Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 22:20
Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
20. Abarim ] a range of mountains to the south-east of Palestine. They included Nebo, from which Moses viewed the land (Num 27:12; Deu 32:49).
thy lovers ] The reference is not clear. The word may indicate either the false gods worshipped by Israel (cp. Jer 48:7, Jer 49:3), or (see on Jer 4:30) Egypt and the other nations, with whom many of the people were disposed to unite against the Chaldaean power.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
20 30. See introd. summary to section. Jer 22:20-23 have no direct connexion with those that follow and seem to have been introduced here on account of the reference to the rulers (“shepherds”) in Jer 22:22. The address is to the people, the fem. sing. being used collectively. See on Jer 21:13. They are called upon to wail, ascending (that their cry might be widespread) the heights which the Chaldaean hosts would successively pass in their advance southwards upon Jerusalem, viz. Lebanon in the N., the hills of Bashan (Psa 68:15 f.) in the N.E., and Abarim in the S.E. For wailing on heights cp. Jer 3:21, Jer 7:29; Isa 15:2.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The third example, Jehoiachin. With him all the best and noblest of the land were dragged from their homes to people the void places of Babylon.
The passages – Really, Abarim, a range of mountains to the south of Gilead, opposite Jericho (see Num 27:12; Deu 32:49). Jeremiah names the chief ranges of mountains, which overlook the route from Jerusalem to Babylon, in regular order, beginning with Lebanon upon the north, then Bashan on the northeast, and lastly Abarim on the southeast.
Thy lovers – i. e., the nations in alliance with Judah, especially Egypt, whose defeat at Carchemish Jer 46:2 gave all western Asia into the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 20. Go up to Lebanon] Probably Anti-Libanus, which, together with Bashan and Abarim, which we here translate passages, were on the way by which the captives should be led out of their own country.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Hebrew verb being feminine, lets us know that Jerusalem was the place to which this speech is directed; to the inhabitants of which the prophet here calleth to
go up to Lebanon; and to Bashan. Both Lebanon and Bashan were hills or places that looked towards Assyria, from whence the Jews looked for help, and had it sometimes, as 2Ki 16:7; he calls to them ironically to go up to the mountainous parts of them, where standing and crying they might be soonest and best heard. What we translate from the passages, others translate from the borders, or from the sides; others, from Abarim, which is the name of a mountain, as well as Lebanon and Bashan; see Num 27:12; 33:47; which seemeth to me the best interpretation: the meaning is, Go and cry for help from all places, but it will be in vain;
for all thy lovers are destroyed; the Egyptians and Assyrians, to whom thou wert wont heretofore to fly, choosing rather to trust to them than in me, are themselves in the power or danger of the Chaldeans, who shall also destroy them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
20. Delivered in the reign ofJehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah), son of Jehoiakim; appended to theprevious prophecy respecting Jehoiakim, on account of the similarityof the two prophecies. He calls on Jerusalem, personified as amourning female, to go up to the highest points visible fromJerusalem, and lament there (see on Jer3:21) the calamity of herself, bereft of allies and of herprinces, who are one after the other being cast down.
Bashannorth of theregion beyond Jordan; the mountains of Anti-libanus are referred to(Ps 68:15).
from the passagesnamely,of the rivers (Jud 12:6); orelse the borders of the country (1Sa 13:23;Isa 10:29). The passes (1Sa14:4). MAURERtranslates, “Abarim,” a mountainous tract beyond Jordan,opposite Jericho, and south of Bashan; this accords with the mentionof the mountains Lebanon and Bashan (Num 27:12;Num 33:47).
loversthe allies ofJudea, especially Egypt, now unable to help the Jews, being crippledby Babylon (2Ki 24:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Go up to Lebanon, and cry,…. These words are directed to Jerusalem and its inhabitants, and to the people of the Jews; not to go up to the temple, as the Targum interprets it, so called, because made of the wood of Lebanon, as in Zec 11:1; or, as the Rabbins say, because it made white the sins of Israel; but the mountain of Lebanon, and from thence call to their neighbours for help in their present distress, as the Assyrians and Egyptians;
and lift up thy voice in Bashan; another high hill in the land of Israel. The Targum interprets this also of the gates of the mountain of the house; so called, as Jarchi thinks, because made of the oaks of Bashan; or, as Kimchi, because there were beasts continually there for sacrifice, as in Bashan, a pasture for cattle; but the mountain itself is intended;
and cry from the passages; or “from Abarim”; a mountain of this name on the borders of Moab, Nu 27:12. Now these several high mountains are named, because from hence they might look around them, and call to their neighbours, if any of them could help them: it is ironically spoken, for it is suggested that none of them could:
for all thy lovers are destroyed; their friends and allies, with whom they had not only entered into leagues, but had committed spiritual fornication with them; that is, idolatry, as the Egyptians and Assyrians; but these were now subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, and were at least so weakened and destroyed by him, that they could give no assistance to the Jews; see 2Ki 24:7.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The ruin about to fall on Judah. – Jer 22:20. “Go up on Lebanon and cry, and lift up thy voice in Bashan and cry from Abarim; for broken are all thy lovers. Jer 22:21. I spake to thee in thy prosperity; thou saidst: I will not hear; that was thy way from thy youth up, that thou hearkenedst not to my voice. Jer 22:22. All thy shepherds the wind shall sweep away, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; yea, then shalt thou be put to shame and ashamed for all thy wickedness. Jer 22:23. Thou that dwellest on Lebanon and makest thy nest on cedars, how shalt thou sigh when pangs come upon thee, pain as of a woman in travail!” – It is the people personified as the daughter of Zion, the collective population of Jerusalem and Judah, that is addressed, as in Jer 7:29. She is to lift up her wailing cry upon the highest mountains, that it may be heard far and near. The peaks of the mountain masses that bordered Palestine are mentioned, from which one would have a view of the land; namely, Lebanon northwards, the mountains of Bashan (Psa 86:16) to the north-east, those of Abarim to the south-east, amongst which was Mount Nebo, whence Moses viewed the land of Canaan, Num 27:12; Deu 32:49. She is to lament because all her lovers are destroyed. The lovers are not the kings (Ros., Ew., Neum. Ng. ), nor the idols (Umbr.), but the allied nations (J. D. Mich., Maur., Hitz.), for whose favour Judah had intrigued (Jer 4:30) – Egypt (Jer 2:36) and the little neighbouring states (Jer 27:3). All these nations were brought under the yoke by Nebuchadnezzar, and could not longer give Judah help (Jer 28:14; Jer 30:14). On the form , see Ew. 41, c.
Jer 22:21-23 The cause of this calamity: because Judah in its prosperity had not hearkened to the voice of its God. , from , security, tranquillity, state of well-being free from anxiety; the plur. denotes the peaceful, secure relations. Thus Judah had behaved from youth up, i.e., from the time it had become the people of God and been led out of captivity; see Jer 2:2; Hos 2:17. – In Jer 22:22 is chosen for the sake of the word-play with , and denotes to depasture, as in Jer 2:16. As the storm-wind, especially the parching east wind, depastures, so to speak, the grass of the field, so will the storm about to break on Judah sweep away the shepherds, carry them off; cf. Jer 13:24, Isa 27:8; Job 27:21. The shepherds of the people are not merely the kings, but all its leaders, the authorities generally, as in Jer 10:21; and “thy shepherds” is not equivalent to “thy lovers,” but the thought is this: Neither its allies nor its leaders will be able to help; the storm of calamity will sweep away the former, the latter must go captive. So that there is no need to alter into (Hitz.). With the last clause cf. Jer 2:36. Then surely will the daughter of Zion, feeling secure in her cedar palaces, sigh bitterly. The inhabitants of Jerusalem are said to dwell in Lebanon and to have their nests in cedars in reference to the palaces of cedar belonging to the great and famous, who at the coming destruction will suffer most. As to the forms and , see on Jer 10:17. The explanation of the form is disputed. Ros., Ges., and others take it for the Niph. of , with the force: to be compassionated, thus: who deserving of pity or compassion wilt thou be! But this rendering does not give a very apt sense, even if it were not the case that the sig. to be worthy of pity is not approved by usage, and that it is nowhere taken from the Niph. We therefore prefer the derivation of the word from , Niph. .hpi , contr. , a derivative founded on the lxx rendering: , and Vulg. quomodo congemuisti . The only question that then remains is, whether the form has arisen by transposition from , so as to avoid the coming together of the same letter at the beginning (Ew., Hitz., Gr.); or whether, with Bttch. ausf. Gramm. 1124, B, it is to be held as a reading corrupted from . With “pangs,” etc., cf. Jer 13:21; Jer 6:24.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Desolation of Judah; The Doom of Jeconiah. | B. C. 590. |
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice. 22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness. 23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! 24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; 25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. 27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return. 28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.
This prophecy seems to have been calculated for the ungracious inglorious reign of Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, who succeeded him in the government, reigned but three months, and was then carried captive to Babylon, where he lived many years, ch. lii. 31. We have, in these verses, a prophecy,
I. Of the desolations of the kingdom, which were now hastening on apace, v. 20-23. Jerusalem and Judah are here spoken to, or the Jewish state as a single person, and we have it here under a threefold character:– 1. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety (v. 21): “I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, spoke by my servants the prophets, reproofs, admonitions, counsels, but thou saidst, I will not hear, I will not heed, thou obeyedst not my voice, and wast resolved that thou wouldst not, and hadst the front to tell me so.” It is common for those that live at ease to live in contempt of the word of God. Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. This is so much the worse that they had it by kind: This has been thy manner from thy youth. They were called transgressors from the womb, Isa. xlviii. 8. 2. Very timorous upon the alarms of trouble (v. 20): “When thou seest all thy lovers destroyed, when thou findest thy idols unable to help thee and thy foreign alliances failing thee, thou wilt then go up to Lebanon, and cry, as one undone and giving up all for lost, cry with a bitter cry; thou wilt cry, Help, help, or we are lost; thou wilt lift up thy voice in fearful shrieks upon Lebanon and Bashan, two high hills, in hope to be heard thence by the advantage of the rising ground. Thou wilt cry from the passages, from the roads, where thou wilt ever and anon be in distress.” Thou wilt cry from Abarim (so some read it, as a proper name), a famous mountain in the border of Moab. “Thou wilt cry, as those that are in great consternation use to do, to all about thee; but in vain, for (v. 22) the wind shall eat up all thy pastors, or rulers, that should protect and lead thee, and provide for thy safety; they shall be blasted, and withered, and brought to nothing, as buds and blossoms are by a bleak or freezing wind; they shall be devoured suddenly, insensibly, and irresistibly, as fruits by the wind. Thy lovers, that thou dependest upon and hast an affection for, shall go into captivity, and shall be so far from saving thee that they shall not be able to save themselves.” 3. Very tame under the heavy and lasting pressures of trouble: “When there appears no relief from any of thy confederates, and thy own priests are at a loss, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness,” v. 22. Note, Many will never be ashamed of their sins till they are brought by them to the last extremity; and it is well if we get this good by our straits to be brought by them to confusion for our sins. The Jewish state is here called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because that famous forest was within their border (v. 23), and all their country was wealthy, and well-guarded as with Lebanon’s natural fastnesses; but so proud and haughty were they that they are said to make their nest in the cedars, where they thought themselves out of the reach of all danger, and whence they looked with contempt upon all about them. “But, how gracious wilt thou be when pangs come upon thee! Then thou wilt humble thyself before God and promise amendment. When thou art overthrown in stony places thou wilt be glad to hear those words which in thy prosperity thou wouldst not hear, Ps. cxli. 6. Then thou wilt endeavour to make thyself acceptable with that God whom, before, thou madest light of.” Note, Many have their pangs of piety who, when the pangs are over, show that they have no true piety. Some give another sense of it: “What will all thy pomp, and state, and wealth avail thee? What will become of it all, or what comfort shalt thou have of it, when thou shalt be in these distresses? No more than a woman in travail, full of pains and fears, can take comfort in her ornaments while she is in that condition.” So Mr. Gataker. Note, Those that are proud of their worldly advantages would do well to consider how they will look when pangs come upon them, and how they will then have lost all their beauty.
