Yahweh said, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word, there:
Parallel Translations
-
Yahweh said, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word, there:
-
Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
-
Thus said the LORD: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Cross-references (13)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 22:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 34:2 “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Yahweh says, “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.
- 1 Samuel 15:16-23 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.” Samuel said, “Though you were little in your own sight, weren’t you made the head of the tribes of Israel? Yahweh anointed you king over Israel; and Yahweh sent you on a journey, and said, ‘Go, and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed.’ Why then didn’t you obey Yahweh’s voice, but took the plunder, and did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight?” Saul said to Samuel, “But I have obeyed Yahweh’s voice, and have gone the way which Yahweh sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the plunder, sheep and cattle, the chief of the devoted things, to sacrifice to Yahweh your God in Gilgal.” Samuel said, “Has Yahweh as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying Yahweh’s voice? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because you have rejected Yahweh’s word, he has also rejected you from being king.”
- 2 Samuel 12:1 Yahweh sent Nathan to David. He came to him, and said to him, “There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.
- 2 Samuel 24:11-12 When David rose up in the morning, Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying, “Go and speak to David, ‘Yahweh says, “I offer you three things. Choose one of them, that I may do it to you.” ’ ”
- 1 Kings 21:18-20 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ” Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?” He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight.
- 2 Chronicles 19:2-3 Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? Because of this, wrath is on you from before Yahweh. Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”
- 2 Chronicles 25:15-16 Therefore Yahweh’s anger burned against Amaziah, and he sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you sought after the gods of the people, which have not delivered their own people out of your hand?” As he talked with him, the king said to him, “Have we made you one of the king’s counselors? Stop! Why should you be struck down?” Then the prophet stopped, and said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this, and have not listened to my counsel.”
- 2 Chronicles 33:10 Yahweh spoke to Manasseh, and to his people; but they didn’t listen.
- Jeremiah 21:11 “Concerning the house of the king of Judah, hear Yahweh’s word:
- Hosea 5:1 “Listen to this, you priests! Listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king! For the judgment is against you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.
- Amos 7:13 but don’t prophesy again any more at Bethel; for it is the king’s sanctuary, and it is a royal house!”
- Mark 6:18 For John said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
- Luke 3:19-20 but Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done, added this also to them all, that he shut up John in prison.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet is again bidden to reprove the king…
The Prophet is again bidden to reprove the king and his counsellors; but the exhortation is at the same time extended to the whole people. It was necessary to begin with the head, that the common people might know that it was not a matter to be trifled with, as God would not spare, no, not even the king himself, and his courtiers; for a greater terror seized the lower orders, when they saw the highest laid prostrate. That what is here taught might then penetrate more effectually into the hearts of all, the Prophet is bid to address the king himself and his courtiers: he is afterwards bidden to include also the whole body of the people. And hence it appears, that there was some hope of favor yet remaining, provided the king and the whole people received the admonitions of the Prophet; provided their repentance and conversion were sincere, God was still ready to forgive them.
We must at the same time observe, as I have already said, that they could not escape the calamity that was at hand; but exile would have been much milder, and also their return would have been more certain, and they would have found in various ways that they had not been rejected by God, though for a time chastised. As then we now say, that a hope of pardon was set before them, this is not to be so understood as that they could avert the destruction of the city; for it had once for all been determined by God to drive the people into a temporary exile, and also to put all end for a time to their sacrifices; for this dreadful desolation was to be a proof that the people had been extremely ungrateful to God, and especially that their obstinacy could not be endured in having so long despised the Prophets and the commands of God. However the hope of mitigation as to their punishment was given them, provided they were touched by a right feeling, so as to endeavor to return into favor with God. But as Jeremiah effected nothing by so many admonitions, they were rendered more inexcusable.
Read full note →
We now see the design of what is here said, even that the Jews, having been so often proved guilty, might cease to complain that they suffered anything undeservedly; for they had been often admonished, yea, almost in numberless instances, and God had offered mercy, provided they were reclaimable. I come now to the words —
Thus saith Jehovah, Go down to the house of the king We see that the Prophet was endued with so great a courage that the dignity of the king’s name did not daunt him, so as to prevent him to perform what was commanded him. We have seen elsewhere similar instances; but whenever such cases occur, they deserve to be noticed. First, the servants of God ought boldly to discharge their office, and not to flatter the great and the rich, nor remit anything of their own authority when they meet with dignity and greatness. Secondly, let those who seem to be more eminent than others learn, that whatever eminence they may possess cannot avail them, but that they ought to submit to prophetic instruction. We have before seen that the Prophet was sent to reprove and rebuke even the highest, and to shew no respect of persons. (Jeremiah 1:10.) So now, here he shews that he had, as it were, the whole world under his feet, for in executing his office, he reproved the king himself and all his princes.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 22:1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to…
Jer 22:1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Ver. 1. Go down to the house of the king of Judah.] To the palace royal of Jehoakim, son of Josiah, who reigned after that his brother Jehoahaz was carried captive to Egypt. {2Ki 23:34}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Some by
Some by
the king of Judah, here mentioned, understand Jehoahaz. made king upon the death of Josiah by the people, (being the second son of Josiah,) 2Ki 23:30. Others understand Jehoiakim, whom Pharaoh-necho made king, carrying his elder brother Jehoahaz, after a short reign of three months, with him into Egypt, 2Ch 36:4.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here we have,
Here we have,
I. Orders given to Jeremiah to go and preach before the king. In the foregoing chapter we are told that Zedekiah sent messengers to the prophet, but here the prophet is bidden to go, in his own proper person, to the house of the king, and demand his attention to the word of the King of kings (Jer 22:2): Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah! Subjects must own that where the word of the king is there is power over them, but kings must own that where the word of the Lord is there is power over them. The king of Judah is here spoken to as sitting upon the throne of David, who was a man after God's own heart, as holding his dignity and power by the covenant made with David; let him therefore conform to his example, that he may have the benefit of the promises made to him. With the king his servants are spoken to, because a good government depends upon a good ministry as well as a good king.
Read full note →
II. Instructions given him what to preach.
1. He must tell them what was their duty, what was the good which the Lord their God required of them, Jer 22:3. They must take care, (1.) That they do all the good they can with the power they have. They must do justice in defence of those that were injured, and must deliver the spoiled out of the hand of their oppressors. This was the duty of their place, Psa 82:3. Herein they must be ministers of God for good. (2.) That they do no hurt with it, no wrong, no violence. That is the greatest wrong and violence which is done under colour of law and justice, and by those whose business it is to punish and protect from wrong and violence. They must do no wrong to the stranger, fatherless, and widow; for these God does in a particular matter patronise and take under his tuition, Exo 22:21, Exo 22:22.
2. He must assure them that the faithful discharge of their duty would advance and secure their prosperity, Jer 22:4. There shall then be a succession of kings, an uninterrupted succession, upon the throne of David and of his line, these enjoying a perfect tranquillity, and living in great state and dignity, riding in chariots and on horses, as before, Jer 17:25. Note, the most effectual way to preserve the dignity of the government is to do the duty of it.
