Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 22:18
Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
18. Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! ] given as the usual formulae in lamenting a death (see 1Ki 13:30). The second is here inappropriate, but it satisfies the parallelism of the inah metre of the whole passage.
Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! ] the lamentations of subjects and friends, those outside his family.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
18, 19. The prediction of the circumstances attendant upon his death. Cp. Jer 36:30, the similarity of which makes it probable that these were among the “many like words” which were added to the original form of the Roll (Jer 36:32) as read to Jehoiakim, and would thus probably be later than the rest of the passage. The prediction was doubtless fulfilled, or it would not have been included in Jeremiah’s prophecies as edited. It is true that we read 2Ki 24:6 that Jehoiakim “slept with his fathers,” but mention of his burial is significantly omitted.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Boldly by name is the judgment at length pronounced upon Jehoiakim. Dreaded by all around him, he shall soon lie an unheeded corpse, with no one to lament. No loving relative shall make such wailing as when a brother or sister is carried to the grave; nor shall he have the respect of his subjects, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 22:18-19
With the burial of an ass.
Dishonoured in death
Jehoiakim was king, and yet not one word of thanks do we find, nor one word of love, nor one word of regret expressed concerning his fate. We should learn from this how possible it is to pass through the world without leaving behind us one sacred or loving memory. He that seeketh his life shall lose it. A man that sacrifices daily to his own ambition, and never sets before himself a higher ideal than his own gratification, may appear to have much whilst he actually has nothing, may even appear to be winning great victories, when he is really undergoing disastrous defeats. What is a grand house if there be not in it a loving heart? What are walls but for the pictures that adorn them? What is life but for the trust which knits it into sympathetic unity? What is the night but for the stars that glitter in its darkness? There is an awful process of retrogression continually operating in life. Experienced men will tell us that the issue of life is one of two things: either advancement, or deterioration; continual improvement, or continual depreciation: we cannot remain just where we are, adding nothing, subtracting nothing, but realising a permanence of estate and faculty. The powers we do not use will fall into desuetude, and the abilities which might have made life easy may be so neglected as to become burdens too heavy to be carried. It lies within a mans power so to live that he may be buried with the burial of an ass: no mourners may surround his grave; no beneficiaries may recall his charities; no hidden hearts may conceal the tender story of his sympathy and helpfulness. A bitter sarcasm this, that a man should be buried like an ass! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The doom of the defrauder, libertine, and assassin
After a life of private or public iniquity, a mans death is not deplored. The obsequies may be pretentious–flags, wreaths, catafalques, military processions; but the world feels that a nuisance has been abated; he is cast forth by reason of the contempt of men; figuratively, if not literally, he is buried with the burial of an ass.
I. There is the romance of fraud. The heroes of this country are fast getting to be those who have most skill in swallowing trust funds, banks, stocks, and moneyed institutions. I thank God when fortunes thus gathered go to smash. They are plague struck, and blast a nation. I like to have them made loathsome and an insufferable stench, so that honest young men may take warning.
II. Next, I speak of the romance of libertinism. Society has severest retribution for the impurity that lurks about the cellars and alleys of the city. It cries out against it. It hurls the indignation of the law at it. But society becomes more lenient as impurity rises towards affluence and high social position, until, finally, it is silent, or disposed to palliate. Where is the judge, or the sheriff, or the police, who dare arraign for indecency the wealthy villain? Would God that the romance which flings its fascinations over the bestialities of high life might be gone! Whether it has canopied couch of eiderdown, or sleep amid the putridity of the low tenement house, four families in a room, Gods consuming vengeance is after it.
