Bible Strands
Jeremiah 22:23
O inhabitant of Lebanon, nestled in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs of anguish come upon you, agony like a woman in labor.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — YHWH speaks through Jeremiah to the king of Judah, addressed metaphorically as the inhabitant of Lebanon. The oracle pronounces imminent collapse after the wind scatters Judah’s shepherds and exiles its allies.
The words — The text records ne.chanT (you will groan) and cha.va.Lim (labor-pains) to describe the king’s coming distress. These terms frame the impending humiliation as a violent, unavoidable contraction.
The thread — The labor-pain imagery recurs in Jeremiah 6:24 and parallels the futility of adornment in Jeremiah 4:30. The judgment sequence continues with the rejection of Coniah in Jeremiah 22:24 and contrasts with the Gilead metaphor in Jeremiah 22:6.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that political privilege and geographical security provide no protection from divine judgment. It requires the reader to accept that the coming collapse is certain and irreversible.
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
O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 6:24 We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor.
- Jeremiah 4:30 And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
- Jeremiah 22:6 For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are like Gilead to Me, like the summit of Lebanon; but I will surely turn you into a desert, like cities that are uninhabited.
- Numbers 24:21 Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff.
- Jeremiah 3:21 A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.
- Jeremiah 21:13 Behold, I am against you who dwell above the valley, atop the rocky plateau—declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us? Who can enter our dwellings?”
- Jeremiah 30:5 Yes, this is what the LORD says: “A cry of panic is heard—a cry of terror, not of peace.
- Jeremiah 48:28 Abandon the towns and settle among the rocks, O dwellers of Moab! Be like a dove that nests at the mouth of a cave.
- Jeremiah 49:16 The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks, O occupiers of the mountain summit. Though you elevate your nest like the eagle, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 50:4 “In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God.