3. He must likewise assure them that the iniquity of their family, if they persisted in it, would be the ruin of their family, though it was a royal family (Jer 22:5): If you will not hear, will not obey, this house shall become a desolation, the palace of the kings of Judah shall fare no better than other habitations in Jerusalem. Sin has often been the ruin of royal palaces, though ever so stately, ever so strong. This sentence is ratified by an oath: I swear by myself (and God can swear by no greater, Heb 6:13) that this house shall be laid in ruins. Note, Sin will be the ruin of the houses of princes as well as of mean men.
4. He must show how fatal their wickedness would be to their kingdom as well as to themselves, to Jerusalem especially, the royal city, Jer 22:6-9. (1.) It is confessed that Judah and Jerusalem had been valuable in God's eyes and considerable in their own: thou art Gilead unto me and the head of Lebanon. Their lot was cast in a place that was rich and pleasant as Gilead; Zion was a stronghold, as stately as Lebanon: this they trusted to as their security. But, (2.) This shall not protect them; the country that is now fruitful as Gilead shall be made a wilderness. The cities that are now strong as Lebanon shall be cities not inhabited; and, when the country is laid waste, the cities must be dispeopled. See how easily God's judgments can ruin a nation, and how certainly sin will do it. When this desolating work is to be done, [1.] There shall be those that shall do it effectually (Jer 22:7): "I will prepare destroyers against thee; I will sanctify them" (so the word is); "I will appoint them to this service and use them in it." Note, When destruction is designed destroyers are prepared, and perhaps are in the preparing, and things are working towards the designed destruction, and are getting ready for it, long before. And who can contend with destroyers of God's preparing? They shall destroy cities as easily as men fell trees in a forest: They shall cut down thy choice cedars; and yet, when they are down, shall value them no more than thorns and briers; they shall cast them into the fire, for their choicest cedars have become rotten ones and good for nothing else. [2.] There shall be those who shall be ready to justify God in the doing of it (Jer 22:8, Jer 22:9); persons of many nations, when they pass by the ruins of this city in their travels, will ask, "Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this city? How came so strong a city to be overpowered? so rich a city to be impoverished? so populous a city to be depopulated? so holy a city to be profaned? and a city that had been so dear to God to be abandoned by him?" The reason is so obvious that it shall be ready in every man's mouth. Ask those that go by the way, Job 21:29. Ask the next man you meet, and he will tell you it was because they changed their gods, which other nations never used to do. They forsook the covenant of Jehovah their own God, revolted from their allegiance to him and from the duty which their covenant with him bound them to, and they worshipped other gods and served them, in contempt of him; and therefore he gave them up to this destruction. Note, God never casts any off until they first cast him off. "Go," says God to the prophet, "and preach this to the royal family."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thus saith the Lord, go down to the house…
Thus saith the Lord, go down to the house of the king of Judah,.... To the palace of Jehoiakim, who was now the reigning king; the prophet is bid to go down to it, because, as Kimchi thinks, he was now upon the mountain of the house, or in the temple, from whence to the king's house there was a descent:
and speak there this word; of prophecy, relating to the several kings hereafter mentioned. This prophecy was delivered some years before that in the preceding chapter, though it stands here. It is indeed by some thought to be repeated here on occasion of what is before said, and for the confirmation of it, putting in mind of what he had prophesied in former times: and they render the words, with which it begins, "thus hath the Lord said" (x); so he said to me years ago; which agrees with what is now delivered.
Read full note →
(x) "haec dixit", Grotius; "sic dixit", Schmidt.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain God sends the prophet to court with promises, ver.…
God sends the prophet to court with promises, ver. 1-4. and threats against the king's house and Jerusalem, ver. 5-9. The judgment of Shallum, ver. 10-12. Of Jehoiakim, ver. 13-19. And of Coniah, ver. 20-30.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain This section of prophecy, extending to the end of…
CHAPTER XXII
This section of prophecy, extending to the end of the eighth
Read full note →
verse of the next chapter, is addressed to the king of Judah
and his people. It enjoins on them the practice of justice and
equity, as they would hope to prosper, 14;
but threatens them, in case of disobedience, with utter
destruction, 5-9.
The captivity of Shallum, the son of Josiah, is declared to be
irreversible, 10-12;
and the miserable and unlamented end of Jeconiah,
contemptuously called Coniah, is foretold, 13-19.
His family is threatened with the like captivity, and his seed
declared to be for ever excluded from the throne, 20-30.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXII
Verse 1. Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word] This is supposed by Dahler to have been published in the first year of the reign of Zedekiah.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 22:1-2. Thus saith the Lord — The prophecy…
Jer 22:1-2. Thus saith the Lord — The prophecy which follows to Jer 23:9, was evidently delivered in the reign of Jehoiakim; for it speaks of his immediate predecessor as already gone into captivity, and foretels the death of Jehoiakim himself. Blaney thinks it followed immediately after what is said in the xixth and xxth chapters to have passed in the temple precincts, from whence, as from a higher ground, he supposes the prophet is ordered to go down to the house of the king of Judah. Hear, &c., O king of Judah — Namely, Jehoiakim, (Jer 22:18,) who was established upon the throne by the king of Egypt, in the place of Jehoahaz, in the year of the world 3394, according to Archbishop Usher. That sittest on the throne of David — Thus the prophet puts him in mind of the promises God had made to David’s family, if they would live in obedience to his will, 1Ki 8:25. Thou, and thy servants, and thy people — Thy courtiers and other officers, who attend continually on thee, comprehending likewise all the people of the city: all whom this word of the Lord concerned; that enter in by these gates — Namely, the gates of the palace, whereby they went in to the king. The king was evidently at the gate of his palace, with his principal officers, when Jeremiah presented himself before him.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Go down - i. e., from the temple to…
Go down - i. e., from the temple to the king’s house. Compare 2Ch 23:20.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Go. The contents of this chapter are of a…
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, the year of the world 3394. (Usher)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Jeremiah 22, 23
II. MAIN DISCOURSE
Jeremiah 22, 23
Read full note →
Against The Wicked Kings And Prophets
1. Against the wicked kings, (Jer_22:1 to Jer_23:8)
a. The alternative offered the royal house
Jer_22:1-9
1 Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah]: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, 2and speak there this word. And say, Hear the word of the Lord [Jehovah], O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and 3thy people that enter in by these gates. Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah]:
Execute judgment and righteousness,
And rescue him that is plundered out of the hand of the oppressor,1
Strangers, orphans and widows oppress not, nor be violent towards them,
And innocent blood shed not in this place.
4 For if ye indeed do thus,
Then through the gates of this house,
Kings, sitting for David on his throne,
Shall enter in chariots and on horses,
He, his ministers2 and his people.
5 But if ye hearken not to these words,
I have sworn by myself, saith Jehovah,
That this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah:
Gilead art thou to me, summit of Lebanon!
Surely a wilderness will I make thee,
Cities uninhabited.
7 And I consec ate against thee destroyers,
The man and his weapons,
Who shall fell thy choice cedars,
And cast them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall go by this city and say one to another,
Why has Jehovah done thus to this great city?