II. Here is a prophecy of the disgrace of the king; his name was Jeconiah, but he is here once and again called Coniah, in contempt. The prophet shortens or nicks his name, and gives him, as we say, a nickname, perhaps to denote that he should be despoiled of his dignity, that his reign should be shortened, and the number of his months cut off in the midst. Two instances of dishonour are here put upon him:–
1. He shall be carried away into captivity and shall spend and end his days in bondage. He was born to a crown, but it should quickly fall from his head, and he should exchange it for fetters. Observe the steps of this judgment. (1.) God will abandon him, v. 24. The God of truth says it, and confirms it with an oath: “Though he were the signet upon my right hand (his predecessors have been so, and he might have been so if he had conducted himself well, but he being degenerated) I will pluck him thence.” The godly kings of Judah had been as signets on God’s right hand, near and dear to him; he had gloried in them, and made use of them as instruments of his government, as the prince does of his signet-ring, or sign manual; but Coniah has made himself utterly unworthy of the honour, and therefore the privilege of his birth shall be no security to him; notwithstanding that, he shall be thrown off. Answerable to this threatening against Jeconiah is God’s promise to Zerubbabel, when he made him his people’s guide in their return out of captivity (Hag. ii. 23): I will take thee, O Zerubbabel! my servant, and make thee as a signet. Those that think themselves as signets on God’s right hand must not be secure, but fear lest they be plucked thence. (2.) The king of Babylon shall seize him. Those know not what enemies and mischiefs they lie exposed to who have thrown themselves out of God’s protection, v. 25. The Chaldeans are here said to be such as had a spite to Coniah; they sought his life; no less than that, they thought, would satisfy their rage; they were such as he had a dread of (they are those whose face thou fearest) which would make it the more terrible to him to fall into their hands, especially when it was God himself that gave him into their hands. And, if God deliver him to them, who can deliver him from them? (3.) He and his family shall be carried to Babylon, where they shall wear out many tedious years of their lives in a miserable captivity–he and his mother (v. 26), he and his seed (v. 28), that is, he and all the royal family (for he had no children of his own when he went into captivity), or he and the children in his loins; they shall all be cast out to another country, to a strange country, a country where they were not born, nor such a country as that where they were born, a land which they know not, in which they have no acquaintance with whom to converse or from whom to expect any kindness. Thither they shall be carried, from a land where they were entitled to dominion, into a land where they shall be compelled to servitude. But have they no hopes of seeing their own country again? No: To the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return, v. 27. They conducted themselves ill in it when they were in it, and therefore they shall never see it more. Jehoahaz was carried to Egypt, the land of the south, Jeconiah to Babylon, the land of the north, both far remote, the quite contrary way, and must never expect to meet again, nor either of them to breathe their native air again. Those that had abused the dominion they had over others were justly brought thus under the dominion of others. Those that had indulged and gratified their sinful desires, by their oppression, luxury, and cruelty, were justly denied the gratification of their innocent desire to see their own native country again. We may observe something very emphatic in that part of this threatening (v. 26), In the country where you were not born, there shall you die. As there is a time to be born and a time to die, so there is a place to be born in and a place to die in. We know where we were born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let it be our care that we die in Christ, and then it will be well with us, wherever we die, though it should be in a far country. (4.) This shall render him very mean and despicable in the eyes of all his neighbours. They shall be ready to say (v. 28), “This is Coniah a despised broken idol? Yes, certainly he is, and much debased from what he was.” [1.] Time was when he was dignified, nay, when he was almost deified. The people who had seen his father lately deposed were ready to adore him when they saw him upon the throne, but now he is a despised broken idol, which, when it was whole, was worshipped, but, when it is rotten and broken, is thrown by and despised, and nobody regards it, or remembers what it has been. Note, What is idolized will, first or last, be despised and broken; what is unjustly honoured will be justly contemned, and rivals with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we idolize we shall be disappointed in and then shall despise. [2.] Time was when he was delighted in; but now he is a vessel in which is not pleasure, or to which there is no desire, either because grown out of fashion or because cracked or dirtied, and so rendered unserviceable. Those whom God has no pleasure in will, some time or other, be so mortified that men will have no pleasure in them.
2. He shall leave no posterity to inherit his honour. The prediction of this is ushered in with a solemn preface (v. 29): O earth, earth, earth! hear the word of the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world take notice of these judgments of God upon a nation and a family that had been near and dear to him, and thence infer that God is impartial in the administration of justice. Or it is an appeal to the earth itself on which we tread, since those that dwell on earth are so deaf and careless, like that (Isa. i. 2), Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! God’s word, however slighted, will be heard; the earth itself will be made to hear it, and yield to it, when it, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Or it is a call to men that mind earthly things, that are swallowed up in those things and are inordinate in the pursuit of them; such have need to be called upon again and again, and a third time, to hear the word of the Lord. Or it is a call to men considered as mortal, of the earth, and hastening to the earth again. We all are so; earth we are, dust we are, and, in consideration of that, are concerned to hear and regard the word of the Lord, that, though we are earth, we may be found among those whose names are written in heaven. Now that which is here to be taken notice of is that Jeconiah is written childless (v. 30), that is, as it follows, No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David. In him the line of David was extinct as a royal line. Some think that he had children born in Babylon because mention is made of his seed being cast out there (v. 28) and that they died before him. We read in the genealogy (1 Chron. iii. 17) of seven sons of Jeconiah Assir (that is, Jeconiah the captive) of whom Salathiel is the first. Some think that they were only his adopted sons, and that when it is said (Matt. i. 12), Jeconiah begat Salathiel, no more is meant than that he bequeathed to him what claims and pretensions he had to the government, the rather because Salathiel is called the son of Neri of the house of Nathan,Luk 3:27; Luk 3:31. Whether he had children begotten, or only adopted, thus far he was childless that none of his seed ruled as kings in Judah. He was the Augustulus of that empire, in whom it determined. Whoever are childless, it is God that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days cannot expect to prosper in their days.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 20-23: A WARNING AGAINST JERUSALEM’S FALSE CONFIDENCE
1. There is to arise a cry of doom throughout the land of Judah -a cry sounded in Lebanon, Bashan and Abarim (a mountain range located east of the Dead Sea, and including Nebo, from which Moses was permitted to view the promised land, but forbidden to enter it); her lovers (allies), on whom she has leaned, are utterly destroyed! (vs. 20; Jer 2:25; Jer 3:1).
2. Jehovah had spoken to her in the time of prosperity, but she refused to listen; since her youth she has refused to heed His voice, (vs. 21; Jer 13:10; Jer 19:15; Jer 3:24-25; Jer 32:30).
3. The shepherds of Judah (her rulers) are “shepherded” by the wind – driven away with her lovers – leaving her in shame and confusion, (vs. 22; Jer 5:13; Jer 30:14; Jer 20:11; comp. Isa 65:13-16).
4. Jerusalem, inhabitress of Lebanon, is pictured as nestling among the tall cedars – smugly confident of her immunity to attack; the pain of her desolation will be like the groaning of a woman in labor, (vs. 23; Jer 4:31; Jer 13:20-22; Jer 30:6-7).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jeremiah triumphs over the Jews, and derides their presumption in thinking that they would be safe, though God was against them. He then shews that they were deceived in promising to themselves impunity; but he bids them to ascend Mount Lebanon, and to cry aloud on Mount Bashan, that they might know that there would be no aid for them when God’s judgment came. But the whole verse is ironical; for they would in vain cry and howl. Indeed, the Prophet thus treated them, because he saw that they were wholly irreclaimable. They were not worthy then that he should give them counsel, or faithfully warn them. He was therefore under the necessity ironically to deride their madness in promising safety to themselves, while they were continuing to provoke God’s vengeance against themselves.
But at the same time he accommodates what he says to their intentions; for there is no doubt but that they ever cast their eyes either on Egypt or on Assyria for any aid they might want. Hence he says, Ascend Mount Lebanon, and cry, and then cry on Mount Bashan, and cry all around, (for by sides he means all parts;) but thou shall gain nothing, he says, for consumed are all thy lovers (59) We learn from the end of the verse that the Prophet said, Ascend, and cry, by way of derision. By lovers he means the Egyptians and the Assyrians, and other neighboring nations; for the Jews, when they feared any danger, were wont to flee to their neighbors, and God was in the meantime neglected by them; and for this reason they were called lovers. God had espoused the people as his own, and hence he often called them his wife, and he speaks here in the feminine gender; and thus the people are compared to a wife, and God assumes the character of a husband. When, therefore, the people, according to their self-will and humor, wandered here and there, this levity was called adultery; for the simplicity of faith is our spiritual chastity; for as a wife who regards her husband alone, keeps conjugal fidelity and chaste conduct, so when we continue to cleave to God alone, we are, in a spiritual sense, chaste as he requires us to be; but when we seek our safety from this and that quarter, we violate the fidelity which we owe to God. As soon, then, as we cast our thoughts here and there, it is to act like a woman who seeks vagrant and unlawful connections.
