He says, ‘I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red.’
Parallel translations
- WEB who says, ‘I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms,’ and cuts out windows for himself; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
- KJV That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and painted with vermilion.
- BSB who says, ‘I will build myself a great palace, with spacious upper rooms.’ So he cuts windows in it, panels it with cedar, and paints it with vermilion.
- NKJV Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.’
- NASB Who says, ‘I will build myself a large house With spacious upstairs rooms, And cut out its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.’
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The king lavishes attention on building a grand, cedar-paneled, painted palace. He pursues luxury while neglecting righteousness.
Overview
Jehoiakim's ambition was fixed on spacious rooms, large windows, and costly cedar and vermilion decoration, all signs of self-indulgent extravagance. The detail highlights misplaced priorities: grandeur for himself while justice for others was ignored. Scripture repeatedly warns against such vanity, contrasting it with the true greatness that consists in serving God and neighbor.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Sam 7:2the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but God’s ark dwells within curtains.”
- Isa 5:8–9Woe to those who join house to house, who lay field to field, until there is no room, and you are made to dwell alone in the middle of the land!
- Hag 1:4“Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies waste?
- Prov 24:27Prepare your work outside, and get your fields ready. Afterwards, build your house.
- Mal 1:4Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places”; Yahweh of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom Yahweh shows wrath forever.”
- Isa 9:9All the people will know, including Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, who say in pride and in arrogance of heart,
- 2 Chr 3:5He made the larger room with a ceiling of cypress wood, which he overlaid with fine gold, and ornamented it with palm trees and chains.
- Dan 4:30The king spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?
- Luke 14:28–29For which of you, desiring to build a tower, doesn’t first sit down and count the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it?
- Prov 17:19He who loves disobedience loves strife. One who builds a high gate seeks destruction.
- Song 1:17The beams of our house are cedars. Our rafters are firs.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 22:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.