9 And they shall say:
Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God,
And worshipped other gods and served them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophet receives the command to go down to the king’s house and to deliver to the king and his servants, and to the people, the following divine message (Jer_22:1-2): if they would practice justice and righteousness (Jer_22:3), kings of David’s line should possess the throne in royal power and glory (Jer_22:4); if not, the king’s house should be made desolate (Jer_22:5). For though hitherto like Gilead and Lebanon, it is to be devastated (Jer_22:6). Destroyers shall come and shall fell the cedars and cast them into the fire (Jer_22:7), so that afterwards it shall be asked in astonishment, why such a great calamity has come upon the city (Jer_22:8). To which no other answer can be given than that they forsook the covenant of the Lord and served idols (Jer_22:9).—As to the relation of these verses to the preceding (Jer_21:11-14), the former appear almost only like an extension of the latter. Not only is the fundamental thought the same, but even in details there is great, in part verbal, agreement. The admonition which forms the basis, is found in Jer_21:12 and Jer_22:3, partly with the same words, only in the latter passage somewhat extended (comp. the second half of Jer_22:3) As to the promises and threatenings based on the admonition, the form of the alternative is not found in Jer_21:11-14, for here the idea of non-fulfilment reigns exclusively. But in the form in which the punishment is announced there are great similarities; both times the royal house is compared with a wooded height, the wood of which will be consumed by fire. Since now repetitions occur so frequently in Jeremiah, there is nothing against the supposition that we have here before us two utterances, related in form and purport because they proceed from the same historical situation. That this situation was in the reign of Jehoiakim and before the crisis of the battle of Carchemish appears to me to admit of no doubt. For 1. there is no mention of the Chaldeans; 2. the king addressed is warned against despotic acts of violence. This warning corresponds neither to the character of Josiah nor to that, of Jehoahaz, who was most probably elected by the people, because he was supposed to be free from despotic inclinations, and besides he reigned only three months. The warning, however, corresponds entirely to the character of Jehoiakim, who is also afterwards reproved for such acts of violence (Jer_22:13-17). 3. Jehoiakim is in Jer_22:13-15 especially reproached with his lust for building, which he gratified by despotic means. His cedar palace was a monument of this. Jeremiah is to go down to this proud house (Jer_22:1 coll. Jer_22:23), and announce to him the judgment of fire (Jer_22:7). It follows that 1. the section 1–9 refers to Jehoiakim; 2. it is closely connected with Jer_22:13-23.
Jer_22:1-5. Thus saith … become a desolation.—Go down. Out from the temple. Comp. Jer_26:10; Jer_36:12 coll. Jer_18:2.—Thou, etc. Not the king alone, but his servants, and the people also are to hear the word of the Lord. All are to co-operate in complying with the admonition, as they will all be affected by the consequences.—Execute judgment and righteousness. Comp. Jer_7:6; Jer_21:12; Eze_22:6-7; Eze_45:9.—The stranger. Comp. Exo_22:20-21.—For if ye will, etc. Comp. Jer_7:5.—There shall enter. Comp. Jer_17:25 coll. Jer_13:13.—But if ye will not hear. Comp. Jer_17:27.—I swear by myself. Comp. Gen_22:16; Isa_45:23; Jer_49:13.
Jer_22:6-9. For thus … and served them. Gilead, which taken in its wider meaning, comprises Bashan (comp. V. Raumer, Palästina, S. 229, sqq.), is a type of luxuriant fertility, especially with respect to pasturage. Comp. Num_32:1; Mic_7:14; Jer_1:19.—Lebanon, the far-reaching, adorned with cedars, is also frequently elsewhere an emblem of the lofty and splendid: Isa_2:13; Isa_10:33-34; Isa_35:2; Isa_60:13; Hos_14:6-8; Zec_11:1-2.—The figures of blessing and exultation are applied to the house of David, not on account of its present prosperity, for this does not exist, nor only on account of its former prosperity,—under David and Solomon—for this is a secondary consideration with the Lord. From the words to me we perceive that the Lord has here in view rather the significance of the Davidic house, which He has most at heart, its universal and transcendent mission (2 Samuel 7.). For this reason we must not translate: Thou wast to me, but Thou art to me. The comparison with Lebanon is one of the points of coincidence with 21:31. Although the royal house of Judah thus stands before the Lord in such ideal glory, He will make it in outward form a desolation and ruin. (comp. Isa_53:1-5).—On uninhabited comp. Comm. on Jer_2:15. But why cities in the plural? Evidently because the prophet wished to intimate that the judgment on the king’s house will be declared in the desolation of the land and the destruction of the cities, especially the capital (Jer_22:8). It follows that Jer_22:6 stands to Jer_22:5 in the relation of more particular explanation, that for, Jer_22:6, is therefore to be regarded as an explicative. For not only the reason but the manner of the desolation is more particularly defined in Jer_22:6-9.—Consecrated. It is commanded by God and therefore a holy war. Comp. rems. on Jer_6:4. Therefore both the warriors and their weapons are designated as holy.—They shall fall, etc. The house of David is still regarded as a wooded mountain (comp. Jer_11:14). At the same time the remembrance of the cedar palaces (Jer_22:23; 2Sa_7:2; 2Sa_7:7; 1Ch_17:1; 1Ch_17:6; 1Ki_7:2) seems to prevail.—Cast them. Comp Jer_21:12; Jer_21:14.
Jer_22:8-9. The prophet has Deu_29:23 sqq. in mind. Comp. also 1Ki_9:8-9.
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 God’s 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 God’s truth as its only power?” Diedrich. Comp. moreover on the whole of Jeremiah 24. the extended moral reflections of Cyrillus Alex. περὶ τῆς ἐν πνεύματι καὶ ἀληθ. προσκυνήσεως. 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 God’s 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 God’s word, through men’s 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 Judæus, 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, pecuniæ 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 God’s 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 frère 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 people’s 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 Lord’s work. But cursed is he who does the Lord’s 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 man’s 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 God’s 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, God’s 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. Irenæus (Adv. Hær. 3:30) uses this passage to prove that the Lord could not have been Joseph’s 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, quæ 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 Jeconiah’s descendants should sit on David’s 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. Mariæ p. med.)—Ambrose finally (Comment. in Ev. Luc. L. III. cap. ult.) raises the question how Jeremiah could say, that ex semine Jechoniæ neminem regnaturum esse, since Christ was of the seed of Jeconiah and reigned? He answers: “Illic (Jer_22:30) futuros ex semine Jechoniæ 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 Jechoniæ sedibus sedit, sed regnavit in sede David.” Ghislerus.
16. On Jer_23:2. “Nonnulli præsmles gregis quosdam pro peccato a communione ceiciunt, ut pæniteant, 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 : ἀνατελεῖ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτοῦ δικαιοσύνη, καὶ πλῆθος εἰρήνης ἕως οὗ ἀνταναιρεθῇ ἡ σελήνη (LXX.) Cyril of Alex. (Glaphyr. in Gen. I. p. 133) explains Ἰωσεδέκ 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 ne’er 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 God’s servant so ardent, that he deals powerful blows on the seducers. He does not think that he has struck a wasp’s 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 God’s 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.” Calvin—S. R. A.]
