Bible Strands
Jeremiah 22:13
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jeremiah pronounces judgment on a Judahite king who constructs his royal residence through exploitation rather than covenant faithfulness. The prophecy addresses a ruler who claims grand architectural ambitions while oppressing his own people.
The words — The Hebrew term הֹוי (hoi) opens the verse as a direct pronouncement of disaster against the builder. The phrases בְּלֹא צֶדֶק (be-lo tsedeq) and בְּלֹא מִשְׁפָּט (be-lo mishpat) literally describe construction “without righteousness” and “without justice.”
The thread — The condemnation of withheld wages echoes Leviticus 19:13’s prohibition against defrauding laborers and James 5:4’s warning that unpaid wages “cry out against you.” The exploitation behind royal building projects also parallels Micah 3:10’s indictment of leaders who build Zion with bloodshed and iniquity.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment that structural wealth built through unpaid labor violates divine standards of justice. Readers must confront how economic exploitation undermines any claim to righteous leadership.
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
King James Version
Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
Cross-references
- Leviticus 19:13 You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.
- Micah 3:10 who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity.
- James 5:4 Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Deuteronomy 24:14 Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.
- Malachi 3:5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Habakkuk 2:9 Woe to him who builds his house by unjust gain, to place his nest on high and escape the hand of disaster!
- 2 Chronicles 36:4 Then Neco king of Egypt made Eliakim brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem, and he changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Eliakim’s brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt.
- Jeremiah 22:18 Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
- 2 Kings 23:35 So Jehoiakim paid the silver and gold to Pharaoh Neco, but to meet Pharaoh’s demand he taxed the land and exacted the silver and the gold from the people, each according to his wealth.
- Job 24:10 Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.