We now see the reason why the Prophet compares the Egyptians and Assyrians to lovers, for he intimates that the people of Israel did in this manner commit adultery, as it has been stated in other places. It follows, —
(59) “All around,” מעברים, is rendered “beyond the sea” by the Sept.; “to those who pass by,” by the Vulg.; “from the farther shores of the sea, by the Syr.; “at the fords,” by the Targ.; “beyond the fords,” that is, of the Nile, by Grotius and Piscator; and “from the borders,” by Blayney. But the most suitable rendering here is what has been adopted by Gataker and Venema, “from Abarim,” a mountain in the confines of Moab. See Num 27:12. There are here two mountains previously mentioned, lying to the north; and here is another to the east. Jerusalem (for that is here addressed) is commanded, by way of taunt, to ascend these mountains to cry for aid and to utter its lamentation; for all its lovers from these quarters were destroyed; the king of Babylon had subdued them. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(20) Go up to Lebanon.The great mountain-rangesLebanon and Bashan (Psa. 68:15)running from north to south, that overlooked the route of the Babylonians, are invoked by the prophet, as those of Gilboa had been by David (2Sa. 1:21), as witnesses of the misery that was coming on the land and people. Even here, as in Jer. 22:23, there is probably still the same reference as before to the cedar-palaces of Jerusalem. The people are called from the counterfeit forests of Lebanon to the height of the real mountains, and bidden to look forth from thence.
Cry from the passages.It is better to take the word Abarim as a proper name. As in Num. 27:12; Num. 33:47; Deu. 32:49, it was part of the range of Nebo, south of Gilead and Bashan, and coming therefore naturally after the last of those two mountains.
All thy lovers.The word points, as in the corresponding language of Eze. 23:5; Eze. 23:9, to the Egyptians and other nations with whom Judah had made alliances. The destruction reached its climax in the overthrow of Pharaoh-nechohs army by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (Jer. 46:2).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
20. Go up A passage is here interjected, (20-23,) in which the prophet speaks with touching pathos of the fate of Judah. So far from marring, it actually contributes to the higher unity of the chapter: for the commonwealth is ever present to the prophet’s mind; and as he details one unworthy kingly history after another, it adds to the effectiveness of the whole that he should pause in the midst of these illustrations of kingly apostasy to think of the people and the kingdom whose interests were so disastrously affected by them.
Lebanon Bashan passages Rather, Abarim, as in the standard Version. The mountains that bordered on Palestine: Lebanon on the north; Bashan, northeast; Abarim, southeast.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Inadequacy Of Jehoiachin (Jechoniah, Coniah) ( Jer 22:20-30 ).
Finally Jeremiah brings out the unsuitability of Jehoiachin (Jechoniah), Jehoiakim’s son, to be the promised coming son of David who would deliver Judah/Israel. Jehoiachin may well have ruled alongside his father since he was eight (2Ch 36:9) and he was only eighteen when he came to the throne as sole king in the most difficult of circumstances (2Ki 24:8-17). Jerusalem was at that stage surrounded by the besieging armies of Nebuchadrezzar against whom his father had rebelled, and his father had either just sacrificed himself, or been sacrificed by others, in order to gain terms from Nebuchadrezzar. Jehoiachin was therefore left to enter into peace negotiations, probably assisted by the queen mother Nehushta (2Ki 24:8). In Judah the queen mother was politically powerful (note her mention as an important personage in 2Ki 24:12).
When people are in desperate circumstances it is easy for hopes to be raised, and it is easy to see why Jehoiachin’s succession was seen as a possible beacon of hope to a people who were almost without hope. Perhaps YHWH would now step in and miraculously deal with the Babylonian army, as he had with the Assyrian army in the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah. Perhaps a satisfactory deal could be made with Nebuchadrezzar. And possibly in the future Jehoiachin would prove to be the expected Saviour of the land. Certainly later, when he was in Babylon, great expectations would be raised concerning him by false prophets who claimed to speaking in YHWH’s Name, who would claim that within two years Nebuchadrezzar’s yoke would be broken and Jehoiachin would be returning in triumph to Judah bringing with him the Temple treasures and all the exiles. See Jer 28:3-4.
But YHWH seeks here through Jeremiah to dampen all those hopes and to make clear to them that at present Judah was without hope and that Jehoiachin was not ‘the coming son of David’ for whom they were hoping. No son of Jehoiachin would prosper sitting on the throne of David. From that point of view it was as though he was childless (Jer 22:30).
While we may feel sorry for Jehoiachin we must remember that the verdict on him in Kings was that from the beginning he ‘did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH’, continuing to favour syncretistic religion, participating in idolatry and continuing the ways of his father. Furthermore he had presumably refused to respond to Jeremiah’s pleading (and possibly his coronation address as described above). Had he responded to Jeremiah with his whole heart who knows what might have happened?
Jer 22:20
“Go up to Lebanon, and cry,
And lift up your voice in Bashan,
And cry from Abarim,
For all your lovers are destroyed.”
Lebanon was to the north west of Judah, and Bashan to the north east. Abarim was a mountain range to the south east in the Dead Sea area (incorporating Mount Nebo). See Num 27:12; Num 33:47; Deu 32:49. The people of Judah and Jerusalem were therefore called on to cry vainly for assistance from these mountains to their erstwhile allies (lovers – see Eze 23:9), who however no longer existed as possible helpers against Babylon. They had all been desolated and pacified. (Others see the criers as looking inwards over the kingdom). Judah therefore stood alone. It may be significant that no mention is made of the south east, for Egypt was the one country still able to hold out against Babylon, and it is possible that there were still vain hopes among some people of Egyptian intervention.
Jer 22:21
“I spoke to you in your prosperities (periods of prosperity),
But you said, ‘I will not hear.’
This has been your manner from your youth,
That you do not obey my voice.”
YHWH reminds them that when they had had periods of prosperity over the centuries (note the plural ‘prosperities’) He had constantly spoken to them. But their reply had been that ‘I will not hear’. That had been their way right from the beginning, that they had refused to hear His voice. It was indeed why these troubles had come upon them, and why there could now be no hope for them.
Jer 22:22
“The wind (spirit) will shepherd all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity,
Surely then you will be ashamed,
And confounded for all your wickedness.”
As a consequence of their disobedience and rebellion their shepherds (rulers) would all be shepherded by the wind (or ‘spirit’), along with any former allies, into captivity. The idea of the wind (ruach) may have been in order to indicate how little would be required for it to happen. All that would be needed was a puff of wind (or the wind of fortune) blowing them like so much chaff. Alternately a storm wind may have been in mind. For the translation ‘spirit’ indicating a general ‘spirit’ engendered by YHWH compare Isa 19:14; Isa 28:6; Isa 29:10; Isa 63:14; Zec 6:8. There was no hope for them to look forward to. All that now awaited them was to be shamed and confounded because of their wickedness.
Here ‘their lovers’ would appear to refer to their influential leaders, priests and prophets whose ways they had loved to follow.
And indeed within three short months of Jehoiachin coming to the throne he, and the queen mother, and all the important people in the land would be carried away to Babylon (Jer 29:1-2; 2Ki 24:10-16), never to return.
Jer 22:23
“O inhabitant of Lebanon, who make your nest in the cedars,
How greatly to be pitied will you be,
When pangs come upon you,
The pain as of a woman in travail!”
The ‘inhabitant of Lebanon’ being appealed to could be Jehoiachin, whose palace included the House of the Forest of Lebanon with its great cedar pillars, and itself contained much cedar all through (Jer 22:14-15). But he was to be commiserated with, for soon, instead of luxuriating in his palace, he would be suffering pangs like a woman in childbirth (popularly the most severe pain known). Alternately it could signify the whole of Jerusalem in terms of the houses of cedar of their leaders.
Jer 22:24
“As I live, the word of YHWH,
Though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah,
Were the signet on my right hand,
Yet would I pluck you from there,”
But false hopes were not to be clung to, for even had YHWH seen Jehoiachin (Coniah) as His own signet ring on His right hand (which in fact He did not) it would not have prevented him being plucked from his nest of cedars and despatched to Babylon. A signet ring was a treasured possession and was never removed from the finger, thus demonstrating YHWH’s determination. It was the equivalent o a man’s signature and was used to seal important documents and letters. It represented a man’s very being (see Est 8:8; Hag 2:23). But even had Jehoiachin been as important as that to YHWH he would still have been removed.
The name Coniah was probably Jehoiachin’s given name at birth (see also Jer 22:28; Jer 37:1). In 1Ch 3:16-17 it was given as Je-coniah (Coniah with YHWH’s Name attached). See also Jer 24:1; Jer 27:20; etc. Jehoiachin was presumably his throne name. (It is an indication of the mercy of YHWH that Jehoiachin’s grandson Zerubbabel (1Ch 4:19) would in fact be the equivalent of the signet ring on God’s right hand – see Hag 2:23).
Jer 22:25
“And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life,
And into the hand of those of whom you are afraid,
Even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon,
And into the hand of the Chaldeans.”
Jehoiachin was warned that he was to be given into the hands of those who, by continuing to besiege Jerusalem, were seeking his life, the hands of those of whom he was, with good reason, afraid. There was thus to be no miraculous deliverance. He would be given into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans (Babylonians).
Jer 22:26-27
“And I will cast you out,
And your mother who bore you,
Into another country where you were not born,
And there you will die,
But to the land to which their soul longs to return,
There will they not return.”
Indeed Jehoiachin, together with the queen mother, would be cast out of the land, into another country which was not his native land (into Babylon), and there he would die, along with all who went into captivity with him. Though their souls would long to return to their native land (literally ‘to which they were lifting up their souls), they would not return. They would all die in exile (whatever the false prophets were saying).
Jer 22:28
“Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel?
Is he a vessel in which none delights?
Why are they cast out, he and his seed,
And are cast into the land which they know not?”
We may see these questions as either asked by the people, or as asked rhetorically by Jeremiah. In the former case they are questioning whether Jeremiah can be right. Is Coniah (Jehoiachin) really a despised broken vessel, one that is of no use? Is he really a vessel in which no one delights? Why should he and his seed be cast out into a land which they do not know? They are wanting proof and clarification. (This would explain the strength of Jeremiah’s reply in Jer 22:29).
If, however, the questions are being asked by Jeremiah we may see the answers expected as ‘yes’. As in chapter 19 he is a despised broken vessel, unwanted and unusable, and therefore of no use to anyone. YHWH has tested him and found him wanting. And that is why he and his seed are to be cast out into a land which they do not know.
Jer 22:29
‘O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of YHWH.
Thus says YHWH,
“Write you this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days,
For no more will a man of his seed prosper,
Sitting on the throne of David,
And ruling in Judah.”
The threefold appeal to the earth is powerful and rare. It expresses intensity of feeling. Compare Jer 7:4; Isa 6:3. Let the earth (as emphasised in contrast with the heavens) hear the word of YHWH. It was clearly indicating that it was important that the earth wake up and recognise the truth that Heaven already knows. For what YHWH has said is that the genealogical recorders on earth are to write Jehoiachin down as childless, for while he may have children they will not inherit. Neither he nor they will prosper and as a result they will not sit on the throne of David and rule in Judah. Judah must not look in this direction for the coming son of David.