III. Next,. I speak of the romance of assassination. God gives life, and He only has a right to take it away; and that man who assumes this Divine prerogative has touched the last depth of crime. Society is alert for certain forms of murder. For garroting, or the beating out of life with a club, or axe, or slung shot, the law has a quick spring and a heavy stroke. But let a man come to wealth or social pretension, and then attempt to avenge his wrongs by aiming a pistol at the header heart of another, and immediately there are sympathies aroused. If capital punishment be right, then let the life of the polished murderer go with the life of the ignorant and vulgar assassin. Let there be no partiality of hemp, no aristocracy of the gallows. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The ignominious burial of the wicked
Christ tells the story of a prosperous farmer who was clean intoxicated with success, and could not entertain a thought but of his gains,–how the very night that he had decided on the enlargement of his premises, a voice from heaven called his soul away; and whatever monument with flattering title his friends may have erected over his grave, God wrote his epitaph, in one word of four letters, Fool. Buried with the burial of an ass. No one will for a moment suppose that a splendid catafalque and imposing funeral obsequies betoken the close of a noble and honourable life. Ah! many a man is laid in one of yonder cemeteries with every form of ceremonial pomp, with gilt, and nodding plumes, and long rows of carriages and costly wreaths; and if the truth were told, a nuisance is being got rid of; the world will be better now that he is gone. Well might the artless child, who had been wandering among the tombstones, and reading the epitaphs, turn to its mother and say, Mother, where are all the bad people buried? (T. Thain Davidson, D. D.)
A kings humiliating burial
Our Richard II, for his exactions to maintain a great court and favourites, lost his kingdom, was starved to death at Pomfret Castle, and scarce afforded common burial. King Stephen was interred in Faversham monastery; but afterwards his body, for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined, was cast into the river. (John Trapp.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother!] These words were no doubt the burden of some funeral dirge. Alas! a brother, who was our lord or governor, is gone. Alas, our sister! his QUEEN, who has lost her glory in losing her husband. hodah is feminine, and must refer to the glory of the queen.
The mournings in the east, and lamentations for the dead, are loud, vehement, and distressing. For a child or a parent grief is expressed in a variety of impassioned sentences, each ending with a burden like that in the text, “Ah my child!” “Ah my mother!” as the prophet in this place: hoi achi, “Ah my brother!” hoi achoth, “Ah sister!” hoi adon, “Ah lord!” hoi hodah, “Ah the glory.”
Mr. Ward, in his Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, gives two examples of lamentation; one of a mother for the death of her son, one of a daughter for her departed mother. “When a woman,” says he, “is overwhelmed with grief for the death of her child, she utters her grief in some such language as the following: –
Ah, my Hureedas, where is he gone? –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
My golden image, Hureedas, who has taken? –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
I nourished and reared him, where is he gone? –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Take me with thee. –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
He played round me like a golden top. –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Like his face I never saw one. –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
The infant continually cried, Ma Ma! –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Ah my child, crying, Ma! come into my lap. –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Who shall now drink milk? –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Who shall now stay in my lap? –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
Our support is gone! –
‘Ah my child, my child!’
“The lamentations for a mother are in some such strains as these: –
Mother! where is she gone? –
‘Ah my mother, my mother!’
You are gone, but what have you left for me? –
‘Ah my mother, my mother!’
Whom shall I now call mother, mother? –
‘Ah my mother, my mother!’
Where shall I find such a mother? –
‘Ah my mother, my mother!'”
From the above we may conclude that the funeral lamentations, to which the prophet refers, generally ended in this way, in each of the verses or interrogatories.
There is another intimation of this ancient and universal custom in 1Kg 13:30, where the old prophet, who had deceived the man of God, and who was afterwards slain by a lion, is represented as mourning over him, and saying, hoi achi, “Alas, my brother!” this being the burden of the lamentation which he had used on this occasion. Similar instances may be seen in other places, Jer 30:7; Eze 6:11; Joe 1:15; and particularly Am 5:16-17, and Re 18:10-19.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; a very bad son of a good father, whose name was Eliakim, by Pharaoh-nechoh turned to Jehoiakim, 2Ki 23:34, and by him set up. He reigned wickedly, and infinitely oppressed the people for money for Pharaoh-nechoh, that made him king, 23:35. He reigned but eleven years; but rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, we read, 2Ki 24:1,2, he was carried by him into Babylon in fetters, 2Ch 36:6, where, for aught we read, he died. Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, his son, succeeded him, Jer 22:9, reigning only three months and ten days.
