Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 22

Verse 3

22:3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and {a} righteousness, and deliver him that is laid waste out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.

(a) This was his ordinary manner of preaching before the kings from Josiah to Zedekiah which was about forty years.

Verse 5

22:5 But if ye will not hear these words, I {b} swear by myself, saith the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.

(b) Showing that there is no one greater than he is, Hebrews 6:13 and that he will most certainly perform his oath.

Verse 6

22:6 For thus saith the LORD to the king’s house of Judah; Thou [art] {c} Gilead to me, [and] the head of Lebanon: [yet] surely I will make thee a wilderness, [and] cities [which] are not inhabited.

(c) He compares Jerusalem to Gilead which was beyond Jordan and the beauty of Judea to Lebanon.

Verse 7

22:7 And I will {d} prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice {e} cedars, and cast [them] into the fire.

(d) The Hebrew word signifies to sanctify because the Lord dedicates to his use and purpose such as he prepares to execute his work, Isaiah 13:3, Jeremiah 6:4; Jeremiah 12:3 .

(e) Your buildings made from cedar trees.

Verse 8

22:8 {f} And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Why hath the LORD done thus to this great city?

(f) As they who wonder at a thing which they thought would never have come to pass, De 29:24, 1 Kings 9:8 .

Verse 10

22:10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: [but] weep bitterly for him {g} that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.

(g) Signifying that they would lose their king: for Jehoiachin went forth to meet Nebuchadnezzar and yielded himself, and was carried into Babylon, 2 Kings 24:12 .

Verse 11

22:11 For thus saith the LORD concerning {h} Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place; He shall not return there any more:

(h) Whom some think to be Jehoiachin and that Josiah was his grandfather: but it seems this was Jehoiakim, as in Jeremiah 22:18 .

Verse 13

22:13 Woe to him that buildeth his house by {i} unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; [that] useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;

(i) By bribes and extortion.

Verse 15

22:15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest [thyself] in cedar? did not thy {k} father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, [and] then [it was] well with him?

(k) Meaning Josiah, who was not given to ambition and superfluity, but was content with mediocrity, and only delighted in setting forth God’s glory, and to do justice to all.

Verse 18

22:18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for {l} him, [saying], Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, [saying], Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!

(l) For everyone will have enough to lament for himself.

Verse 19

22:19 He shall be {m} buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

(m) Not honourably among his fathers, but as carrion are cast in a hole, because their stink should not infect, read 1 Kings 14:10 . Josephus writes that the enemy slew him in the city and commanded him to be cast before the walls unburied, see Jeremiah 36:30 .

Verse 20

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.

Verse 22

22:22 The wind shall eat up all thy shepherds, {p} and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness.

(p) Both your governors and they that would help you will vanish away as wind.

Verse 23

22:23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the {q} cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!

(q You that are built of the fair cedar trees of Lebanon.

Verse 24

22:24 [As] I live, saith the LORD, though {r} Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee from there;

(r) Who was called Jehoiachin or Jeconiah, whom he calls here Coniah in contempt who thought his kingdom could never depart from him, because he came of the stock of David, and therefore for the promise sake could not be taken from his house, but he abused God’s promise and therefore was justly deprived of the kingdom.

Verse 29

22:29 O {s} earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

(s) He shows that all posterity will be witnesses of his just plague, as though it were registered for perpetual memory.

Verse 30

22:30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this {t} 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.

(t) Not that he had no children (for later he begat Salathiel in the captivity, Matthew 1:12 ) but that none would reign after him as king.