26. On Jer_23:17. “The pastors, who are welcome and gladly seen at a rich man’s 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. “ God’s 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 Cramer’s Bibel.—“ Si vis peccare, O homo, quære 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 Satan’s 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. God’s word is the highest reality, life and power, while the dreams of the false prophets are pretence, death and weakness. God’s 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 God’s 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.
“God’s word converts, all other doctrine befools.” Luther.
32. On Jer_23:29. “God’s 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. God’s 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 God’s 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 God’s word, inventing a foreign meaning for it, and using this for the palliation of their errors.” Starke—“Hinc illi ζῆλοι 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 terræ, 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 God’s 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 Jortin’s practical conclusions; “ This doctrine 1. Should lead us to seek to resemble God’s 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. God’s Word and man’s 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:
[1]Jer_22:3.—עָשׁוֹק, if not written by mistake for עוֹשֵׁק, occurs here only. It is formed like נָדוֹל, meaning oppressor.
[2]Jer_22:4.—[“A great number of MSS. and two of the earliest editions, read עֲרָדָיו his servants, or ministers, according to the Keri.” Henderson.—S. R. A.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain AN EXHORTATION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, Jer_22:1-9.
AN EXHORTATION TO RIGHTEOUSNESS, Jer_22:1-9.
1. Go down — From the temple to the king’s house. See 2Ch_23:20; Jer_26:10; Jer_36:12.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. Go down] from the Temple on the eastern…
1. Go down] from the Temple on the eastern hill of Jerusalem to the king’s house, which was S. of it on lower ground. Cp. Jer_36:10-12; 2Ki_11:19.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) Thus saith the Lord . . .—The message,…
XXII.
(1) Thus saith the Lord . . .—The message, delivered in continuation of Jeremiah 21, and therefore probably as following up the answer to the messengers of Zedekiah (Jer_21:1), reviews the history of the three preceding reigns, and apparently reproduces the very words of the warnings which he had uttered in each to the king who then ruled, and which had been but too terribly fulfilled. It was delivered, we are told, in the very palace of the king.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Jer 22 and Jer 23, are connected together by…
Jer 22 and Jer 23, are connected together by similarity of subject. The temporal and spiritual leaders of the people, who are mainly responsible for the national catastrophe, receive their merited castigation. Vers. 1-8 of Jer 23, properly speaking, belong to Jer 22; thus we get a well-rounded discourse on the conduct of the kings, with four symmetrical parts or strophes vers. 1-12, 13-19, 20-30, and Jer_23:1-8. Each begins with a general exhortation or meditation, and continues with a poetical description of the fates, successively, of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jehoiachin. The prophecy is concluded, according to the good old rule of Isaiah, by a Messianic promise.
Go down. Not literally, for the royal palace was probably the highest building in the city (comp. ver. 6); but because of the spiritual eminence of the temple. (comp. Jer_26:10, "They came up from the king"s house unto the house of the Lord
Read full note →
Vers. 1-5. Court preaching.
Jeremiah has been preaching in the valley of Hinnom, in the temple courts and in the streets of Jerusalem; now he is called to enter the king"s palace with a message from God. The preacher must not wait for his audience to run after him, but he must create it. He must make his work public, not hiding it in modesty, but bringing it to bear on the widest possible field. He must not be content to maintain his unopposed ministry in the Church, but must boldly carry out his mission in the world. Religion is not a concern for religious people alone; people who will not come to church may be supposed to need it more than those who manifest their interest in it by attendance at regular services. If the court is irreligious there is the more need for the prophet to go into its midst.
I THE HIGHEST RANK SHOULD NOT BE EXEMPT FROM THE MOST FAITHFUL PREACHING. The Hebrew prophets were remarkable for their clear and bold utterances before kings often at the peril of their lives. (e.g. Amo_7:10-13) Christ expects his servants to be equally faithful and fearless. (Act_9:15) When court preachers descend to become court flatterers they are doing their utmost to ruin their patrons. Kings may not often need to be addressed in the style of John Knox, in his sermons before Mary Queen of Scots; but they certainly should not be treated only to the drawing-room delicacies of Atterbury. The fastidiousness which makes strong words about unpleasant subjects seem in "bad form" in fashionable congregations is really a sign of sacrificing truth and right to mean pleasantness. Kings are men, and have human failings and sins. Rank confers power for evil as well as for good. The privileges and talents of a high position involve such great responsibilities, that the neglect or abuse of them is a crime of first magnitude in the sight of God. To ignore these truths is to act cruelly to the persons whom the preacher deceives by his smooth words.
II THE CHARACTER OF THE COURT IS OF GREAT INTEREST TO THE NATION. As men, the king and his courtiers have a fight to be dealt faithfully with by the preacher. But as persons in authority, their influence makes their condition of importance to all. The people are largely responsible for the condition of the court, since popular applause and popular censure always carry great weight there. Thus Jeremiah associates the people with the king in the address which is intended chiefly for the king. Even under a constitutional government such as that of our own country, the court has immense influence especially in social circles, and it is of vital interest to us all that this influence should be pure and true and righteous.
III THE PROSPERITY OF A COUNTRY LARGELY DEPENDS UPON THE MORAL CHARACTER OF ITS GOVERNMENT. This great truth is one of the chief lessons to be derived from the Bible accounts of the history of Israel. We commonly rely too much on physical resources, wealth, commerce, military power, etc.; on political resources, legislative schemes, diplomatic complications, etc. We in England have yet to learn how much of our prosperity depends on honesty in trade, fairness in dealing with foreign nations and a high tone of political morality. To judge by some of our newspapers, it would seem that religion has no business with politics; that a county is glorified when her leaders stoop to underhand work that would disgrace the name of the most unscrupulous lawyer. The doom of Israel should warn us against this political atheism. Three duties are specially to be noted in the discourse of Jeremiah.
1. To execute judgment and righteousness; not only to pronounce just verdicts, but to carry out an active policy of justice.
2. To deliver the oppressed; non-intervention may be cowardly and selfish when the weak claim our help.
3. Not to oppress the weak; this applies to nationalities as well as to individuals, and is a warning for our conduct with dependencies, and the native races with which we come in contact in the colonies. For righteousness in these respects the promised reward is, not a mere deliverance from approaching calamities, but glory, fiches, triumph.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-23. Truth-speaking under difficulties.
The prophet is commanded to go down to the king"s palace and deliver his prophecies in the royal audience. His mission did not admit of time-serving or evasive utterance. Like that prophet who said to David, "Thou art the man," he had to speak to the king face to face and with great plainness.
I GOD"S CHILDREN ARE OFTEN CALLED UPON TO WITNESS TO HIM IN DIFFICULT PLACES. In king"s courts; in society; in unbelieving homes; in the office, workshop, etc.
II THEIR WITNESS IS OFTEN IN SHEER CONTRADICTION TO THE ACTIONS AND HABITS THAT PREVAIL THERE. The sin of Judah was flagrant and open, affecting the most elementary laws of righteousness, The Law of Moses guarded the widow and the orphan. The Law of God, in its righteousness, purity, and love, is still strange to the world"s life, and is constantly violated in it. But the duty of witnessing is only rendered the more imperative.