They shall not lament for him; he died not lamented; for as it is not probable his enemies would lament him, so he had disobliged his own people by violence and oppression to that degree, that it is not likely that those of them that were in Babylon made any great lamentation for him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Ah my brother! . . .sister!addressing him with such titles of affection as onewould address to a deceased friend beloved as a brother orsister (compare 1Ki 13:30).This expresses, They shall not lament him with the lamentation ofprivate individuals [VATABLUS],or of blood relatives [GROTIUS]:as “Ah! lord,” expresses public lamentation inthe case of a king [VATABLUS],or that of subjects [GROTIUS].HENDERSON thinks, “Ah!sister,” refers to Jehoiakim’s queen, who, though taken toBabylon and not left unburied on the way, as Jehoiakim, yet was nothonored at her death with royal lamentations, such as would have beenpoured forth over her at Jerusalem. He notices the beauty ofJeremiah’s manner in his prophecy against Jehoiakim. In Jer 22:13;Jer 22:14 he describes him ingeneral terms; then, in Jer22:15-17, he directly addresses him without naming him; at last,in Jer 22:18, he names him,but in the third person, to imply that God puts him to a distancefrom Him. The boldness of the Hebrew prophets proves their divinemission; were it not so, their reproofs to the Hebrew kings, who heldthe throne by divine authority, would have been treason.
Ah his glory!“Alas!his majesty.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim,…. This shows who is before spoken of and described; Jehoiakim, the then reigning king in Judah, whose name was Eliakim, but was changed by Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he deposed his brother Jehoahaz or Shallum, and set him on the throne, 2Ki 23:34;
the son of Josiah king of Judah; and who seems to have been his eldest son, though his brother Jehoahaz reigned before him; for he was but twenty three years of age when he began his reign, and he reigned but three months; and Jehoiakim was twenty five years old when he succeeded him, 2Ki 23:31; his relation to Josiah is mentioned, not so much for his honour, but rather to his disgrace, and as an aggravation of his wickedness, that having so religious a parent, and such a religious education, and the advantage of such an example, and yet did so sadly degenerate: and it also suggests that this would be no security to him from the divine vengeance; but rather provoke it, to deal more severely with him;
they shall not lament for him; that is, his people, his subjects, shall not lament for him when dead, as they did for his father Josiah; so far from having any real grief or inward sorrow on account of his death, that they should not so much as outwardly express any, or use the common form at meeting together:
[saying], ah my brother! or, ah sister! a woman meeting her brother would not say to him, O my brother, what bad news is this! we have lost our king! nor he reply to her, O sister, it is so, the loss is great indeed! for this is not to be understood of the funeral “lessus” at the interment of a king or queen; lamenting them under these appellations of brother or sister, which is denied of this prince. Kimchi thinks it has reference to his relations, as that they should not mourn for him, and say, “ah my brother!” nor for his wife, who died at the same time, though not mentioned, ah sister! both should die unlamented, as by their subjects, so by their nearest friends and relations;
they shall not lament for him, [saying], ah lord! or, ah his glory! O our liege lord and sovereign, he is gone! where are his glory and majesty now? where are his crown, his sceptre, his robes, and other ensigns of royalty? So the Targum,
“woe, or alas, for the king; alas, for his kingdom;”
a heavy stroke, a sorrowful melancholy providence this! but nothing of this kind should be said; as he lived not beloved, because of his oppression and violence, so he died without any lamentation for him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
As punishment for this, his end will be full of horrors; when he dies he will not be bemoaned and mourned for, and will lie unburied. To have an ass’s burial means: to be left unburied in the open field, or cast into a flaying-ground, inasmuch as they drag out the dead body and cast it far from the gates of Jerusalem. The words: Alas, my brother! alas, etc.! are ipsissima verba of the regular mourners who were procured to bewail the deaths of men and women. The lxx took objection to the “alas, sister,” and left it out, applying the words literally to Jehoiakim’s death; whereas the words are but a rhetorical individualizing of the general idea: they will make no death-laments for him, and the omission destroys the parallelism. His glory, i.e., the king’s. The idea is: neither his relatives nor his subjects will lament his death. The infinn. absoll. , dragging forth and casting (him), serve to explain: the burial of an ass, etc. In Jer 36:30, where Jeremiah repeats this prediction concerning Jehoiakim, it is said: His dead body shall be cast out (exposed) to the heat by day and to the cold by night, i.e., rot unburied under the open sky.
