Jeremiah 22:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

O you who build your house without righteousness and establish your upper rooms without justice! You have your neighbor laboring without pay, providing him nothing in return. You have erected for yourself a modest home, its upper chambers exposed to the wind, partitioned by windows, festooned with cedar, and painted in bright red. You will not reign merely because you have risen against your father Ahaz. There is no eating or drinking for you; better it would have been to practice justice and truth. You have neglected to weigh the cases of the humble and the poor. Does this not signify that you do not know Me, says the Lord? Look! Your gaze is askew, and your heart is corrupt, inclined towards self-interest, the spillage of innocent blood, and to wickedness and violence against mankind.

Both accounts are given in full to highlight the truth of the Hebrew text and the complexity of the Vulgate. This is directed against Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, whom Pharaoh Necho of Egypt appointed after capturing his brother Jehoahaz and taking him to Egypt. The accounts in the Books of Kings and Chronicles inform us that Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, ruled for eleven years in Jerusalem, cruelly and wickedly, before his death; yet, no mention of his burial is made. Despite the Scriptures frequently noting the deaths and burials of kings, it deliberately states that he died and was not buried, a topic we will explore further.

It grieves us to note that this king places his hopes in wickedness, mistakenly perceives his royal status as everlasting, constructs his upper chambers, mistreats his companions, and denies due compensation for their work, considering his palace as an unending edifice. The divine pronouncement questions, can you claim eternal reign when you seek to elevate yourself to the stature of the lofty cedar, symbolic of your father Josiah, the just king? Your father, enjoying the bounties of kings, never offended God by his wealth, but found favor with Him through justice and righteousness. Thus, as it was beneficial for him in this life, so shall it be in the next. He acted in the concern of the impoverished and needy, for both their comfort and his own welfare. All these deeds were wholesome for him because he recognized Me, declares the Lord.

But you, Jehoiakim, have your vision skewed towards selfish gain, towards innocent bloodshed, towards slander, and the quickening of evil deeds. The significance of this passage according to the Septuagint remains perplexing to me. For while some elements are interconnected, the assertion that you will not reign due to your confrontation with Ahaz, when the Hebrew uses araz, meaning cedar, seems nonsensical. Similarly, notions of not eating or drinking, and the associated phrases, become so entangled that, without the original Hebrew, they appear utterly puzzling in reading.

In a deeper sense, we might interpret this against the heretics who construct not a grand edifice reflective of the church’s breadth, but rather a diminutive one. Yet, they do not fortify it with truth and judgment, desiring instead to seize the possessions of others. And thus it is remarked, "You have built for yourself a small house, whose upper chambers are battered by the wind, and carried away by various doctrines, as noted in Ephesians 4:14, and separated through windows, for heretics lack a solid foundation and eternal stability." The reference to cedar ceilings may suggest that although they may seem to have an appealing appearance, when subjected to the torrents and turbulence of persecution, they will quickly decay and fall apart.

Regarding the painted crimson, while they may promise the suffering and blood of the Lord, they will not reign eternally, as they confront and provoke to wrath the cedar—symbolic of their father. Each heretic originates within the Church but is ultimately cast out, opposing and disparaging their origins. The phrases regarding not eating or drinking symbolize the Body and Blood of the Savior and similar sacramental matters. The root of their errors lies in their failure to know God, possessing misguided visions, while their hearts are drawn to greed, the plunder of others’ possessions, and the unjust shedding of blood. For to commit murder is to engage in such acts. The more concealed matters will be elaborated in due course.