In fact Jehoiachin would be carried to Babylon and imprisoned. But he did continue to be seen as king of Judah (Ezekiel dates his writing from the years of his captivity and refers to him as king – Eze 1:2), and when Nebuchadrezzar died Evil-Merodach would release him from prison and treat him with honour (2Ki 25:27-30), whilst retaining him in Babylon. Interestingly the reference to his allowance of food is confirmed archeologically for ration tablets found near the Ishtar Gate in Babylon refer to ‘Yaukin, king of the land of Yahud’.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 22:20. And cry from the passages And cry to the passengers. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
d. The consequences to the people
Jer 22:20-23.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry10
And in Bashan lift up thy voice and cry from Abarim,
That all thy lovers are broken in pieces.
21I spoke to thee in thy prosperity,
Thou saidst, I will not hear.
This was thy manner from thy youth,
That thou heardest not my voice.
22The wind shall depasture all thy pastors,
And thy lovers shall go into captivity;
Then shalt thou be put to shame,11
And confounded for all thy wickedness.
23Thou that sittest on Lebanon,
That nestlest in cedars,12
How dost thou groan13 when pains come upon thee,
Pangs14 as of a parturient!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The people are next addressed,after the king. They have harmonized too well with their pastors in worldly lust and pride, they must then share their fate. It is evidently this thought of the agreement of the people with such princes as Jehoiakim, which is prominent. Dwelling on Lebanon and making nests among cedars (Jer 22:23) pleased them, however displeasing the service might be to those who were compelled to render it (Jer 22:13-15). The passage is thus connected with the preceding, (comp. Jer 22:20; Jer 22:23, with Jer 22:6-7 and Jer 22:13-15). The train of thought is as follows:The people of Israel are required to announce from the highest summits of the mountains, bordering on their country, the fall of their lovers (Jer 22:20). For he who will not hear must feel. Thus it must be with Israel, who from his youth has never listened to the voice of the Lord (Jer 22:21). When then the pastors of Israel are blown away by the storm and their lovers are gone into captivity, Israel will expiate his wickedness in deep shame (Jer 22:22), and groan for his pride in profound anguish, like a woman in travail (Jer 22:23).
Jer 22:20-21. Go up my voice. Lebanon, Bashan and Abarim, are named as the highest summits of the mountains bordering on Palestine.Go up on Lebanon forms an ironical antithesis to that sittest on Lebanon. The people now proudly dwelling in cedars on Lebanon shall in the future mount on Lebanon (in the proper sense) to lamentan ascent which is really a descent. Bashan stands for the mountain of Bashan (Psa 68:15), i. e., Hermon. On Abarim with Mt. Nebo, comp. Num 21:11; Num 27:12; Deu 32:49; Raumer, Palst., S. 72. Israel is to raise his cry of lamentation from, the bordering mountains that his shame and the conquerors glory might be widely manifest as a terror to others.All thy lovers must, according to the connection, mean the kings. For 1, it is inconceivable that thy pastors in Jer 22:22, are not the same as thy lovers, ibid. The former, however, are unquestionably the kings (Jer 23:1-8). 2. The very punishment inflicted on the kings, affected the people themselves immediately. Hence the humiliating lament to which they are summoned in Jer 22:20 to Jer 23:3. The punishment of the pastors and lovers is the same which was announced to Jehoiakim in Jer 22:18-19. To the objection that a similar use of the word lovers, cannot be produced, it may be replied that it is an unjustifiable demand, to require a proof of every special application of a meaning admitted in itself. means the lover; this is sufficient. It cannot be doubted that this in and of itself, might be said of kings, in reference to their people. The only question is, whether this mode of expression can be shown to be appropriate in particular cases. This is, however, the case here. For here the prophet (comp. Jer 22:2) announces the judgment to the people, because they sympathize with the sin of the king, both suffering and promoting it. When there is such concert in wickedness between prince and people, the prince may be named the paramour, unchaste lover (and this is the specific meaning of . Comp. Eze 16:33; Eze 16:36-37; Eze 23:5; Eze 23:9; Eze 23:22; Hos 2:7; Hos 2:9; Hos 2:12; Hos 2:14-15), of his people. Comp. besides Lam 1:19.Prosperity. The plural is found here only. Since the singular=felicitas, rerum status securus atque secundus (comp. Psa 122:7; Pro 1:32; Pro 17:1, etc.), the plural is = res secund, prosperous, quiet, secure relations. So long as these lasted, Israel would know nothing of obedience to the voice of his God. Comp. Jer 2:25-28.This was thy manner, etc. Comp. Jer 2:2; Jer 2:23; Jer 2:33; Jer 2:36; Eze 23:3.
Jer 22:22-23. The wind of a parturient. The pastors are the leaders of the people, especially the princes. In this sense is also found in Jer 10:21; Jer 23:1-8; Jer 1:6. As the pastor is behind his flock to drive it, so the storm is behind the pastors to sweep them away. Comp. Jer 4:11-12; Jer 13:24; Hos 4:19.Thy wickedness. Comp. Jer 2:19, Jer 3:2; Jer 4:18; Jer 11:15.According to the sense, Jer 22:23 is a further development of thou shalt be put to shame, Jer 22:22. For the shame of the people will appear the more distinctly, the more proudly and securely they now live as on Lebanon. This is evidently intended in a double sense; (a) as an emblem of proud, unapproachable exaltation (comp. remarks on Jer 22:6); (b) as an allusion to the cedar-houses, into which they had brought the glory of Lebanon (Isa 60:13), so that Jerusalem, in a certain respect, is like Lebanon. For as on this mountain the birds make their nests in the cedars, so the princes of Judah built their nests of the cedars of Lebanon.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 21:2. King Zedekiah sends word to Jeremiah, that the Lord is to do according to all His miracles, that Nebuchadnezzar may withdraw. A demand rather cavalierly made in such evil circumstances. But the noble are so unfortunate! It is indeed as though it only depended on them to arrange matters with God; as if He were only waiting for them, as if it were a point of honor not to be over-hasty, but first to await a little extremity . It is a very necessary observance for a servant of the Lord, that he try his superiors, whether there is any trace remaining in them of having been once baptized, well brought up and instructed in the fear of the Lord. If he observe anything of this kind, he must insist upon it and especially not allow them to deal too familiarly with the Judge of all the earth, but plainly demonstrate to them their insufficiency and nothingness, if they measure themselves by Him. Though Zedekiah had spoken so superficially, Jeremiah answered him without hesitation, definitely and positively, and accustomed him to a different manner of dealing with the Lord. Zinzendorf. When the ungodly desire Gods help, they commonly appeal not to His saving power to heal them, but to His miraculous power to save them, while they persist in their impenitence. Starke.
2. On Jer 21:8. It is pure grace on the part of God, when He leaves to man the choice between the good and the evil; not that it is permitted him to choose the evil, but that he may choose freely the good, which he is under obligation to do, Deu 30:19. Starke. God lays before us the way of life and the way of death. The way of life is however always contrary to human reason, and that on which it sees merely death and shame. If thou wilt save thyself thou must leave the false Jerusalem, fallen under the judgment, and seek thy life where there seems to be only death. He who would save his life must lose it, and he who devotes it for the sake of the truth will save it. Diedrich.
3. On Jer 21:11-14. To be such a king is to be an abomination to the Lord, and severe judgment will follow. God appoints magistrates for His service and for the use of men; he who only seeks his own enjoyment in office, is lost. Jerusalem, situated on rocks in the midst of a plain, looks secure; but against God neither rocks avail nor aught else. The fire will break out even in them, and consume all around, together with the forest of cedar-houses in the city. The corruption is seated within, and therefore proceeds from within outwards, so that nothing of the former stock can remain. What shall a government do which no longer bears the sword of justice? What shall a church do which is no longer founded on Gods truth as its only power? Diedrich. Comp. moreover on the whole of Jeremiah 24. the extended moral reflections of Cyrillus Alex. . . Lib. I.
4. On Jer 22:1. Jeremiah is to deliver a sermon at court, in which he reminds the king of his office of magistrate, in which he is to administer justice to every man. Cramer.
It was no easy task for Jeremiah to go into the lions den and deliver such an uncourtly message to him. We are reminded of the prophet Jonah. But Jeremiah did not flee as he did.
5. On Jer 22:1-3. [But we ought the more carefully to notice this passage, that we may learn to strengthen ourselves against bad examples, lest the impiety of men should overturn our faith; when we see in Gods church things in such disorder, that those who glory in the name of God are become like robbers, we must beware lest we become on this account alienated from true religion. We must, indeed, desert such monsters, but we must take care lest Gods word, through mens wickedness, should lose its value in our esteem. We ought then to remember the admonition of Christ, to hear the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses seat (Mat 23:2). Calvin.S. R. A.]
6. On Jer 22:10. [Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. And so dismal perhaps the prospect of the times may be, that tears even for a Josiah, even for a Jesus, must be restrained, that they may be reserved for ourselves and our children (Luk 23:28). Henry.S. R. A.]
Nequaquam gentilis plangendus est atque Judus, qui in ecclesia non fuerunt et simul mortui sunt, de quibus Salvator dicit: dimitte mortuos sepelire mortuos suos (Mat 8:22). Sed eos plange, qui per scelera atque peccata egrediuntur de ecclesia et nolunt ultra reverti ad earn damnatione vitiorum. Hieron. Epist. 46 ad Rusticam. Nolite flere mortuum, sed plorate raptorem avarum, pecuni sitientem et inexplebilem auri cupidinem. Cur mortuos inutiliter ploramus? Eos ploremus, qui in melius mutari possunt. Basilius Seleucensis. Comp. Basil, Magn. Homil. 4 de Gratiarum actione post dimid.Ghislerus.
7. On Jer 22:6-9. God does not spare even the authorities. For though He has said that they are gods, when they do not rightly administer their office they must die like men (Psa 82:6) No cedars are too high for God, no splendor too mighty; He can destroy all at once, and overturn, and overturn, and overturn. Eze 21:27, Cramer.
Another passage from which it is seen how perverse and unjustifiable is the illusion that Gods election is a surety against His anger, and a permit to any wilfulness. The individual representatives of the objects of divine election should never forget that God can march over their carcases, and the ruins of their glory, to the fulfilment of His promise, and that He can rebuild on a higher stage, what He has destroyed on a lower. Comp. remarks on Jer 22:24.
8. On Jer 22:13-19. It is blasphemy to imagine that God will be frre et compagnon to all princes as such, and that He has a predilection for them as of His own kind. Does He not say to his majesty the king of Judah, with whom, in respect of the eminence of his dynasty and throne no other prince of earth could compare, that he should be buried like an ass, dragged and cast out before the gates of Jerusalem? This Jehoiakim was however an aristocrat, a heartless, selfish tyrant, who for his own pleasure trampled divine and human rights under foot. If such things were done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
He who builds his house with other peoples property, collects stones for his grave. Cramer.
