Jeremiah 13:18
 Jeremiah 13:18 
New International Version (©2011)
Say to the king and to the queen mother, "Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads."

New Living Translation (©2007)
Say to the king and his mother, "Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns will soon be snatched from your heads."

English Standard Version (©2001)
Say to the king and the queen mother: “Take a lowly seat, for your beautiful crown has come down from your head.”

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
Say to the king and the queen mother, "Take a lowly seat, For your beautiful crown Has come down from your head."

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
Say to the king and the queen mother: Take a humble seat, for your glorious crowns have fallen from your heads.

International Standard Version (©2012)
Say to the king and the queen mother, "Come take a lowly seat, because your beautiful crowns have fallen off your heads."

NET Bible (©2006)
The LORD told me, "Tell the king and the queen mother, 'Surrender your thrones, for your glorious crowns will be removed from your heads.

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
Say to the king and his mother, "Come down from your thrones, because your crowns have fallen off your heads."

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Say unto the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your rule shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

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

American Standard Version
Say thou unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headtires are come down, even the crown of your glory.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.

Darby Bible Translation
Say unto the king and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down low; for from your heads shall come down the crown of your magnificence.

English Revised Version
Say thou unto the king and to the queen-mother, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your headtires are come down, even the crown of your glory.

Webster's Bible Translation
Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory.

World English Bible
Say to the king and to the queen mother, Humble yourselves, sit down; for your headdresses have come down, even the crown of your glory.

Young's Literal Translation
Say to the king and to the mistress: Make yourselves low -- sit still, For come down have your principalities, The crown of your beauty.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then seek help from Him who is mighty to save.


Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - The extent of the calamity shown in individual instances. For the fulfillment, see 2 Kings 24:15. After a reign of three months, the young prince and his mother were carried to Babylon. And to the queen; rather, and to the queen-mother (literally, the mistress). It will be noticed that, except in two cases, the names of the mothers of the reigning kings of Judah are scrupulously mentioned in the Books of Kings. This and the title of "mistress" are indications of the high rank they enjoyed in the social system. In the case of Asa, we are told that he removed his mother, Maachah, from her position as "mistress," or queen-mother, on account of her idolatry (1 Kings 15:13). The political value of the station is strikingly shown by the ease with which Athaliah, as queen-mother, usurped the supreme authority (2 Kings 11.). From an historical point of view, the "queen-mother" of the Jews is a most interesting personage; she is a relic of the primitive age in which relationship was reckoned with regard to the mother (so with the Accadians, Etruseans, Finns, etc.). It should be added, however, that once (viz. 1 Kings 11:19) the same title, "mistress," is applied to the queen-consort. Humble yourselves, sit down; rather, sit down in abase-sent; i.e. take the station suitable for your abased circumstances (comp. Isaiah 47:1). Your principalities; rather, your head. ornaments.


Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Say unto the king, and to the queen,.... Jehoiachin, and his mother Nehushta, as it is generally interpreted by the Jewish commentators, and others; who, with many princes and officers, were carried captive into Babylon, 2 Kings 24:12 or rather Zedekiah and his wife; since the captivity after threatened is a perfect and complete one, which Jehoiachin's was not:

humble yourselves, sit down; or, "sit down humbled" (d); come down from your thrones, and sit in the dust; humble yourselves before the Lord for your own sins, and the sins of the people; in times of general corruption, and which threatens a nation with ruin, it becomes kings and princes to set an example of repentance, humiliation, and reformation; though it may be this is rather a prediction of what would be, that they should descend from their throne, and lose their grandeur, and be in a low and abject condition, than an exhortation to what was their duty; since it follows:

for your principalities shall come down; their royal state and greatness, and all the ensigns of it; and especially such as they had upon their heads, as the word used denotes, and as the following explanation shows:

even the crown of your glory; or glorious crown, which should fall from their heads, or be taken from them, when they should be no more served in state, or treated as crowned heads.

(d) "degite humiliter", Castalio; "abjectissime considite", Junius & Tremellius; "loco humili considite", Piscator.


Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. king—Jehoiachin or Jeconiah.

queen—the queen mother who, as the king was not more than eighteen years old, held the chief power. Nehushta, daughter of Elnathan, carried away captive with Jehoiachin by Nebuchadnezzar (2Ki 24:8-15).

Humble yourselves—that is, Ye shall be humbled, or brought low (Jer 22:26; 28:2).

your principalities—rather, "your head ornament."


Jeremiah 13:18 Parallel Commentaries

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Captivity Threatened
17But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and my eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the LORD's flock is carried away captive. 18Say to the king and to the queen, Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even the crown of your glory. 19The cities of the south shall be shut up, and none shall open them: Judah shall be carried away captive all of it, it shall be wholly carried away captive. …

Exodus 39:28 and the turban of fine linen, the linen caps and the undergarments of finely twisted linen.
2 Kings 24:12 Jehoiachin king of Judah, his mother, his attendants, his nobles and his officials all surrendered to him. In the eighth year of the reign of the king of Babylon, he took Jehoiachin prisoner.
2 Kings 24:15 Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin captive to Babylon. He also took from Jerusalem to Babylon the king's mother, his wives, his officials and the prominent people of the land.
2 Chronicles 33:12 In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors.
2 Chronicles 33:19 His prayer and how God was moved by his entreaty, as well as all his sins and unfaithfulness, and the sites where he built high places and set up Asherah poles and idols before he humbled himself--all these are written in the records of the seers.
Proverbs 27:24 for riches do not endure forever, and a crown is not secure for all generations.
Isaiah 3:20 the headdresses and anklets and sashes, the perfume bottles and charms,
Jeremiah 22:26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
Jeremiah 29:2 (This was after King Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.)
Jeremiah 36:16 When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the king."
Lamentations 1:6 All the splendor has departed from Daughter Zion. Her princes are like deer that find no pasture; in weakness they have fled before the pursuer.
Lamentations 1:9 Her filthiness clung to her skirts; she did not consider her future. Her fall was astounding; there was none to comfort her. "Look, LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed."