Rejection and Hope: Jeremiah’s Distinctive Vision for a Future Davidic King
Jeremiah 21:1–23:4 occupies a central place in the book of Jeremiah. It recounts a series of oracles against the last four kings in Israel, in some ways mirroring, and in other important ways revising, the treatment given these four kings in the Deuteronomistic History (DtrH) and the Chronicler. In this section, commonly known as the “King Collection”, Zedekiah, the final king, moves to the head of the list, and Jehoiachin appears at the end.1 It is only after the concluding oracle against Jehoiachin that the way opens for the enigmatic “Branch” in Jeremiah 23:5–8, referring to an unknown Davidic king. The canonical book of Jeremiah’s reordering of these final four kings is important to the overall argument of the book about the future of the Davidic kingship.2 No future king can arise without the complete destruction of the current Davidic line, represented by Jehoiachin.3
The theological argument in the passage at the canonical level is devastatingly clear: all the kings from David’s line had broken the covenant (21:8–22:19). There is no hero worship or aggrandizement of the achievements of some kings or minimizing of others’ failings. This first oracle argues the complete failure of the kingship from the beginning to the end. Verse 8 begins with language from Deuteronomy, that Yahweh is setting before these final four kings the choice of life and death. In this case, the choice of life is to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar.4 In fact, in verse 13, Yahweh gives the impression that he will be fighting in the battle — on the side of Nebuchadnezzar!5 There is no doubt in this section that the “king(s) from the line of David” were responsible for the destruction coming upon Jerusalem.6
The final oracle against Jehoiachin is striking in its severity.7 In fact, its severity has led to all manner of speculation as to why such a young king (around 18) who reigned for such a short time (around three months) should receive such a severe judgment.8
While some speculate that he inherited bad habits from his father and grandfather, he had hardly enough time to commit the kinds of crimes that Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Shallum committed. More to the point, even though we read in Chronicles and Kings that Jehoiachin also had done evil in the sight of the Lord, here in Jeremiah whatever he may have done in those short 18 years and three months does not even appear as a reason for judgment. We might say that he is the unluckiest man alive, at least as far as the kings of Judah go.
Verse 24 begins with the judgment oracle against him. God describes him as a signet ring on his right hand. This ring served to certify and seal official documents, signifying that the king held a special place with God, signifying and sealing his covenant with his people.9 But the Lord tells him that he is going to tear him off his hand and throw him into the land of Babylon, along with the queen mother.10 The queen mother may have been important because she would have been the one to legitimate her son’s claim to the throne. In other words, with the destruction of the queen mother every connection to the kings of the line of David disappears.
Verses 27–28 are a lament, perhaps by Jeremiah, perhaps by the people, as they sorrow and mourn over the terrible fate of this young king, despised, shattered, thrown out into a land they did not know. However, the saddest part is verses 29–30 where three times the land of Israel hears that there will no longer be someone from the line of David ruling over them. This must have been shocking news to the exiles. They knew the covenant that God had made with David. They knew that God had promised that someone from the line of David would always be the king over Israel. Now it seemed as if God had gone back on his promise. This truly is the great question of the exile. Can God be trusted? Why would someone who seemingly had done so little wrong withstand the worst of so much fury?11 What would happen to the nation with no land, no temple, no king, and no ark of the covenant? What would happen to their religion as believers were scattered everywhere?
All that God says in 23:3–4 is that he himself will gather up the remnant of his people, that he will be their Savior, their Redeemer, and that he will provide the leaders that they need. There is no timetable, no way to know when God will do this and no promises of a restored kingship..
These oracles of judgment, ordered as they are in the canonical book of Jeremiah, may be perhaps the most radical words that anyone possibly could have heard at the time of the exile and immediately afterward. Clearly, if there was a God of mercy, goodness and truth as the Bible taught, and if he intended at some future time to show kindness once again, then this severe judgment appeared to be necessary so that God could clear the deck and start again.
The issue of the Davidic succession did not go away with the passing of years. Hillel was not the only, but one of the most famous, Davidide to be identified by genealogy as a possible successor to the throne. The last occurrence of Jehoiachin’s name in any canonical Scripture (Hebrew Bible or New Testament) is in the genealogy Matthew constructs for Jesus, where the gospel writers take up the theme of the Davidic kingship. Somehow, in Jesus, even the kingship descended from Jehoiachin had found a new expression in a new understanding of Israel’s history and future.
Works Cited
Bright, John. Jeremiah. 2nd ed. Vol. 21. The Anchor Bible. Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1965.
Brown, Raymond Edward. The Birth of the Messiah: A Commentary on the Infancy Narratives in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Updated. The Anchor Bible Reference Library. New York: Doubleday, 1993.
Carroll, Robert P. Jeremiah: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. London: SCM Press, 1986.
Craig, Kenneth M. “Rhetorical Aspects of Questions Answered with Silence in 1 Samuel 14:37 and 28:6.” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 56, no. 2 (Ap 1994): 221–39.
Garfinkel, Yosef. “The Eliakim Na˓ar Yokan Seal Impressions: Sixty Years of Confusion in Biblical Archaeological Research.” Biblical Archaeologist 53, no. 2 (1990).