9. On Jer 22:14. [It was a proof of luxury when men began to indulge in superfluities. In old times the windows were small; for use only was regarded by frugal men; but afterwards a sort of madness possessed the minds of many, so that they sought to be suspended as it were in the air. And hence they began to have wider windows. The thing in itself, as I have said, is not what God condemns; but we must ever remember, that men never go to excesses in external things, except when their hearts are infected with pride, so that they do not regard what is useful, what is becoming, but are carried away by fondness for excess. Calvin.S. R. A.]
10. On Jer 22:15. God may grant the great lords a preference in eating and drinking and the splendor of royal courts, but it is not His will that these be regarded as the main things, but that true religion, right and justice must have the precedence;this is the Lords work. But cursed is he who does the Lords work remissly. Jer 48:10. Cramer.
11. On Jer 22:17. Description of haughty, proud, magnificent, merciless and tyrannical lords and rulers, who are accomplices of thieves. Cramer.
12. On Jer 22:19. [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 mans 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 Gods grace and favor towards mankind, it is on the other hand a sign of a curse, when burial is denied. Calvin.S. R. A.]
13. On Jer 22:24. Great lords often imagine that they not only sit in the bosom of God, but that they are a pearl in His crown; or as the prophet says here, Gods signet-ring. Therefore, it is impossible that they should not succeed in their designs. But God looks not on the person of the princes, and knows the magnificent no more than the poor. Job 34:19. Cramer.
14. On Jer 22:28. [What is idolized will, first or last, be despised and broken, what is unjustly honored will be justly contemned, and rivals with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we idolize we shall be disappointed in, and then shall despise. Henry.S. R. A.]
The compliment is a very poor one for a king, who thinks somewhat of himself, and to whom it in a certain measure pertains that he be honored.But here it is the word of the Lord, and in consideration of these words it is declared in 2Ch 36:12, to be evil on the part of Zedekiah, that he did not humble himself before Jeremiah. Teachers must be much on their guard against assuming such purely prophetic, that is, extraordinary acts. It cost the servants of the Lord many a death, who were obliged thus to employ themselves, and when it is easy for one to ape it without a divine calling he thus betrays his frivolity and incompetence, if not his pride and delusion. Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer 22:28-30. Irenus (Adv. Hr. 3:30) uses this passage to prove that the Lord could not have been Josephs natural son, for otherwise he would have fallen under the curse of this passage, and appear as one not entitled to dominion (qui eum dicunt ex Joseph generatum et in eo habere spem, abdicatos se faciunt a regno, sub maledictione et increpatione decidentes, qu erga Jechoniam et in semen ejus est). Basil the Great (Epist. ad Amphilochium) endeavors to show that this passage, with its declaration that none of Jeconiahs descendants should sit on Davids throne, is not in contradiction to the prophecy of Jacob (Gen 49:10), that a ruler should not be lacking from Judah, till He came for whom the nations were hoping. Basil distinguishes in this relation between dominion and royal dignity.The former continued, the latter ceased, and this period of, so to speak, latent royalty, was the bridge to the present, in which Christ rules in an invisible manner, but yet in real power and glory as royal priest, and at the same time represents Himself as the fulfilment of the hope of the nations. In like manner John of Damascus concludes that according to this passage there could be no prospect of the fulfilment of the promise in Gen 49:10, if Mary had not virgineo modo borne the scion of David, who however was not to occupy the visible throne of David. (Orat. II. in Nativ. B. Mari p. med.)Ambrose finally (Comment. in Ev. Luc. L. III. cap. ult.) raises the question how Jeremiah could say, that ex semine Jechoni neminem regnaturum esse, since Christ was of the seed of Jeconiah and reigned? He answers: Illic (Jer 22:30) futuros ex semine Jechoni posteros non negatur et ideo de semine ejus est Christus (comp. Mat 1:11), et quod regnavit Christus, non contra prophetiam est, non enim seculari honore regnavit, nee in Jechoni sedibus sedit, sed regnavit in sede David. Ghislerus.
16. On Jer 23:2. Nonnulli prsmles gregis quosdam pro peccato a communione ceiciunt, ut pniteant, sed quali sorte vivere debeant ad melius exhortando non visitant. Quibus congrue increpans sermo divinus comminatur: pastores, qui pascunt populum meum, vos dispersistis gregem meum, ejecistis et non visitastis eum. Isidor. Hisp. de summo bono she LL. sentt. Cap. 46. Ghislerus.
17. On Jer 23:5-6. Eusebius (Dem. Ev. VII. 9) remarks that Christ among all the descendants of David is the only one, who rules over the whole earth, and everywhere not only preaches justice and righteousness by His doctrine but is Himself also the author of the rising [of the Sun] of righteousness for all, according to Psa 72:7 : , (LXX.) Cyril of Alex. (Glaphyr. in Gen. I. p. 133) explains as justitia Dei, in so far as we are made righteous in Him, not for the sake of the works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His great mercy. Rom 3:24; Tit 3:5.
18. On Jer 23:6. [If we regard God in Himself, He is indeed righteous, but not our righteousness. If we desire to have God as our righteousness, we must seek Christ; for this cannot be found except in Him. Paul says that He has been given or made to us righteousness,for what end? that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (1Co 1:30). Since, then, Christ is made our righteousness, and we are counted the righteousness of God in Him, we hence learn how properly and fitly it has been said that He would be Jehovah, not only that the power of His divinity might defend us, but also that we might become righteous in Him, for He is not only righteous for Himself, but He is our righteousness. Calvin. See also a long note in Wordsworth, to show that Jehovah our Righteousness refers to Christ;S. R. A.]
The character of a true church is when the Lytrum, the ransom-money of Jesus Christ, is known and valued by all, and when they have written this secret, foolish and absolutely inscrutable to reason, in the heart with the finger of the living God: that Jesus by His blood has taken away the sins of the world. O let it neer escape my thought, at what a price my soul was bought. This is the evening and morning prayer of every church, which is a true sister from above. Zinzendorf.
19. On Jer 23:5-8. The return under Ezra was also a fulfilment of this promise, but inferior and preliminary: not all came, and those who did come brought their sins back with them. They were still under the Law and had to wait for Righteousness; still in their return they had a pledge that the Messiah was yet to come and prepare the true city of peace. Now, however, all has been long fulfilled and we can enjoy it perfectly, if we have the mind for it. We have now a country of which no tyrant can rob us; our walk and citizenship is in heaven. We have been delivered from all our suffering, when we sit down at the feet of Jesus to hear His word. Then there is a power of resurrection within us, So that we can fly with our souls beyond the world and laugh at all our foes. For Christ has made us righteous by His daily forgiveness, so that we may also bring ourselves daily into heaven. Yea verily, the kingdom of heaven is come very nigh unto us! Jeremiah then longed to see and hear this more nearly, and now we can have it. Diedrich.
20. On Jer 23:9. Great love renders Gods servant so ardent, that he deals powerful blows on the seducers. He does not think that he has struck a wasps nest and embittered his life here forever, for he has a higher life and gives the lower one willingly for love. Yet all the world will hold him for an incorrigible and mad enthusiast, who spares no one. He says himself that he is as it were drunk with God and His word, when he on the other hand contemplates the country. Diedrich.
21. On Jer 23:11. They are rogues. They know how to find subterfuges, and I would like to see him who accuses a false and unfaithful teacher, and manages his own case so that he does not himself come into the dilemma. Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer 23:13-14. In the prophets of Samaria I see folly. This is the character which the Lord gives to error, false religion, heterodoxy. But in the prophets of Jerusalem I find abomination. This is the description of the or thodox, when they apply their doctrine, so that either the wicked are strengthened or no one is converted. Zinzendorf.
23. On Jer 23:15. From the prophets of Jerusalem hypocrisy goes forth into all the land. This is the natural consequence of the superiority, which the consistories, academies, ministers, etc., have and in due measure ought to have, that when they become corrupt they communicate their corruption to the whole region, and it is apparent in the whole land what sort of theologians sit at the helm. Zinzendorf.
24. On Jer 23:16. Listen not to the words of the prophets, they deceive you. Luther says (Altenb. Tom. II. p. 330): But a Christian has so much power that he may and ought to come forward even among Christians and teach, where he sees that the teacher himself is wanting, etc.; and The hearers altogether have the right to judge and decide concerning all doctrine. Therefore the priests and liveried Christians have snatched this office to themselves; because, if this office remained in the church, the aforesaid could retain nothing for their own. (Altenb. Tom. II. p. 508).The exercise of this right on the part of members of the church has its difficulties. May not misunderstanding, ignorance, even wickedness cause this to be a heavy and unjust pressure on the ministers of the word, and thus mediately tend to the injury of the church? Certainly. Still it is better for the church to exercise this right than not to do so. The former is a sign of spiritual life, the latter of spiritual death. It will be easier to find a corrective for some extravagances than to save a church become religiously indifferent from the fate of Laodicea (Rev 3:16).
25. On Jer 23:16. [But here a question may be raised, How can the common people understand that some speak from Gods mouth, and that others propound their own glosses? I answer, That the doctrine of the Law was then sufficient to guide the minds of the people, provided they closed not their eyes; and if the Law was sufficient at that time, God does now most surely give us a clearer light by His prophets, and especially by His Gospel. CalvinS. R. A.]
26. On Jer 23:17. The pastors, who are welcome and gladly seen at a rich mans table, wish him in fact long life, good health, and all prosperity. What they wish they prophesy. This is not unnatural; but he who is softened by it is ill-advised. Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer 23:21. [There is a twofold call; one is internal, the other belongs to order, and may therefore be called external or ecclesiastical. But the external call is never legitimate, except it be preceded by the internal; for it does not belong to us to create prophets, or apostles, or pastors, as this is the special work of the Holy Spirit. But it often happens that the call of God is sufficient, especially for a time. For when there is no church, there is no remedy for the evil, except God raise up extraordinary teachers. Calvin.S. R. A.]
28. On Jer 23:22. If I knew that my teacher was a most abominable miscreant, personally, and in heart the worst enemy of God in his parish; so long as, for any reason, he preaches, expounds, develops, inculcates the word of God; even though he should betray here and there in his expressions, that this word was not dwelling in him; if only he does not ex professo at one time throw down what at another time he teaches of good and true quasi aliud agendo: I assure you before the Lord that I should fear to censure his preaching. Zinzendorf.
29. On Jer 23:23. Gods essential attribute is Omnipresence. For He is higher than heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know? Longer than the earth and broader than the sea (Job 4:8). And He is not far from every one of us (Act 17:27). Cramer.We often think God is quite far from us, when He is yet near to us, has us in His arms, presses us to His heart and kisses us. Luther. When we think the Sun of righteousness, Jesus, is not risen, and is still behind the mountain, and will not come to us, He is yet nearest to us. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. (Psa 34:19) Deus et omni et nullo loco Cuncta Deus replens molem se fundit in omnem. MS. notes to my copy of Cramers Bibel. Si vis peccare, O homo, qure tibi locum, ubi Deus non videat. Augustine.
