Jeremiah 13:18

Say to the king and to the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.”

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The prophet delivers a divine command to the king and queen mother of Judah at the moment of national collapse, immediately preceding the full execution of exile.

The words — hash.Pi.lu (make low) and mar.'a.Sho.tei./Khem (place of head/crowns) frame the command to abandon royal dignity because the symbols of authority have been removed.

The thread — This removal of royal status parallels the historical fulfillment in 2 Kings 24:12 and 2 Kings 24:15, where Nebuchadnezzar carries the king and his mother into captivity, and echoes the judgment pronouncement in Jeremiah 22:26.

Why it lands — It requires the reader to confront the concrete reality of divine judgment stripping institutions of their legitimacy, demanding a response of sober acknowledgment rather than denial.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

אֱמֹ֥ר'e.Morsay לַמֶּ֛לֶךְla./Me.lekhto the/ king וְלַגְּבִירָ֖הve./la./ge.vi.Rahand/ to the/ queen-mother הַשְׁפִּ֣ילוּhash.Pi.lumake low שֵׁ֑בוּShe.vusit כִּ֤יkifor יָרַד֙ya.Radit has come down מַרְאֲשׁ֣וֹתֵיכֶ֔םmar.'a.Sho.tei./Khem[the] place of head/ your עֲטֶ֖רֶת'a.Te.ret[the] crown of תִּֽפְאַרְתְּכֶֽם׃Tif.'ar.te./Khemsplendor/ your

King James Version

Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 22:26 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.
2 Kings 24:12 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.
2 Kings 24:15 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.
2 Chronicles 33:12 And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
2 Chronicles 33:19 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.
Isaiah 47:1 “Go down and sit in the dust, O Virgin Daughter of Babylon. Sit on the ground without a throne, O Daughter of the Chaldeans! For you will no longer be called tender or delicate.
Exodus 10:3 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.
2 Chronicles 33:23 but he did not humble himself before the LORD as his father Manasseh had done; instead, Amon increased his guilt.
Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
Jonah 3:6 When word reached the king of Nineveh, he got up from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.