As to the fulfilment of this prophecy, we are told, indeed, in 2Ki 24:6 that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, his son, was king in his stead. But the phrase “to sleep with his fathers” denotes merely departure from this life, without saying anything as to the manner of the death. It is not used only of kings who died a peaceful death on a sickbed, but of Ahab (1Ki 22:40), who, mortally wounded in the battle, died in the war-chariot. There is no record of Jehoiakim’s funeral obsequies or burial in 2 Kings 24, and in Chr. there is not even mention made of his death. Three years after the first siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and after he had become tributary to the king of Babylon, Jehoiakim rose in insurrection, and Nebuchadnezzar sent against him the troops of the Chaldeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites. It was not till after the accession of Jehoiachin that Nebuchadnezzar himself appeared before Jerusalem and besieged it (2Ki 24:1-2, and 2Ki 24:10). So it is in the highest degree probable that Jehoiakim fell in battle against the Chaldean-Syrian armies before Jerusalem was besieged, and while the enemies were advancing against the city; also that he was left to lie unburied outside of Jerusalem; see on 2Ki 24:6, where other untenable attempts to harmonize are discussed. The absence of direct testimony to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us can be no ground for doubting that it was fulfilled, when we consider the great brevity of the notices of the last kings’ reigns given by the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles. Graf’s remark hereon is excellent: “We have a warrant for the fulfilment of this prediction precisely in the fact that it is again expressly recounted in Jer 36, a historical passage written certainly at a later time (Jer 36:30 seems to contain but a slight reference to the prediction in Jer 22:18-19, Jer 22:30); or, while Jer 22:12, Jer 22:25. tallies so completely with the history, is Jer 22:18. to be held as contradicting it?”
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet having inveighed against Jehoiakim, now shews what kind of punishment from God awaited him; he would have otherwise despised the Prophet’s reproof; but when he heard that a reward was prepared for him, he must have been roused. Inasmuch then as he was seized with a foolish and even a sottish lust for glory, so that he cast aside every care for uprightness, the Prophet declares that disgrace was prepared for him; and hence he compares him after his death to an ass.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah to King Jehoiakim, or concerning King Jehoiakim, (56) the son of Josiah the king, etc. He is not called the son of Josiah for honor’s sake, but for the purpose of touching him to the quick, because he had degenerated from the piety of his father. But as he hoped that the religion of Josiah would be to him a sort of covering, the Prophet derides and checks this vain confidence. “Thou gloriest in being the son of King Josiah, but thy holy father will avail thee nothing, for thou seemest avowedly to shew that thou art wholly different from him. Though then thou art, descended from Josiah, and though God has raised thee to the royal throne, yet there is no reason for thee to be confident as to thy safety; for these benefits of God will not preserve thee from that ignominious treatment which thou deservest.”