III THEY ARE SUSTAINED BY:
1. The consciousness of inner rectitude and duty.
2. The witness of conscience in the transgr essors.
3. The presence and promises of him who sends them. M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-10. The mighty pleadings of God,
these verses contain record of what we may fitly term a Divine wrestling with his sinful people to induce them to abandon their wickedness and live, so intense and urgent are the motives which he brings to bear upon them. Note
I FOR WHAT GOD PLEADS. "That they should execute righteousness and judgment." It is the King Jehoiakim who is addressed specially, a monarch one of the worst who filled the throne of David. "He remained fixed in the recollections of his countrymen as the last example of those cruel, selfish, luxurious princes, the natural products of Oriental monarchies, the disgrace of the monarchy of David." For the estimate formed of him, cf. ver. 13, etc. To him, therefore, God thus appeals. Now, this appeal is one God is ever making. Righteousness is his supreme solicitude (cf. homily on Jer_7:1-34, on "Relation of religion and righteousness"). False or corrupted religions are ever characterized by indifference to righteousness. So long as outward adhesion to the creeds and customs they enjoin is given, a wide margin is allowed for the indulgence of the natural and evil propensities of humanity. But a constant characteristic of the religion taught us in God"s Word is its demand for righteousness. The gospel is no less stringent than the Law, yea, is more and justly more so, as it has brought to our aid a Divine force by which the demands of righteousness may be more readily met. It does not make void the Law. So far from that, it establishes the Law. If we understand by "belief" that which a man "lives by," which some say is the etymology of the word, and at any rate its meaning, then the scornful lines of the sceptic may be admitted to be true"For creeds and sects let senseless bigots fight; His can"t be wrong whose life is in the right.
For if those principles of conduct, those governing motives of a man"s life, lead him to right, then, though encrusted with what amount of error and superstition soever they may be, they nevertheless, because hearing such fruit, cannot be wrong at the root. And, on the other hand, however orthodox and scriptural the professed creed, if it do not tend to right conduct then that fact proves that the professed belief is not the real one, but one far other. "Be ye holy as I am holy," is ever God"s demand. Note
II HOW HE PLEADS. See what forcible arguments he employs.
1. The mighty attraction of hope. Thus he would draw men off from sin. If those to whom he appeals would but hearken, he would work what would be virtually a miracle for them. He would stay the progress of ruin and decay which were now threatening the state; he would turn back the tide of events which was now rushing on in such vast volume and force to overwhelm the throne and people, and he would re-establish the ancient monarchy of David in all its pristine glory (cf. ver. 4). To do this now that matters had gone so far would be as great a moral miracle as the cleaving of the waters of the Red Sea, and the Jordan, and the destruction of Sennacherib"s army, were physical ones. But God would do that if but the wicked king would turn from his wickedness and execute righteousness and judgment.
2. The mighty compulsion of fear. Thus he would "drive them off" from their present evil ways. See the terrible threatenings of ver. 5, etc. What a picture the prophet draws of calamity and of shame, which would be theirs if they did "not hear these words!" And to prevent the force of this threat being diminished, he distinctly warns them that his affection for them and the joy he ever had in them will not hold him back from doing what he said. They had been as Gilead and as Lebanon for beauty, fertility, majesty his choice possession, his precious heritage; nevertheless his wrath would go forth against them if they refused his words. And this appeal to the King of Judah is like the Divine appeal addressed to sinful men now. What promises to draw men to himself, what threatenings to drive them from their sins, the Bible is filled with! So intent is the Divine mind upon righteousness. In face of this earnestness of God in this matter, what fools they must be who make a "mock at sin"!
III WHY HE THUS PLEADS. Because of:
1. His love of righteousness. It is the element in which God lives and moves and has his being. He cannot live in an atmosphere of unrighteousness. It is hateful to him. Righteous men feel thus; how much more, therefore, the righteous God!
2. His love of men. How would a father feel towards any one who was ever causing distress and ruin to his children? How he would detest such a person! And, on the other hand, how would he desire that which ever furthers his children"s good! Thus God must, out of love for us his children, hate that which ever hurts and harms us, and desire that for Us which ever ministers to our good.
3. His love for the sinner. God separates between the sinner and the sin, and whilst his love yearns over the sinner, his wrath burns against the sin. All his dealings with us are designed to effect a severance between the two.
Death is the last and most effective separator; its keen sickle cuts the last bond that binds God"s children to the dominion of sin. "He that is dead hath ceased from sin." Blessed be God that it is so! His providence, his Word, conscience, the strivings of his Spirit, are all designed to the same end, and our Lord was called Jesus because he should" save his people from their sins.
IV WITH WHAT RESULT HE PLEADS. In this case it was of no use. (2Ch_36:16, etc.) And alas that it should be so it is often the same. When sin has got a certain hold on the will, no considerations will stay its course. No promises, no threats. How solemn a fact this I How it calls us to resist the beginnings of sin, to dread lest it should become such a habit of the soul as that God should say, "He is joined to his idols: let him alone!" But what is the result of God"s pleading on ourselves? That is the question. God grant we may be able to answer it as he would desire! C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-9. A king addressed in mingled promise and warning.
Here is the announcement of what Jehovah requires from the king and his executive in particular; although it will be seen that exactly the same principles apply to the conduct of the king as to the meanest of his subjects. But inasmuch as the king was in circumstances of special power, responsibility, and temptation, it was just what might be expected from the Divine consideration for every man"s position, that the king should receive special counsels. If he acted wrongly, his conduct would be quoted and his example followed by every one who wished to act in the same way. This warning message here however, so timely and so plain, would take away all ground from those who thought they might do what a king did. Jeremiah, preaching righteousness to the meanest of the people, could insist on this, that he asked no more from them than he ha a been specially enjoined to ask from the very king himself. Note
I THOSE WHO WERE TO BE APPROACHED. This is a message for the king and for such people as live in palaces. Remarkable to notice how God"s messengers have been brought into contact with the kings and grandees of the earth. Divinely guided, they have been able to find their way where others, even with large worldly influence, have been excluded. So Moses comes to deal with Pharaoh; Jeremiah with this king here; John the Baptist with Herod; Jesus with Pontius Pilate; Paul with Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. As God can make a way for his servants out of prisons, so he can also make a way for them into palaces. And once entered into the palace, the prophet was to address himself first and chiefly to the king. Kings have many counselors, and their temptation is to say what may he agreeable to the royal ears. This king, maybe, had not one honest, disinterested man about him; if so, all the more need for Jeremiah"s counsels. Further, the king is reminded of a former distinguished occupant of his throne. In pondering this expression, "the throne of David," there was much to fill the heart of a king, who was also a true man, with noble purpose and endeavor. David, even with all his transgressions and vicissitudes, was a fine example of the success and glory following on sensitiveness to God"s commandments. If David had not been enabled to do so much that was good, his successors would not have found scope for the doing of so much that was evil. Then from the king there is a turning to those around them. Kings cannot help being a great deal influenced and even limited by those who stand next to them. God, who knows all conditions of life, sees the peculiar difficulties of kings and sympathizes with them. One of the greatest troublers of David"s life was his headstrong servant Joab.
