Jeremiah 22

6. Thou art Gilead. This may mean, Though for beauty thou (O royal palace) art like Gilead, and for majestic height like Lebanon, yet I will have thee desolated by invaders; as Gilead and Lebanon have been: see 2 Kings x. 32, etc.

10. Weep ye not for the dead. Referring to Josiah, the good and patriotic king of Judah, who died deeply lamented (see 2 Chron. xxxv. 24, 25), being spared the pain of seeing and sharing the disgrace and suffering of his country: see 2 Kings xxii. 20.

him than goeth away. Shallum (see ver. 11); who, though a younger son of Josiah, was raised by the people to the throne under the name of Jehoahaz, but was soon carried captive into Egypt, never to return: see 2 Kings xxiii. 31-35.

11 king of Judah. Referring to Shallum.

13. Woe unto him. That is, Jehoiakim, the reigning prince; who is first described (13, 14), then addressed (15-17), and finally named (18).

14 vermilion. The ancient vermilion was a bisulphuret of mercury.

15. Did not thy father eat and drink? Your father Josiah enjoyed what he needed, without all this pomp; and distinguished himself, not by his splendour, but by the justice of his government.

18. They shall not lament for him. You shall not be lamented like your father; your corpse shall not be cared for more than that of an ass who dies on the road: cp. xxxvi. 30. Of the circumstances of Jehoiakim’s death we have no record. Nebuchadrezzar appears to have designed to carry him to Babylon, but he probably died on the way: see 2 Chron. xxxvi. 6. “The prophet quotes the verba ipsissima of the usual wail for the dead. Hence the apparently unsuitable Alas! sister!” (Lange).

20. Go up to Lebanon. This is addressed to Jerusalem, bidding her to watch from mountain heights, and to bewail the progress of the conquering Babylonians.

from the passages. Rather, “from Abarim” (R.V.): see note on Numb. xxvii. 12.

22 shall eat up. Or, “consume,” as a parching wind withers the grass. There is here a play upon words, “shall make pasture of thy pastors.”

23. O inhabitant of Lebanon. Referring to ver. 14. Thou tenant of the cedar palace!

How gracious, etc.! Rather, “How wilt thou groan!”

28 a despised broken idol. Rather, “a despised broken vessel.” This is the inquiry of those who witness his degradation.

29. O earth, earth, earth! Or, “O land!” The repetition is emphatic, as in vii. 4; Ezek. xxi. 27.

30. Write ye this man childless. Not as a man, for he had children (see 1 Chron. iii. 17); but as a king, for none of his children became king, “sitting upon the throne of David.” Jehoiakim and his brother Zedekiah were the latest of David’s descendants who reigned in Judah. The promise of the temporal kingdom is here abrogated. Thus the royal line (Matt. i.) was not a line of actual kings from Salathiel onwards.

a man that shall not prosper. He spent thirty-seven years in imprisonment; and though he was then liberated and treated kindly by Evil-Merodach, he was retained to attend the court of his superior monarch (2 Kings xxv. 27-30).