30. On Jer 23:28. [When any one rejects the wheat because it is covered with chaff, and who will pity him who says that he has indeed wheat on his floor, but that it is mixed with chaff, and therefore not fit for food? If we be negligent, and think that it is a sufficient excuse for despising the Word of God, because Satan brings in his fallacies, we shall perish in our sloth like him who neglects to cleanse his wheat that he might turn it to bread. Calvin.S. R. A.]
He who cannot restrain his mouth or his ink let him expectorate. But let him say openly and honestly that they are his own dreams, which he preaches. The false prophets certainly know that mere falsehood is empty straw. They therefore always mingle some of the genuine word of God amongst it. An unavailing mixture! It is in this mingling that Satans highest art is displayed, so that he at the same time furthers his own work and testifies against himself. Comp. Genesis 3
31. On Jer 23:29. Gods word is the highest reality, life and power, while the dreams of the false prophets are pretence, death and weakness. Gods word is therefore compared to a fire which burns, warms, and enlightens, so that it burns up the hardest flint, melts the thickest ice, illuminates the deepest obscurities. It is compared further to a hammer which crushes the hardest rocks into sand.He who mingles Gods wheat among his straw, will find that the wheat will become fire and burn up the straw (1Co 3:12-15). He Who handles the word of the Lord purely, let him not despair if he sees before him hearts of adamant (Zec 7:12). He who seeks peace is not ashamed to bow beneath the hammer of the word. For the destructive power of the word applies to that in us which is opposed to God, while the God-related elements are loosed and set free by those very crushing blows.He, however, to whom the peace of God is an object of derision, may feed on the straw of this world. But how will it be when finally the day comes that God will come upon him with fire and hammer? What then remains to him as the result of his straw-diet, which is in a condition to withstand the blows of the hammer and the fire?
Help, Lord, against Thy scornful foes,
Who seek our souls to lead astray;
Whose mockeries at mortal woes
Will end in terrible dismay!
Grant that Thy holy word may root
Deep in our hearts, and richer fruit
May ever bear to endless day.
Gods word converts, all other doctrine befools. Luther.
32. On Jer 23:29. Gods word in general is like a fire: the more it is urged the more widely and brightly it extends. God has caused His word to be proclaimed to the world as a matter, which they can dispense with as little as fire. Fire often smoulders long in secret before it breaks out, thus the power of the divine word operates in its time. Gods word can make people as warm as if glowing coals lay upon them; it shines as brightly upon them, as if a lamp were held under their eyes; it tells every one the truth and purifies from all vices. He who deals evilly with Gods word burns himself by it, he who opposes it is consumed by it. But the word of God is as little to blame as a lamp or a fire when an unskilful person is burned by it. Yet it happens that often it will not be suffered in the world, then there is fire in all the streets. That is the unhappy fire of persecution, which is kindled incidentally in the world by the preaching of the Gospel. Jos. Conr. Schaller, Pastor at Cautendorf, Sermons on the Gospels, 1742.
33. On Jer 23:30. Teachers and preachers are not to steal their sermons from other books, but take them from the Bible, and testify that which they speak from their inward experience (Joh 3:11). False teachers steal Gods word, inventing a foreign meaning for it, and using this for the palliation of their errors. StarkeHinc illi at auctions, who can obtain this or that good book, this or that manuscript? Here they are thus declared to be plagiarios; and they are necessarily so because they are not taught of God. But I would rather they would steal from true men of God than from each other.Zinzendorf.
34. On Jer 23:33-40. When the word of God becomes intolerable to men, then men in their turn become intolerable to our Lord God; yea, they are no more than inutile pondus terr, which the land can no more bear, therefore they must be winnowed out, Jer 15:17. Cramer.
35. On Jer 24:5-7. He who willingly and readily resigns himself to the will of God even to the cross, may escape misfortune. But he who opposes himself to the hand of God cannot escape. Cramer.The captives are dearest to God. By the first greater affliction He prepares their souls for repentance and radical conversion, so that He has in them again His people and inheritance. O the gracious God, that He allows even those who on account of sin must be so deeply degraded and rendered slaves, even in such humiliation to be His people! The captives are forgiven their opposition to God; they are separated from the number of nations existing in the world, politically they are dead and banished to the interior. Now, God will show them what His love can do; they shall return, and in true nearness to God be His true Israel. Diedrich.
36. On Jer 24:7. [Since He affirms that He would give them a heart to understand, we hence learn that men are by nature blind, and also that when they are blinded by the devil they cannot return to the right way, and that they cannot be otherwise capable of light than by having God to illuminate them by His Spirit. This passage also shows, that we cannot really turn to God until we acknowledge Him to be the Judge; for until the sinner sets himself before Gods tribunal he will never be touched with the feeling of true repentance. Though God rules the whole world. He yet declares that He is the God of the Church; and the faithful whom He has adopted He favors with this high distinction, that they are His people; and He does this that they may be persuaded that there is safety in Him, according to what is said by Habakkuk, Thou art our God, we shall not die (Hab 1:12). And of this sentence Christ Himself is the best interpreter, when He says, that He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Luk 20:38). Calvin.S. R. A.]
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 21:8. This text may be used on all occasions when an important decision is to be made or on the entrance on a new section of life, as, e. g., at synods, diets, New Years, beginning of the church-year, at confirmations, weddings, installations, etc. What the present day demands and promises: I. It demands from us an important choice. II. It promises us, according as we choose, life or death.
2. On Jer 22:2-9. In how far the divine election is conditional and unconditional. I. It is conditional with respect to individual elected men, places, things. For 1, these become partakers of the salvation promised by the election only by behaviour well-pleasing to God; 2, if they behave in a manner displeasing to God, the election does not protect them from destruction. II. The election is unconditional with respect to the eternal ideas lying at the foundation of the single appearances, and their absolute realizations.
3. On Jer 22:24. [Payson:The punishment of the impenitent inevitable and justifiable. I. To mention some awful instances in which God has verified this declaration: (a), the apostate angels; (b) our first parents; (c) destruction of mankind by the flood; (d) the children of Israel; (e) Moses, David, the disobedient prophet, Christ. II. Some of the reasons for such a declaration. Not a disposition to give pain or desire for revenge. It is the nature and tendency of sin to produce misery.S. R. A.]
4. On Jer 23:5-6. The Son of David. What the prophet declares of Him is fourfold: 1. He will Himself be righteous; 2. He will rule well as king and execute judgment and righteousness; 3. He will be our righteousness; 4. Under Him shall Judah be helped and Israel dwell safely.
5. On Jer 23:14. [Lathrop: The horrible guilt of those who strengthen the hands of the wicked. 1. All sin is horrible in its nature. 2. This is to oppose the government of the Almighty. 3. It directly tends to the misery of mankind. 4. It supports the cause of the Evil Spirit. 5. It is to become partakers of their sins. 6. It is horrible as directly contrary to the command of God, and marked with His peculiar abhorrence.S. R. A.]
6. On Jer 23:23-24. The Omnipresence of God. 1. What it means. God is everywhere present, (a). He fills heaven and earth; (b) there is no removal from Him in space; (c) nothing is hidden from Him. 2. There is in this for us (a) a glorious consolation, (b) an earnest admonition. [Charnock, Jortin, and Wesley have sermons on this text, all of very similar outline. The following are Jortins practical conclusions; This doctrine 1. Should lead us to seek to resemble Gods perfections 2. Should deter us from sin. 3. Should teach us humility. 4. Should encourage us to reliance and contentment, to faith and hope.S. R. A.]
7. On Jer 23:29-30. Gods Word and mans word. 1. The former is life and power (wheat, fire, hammer). The latter pretence and weakness (dream, straw). 2. The two are not to be mixed with each other. [Cecil: This shows 1. The vanity of all human imaginations in religion, (a). What do they afford to man? (b). How much do they hinder? 2. The energy of spiritual truth. Let us entreat God that our estimate may be practical.S. R. A.]
8. On Jer 24:1-10. The good and bad figs an emblem of humanity well-pleasing and displeasing to God. 1. The prisoners and broken-hearted are, like the good figs, well-pleasing to God. For (a) they know the Lord and turn to Him; (b) He is their God and they are His people. 2. Those who dwell proudly and securely are displeasing to God, like the bad figs. For (a) they live on in foolish blindness; (b) they challenge the judgment of God.
Footnotes:
[10]Jer 22:20.On the form , comp. Olsh., 65 b, and 234, e.
[11]Jer 22:22. is pleonastic. Comp. Jer 2:35; Naegelsb. Gr., 109, 1 a.
[12]Jer 22:23.On the forms and , comp. rems. on Jer 10:17. Yet it should be observed that in the latter passage the Keri reads , while in this place we must read , The latter forms are not impossible (comp. , Gen 16:11; Jdg 13:5; Jdg 13:7, certainly in a standing formula), but are called forth here only by the proximately standing , which, however, should not be confounded, as 2 P. Sing. Fem. Perf., with those participial forms.
[13]Jer 22:23.. On the termination, comp. rems. on Jer 2:20; Jer 3:5. The form, as it stands, is Niph. of (comp. Olsh. S. 593). But since a Niphal of to be kind, gracious, nowhere else occurs, most modern commentators suppose that it is written for and this for , (from to sigh, to groan). Yet Fuerst is of opinion that a root may be assumed, parallel to the Arabic hanna, to groan, to sigh, from which , Job 19:17 and our are derived. The latter plan would certainly be more simple than the assumption of a double change of consonants. The decision is still to be expected.
[14]Jer 22:23. . Comp. Jer 6:24.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
We have here a similar prediction against Coniah: and a very awful one it is. He is to be made a captive, and to die in a foreign land, even in a land of all others he most dreaded and hated. And what sums up the finishing stroke of his misery. He is to be forsaken of the Lord. Some have thought, that as we do not read of any Coniah, among the Kings: but Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim; that the alteration of his name was to show the Lord’s displeasure. See 2Ki 24:8 . which in the margin of our old Bibles, makes it Jeconiah, see 1Ch 3:16 . And the striking off the Jah, they say, was a confirmation of this displeasure; as the addition to Abram’s name on the contrary, was intended as a token of divine favor. Gen 17:5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 22:20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
Ver. 20. Go up to Lebanon and cry. ] Jehoiakim hath had his doom and his destiny read him. a Followeth now Jehoiakim’s part, and what, for his obstinace, he shall trust to. The prophet beginneth this part of his discourse with a sarcasm or scoff at their carnal security and creature confidence. Get up, saith he, into those high mountains here mentioned, Lebanon, Bashan, Abarim, that look all toward Egypt, and see if thence, by crying and calling for help, thou mayest be saved from the Chaldees, who are coming upon thee; but all shall be to small purpose.
