“For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are to Me like Gilead, like the summit of Lebanon; surely I will make you a wilderness, like cities that are not inhabited!” (Jeremiah 22:6)
What does Lebanon have to do with the house of Judah and Zion? Let us first consider the name Gilad, which in its common pronunciation is composed of two words—Gil (גיל) and Ad (עד)—meaning joy and eternal, thus “eternal joy.” God’s eternal joy repeatedly causes Him sorrow. God’s eternal joy repeatedly sins against God. In these cases, God loses His joy for certain moments. And yet Jerusalem is called God’s Eternal Joy.
“Gilad, you are to Me like the summit of Lebanon”—this was said concerning the royal house of Judah, the head of the kingdom of Israel. “You were to Me like Gilad,” for Gilad was a city beyond the Jordan River, and the entire region—the land of Sihon and Og and all of Bashan—was named after it. In the Second Book of Kings, this area is...
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