He says first, They shall not bewail him, Ah my brother! Ah sister! The Prophet mentions by way of imitation the words of the mourners. That people, we know, were very vehement in expressing their sorrow. And this ought to be borne in mind, because some being persuaded that nothing is related by the Prophets but what ought to be taken as an example, do therefore think that these modes of lamentation were approved by God. But we have before seen what the Prophet said in Jer 22:4,
“
Enter through these gates shall the kings of Judah and their princes in chariots,”
yet we know that kings had been forbidden to make such ostentations; but God did not scrupulously refer to what was lawful or right in speaking of royal splendor; so also when he spoke of funeral rites. We ought not then to make a law of what the Prophet says, as though it were right and proper to bewail the dead with howling. There is indeed no doubt, but these excesses which the Prophet mentions were not only foolish, but also wholly condemnable; for we often vie with one another in our lamentations; and when men intemperately express their grief in funerals, they excite themselves into a sort of madness in crying and bewailing, and then when they compose themselves and simulate grief, they act a part as in a theater. But the Prophet here speaks only according to the common practice of the age, when he says, “They shall not bewail him,” etc.; that is, he states what was usually done, when one embraced another, when a sister said, “Ah, my brother!” and when a brother said, “Ah, my sister!” or, when the people said, “Ah, lord, O king, where is thy glory! where is thy honor! where thy crown! where thy scepter! where thy throne!“ Very foolish then were the lamentations which the Prophet mentions here. But as I have already said, it is enough for us to know, that he refers to these rites, then commonly practiced, without expressing his approbation of them.
They shall not, he says, bewail King Jehoiakim; they shall not say at his funeral, Ah, my brother! Ah, sister! And, Ah, lord! Ah, his glory! (57) There shall be no such thing; and why? because he shall be buried with the burial of an ass We have before said, that it was justly deemed one of God’s curses when a carcass was cast away unburied; for God would have burial a proof to distinguish us from brute animals even after death, as we in life excel them, and as our condition is much nobler than that of the brute creation. Burial is also a pledge as it were of immortality; for when man’s body is laid hid in the earth, it is, as it were, a mirror of a future life. Since then burial is an evidence of God’s grace and favor towards mankind, it is on the other hand a sign of a curse, when burial is denied.
But it has been elsewhere said, that temporal punishments ought not always to be viewed alike; for God has suffered sometimes his faithful servants to be unburied, according to what we read in Psa 79:2, that their bodies were cast forth in the fields, that they were exposed to be eaten by the beasts of the earth and by the birds of heaven. Those spoken of were the true and sincere worshippers of God. But we know that the good and the bad have temporal punishments in common; and this is true as to famine and nakedness, pestilence and war. The destruction of the city Jerusalem was a just punishment on the wicked; and yet Daniel and Jeremiah were driven into exile together with the wicked, and suffered great hardships; and, in short, they were so mixed with the ungodly, that their external condition was in nothing different. So, then, the state of things in the world is often in such disorder, that we cannot distinguish between the good and the bad by outward circumstances. But still it is right ever to hold this truth, that when burial is denied to a man, it is a sign of God’s curse.
(56) It is “to” in the Sept. and Vulg., and “concerning” in the Syr., Arab., and Targ. The latter is most adopted by commentators. — Ed.
(57) The original is not “his,” but “her glory.” The lamentation is such as was used for kings, when there was also a condolence expressed for the queens. Ah, my brother! and, Ah, lord! was a lamentation for the king when dead, (Jer 34:5😉 and, Ah, sister! and, Ah, her glory! was sympathy for the surviving queen. Her glory had departed with her husband. This is Blayney’s view.
The Versions and the Targum are all different, and not one of them renders the original correctly.
The verse may be thus rendered, —
18. Therefore thus saith Jehovah of Jehoiakim, The son of Josiah, the king of Judah — They shall not lament for him — “Ah, my brother, and, Ah, sister. They shall not lament for him — “Ah, Lord! and, Ah, her glory!”
