The Palace Sermon Makes Justice the Royal Test

The palace sermon makes justice the condition of sitting on David's throne

Jeremiah is sent down to the king of Judah's house to speak to king, servants, and people together. Do judgment and righteousness; deliver the spoiled; do no wrong or violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow; do not shed innocent blood. If they obey, kings sitting upon David's throne will still enter these gates. If they do not, the house becomes a desolation.

The vulnerable are not illustrations. They are the royal exam. Immigrant, orphan, widow, and the robbed person decide whether the palace remains a palace. The sermon does not license a coup, contempt for Judah, or violence against a regime in God's name.

Passersby will explain the ruin as abandoned covenant, not as random misfortune

Many nations will ask why the LORD has done this to this great city, and the answer will be: because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods. The public autopsy is theological and ethical at once.

That explanation still does not make every later disaster a proof-text, and it does not invite outsiders to gloat over Jewish suffering. The charge is Judah's own court's failure to protect the people the Torah names.