But thy lovers are all destroyed.
a Subiecit fata tristissima Iechoniae.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Go up, &c. Note the Figure of speech Eironeia. App-6.
cry: the cry of distress.
the passages = Abarim: the mountains beyond Jordan, the range of Nebo. Compare Num 27:12; Num 33:47, Num 33:48.
lovers: i.e. the neighbouring nations, to whom they looked instead of to God.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and cry: Jer 2:36, Jer 2:37, Jer 30:13-15, 2Ki 24:7, Isa 20:5, Isa 20:6, Isa 30:1-7, Isa 31:1-3
for: Jer 22:22, Jer 4:30, Jer 25:9, Jer 25:17-27, Lam 1:2, Lam 1:19, Eze 23:9, Eze 23:22
Reciprocal: 2Ch 35:25 – and made them Isa 40:9 – lift up Jer 30:14 – lovers Eze 16:37 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 22:20, Lebanon was one of the favorite districts of Palestine from which the people sometimes got trees to form into idols. Bashan was a city in the heathen territory where much of the idolatrous practice was learned. Thy lovers are destroyed, is an allusion to Idolatry because that iniquity was compared with unfaithfulness in the marriage relation. The spots just named were connected with that corruption but were destined to be cleared of it by the captivity. The language of this verse is in the present tense as to grammatical form but is a prediction in thought.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 22:20. Go up to Lebanon, and cry, &c. The verbs here being in the feminine gender, the city of Jerusalem, or the land of Judea, seems to be addressed and called upon ironically to go to the tops of the high mountains, and to the frontiers of the country, and cry aloud for help to the neighbouring powers, but in vain, since all those who had any inclination to favour her, the Egyptians in particular, were themselves disabled and crushed by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar. Cry from the passages Hebrew, , from the borders, or rivers, which are the bounds of your country. For the word signifies, not only the fords, or passages of a river, but the parts along each bank, and the confines or extremities of a country. For all thy lovers are destroyed Or broken, as signifies: all thy foreign allies, whose friendship and assistance thou hast sought, and whom thou hast courted, by complying with their idolatries, are humbled.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
22:20 Go up to {n} Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in {o} Bashan, and cry from the passes: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
(n) To call to the Assyrians for help.
(o) For this was the way out of India to Assyria, by which is meant that all help would fail: for the Chaldeans have subdued both them and the Egyptians.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
An oracle of Jerusalem’s doom 22:20-23
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The prophet spoke of Jerusalem as a young woman in this oracle. He called on her to go up on the surrounding mountains to bewail the loss of her lovers (political allies and pagan gods). The Lebanon mountains were to Judah’s north, Bashan was to the northeast, and the Abarim range was to the east of Jerusalem (cf. Num 27:12; Deu 32:49).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER VII
JEHOIACHIN
Jer 22:20-30
“A despised broken vessel.”- Jer 22:28
“A young lion. And he went up and down among the lions, he became a young lion and he learned to catch the prey, he devoured men.”- Eze 19:5-6
“Jehoiachin did evil in the sight of Jehovah, according to all that his father had done.”- 2Ki 24:8-9
WE have seen that our book does not furnish a consecutive biography of Jeremiah; we are not even certain as to the chronological order of the incidents narrated. Yet these chapters are clear and full enough to give us an accurate idea of what Jeremiah did and suffered during the eleven years of Jehoiakims reign. He was forced to stand by while the king lent the weight of his authority to the ancient corruptions of the national religion, and conducted his home and foreign policy without any regard to the will of Jehovah, as expressed by His prophet. His position was analogous to that of a Romanist priest under Elizabeth or a Protestant divine in the reign of James II. According to some critics, Nebuchadnezzar was to Jeremiah what Philip of Spain was to the priest and William of Orange to the Puritan.
During all these long and weary years, the prophet watched the ever multiplying tokens of approaching ruin. He was no passive spectator, but a faithful watchman to the house of Israel; again and again he risked his life in a vain attempt to make his fellow countrymen aware of their danger. The vision of the coming sword was ever before his eyes, and he blew the trumpet and warned the people; but they would not be warned, and the prophet knew that the sword would come and take them away in their iniquity. He paid the penalty of his faithfulness; at one time or another he was beaten, imprisoned, proscribed, and driven to hide himself; still he persevered in his mission, as time and occasion served. Yet he survived Jehoiakim, partly because he was more anxious to serve Jehovah than to gain the glorious deliverance of martyrdom; partly because his royal enemy feared to proceed to extremities against a prophet of Jehovah, who was befriended by powerful nobles, and might possibly have relations with Nebuchadnezzar himself. Jehoiakims religion-for like the Athenians he was probably “very religious”-was saturated with superstition, and it was only when deeply moved that he lost the sense of an external sanctity attaching to Jeremiahs person. In Israel prophets were hedged by a more potent divinity than kings.
Meanwhile Jeremiah was growing old in years and older in experience. When Jehoiakim died, it was nearly forty years since the young priest had first been called “to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow; to build and to plant”; it was more than eleven since his brighter hopes were buried in Josiahs grave. Jehovah had promised that He would make His servant into “an iron pillar and brasen walls.” (Jer 1:18) The iron was tempered and hammered into shape during these days of conflict and endurance, like-
“iron dug from central gloom,
And heated hot with burning fears
And dipt in baths of hissing tears,
And battered with the shocks of doom,
To shape and use.”
He had long lost all trace of that sanguine youthful enthusiasm which promises to carry all before it. His opening manhood had felt its happy illusions, but they did not dominate his soul and they soon passed away. At the Divine bidding, he had surrendered his most ingrained prejudices, his dearest desires. He had consented to be alienated from his brethren at Anathoth, and to live without home or family; although a patriot, he accepted the inevitable ruin of his nation as the just judgment of Jehovah; he was a priest, imbued by heredity and education with the religious traditions of Israel, yet he had yielded himself to Jehovah, to announce, as His herald, the destruction of the Temple, and the devastation of the Holy Land. He had submitted his shrinking flesh and reluctant spirit to Gods most unsparing demands, and had dared the worst that man could inflict. Such surrender and such experiences wrought in him a certain stern and terrible strength, and made his life still more remote from the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows of common men. In his isolation and his inspired self-sufficiency he had become an “iron pillar.” Doubtless he seemed to many as hard, and cold as iron; but this pillar of the faith could still glow with white heat of indignant passion, and within the shelter of the “brasen walls” there still beat a human heart, touched with tender sympathy for those less disciplined to endure.
We have thus tried to estimate the development of Jeremiahs character during the second period of his ministry, which began with the death of Josiah and terminated with the brief reign of Jehoiachin. Before considering Jeremiahs judgment upon this prince we will review the scanty data at our disposal to enable us to appreciate the prophets verdict.
Jehoiakim died while Nebuchadnezzar was on the march to punish his rebellion. His son Jehoiachin, a youth of eighteen, succeeded his father and continued his policy. Thus the accession of the new king was no new departure, but merely a continuance of the old order; the government was still in the hands of the party attached to Egypt, and opposed to Babylon and hostile to Jeremiah. Under these circumstances we are bound to accept the statement of Kings that Jehoiakim “slept with his fathers,” i.e., was buried in the royal sepulchre. There was no literal fulfilment of the prediction that he should “be buried with the burial of an ass.” Jeremiah had also declared concerning Jehoiakim: “He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David.” {Jer 36:30} According to popular superstition, the honourable burial of Jehoiakim and the succession of his son to the throne further discredited Jeremiah and his teaching. Men read happy omens in the mere observance of ordinary constitutional routine. The curse upon Jehoiakim seemed so much spent breath: why should not Jeremiahs other predictions of ruin and exile also prove a mere vox et praeterea nihil? In spite of a thousand disappointments, mens hopes still turned to Egypt; and if earthly resources failed they trusted to Jehovah Himself to intervene, and deliver Jerusalem from the advancing hosts of Nebuchadnezzar, as from the army of Sennacherib.
Ezekiels elegy over Jehoiachin suggests that the young king displayed energy and courage worthy of a better fortune:-
“He walked up and down among the lions,
He became a young lion;
He learned to catch the prey,
He devoured men.
He broke down their palaces,
He wasted their cities;
The land was desolate, and the fulness thereof,
At the noise of his roaring.” {Eze 19:5-7}
However figurative these lines may be, the hyperbole must have had some basis in fact. Probably before the regular Babylonian army entered Judah, Jehoiachin distinguished himself by brilliant but useless successes against the marauding bands of Chaldeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites, who had been sent to prepare the way for the main body. He may even have carried his victorious arms into the territory of Moab or Ammon. But his career was speedily cut short: “The servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem and besieged the city.” Pharaoh Necho made no sign, and Jehoiachin was forced to retire before the regular forces of Babylon, and soon found himself shut up in Jerusalem. Still for a time he held out, but when it was known in the beleaguered city that Nebuchadnezzar was present in person in the camp of the besiegers, the Jewish captains lost heart. Perhaps too they hoped for better treatment, if they appealed to the conquerors vanity by offering him an immediate submission which they had refused to his lieutenants. The gates were thrown open; Jehoiachin and the Queen Mother, Nehushta, with his ministers and princes and the officers of his household, passed out in suppliant procession, and placed themselves and their city at the disposal of the conqueror. In pursuance of the policy which Nebuchadnezzar had inherited from the Assyrians, the king and his court and eight thousand picked men were carried away captive to Babylon. {2Ki 24:8-17} For thirty-seven years Jehoiachin languished in a Chaldean prison, till at last his sufferings were mitigated by an act of grace, which signalised the accession of a new king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzars successor Evil Merodach, “in the year when he began to reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah out of prison, and spake kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon. And Jehoiachin changed his prison garments, and ate at the royal table continually all the days of his life, and had a regular allowance given him by the king, a daily portion, all the days of his life.” {2Ki 25:27-30; Jer 52:31-34} At the age of fifty-five, the last survivor of the reigning princes of the house of David emerges from his dungeon, broken in mind and body by his long captivity, to be a grateful dependent upon the charity of Evil Merodach, just as the survivor of the house of Saul had sat at Davids table. The young lion that devoured the prey and caught men and wasted cities was thankful to be allowed to creep out of his cage and die in comfort-“a despised broken vessel.”
We feel a shock of surprise and repulsion as we turn from this pathetic story to Jeremiahs fierce invectives against the unhappy king. But we wrong the prophet and misunderstand his utterance if we forget that it was delivered during that brief frenzy in which the young king and his advisers threw away the last chance of safety for Judah. Jehoiachin might have repudiated his fathers rebellion against Babylon; Jehoiakims death had removed the chief offender, no personal blame attached to his successor, and a prompt submission might have appeased Nebuchadnezzars wrath against Judah and obtained his favour for the new king. If a hot-headed young rajah of some protected Indian state revolted against the English suzerainty and exposed his country to the misery of a hopeless war, we should sympathise with any of his counsellors who condemned such wilful folly; we have no right to find fault with Jeremiah for his severe censure of the reckless vanity which precipitated his countrys fate.