II GOD"S DEMAND UPON THOSE WHO HOLD POSITIONS OF AUTHORITY. He sent his servant to show how a king"s government may become stable, glorious, and happy. Nothing is said about victorious armies and increased territories. These were the things the Gentiles sought after, but God wished the powers and opportunities of the kings of his people to be used for far other ends. There was plenty of room for this king to make conquests, and conquests not easily made. He had his own selfish inclinations to repress, and the selfish proceedings of many of his people to undo. He is commanded to execute judgment and righteousness. He must not neglect the ever necessary functions of a judge; righteous principles must rule in all his decisions; and thirdly, he must see that the decisions are carried into effect. How can any human government be approved of God unless there are both righteous laws and a resolute execution of them. The king must also be the vigilant guardian of the weak and defenseless. From out of his palace his servants should go forth commissioned to champion those who are unable to protect themselves. Never should a strong man more exult in his strength than when it enables him to become sword and shield to the feeble. A righteous government will not wait until it is dinned with importunities. In many instances the king was the only one who could rescue from the hand of the oppressor. Every temporary occupant of the throne of David was in his turn a type of that abiding King and anointed One, of whom it is true in the highest sense that salvation is in no other. (Act_4:12) And as the king was to deliver from the oppressor, so he was to be careful not to oppress. So subtle is selfishness in its influence upon us that we need to be peculiarly on our guard against taking advantage of the weak. Lastly, the king is not to be a shedder of innocent blood. He must not be weakly indulgent as to the blood of the guilty. If a man by the laws of the land has deserved to die the death, there must be no tampering with just deserts. And so, on the other hand, a king was not to allow his fury free course against some one who had offended him, and seek his death simply to gratify resentment. It is easy to see that the despotic character of Eastern kings in ancient times would make this injunction against the shedding of innocent blood to have an application such as it fails to have with the constitutional governments we are accustomed to.
III The prophet has to point out that ACCORDING TO THE RECEPTION OF THESE COUNSELS THERE WILL BE CORRESPONDING RESULTS. The king is plainly told that it is for him to determine whether his reign shall be glorious and his palace continue and increase in splendor. The king who can rise above all temptations to mere outward show; who can be gloriously independent of selfish traditions and examples; who can show the spirit of a real king by living for his people, instead of expecting his people to drudge and sweat and groan for him; this is the king whom God will reward. The reward will come in the very way such a man will desire. His throne will become more stable for his successors; the land more prosperous and better worth living in. On the other hand, if there is negligence of these counsels, the ruin of the negligent ruler will be correspondingly terrible. No man, however great his resources, can build up anything glorious and satisfactory on a foundation of disobedience to God. Against that tree of temporal prosperity which has been planted in Selfishness and nurtured in selfishness, a consecrated axe is laid laid at the root of the tree to cut it down altogether. The greatness of the prosperity measures the greatness of the ruin. We must delight in the Law of the Lord if we would be as trees of God"s own planting; and then, assuredly, no weapon formed against us can prosper. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Jer_22:1-9; Jer_26:14
CHAPTER XXIX
RUIN
Read full note →
Jer_22:1-9; Jer_26:14
"The sword, the pestilence, and the famine,"- Jer_21:9 and passim.
"Terror on every side."- Jer_6:25; Jer_20:10; Jer_46:5; Jer_49:29; also as proper name, MAGOR-MISSABIB, Jer_20:3.
WE have seen, in the two previous chapters, that the moral and religious state of Judah not only excluded any hope of further progress towards the realisation of the Kingdom of God, but also threatened to involve Revelation itself in the corruption of His people. The Spirit that opened Jeremiahs eyes to the fatal degradation of his country showed him that ruin must follow as its swift result. He was elect from the first to be a herald of doom, to be set "over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow." {Jer_1:10} In his earliest vision he saw the thrones of the northern conquerors set over against the walls of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. {Jer_1:15}
But Jeremiah was called in the full vigor of early manhood; he combined with the uncompromising severity of youth its ardent affection and irrepressible hope. The most unqualified threats of Divine wrath always carried the implied condition that repentance might avert the coming judgment; and Jeremiah recurred again and again to the possibility that, even in these last days, amendment might win pardon. Like Moses at Sinai and Samuel at Ebenezer, he poured out his whole soul in intercession for Judah, only to receive the answer, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight and let them go forth." {Jer_15:1} The record of these early hopes and prayers is chiefly found in chapters 1-20, and is dealt with in "The Prophecies of Jeremiah," preceding. The prophecies in Jeremiah 14:1 - Jeremiah 17:18 seem to recognise the destiny of Judah as finally decided, and to belong to the latter part of the reign of Jehoiakim, and there is little in the later chapters of an earlier date. In Jer_22:1-5 the king of Judah is promised that if he and his ministers and officers will refrain from oppression, faithfully administer justice, and protect the helpless, kings of the elect dynasty shall still pass with magnificent retinues in chariots and on horses through the palace gates to sit upon the throne of David. Possibly this section belongs to the earlier part of Jeremiahs career. But there were pauses and recoils in the advancing tide of ruin, alternations of hope and despair; and these varying experiences were reflected in the changing moods of the court, the people, and the prophet himself. We may well believe that Jeremiah hastened to greet any apparent zeal for reformation with a renewed declaration that sincere and radical amendment would be accepted by Jehovah. The proffer of mercy did not avert the ruin of the state, but it compelled the people to recognise that Jehovah was neither harsh nor vindictive. His sentence was only irrevocable because the obduracy of Israel left no other way open for the progress of Revelation, except that which led through fire and blood. The Holy Spirit has taught mankind in many ways that when any government or church, any school of thought or doctrine, ossifies so as to limit the expansion of the soul, that society or system must be shattered by the forces it seeks to restrain. The decadence of Spain and the distractions of France sufficiently illustrate the fruits of persistent refusal to abide in the liberty of the Spirit.
But until the catastrophe is clearly inevitable, the Christian, both as patriot and as churchman, will be quick to cherish all those symptoms of higher life which indicate that society is still a living organism. He will zealously believe and teach that even a small leaven may leaven the whole mass. He will remember that ten righteous men might have saved Sodom; that, so long as it is possible, God will work by encouraging and rewarding willing obedience rather than by chastising and coercing sin.
Thus Jeremiah, even when he teaches that the day of grace is over, recurs wistfully to the possibilities of salvation once offered to repentance. {Jer_27:18} Was not this the message of all the prophets: "Return ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that Jehovah hath given unto your fathers"? {Jer_25:5; Jer_25:15} Even at the beginning of Jehoiakims reign Jehovah entrusted Jeremiah with a message of mercy, saying: "It may be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way; that I may repent Me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings." {Jer_26:3; Jer_36:2} When the prophet multiplied the dark and lurid features of his picture, he was not gloating with morbid enjoyment over the national misery, but rather hoped that the awful vision of judgment might lead them to pause, and reflect, and repent. In his age history had not accumulated her now abundant proofs that the guilty conscience is panoplied in triple brass against most visions of judgment. The sequel of Jeremiahs own mission was added evidence for this truth.
Yet it dawned but slowly on the prophets mind. The covenant of emancipation (Chapter 11) in the last days of Zedekiah was doubtless proposed by Jeremiah as a possible beginning of better things, an omen of salvation, even at the eleventh hour. To the very last the prophet offered the king his life and promised that Jerusalem should not be burnt, if only he would submit to the Chaldeans, and thus accept the Divine judgment and acknowledge its justice.
