whoredom upon the ills, in the fields, I have seen thine abominations. Woe unto thee, Jerusalem! thou shalt not be made clean after how long a time yet!" From Jer 13:18 on the prophet's discourse is addressed to the king and the queen-mother. The latter as such exercised great influence on the government, and is in the Books of Kings mentioned alongside of almost all the reigning kings (cf. Kg1 15:13; Kg2 10:13, etc.); so that we are not necessa…
Open source ↗Still the prophet is attempting to awaken this secure and stubborn people to repentance, by the consideration of the judgments of God that were coming upon them. He is to tell them, I. By the sign of a girdle spoiled that their pride should be stained (Jer 13:1-11). II. By the sign of bottles filled with wine that their counsels should be blasted (Jer 13:12-14). III. In consideration hereof he is to call them to repent and humble themselves (Jer 13:15-21). IV. He is to convince them that it is for their obstinacy and incorrigibleness that the judgments of God are so prolonged and brought to extremity (Jer 13:22-27).
Open source ↗13:18-19 The king was probably Jehoiakim’s son Jehoiachin, who was crowned in 597 BC after the death of his father; his mother was Nehushta (see 2 Kgs 24:1-9). Jehoiachin was eighteen years old and reigned for just three months; this message was probably delivered during his short reign. His glorious crowns would soon be taken from him by the Babylonians (see 2 Kgs 24:11-16). The treasures of the Temple and palace would be given to the Babylonians, and the royalty and elite of Judah would be carried into exile. At the same time, Judah’s southern neighbors would take over the towns of the Negev, the desert area from the city of Beersheba to the Gulf of Aqaba.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another land, where neither of you were born—and there you both will die.
Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials all surrendered to the king of Babylon. So in the eighth year of his reign, the king of Babylon took him captive.
Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, as well as the king’s mother, his wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land. He took them into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.
His prayer and how God received his plea, as well as all his sin and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself, they are indeed written in the Records of the Seers.
And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
“Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of Chaldea! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
but he did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had done; instead, Amon increased his guilt.
So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and told him, “This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me? Let My people go, so that they may worship Me.
And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.