To render the ו disjunctively “or,” as in our version, seems not suitable. The lamentation and the condolence are to be connected together. The “Ah” might be rendered “Alas;” and so it is in many places. See 1Kg 13:30. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) They shall not lament for him.The words contrast the death as well as the life of Jehoiakim with that of Josiah. For him there should be no lamentation such as was made for the righteous king (2Ch. 35:25), either from kindred mourning, as over a brother or a sister (perhaps, however, as sister would not be appropriate to the king, the words are those of a chorus of mourners, male and female, addressing each other), or from subjects wailing over the death of their lord and the departure of his glory. For the funeral ceremonies of Israel, see 1Ki. 13:30; Mat. 9:23; Mar. 5:38.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18, 19. Not lament Ah my brother Neither relations nor subjects will lament his death. Like a dead ass his body will be dragged out, and left to decay unburied and unheeded. There is no minute account of the death of this king, and hence we have no historical illustration of the fulfilment of this prophecy.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 22:18-19. They shall not lament for him, &c. The prophet here repeats part of the funeral song, which the public mourners used to sing at funerals; indicating, that neither Jehoiakim nor his queen or family should be buried with those solemn lamentations, with which the memory of his predecessors, particularly that of his father, had been honoured. On the contrary, the prophet foretels that his dead body should be treated with great indignity, and should be cast out like the carcase of the vilest animal.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 22:18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
Ver. 18. They shall not lament for him. ] By his exactions he had so far lost his people’s affections, that none were found, either of his allies or others, that bewailed his death; but, Jehoram-like as he had lived undesired, so he died unlamented Edwin-like, as he lived wickedly, so he died wishedly; a Mohammed-like, he lived feared of all men, and died bewailed of none. b See the contrary promised to his brother Zedekiah, for his courtesy to Jeremiah, Jer 34:5 .
a Daniel’s History.
b Turkish History.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 22:18-23
18Therefore thus says the LORD in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
They will not lament for him:
‘Alas, my brother!’ or, ‘Alas, sister!’
They will not lament for him:
‘Alas for the master!’ or, ‘Alas for his splendor!’
19He will be buried with a donkey’s burial,
Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
And lift up your voice in Bashan;
Cry out also from Abarim,
For all your lovers have been crushed.
21I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, ‘I will not listen!’
This has been your practice from your youth,
That you have not obeyed My voice.
22The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated
Because of all your wickedness.
23You who dwell in Lebanon,
Nested in the cedars,
How you will groan when pangs come upon you,
Pain like a woman in childbirth!
Jer 22:20-23 The NJB thinks that these verses address Jehoiachin, who reigned only three months, before being removed and exiled by Nebuchadnezzar. However, the TEV and UBS Handbook think these verses are addressed to Judah/Jerusalem (FEMININE SINGULAR VERBS).
It is difficult to know exactly which verses refer to which Davidic king. The NKJV version simply titles the section Message to the sons of Josiah.
Jer 22:20 There are three mountain ranges mentioned.
1. Lebanon (i.e., Mt. Hermon or its foothills)
2. Bashan (i.e., mountains in TransJordan to the northwest)
3. Abarim (i.e., mountains of Moab, cf. Num 27:12; Deu 32:49)
One wonders why these places?
1. the higher elevations were used as places of Ba’al worship
2. these are the places to which some Judeans fled to hide from and escape the invasion
3. this is sarcasm of the grief Judah felt over the loss of her foreign alliances
4. they describe the full extent of David’s kingdom and the limits of the Promised Land
your lovers This refers to all of Judah’s political alliances (cf. Jer 2:25; Jer 3:1) in the armies of foreign nations instead of YHWH (cf. Psa 20:7; Psa 33:16-17; Isa 31:1; also note Ecc 9:11).
Jer 22:21 I will not listen! This has been your practice from your youth The covenant people had been a stiffnecked, rebellious people (cf. Jer 7:22-26) from the beginning (i.e., two early examples: Exodus 32 and Numbers 16).
Jer 22:22 Notice how shepherds (Judah’s civic and religious leaders, cf. Jer 1:18; Jer 2:8; Jer 10:21; Jer 23:2) are paralleled with lovers (foreign alliances). What a sad situation!
Jer 22:23 You who dwell in Lebanon, Nested in the cedars This seems to be a literary figure of speech referring to the royal family in Jerusalem. The king’s palace was known as the House of the Cedars of Lebanon (cf. 1Ki 7:2; 1Ki 10:17).