Jeremiahs deep and absorbing interest in Judah and Jerusalem is indicated by the form of this utterance; it is addressed to the “Daughter of Zion”:-
“Go up to Lebanon and lament
And lift up thy voice in Bashan,
And lament from Abarim,
For thy lovers are all destroyed!”
Her “lovers,” her heathen allies, whether gods or men, are impotent, and Judah is as forlorn and helpless as a lonely and unfriended woman; let her bewail her fate upon the mountains of Israel, like Jephthahs daughter in ancient days.
“I spake unto thee in thy prosperity;
Thou saidst, I will not hearken.
This hath been thy way from thy youth,
That thou hast not obeyed My voice.
The tempest shall be the shepherd to all thy shepherds.”
Kings and nobles, priests and prophets, shall be carried off by the Chaldean invaders, as trees and houses are swept away by a hurricane. These shepherds who had spoiled and betrayed their flock would themselves be as silly sheep in the hands of robbers.
“Thy lovers shall go into captivity.
Then, verily, shalt thou be ashamed and confounded
Because of all thy wickedness.
O thou that dwellest in Lebanon!
O thou that hast made thy nest in the cedar!”
The former mention of Lebanon reminded Jeremiah of Jehoiakims halls of cedar. With grim irony he links together the royal magnificence of the palace and the wild abandonment of the peoples lamentation.
“How wilt thou groan when pangs come upon thee,
Anguish as of a woman in travail!”
The nation is involved in the punishment inflicted upon her rulers. In such passages the prophets largely identify the nation with the governing classes – not without justification. No government, whatever the constitution may be, can ignore a strong popular demand for righteous policy, at home and abroad. A special responsibility of course rests on those who actually wield the authority of the state, but the policy of rulers seldom succeeds in effecting much either for good or evil without some sanction of public feeling. Our revolution which replaced the Puritan Protectorate by the restored Monarchy was rendered possible by the change of popular sentiment. Yet even under the purest democracy men imagine that they divest themselves of civic responsibility by neglecting their civic duties; they stand aloof, and blame officials and professional politicians for the injustice and crime wrought by the state. National guilt seems happily disposed of when laid on the shoulders of that convenient abstraction “the government”; but neither the prophets nor the Providence which they interpret recognise this convenient theory of vicarious atonement: the king sins, but the prophets condemnation is uttered against and executed upon the nation.
Nevertheless a special responsibility rests upon the ruler, and now Jeremiah turns from the nation to its king.
“As I live-Jehovah hath spoken it-
Though Coniah ben Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring upon My right hand-“
By a forcible Hebrew idiom Jehovah, as it were, turns and confronts the king and specially addresses him:-
“Yet I would pluck thee thence.”
A signet ring was valuable in itself, and, as far as an inanimate object could be, was an “altar ego” of the sovereign; it scarcely ever left his finger, and when it did, it carried with it the authority of its owner. A signet ring could not be lost or even cast away without some reflection upon the majesty of the king. Jehoiachins character was by no means worthless; he had courage, energy, and patriotism. The heir of David and Solomon, the patron and champion of the Temple, dwelt, as it were, under the very shadow of the Almighty. Men generally believed that Jehovahs honour was engaged to defend Jerusalem and the house of David. He Himself would be discredited by the fall of the elect dynasty and the captivity of the chosen people. Yet everything must be sacrificed-the career of a gallant young prince, the ancient association of the sacred Name with David and Zion, even the superstitious awe with which the heathen regarded the God of the Exodus and of the deliverance from Sennacherib. Nothing will be allowed to stand in the way of the Divine judgment. And yet we still sometimes dream that the working out of the Divine righteousness will be postponed in the interests of ecclesiastical traditions and in deference to the criticisms of ungodly men!
“And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life,
Into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid,
Into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans.
And I will hurl thee and the mother that bare thee into another land, where ye were not born:
There shall ye die.
And unto the land whereunto their soul longeth to return,
Thither they shall not return.”
Again the sudden change in the person addressed emphasises the scope of the Divine proclamation; the doom of the royal house is not only announced to them, but also to the world at large. The mention of the Queen Mother, Nehushta, reveals what we should in any case have conjectured, that the policy of the young prince was largely determined by his mother. Her importance is also indicated by Jer 13:18, usually suposed to be addressed to Jehoiachin and Nehushta:-
Say unto the king and the queen mother,
Leave your thrones and sit in the dust,
For your glorious diadems are fallen.
The Queen Mother is a characteristic figure of polygamous Eastern dynasties, but we may be helped to understand what Nehushta was to Jehoiachin if we remember the influence of Eleanor of Poitou over Richard I and John, and the determined struggle which Margaret of Anjou made on behalf of her ill-starred son.
The next verse of our prophecy seems to be a protest against the severe sentence pronounced in the preceding clauses:-
“Is then this man Coniah a despised vessel, only fit to be broken?
Is he a tool, that no one wants?”
Thus Jeremiah imagines the citizens and warriors of Jerusalem crying out against him, for his sentence of doom against their darling prince and captain. The prophetic utterance seemed to them monstrous and incredible, only worthy to be met with impatient scorn. We may find a mediaeval analogy to the situation at Jerusalem in the relations of Clement IV to Conradin, the last heir of the house of Hohenstaufen. When this youth of sixteen was in the full career of victory, the Pope predicted that his army would be scattered like smoke, and pointed out the prince and his allies as victims for the sacrifice. When Conradin was executed after his defeat at Tagliacozzo, Christendom was filled with abhorrence at the suspicion that Clement had countenanced the doing to death of the hereditary enemy of the Papal See. Jehoiachins friends felt towards Jeremiah somewhat as these thirteenth-century Ghibellines towards Clement.
Moreover the charge against Clement was probably unfounded: Milman says of him, “He was doubtless moved with inner remorse at the cruelties of his champion Charles of Anjou.” Jeremiah too would lament the doom he was constrained to utter. Nevertheless he could not permit Judah to be deluded to its ruin by empty dreams of glory:-
“O land, land, land,
Hear the word of Jehovah.”
Isaiah had called all Nature, heaven and earth to bear witness against Israel, but now Jeremiah is appealing with urgent importunity to Judah. “O Chosen Land of Jehovah, so richly blessed by His favour, so sternly chastised by His discipline, Land of prophetic Revelation, now at last, after so many warnings, believe the word of thy God and submit to His judgment. Hasten not thy unhappy fate by shallow confidence in the genius and daring of Jehoiachin: he is no true Messiah.”
“For saith Jehovah,
Write this man childless,
A man whose life shall not know prosperity:
For none of his seed shall prosper;
None shall sit upon the throne of David,
Nor rule any more over Judah.”
Thus, by Divine decree, the descendants of Jehoiakim were disinherited; Jehoiachin was to be recorded in the genealogies of Israel as having no heir. He might have offspring, but the Messiah, the Son of David, would not come of his line.
Two points suggest themselves in connection with this utterance of Jeremiah; first as to the circumstances under which it was uttered, then as to its application to Jehoiachin.
A moments reflection will show that this prophecy implied great courage and presence of mind on the part of Jeremiah-his enemies might even have spoken of his barefaced audacity. He had predicted that Jehoiakims corpse should be cast forth without any rites of honourable sepulture; and no son of his should sit upon the throne. Jehoiakim had been buried like other kings, he slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead. The prophet should have felt himself utterly discredited; and yet here was Jeremiah coming forward unabashed with new prophecies against the king whose very existence was a glaring disproof of his prophetic inspiration. Thus the friends of Jehoiachin. They would affect towards Jeremiahs message the same indifference which the present generation feels for the expositors of Daniel and the Apocalypse, who confidently announce the end of the world for 1866, and in 1867 fix a new date with cheerful and undiminished assurance. But these students of sacred records can always save the authority of Scripture by acknowledging the fallibility of their calculations. When their predictions fail, they confess that they have done their sum wrong and start it afresh. But Jeremiahs utterances were not published as human deductions from inspired data; he himself claimed to be inspired. He did not ask his hearers to verify and acknowledge the accuracy of his arithmetic or his logic, but to submit to the Divine message from his lips. And yet it is clear that he did not stake the authority of Jehovah or even his own prophetic status upon the accurate and detailed fulfilment of his predictions. Nor does he suggest that, in announcing a doom which was not literally accomplished, he had misunderstood or misinterpreted his message. The details which both Jeremiah and those who edited and transmitted his words knew to be unfulfilled were allowed to remain in the record of Divine Revelation-not, surely, to illustrate the fallibility of prophets, but to show that an accurate forecast of details is not of the essence of prophecy; such details belong to its form and not to its substance. Ancient Hebrew prophecy clothed its ideas in concrete images; its messages of doom were made definite and intelligible, in a glowing series of definite pictures. The prophets were realists and not impressionists. But they were also spiritual men, concerned with the great issues of history and religion. Their message had to do with these: they were little interested in minor matters; and they used detailed imagery as a mere instrument of exposition. Popular scepticism exulted when subsequent facts did not exactly correspond to Jeremiahs images, but the prophet himself was unconscious of either failure or mistake. Jehoiakim might be magnificently buried, but his name was branded with eternal dishonour; Jehoiachin might reign for a hundred days, but the doom of Judah was not averted, and the house of David ceased forever to rule in Jerusalem.
Our second point is the application of this prophecy to Jehoiachin. How far did the king deserve his sentence? Jeremiah indeed does not explicitly blame Jehoiachin, does not specify his sins as he did those of his royal sire. The estimate recorded in the Book of Kings doubtless expresses the judgment of Jeremiah, but it may be directed not so much against the young king as against his ministers. Yet the king cannot have been entirely innocent of the guilt of his policy and government. In chapter 24, however, Jeremiah speaks of the captives at Babylon, those carried away with Jehoiachin, as “good figs”; but we scarcely suppose he meant to include the king himself in this favourable estimate, otherwise we should discern some note of sympathy in the personal sentence upon him. We are left, therefore, to conclude that Jeremiahs judgment was unfavourable: although, in view of the princes youth and limited opportunities, his guilt must have been slight, compared to that of his father.
And, on the other hand, we have the manifest sympathy and even admiration of Ezekiel. The two estimates stand side by side in the sacred record to remind us that God neither tolerates mans sins because there is a better side to his nature, nor yet ignores his virtues on account of his vices. For ourselves we may be content to leave the last word on this matter with Jeremiah. When he declares Gods sentence on Jehoiachin, he does not suggest that it was undeserved, but he refrains from any explicit reproach. Probably if he had known how entirely his prediction would be fulfilled, if he had foreseen the seven-and-thirty weary years which the young lion was to spend in his Babylonian cage, Jeremiah would have spoken more tenderly and pitifully even of the son of Jehoiakim.