Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 22

Verses 1-30

Jeremiah 22:30 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.

Jeremiah 22:30 Word Study on “childless” Strong says the Hebrew word “childless” ( עֲרִירִי ) (H6185) means, “bare, i.e. destitute of children, childless.” The Enhanced Strong says it occurs 4 times in Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “childless 4.” Strong says this word comes from the primitive root ( עָרַר ) (H6209), which literally means, “to bare,” and figuratively, “to demolish.” The Enhanced Strong says it is used 4 times in Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “make bare 1, raise up 1, utterly 1, broken 1”.

Jeremiah 22:30 Comments - Coniah is another name for Jehoiachin, found in Jeremiah 22:24; Jeremiah 22:28; Jeremiah 37:1.

Jeremiah 22:24-26, ““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; 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. 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.”

Jeremiah 37:1, “And king Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim , whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.”

Since Coniah was the father of Shealtiel (Matthew 1:12), how could he be made childless. John Gill cites older Jewish tradition that suggests Jechoiachin repented while in prison in Babylon and God then granted him posterity. A better suggestion is given by John Gill, who says that the broader use of the Hebrew word “childless” is more fitting in this verse, which Hebrew word “denotes not only such as have no children, or are bereft of them, but such as are by any providence stripped of the blessings of life, and are left bare, destitute, and unhappy, as Jechonias and his posterity were.” [20] The idea is that this king has been stripped of his kingship and of the divine and material blessings came with it. This view is supported later in the same verse when it says, “ for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.” Therefore, the same verse acknowledges that he will have seed. Thus, this verse means that Jechoiachin and his posterity were stripped of the royal kingship and lived in bondage during the Babylonian Captivity and that his seed would no longer have a king over Israel. The NIV supports this view.

[20] John Gill, Matthew, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Matthew 1:12.

NIV, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.’”