NASB, NKJV,
NJB, LXX,
Peshitta,
VulgateHow you will groan
NKJVHow gracious will you be
MT, TEVHow pitied you will be
The MT has from , BDB 335, KB 334, Niphal PERFECT. The LXX reflects (there are several roots starting with an n meaning groan (cf. NIDOTTE, vol. 3). Either fits the context and parallelism.
Pain like a woman in childbirth This imagery (BDB 408) was used earlier in Jer 4:31; Jer 6:24; Jer 13:21 (also note Jer 30:6; Jer 49:24; Jer 50:43). The pain, though expected, is sudden and intense! The imagery is often used in judgment contexts.
They: Jer 22:10, Jer 16:4, Jer 16:6, 2Ch 21:19, 2Ch 21:20, 2Ch 35:25
Ah my brother: 2Sa 1:26, 2Sa 3:33-38, 1Ki 13:30
Reciprocal: Gen 23:2 – mourn 2Sa 18:17 – laid 1Ki 13:22 – carcase 1Ki 14:13 – shall mourn 2Ki 24:6 – slept 1Ch 3:14 – Josiah Neh 9:32 – on our kings Job 27:15 – his widows Jer 22:12 – General Jer 22:13 – unto Jer 22:15 – thy Jer 34:5 – and they Jer 36:30 – and his Eze 7:11 – neither Eze 19:1 – the princes Eze 19:4 – he was Eze 19:9 – and brought Eze 19:12 – strong Eze 24:16 – yet Amo 8:3 – they shall Luk 12:15 – Take Act 8:2 – made
Jer 22:18. The remarks of the preceding verses could truthfully have been made of the leaders generally, but the Lord now comes to particulars and names a certain man. Jeholaklm was a son of Josiah and obtained the throne through the power of the Egyptian king who had deported his brother Jehoahaz, otherwise called Sballum. But Jehoiakim was a wicked ruler and practiced the injustices described in the preceding verses. Because of the oppression he forced upon the people they were actually relieved when be died, for they did not make any lamentations over it.
Jer 22:18-19. They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! &c. The prophet here repeats part of the funeral ditty or song which the public mourners used to sing at funerals, (see note on Jer 9:17; Jer 20:14, and compare 1Ki 13:30,) signifying, that neither Jehoiakim, nor his queen or family, should be buried with those solemn lamentations with which the memory of his predecessors, particularly that of his father, had been honoured: see 2Ch 35:25. Saying, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory! That is, how is his glory departed and vanished! another burden or chorus of the funeral song. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass None attending him to his grave, none mourning over him. Or, the meaning is, he shall have no burial: for the carcasses of asses are not buried. Drawn and cast forth, &c. The expression seems to be taken from the custom of dogs to draw about a carcass before they tear and devour it. Jehoiakim, having been advanced to the kingdom by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, 2Ki 23:34, followed the fortune of that king, and upon the conquest of Egypt by the Chaldeans, Jer 46:2, after three years reign, was taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar, and put into irons, Dan 1:2; 2Ch 36:6. But afterward, it seems, the king of Babylon released him and made him a tributary king. After three years obedience, however, Jehoiakim rebelled, in confidence of assistance from Egypt. Soon after which Nebuchadnezzars army overran Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and probably took Jehoiakim prisoner in some sally that he made upon them, and killed him, and then cast out his dead body into the highway, denying him the common rites of burial: see 2Ki 24:1-6. Accordingly, he is said to have slept with his fathers, but not to have been buried with them: see also Joseph. Antiq., lib. 10. cap. 7, 8.
22:18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for {l} him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
(l) For everyone will have enough to lament for himself.
Consequently when Jehoiakim died, people would not feel sorry for him or mourn over his departure. They would not lament for him or for the splendor he left behind. The Hebrew word hoy, usually translated "woe" but here rendered "alas," occurs four times in this verse-stressing the dire judgment that would befall this king.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)