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The LORD said, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there:
Verse 1. Go. The contents of this chapter are of a more ancient date than those of the foregoing chapter; for the order of time is not always observed in the writings of the prophets. Challoner. Worthington.—King Joakim, who succeeded Sellum, A. 3394. Usher.
‘Hear the LORD’s word, king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne—you, your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.
The LORD says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
For if you do this thing indeed, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter in by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses—they, their servants, and their people.
But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself,” says the LORD, “that this house will become a desolation.”’”
Verse 5. Myself, having none greater. Hebrews 6:13. Oaths evince the insincerity of men, who distrust each other; but when God condescends to use them, it shews men’s incredulity.—House, the temple, or rather the palace, where the king was sitting at the gate, verse 2. Calmet.
For the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
Verse 6. Galaad, the head of Libanus. By Galaad, a rich and fruitful country, is here signified the royal palace of the kings of the house of David; by Libanus, a high mountain abounding in cedar-trees, the populous city of Jerusalem. Challoner. Worthington. Theodor.—Both mountains are connected. Saint Jerome Strabo xvi.—Yet the proper Galaad was at some distance, and on the side of Ammon very barren. The palaces had arisen from a miserable state to resemble Libanus. They shall surely be destroyed. Calmet.—The advantageous situation of Jerusalem should not protect it, no more than it had done Galaad. 4 Kennicott. 15:29. Jun. Grot.
I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons, and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
Verse 7. Prepare. Lit. sanctify; ( Challoner.) as various religious ceremonies were used before the declaration of war, and to know what would be the success. Calmet.—The Chaldees were destined to execute God’s decrees. Saint Jerome—Cedars; fine buildings, (verse 14. Calmet.) and chiefs. Bible.
“Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’
Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’”
Don’t weep for the dead. Don’t bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he will return no more, and not see his native country.
Verse 10. Dead. He means the good king Josias, who by death was taken away, so as not to see the miseries of his country.—Away. Sellum, alias Joschaz, who was carried captive to Egypt. Challoner. verse 12 and 4 Kennicott. 23:33. Calmet.—He was the fourth son of Josias, (1 Chronicles 3:15) and had probably the title of king after the death of Sedecias. Worthington.
For the LORD says touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this place: “He won’t return there any more.
But he will die in the place where they have led him captive. He will see this land no more.”
“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;
Verse 13. Friend. Joakim forced his subjects to work for him for nothing.
who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house and spacious rooms,’ and cuts out windows for himself, with a cedar ceiling, and painted with red.
Verse 14. Wide. Hebrew “measured;” large, and well-proportioned.—Vermilion, (cynopide.) This colour was invented in the town of Pontus, and was used for statues, and so forth Pliny xxxiii. 6. and xxxv. 6. Wisd. 13:14. Calmet.—Hebrew shashar ( Bible.) may mean indigo. Jun. Calmet.
“Should you reign because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
Verse 15. Cedar; Josias. Calmet.—Shall thy magnificent palaces secure thy empire? Bible.—Him. Obey the Lord, in like manner, that thou mayst prosper.
He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so then it was well. Wasn’t this to know me?” says the LORD.
But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
Therefore the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They won’t lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah sister!’ They won’t lament for him, saying ‘Ah lord!’ or, ‘Ah his glory!’
Verse 18. Sister. They shall not condole with his consort.
He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
Verse 19. Jerusalem. Calmet. 36:30. He died indeed with or like his fathers. 4 Kennicott. 24:6. But it is not said that he was buried. Saint Jerome—The Chaldees designed to send him to Babylon, (2 Chronicles 36:6) but slew him on the road, (Usher, A. 3405) or treated his corpse ignominiously after his arrival. Grot.
“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out. Lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers have been destroyed.
Verse 20. Go; Jerusalem. The verbs are feminine.—Lovers; citizens, or Egyptians, and so forth Calmet. 27:2.
I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you didn’t obey my voice.
The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
Verse 22. Pastors, or princes, whose expectations of aid will be frustrated. Osee 12:1. Chal. “Thy leaders shall be scattered to all the winds.”
Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
“As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from there.
Verse 24. Jechonias: Joachin, (4 Kennicott. 24:6. Worthington.) or Chenias, who did not take warning by his predecessor’s misfortune.—Ring, or seal, if he were most dear to me, the prime minister of the greatest monarch. Agg. 2:24. Calmet.—Alexander gave his ring to Perdiccas, designating him his successor, or regent. Curt. x.
I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.
Verse 26. Mother; Nohesta, (4 Kennicott. 24:8) who perverted, ( Calmet.) or did not correct him in his youth. Bible.
But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they will not return.”
Verse 27. Mind; ardently desiring and expecting to be liberated. Calmet.
Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his offspring, and cast into a land which they don’t know?
Verse 28. Jechonias. Prot. “Koniah, a despised broken idol? is he,” and so forth Septuagint Alex. “Jechonias has been dishonoured as a vessel, or which there is no need, for he hath been snatched and cast,” and so forth Bible.
O earth, earth, earth, hear the LORD’s word!
The LORD says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne and ruling in Judah.”
Verse 30. Write this man barren. That is childless: not that he had no children, but that his children should never sit on the throne of Juda. Challoner. 5:28. Matthew 1:12. Ezekiel 17:24. Zorobabel was of his seed, yet he never obtained the title or sovereign power of a king. The Machabees were of a different family. Saint Jerome—Joachin, or Jechonias, was restored indeed to some favour, (4 Kennicott. 25:27) but not to the kingdom, no more than any of his posterity, till Christ. Worthington.