Faithful friends have sometimes stood by the drunkard or the gambler, and striven for his deliverance through all the vicissitudes of his downward career; to the very last they have hoped against hope, have welcomed and encouraged every feeble stand against evil habit, every transient flash of high resolve. But, long before the end, they have owned, with sinking heart, that the only way to salvation lay. through the ruin of health, fortune, and reputation. So, when the edge of youthful hopefulness had quickly worn itself away, Jeremiah knew in his inmost heart that, in spite of prayers and promises and exhortations, the fate of Judah was sealed. Let us therefore try to reproduce the picture of coming ruin which Jeremiah kept persistently before the eyes of his fellow country men. The pith and power of his prophecies lay in the prospect of their speedy fulfilment. With him, as with Savonarola, a cardinal doctrine was that "before the regeneration must come the scourge," and that "these things wilt come quickly." Here, again, Jeremiah took up the burden of Hoseas utterances. The elder prophet said of Israel, "The days of visitation are come"; {Hos_9:7} and his successor announced to Judah the coming of "the year of visitation." {Jer_23:12} The long deferred assize was at hand, when the Judge would reckon with Judah for her manifold infidelities, would pronounce sentence and execute judgment.
If the hour of doom had struck, it was not difficult to surmise whence destruction would come or the man who would prove its instrument. The North (named in Hebrew the hidden quarter) was to the Jews the mother of things unforeseen and terrible. Isaiah menaced the Philistines with "a smoke out of the north," {Isa_14:30} i.e., the Assyrians. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both speak very frequently of the destroyers of Judah as coming from the north. Probably the early references in our book to northern enemies denote the Scythians, who invaded Syria towards the beginning of Josiahs reign; but later on the danger from the north is the restored Chaldean Empire under its king Nebuchadnezzar. "North" is even less accurate geographically for Chaldea than for Assyria. Probably it was accepted in a somewhat symbolic sense for Assyria, and then transferred to Chaldea as her successor in the hegemony of Western Asia.
Nebuchadnezzar is first introduced in the fourth year of Jehoiakim; after the decisive defeat of Pharaoh Necho by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish, Jeremiah prophesied the devastation of Judah by the victor; it is also prophesied that he is to carry Jehoiachin away captive, and similar prophecies were repeated during the reign of Zedekiah. {Jer_16:7; Jer_28:14} Nebuchadnezzar and his Chaldeans very closely resembled the Assyrians, with whose invasions the Jews had long been only too familiar; indeed, as Chaldea had long been tributary to Assyria, it is morally certain that Chaldean princes must have been present with auxiliary forces at more than one of the many Assyrian invasions of Palestine. Under Hezekiah, on the other hand, Judah had been allied with Merodach-baladan of Babylon against his Assyrian suzerain. So that the circumstances of Chaldean invasions and conquests were familiar to the Jews before the forces of the restored empire first attacked them; their imagination could readily picture the horrors of such experiences.
But Jeremiah does not leave them to their unaided imagination, which they might preferably have employed upon more agreeable subjects. He makes them see the future reign of terror, as Jehovah had revealed it to his shuddering and reluctant vision. With his usual frequency of iteration, he keeps the phrase "the sword, the famine, and the pestilence" ringing in their ears. The sword was the symbol of the invading hosts, "the splendid and awful military parade" of the "bitter and hasty nation" that was "dreadful and terrible." {Hab_1:6-7} "The famine" inevitably followed from the ravages of the invaders, and the impossibility of ploughing, sowing, and reaping. It became most gruesome in the last desperate agonies of besieged garrisons, when, as in Elishas time and the last siege of Jerusalem, "men ate the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and ate every one the flesh of his friend." {Jer_19:9} Among such miseries and horrors, the stench of unburied corpses naturally bred a pestilence, which raged amongst the multitudes of refugees huddled together in Jerusalem and the fortified towns. We are reminded how the great plague of Athens struck down its victims from among the crowds driven within its walls during the long siege of the Peloponnesian war.
An ordinary Englishman can scarcely do justice to such prophecies; his comprehension is limited by a happy inexperience. The constant repetition of general phrases seems meagre and cold, because they carry few associations and awaken no memories. Those who have studied French and Russian realistic art, and have read Erckmann-Chatrain, Zola, and Tolstoi, may be stirred somewhat more by Jeremiahs grim rhetoric. It will not be wanting in suggestiveness to those who have known battles and sieges. For students of missionary literature we may roughly compare the Jews, when exposed to the full fury of a Chaldean attack, to the inhabitants of African villages raided by slave hunters.
The Jews, therefore, with their extensive, firsthand knowledge of the miseries denounced against them, could not help filling in for themselves the rough outline drawn by Jeremiah. Very probably, too, his speeches were more detailed and realistic than the written reports. As time went on, the inroads of the Chaldeans and their allies provided graphic and ghastly illustrations of the prophecies that Jeremiah still reiterated. In a prophecy, possibly originally referring to the Scythian inroads and afterwards adapted to the Chaldean invasions, Jeremiah speaks of himself: "I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; for my soul heareth the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?" {Jer_4:21} Here, for once, Jeremiah expressed emotions that throbbed in every heart. There was "terror on every hand"; men seemed to be walking "through slippery places in darkness," {Jer_23:12} or to stumble along rough paths in a dreary twilight. Wormwood was their daily food, and their drink maddening draughts of poison. {Jer_23:15}
Jeremiah and his prophecies were no mean part of the terror. To the devotees of Baal and Moloch Jeremiah must have appeared in much the same light as the fanatic whose ravings added to the horrors of the Plague of London, while the very sanity and sobriety of his utterances carried a conviction of their fatal truth. When the people and their leaders succeeded in collecting any force of soldiers or store of military equipment, and ventured on a sally, Jeremiah was at once at hand to quench any reviving hope of effective resistance. How could soldiers and weapons preserve the city which Jehovah had abandoned to its fate? "Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back the weapons in your hands, with which ye fight without the walls against your besiegers, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans, and will gather them into the midst of this city. I Myself will fight against you in furious anger and in great wrath, with outstretched hand and strong arm. I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence." (Jer_21:3-6.) When Jerusalem was relieved for a time by the advance of an Egyptian army, and the people allowed themselves to dream of another deliverance like that from Sennacherib, the relentless prophet only turned upon them with renewed scorn: "Though ye had smitten the whole hostile army of the Chaldeans, and all that were left of them were desperately wounded, yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city." {Jer_37:10} Not even the most complete victory could avail to save the city.