Janzen, David. “The Sins of Josiah and Hezekiah: A Synchronic Reading of the Final Chapters of Kings.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 37, no. 3 (March 2013): 349–70.
Job, John B. Jeremiah’s Kings: A Study of the Monarchy in Jeremiah. Society for Old Testament Study Monographs. Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2006.
Neusner, Jacob. “Bavli Sanhedrin, Ch. 4, Folios 32A–39B.” In Babylonian Talmud, CD-ROM. Vol. 16. Rio, WI: Ages Library, 2006.
. Development of a Legend. Repr. of 1970 Brill edition. New York: Global Academic Publishing, 2001.
Plant, R. J. R. Good Figs, Bad Figs: Judicial Differentiation in the Book of Jeremiah. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 481. New York: T & T Clark, 2008.
Roncace, Mark. Jeremiah, Zedekiah, and the Fall of Jerusalem. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 423. New York: T&T Clark, 2005.
Schipper, Jeremy. “`Exile Atones for Everything’: Coping with Jeremiah 22.24–30.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31, no. 4 (June 1, 2007): 481–92.
Seitz, Christopher R. “The Prophet Moses and the Canonical Shape of Jeremiah.” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 101, no. 1 (January 1989): 3–27.
Tigay, Jeffrey H., and Alan R. Millard. “Seals and Seal Impressions.” In Context of Scripture, edited by William W Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, 2:197–205. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2003.
Notes
1. This is in distinction to the DtrH. In fact, David Janzen has argued recently that the ending of Kings, when read synchronically, addresses the Davidide in exile, Jehoiachin. David Janzen, “The Sins of Josiah and Hezekiah: A Synchronic Reading of the Final Chapters of Kings,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 37, no. 3 (March 2013): 349–70. In contrast, the arrangement of the Jeremiah passage is not supposed to give us a timeline, but rather is to show us how they lost the kingship. Mark Roncace, Jeremiah, Zedekiah, and the Fall of Jerusalem, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 423 (New York: T&T Clark, 2005), 155–156. Roncace also references Kenneth M Craig, “Rhetorical Aspects of Questions Answered with Silence in 1 Samuel 14:37 and 28:6.,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 56, no. 2 (Ap 1994): 221–39.
2. Bright points out an obvious fact, but often missed, that these oracles are the clearest statement on Jeremiah’s views into the institution of monarchy and its place in the divine economy. John Bright, Jeremiah, 2nd ed., vol. 21, The Anchor Bible (Garden City, N.Y: Doubleday, 1965), 144. Without explanation, the canonical form of Jeremiah places Zedekiah at head of the list of the kings beginning in chapter 21. Christopher R. Seitz, “The Prophet Moses and the Canonical Shape of Jeremiah,” Zeitschrift Für Die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft 101, no. 1 (January 1989): 10; John B Job, Jeremiah’s Kings: A Study of the Monarchy in Jeremiah, Society for Old Testament Study Monographs (Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate, 2006), 33. “…Jehoiachin remains the last king of Judah (in II Kings 25…)” Robert P Carroll, Jeremiah: A Commentary, Old Testament Library (London: SCM Press, 1986), 67.
3. And only secondarily, by his uncle, Zedekiah, who was installed as regent, not king, by Nebuchadnezzar.
4. The only king to actually do that, whether willingly or unwillingly is unclear, was Jehoiachin.
5. הִנְנִ֨י אֵלַ֜יִךְ , commonly translated “Behold, I am against you…”
6. Archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni argued from a 1961 discovery, building on discoveries by WF Albright, that the kings’ increasing wealth during the time of Israel’s trouble was a historical reality. Yosef Garfinkel, “The Eliakim Na˓ar Yokan Seal Impressions: Sixty Years of Confusion in Biblical Archaeological Research,” Biblical Archaeologist 53, no. 2 (1990).
7. For a succinct statement of the issues, see Carroll, Jeremiah, 111–113.
8. At the precanonical level, of course, some of this language was undoubtedly affected by the polemics of various groups after the exile. See Job, Jeremiah’s Kings, 37.
9. For the use and purposes of seals, see Jeffrey H. Tigay and Alan R. Millard, “Seals and Seal Impressions,” in Context of Scripture, ed. William W Hallo and K. Lawson Younger, vol. 2 (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2003), sec. 68.
10. “The identity of מבקשי נפשם is unclear. The phrase מבקשי נפשם is a distinctive of the Jeremiah prose tradition, occurring in 11:21; 19:7, 9; 21:7; 22:25; 34:20, 21; 38:16; 44:30 (x 2); 46:26; 49:37. Those whose life is sought vary…” R. J. R Plant, Good Figs, Bad Figs: Judicial Differentiation in the Book of Jeremiah, Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 481 (New York: T & T Clark, 2008), 63.
11. Rabbinic traditions understood the depth of Jehoiachin’s sufferings as atonement for sin. Jacob Neusner, “Bavli Sanhedrin, Ch. 4, Folios 32A–39B,” in Babylonian Talmud, CD-ROM, vol. 16 (Rio, WI: Ages Library, 2006), 28. See also Jeremy Schipper, “`Exile Atones for Everything’: Coping with Jeremiah 22.24–30,” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 31, no. 4 (June 1, 2007): 481–92.
