The scriptures tell us that after the taking away of the Kingdom from Israel, it was to be restored. This was the authority and commission given to Jeremiah:

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. ( Jeremiah 1:10 )

“The nations” refers to Israel and Judah. In verse 4 of the same chapter:

I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Jeremiah’s time followed the taking into captivity of the northern kingdom, Israel, by Assyria. Judah had not, at the point when Jeremiah was given his commission, been deported to Babylon. Thus, it was the seat of the royal line of Judah which was to be rooted out, pulled down, destroyed and thrown down. It was the nations and the kingdoms which were to be built and planted. Rebuilding of the Davidic kingdom was necessary to fulfil the promises made by the Almighty to King David when he ruled over all Israel as one kingdom in the land of Canaan :

Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime, ….

And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. (2 Samuel: 7: 10,16)

If these promises are to be fulfilled, the royal line must survive and its authority over all Israel (David’s Kingdom) re-established. Moreover, the nation of Israel must be planted in a place other than the land of Canaan, with the House of David ruling over it. In Jeremiah’s time, the royal line ruled over Judah only. The remaining tribes of all Israel (which comprised the northern Kingdom of Israel) were in exile, probably without a ruler. Jeremiah was to perform the task of building and planting the authority of the House of David.

Separating the kingdom from the remnant of the nation

The calling of Jeremiah occurred during the reign of Josiah (Jeremiah 1:2). 2 Kings tells us that Josiah did what was right but that it was not enough to save the kingdom:

Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, ….

And the LORD said, I will remove Judah also out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I said, My name shall be there. ( 2 Kings 23:26-27 )

2 Chronicles 35:23-24 records the wounding in battle and subsequent death of Josiah. Two of Josiah’s sons succeeded him in turn. The first, Shallum, was taken into captivity, never to return ( Jeremiah 22:11-12 ). The second, Jehoiakim, met an ignominious end (Jeremiah 22:18-19). Jehoiakim’s son, Coniah, followed and he was the one of whom God decreed “no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30). Thus, the shortened reigns of three successive kings of Judah is recounted in one chapter of Jeremiah.

That brings us to the last to rule in that land, Zedekiah:

And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim …. ( Jeremiah 37:1 )

Zedekiah was a vassal of the king of Babylon because Judah had during Coniah’s reign been taken into captivity. The conquest began during the reign of Jehoiakim:

In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him….

And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah. ( 2 Kings 24:1, 17 )

Although Jeremiah speaks of ‘Coniah’, 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles refer to ‘Jehoiachin’ and ascribe different ages to him at the beginning of his reign. 2 Kings says he was 18 years old, 2 Chronicles 8 years old. He is named Jeconiah in 1 Chronicles 3:17. Moreover, it was Coniah’s father, Jehoiakim, of whom Jeremiah also writes:

Therefore thus saith the LORD of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. ( Jeremiah 36:30 )

Joseph, Mary’s husband, was of that line; Jehoiakim is the ‘Jechonias’ of Matthew 1:11. Jesus, if he is to inherit the throne of David, cannot be Joseph’s son. The scriptures tell us that the Messiah is conceived by a virgin ( Isaiah 7:14; Luke 1:34 ).

The captivity of Judah by Babylon is described in 2 Kings :

And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: and the king of Babylon took him in the eighth year of his reign. ( 2 Kings 24:12)

and in Jeremiah :

Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem ( Jeremiah 27:20 )

Babylon attempted to end the royal line of Judah :

So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.

And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. ( 2 Kings 25:6-7 )

The significance

It appears to many at that point :

1. The sceptre departed from Judah and “a lawgiver from between his feet” even though Shiloh was not yet come, in spite of Genesis 49:10.

2. The throne and kingdom of David ceased to exist, in spite of the promises recorded in 2 Samuel 7 and this :

For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel ( Jeremiah 33:17 )

That was part of Jeremiah’s prophecy while he was imprisoned by Zedekiah for foretelling the defeat and blinding of Zedekiah.

3. God’s promise to plant Israel in a new land meant nothing ( 2 Samuel 7:10 ).

4. Jeremiah’s commission to build and plant meant nothing ( Jeremiah 1:10 ).

Those scriptures are not meaningless or ineffective. The royal line survived, it was re-planted and the Kingdom and nation were restored to it in another land.