The final result of invasions and sieges was to be the overthrow of the Jewish state, the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people. This unhappy generation were to reap the harvest of centuries of sin and failure. As in the last siege of Jerusalem there came upon the Jews "all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zachariah son of Baraehiah," {Mat_23:35} so now Jehovah was about to bring upon His Chosen people all the evil that He had spoken against them (Jer_35:17; Jer_19:15; Jer_36:31)-all that had been threatened by Isaiah and his brother prophets, all the curses written in Deuteronomy. But these threats were to be fully carried out, not because predictions must be fulfilled, nor even merely because Jehovah had spoken and His word must not return to Him void, but because the people had not hearkened and obeyed. His threats were never meant to exclude the penitent from the possibility of pardon. As Jeremiah had insisted upon the guilt of every class of the community, so he is also careful to enumerate all the classes as about to suffer from the coming judgment: "Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes"; {Jer_34:21} "the people, the prophet, and the priest." {Jer_23:33-34} This last judgment of Judah, as it took the form of the complete overthrow of the State, necessarily included all under its sentence of doom. One of the mysteries of Providence is that those who are most responsible for national sins seem to suffer least by public misfortunes. Ambitious statesmen and bellicose journalists do not generally fall in battle and leave destitute widows and children. When the captains of commerce and manufacture err in their industrial policy, one great result is the pauperism of hundreds of families who had no voice in the matter. A spendthrift landlord may cripple the agriculture of half a county. And yet, when factories are closed and farmers ruined, the manufacturer and the landlord are the last to see want. In former invasions of Judah, the princes and priests had some share of suffering; but wealthy nobles might incur losses and yet weather the storm by which poorer men were overwhelmed. Fines and tribute levied by the invaders would, after the manner of the East, be wrung from the weak and helpless. But now ruin was to fall on all alike. The nobles had been flagrant in sin, they were now to be marked out for most condign punishment-"To whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required."
Part of the burden of Jeremiahs prophecy, one of the sayings constantly on his lips, was that the city would be taken and destroyed by fire. {Jer_34:2; Jer_34:22; Jer_37:8} The Temple would be laid in ruins like the ancient sanctuary of Israel at Shiloh. (chapters 7 and 26.) The palaces {Jer_6:5} of the king and princes would be special marks for the destructive fury of the enemy, and their treasures and all the wealth of the city would be for a spoil; those who survived the sack of the city would be carried captive to Babylon. {Jer_20:5}
In this general ruin the miseries of the people would not end with death. All nations have attached much importance to the burial of the dead and the due performance of funeral rites. In the touching Greek story Antigone sacrificed her life in order to bury the remains of her brother. Later Judaism attached exceptional importance to the burial of the dead, and the Book of Tobit lays great stress on this sacred duty. The angel Raphael declares that one special reason why the Lord had been merciful to Tobias was that he had buried dead bodies, and had not delayed to rise up and leave his meal to go and bury the corpse of a murdered Jew, at the risk of his own life.
Jeremiah prophesied of the slain in this last overthrow: "They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the ground; their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth."
When these last had done their ghastly work, the site of the Temple, the city, the whole land would be left silent and desolate. The stranger, wandering amidst the ruins, would hear no cheerful domestic sounds; when night fell, no light gleaming through chink or lattice would give the sense of human neighbourhood. Jehovah "would take away the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle." {Jer_25:10} The only sign of life amidst the desolate ruins of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah would be the melancholy cry of the jackals round the travellers tent. {Jer_9:11; Jer_10:22}
The Hebrew prophets and our Lord Himself often borrowed their symbols from the scenes of common life, as they passed before their eyes. As in the days of Noah, as in the days of Lot, as in the days of the Son of Man, so in the last agony of Judah there was marrying and giving in marriage. Some such festive occasion suggested to Jeremiah one of his favourite formulae; it occurs four times in the Book of Jeremiah, and was probably uttered much oftener. Again and again it may have happened that, as a marriage procession passed through the streets, the gay company were startled by the grim presence of the prophet, and shrank back in dismay as they found themselves made the text for a stern homily of ruin: "Thus saith Jehovah Sabaoth, I will take away from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride." At any rate, however, and whenever used, the figure could not fail to arrest attention, and to serve as an emphatic declaration that the ordinary social routine would be broken up and lost in the coming calamity.
Henceforth the land would be as some guilty habitation of sinners, devoted to eternal destruction, an astonishment and a hissing and a perpetual desolation. {Jer_25:9-10} When the heathen sought some curse to express the extreme of malignant hatred, they would use the formula, "God make thee like Jerusalem." {Jer_26:6} Jehovahs Chosen People would become an everlasting reproach, a perpetual shame, which should not be forgotten. {Jer_23:40} The wrath of Jehovah pursued even captives and fugitives. In chapter 29 Jeremiah predicts the punishment of the Jewish prophets at Babylon. When we last hear of him, in Egypt, he is denouncing ruin against "the remnant of Judah that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there." He still reiterates the same familiar phrases: "Ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence"; they shall be "an execration, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach."
We have now traced the details of the prophets message of doom. Fulfilment followed fast upon the heels of prediction, till Jeremiah rather interpreted than foretold the thick coming disasters. When his book was compiled, the prophecies were already, as they are now, part of the history of the last days of Judah. The book became the record of this great tragedy, in which these prophecies take the place of the choric odes in a Greek drama.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Early…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—1. Chronology of the Chapter. Early in Jehoiakim’s reign; contemporary with chap. 22. See Notes. Dr. Payne Smith places this prophecy prior to Jehoiakim’s manifestation of the violence of his character by murdering Urijah (chap. Jer_26:23), and thus synchronous with chap. Jer_17:19-27. Its appeal to the house of David is conditioned on the fact that the nation’s ruin might yet be averted. The chapter divides itself into four chronological sections. Jer_22:1-9 : Early in Jehoiakim’s reign. Jer_22:10-12 : Immediately following the deposition and captivity of Jehoahaz. Jer_22:14-19 : Jehoiakim’s reign again; but towards the close of his wicked rule. Jer_22:20-30 belong to Jeconiah’s reign, for the reference (Jer_22:24) indicates him as the then reigning king. Cf. Personal Allusions below.
For 2. Contemporary Scriptures; 3. National Affairs; 4. Contemporaneous History, see Notes on chaps. 7 and 17.
Read full note →
5. Geographical References.—Jer_22:6. “Gilead”—Vide note on Jer_8:22. “Lebanon”—the loftiest height of Lebanon is about 10,000 feet above the level of the sea. Vide note on Jer_18:14. Jer_22:20. “Bashan, and the passages:” i.e., the route from Jerusalem to Babylon. “Passages” should be Abarim, a range of mountains south of Gilead, opposite Jericho. Those mountains, Lebanon, Bashan, and Abarim, overlook the course the captives would take.
6. Personal Allusions.—Jer_22:11. “Shallum, the son of Josiah.” Shallum is the same as Jehoahaz, Josiah’s second son. Although younger than Eliakim (afterwards called Jehoiakim), he was yet raised to the throne by the acclaim of the people (2Ki_23:30-36), the rights of primogeniture being disregarded owing to the evil character of Eliakim. (Comp. Personal Allusions chap. i.) Shallum reigned only three months: for Eliakim, indignant at this usurpation, threw himself into the arms of the Egyptians; and Pharaoh-Necho deposed Jehoahaz and placed Jehoiakim (Eliakim) on the throne as tributary and dependent king. Shallum was thereupon carried into Egypt, and from that time is heard of no more. (Comp. 2Ch_36:1-4; Eze_19:3-4.)
Jer_22:18. “Jehoiakim, son of Josiah:” see note above, also note to chap. 1. (Comp. 2Ch_36:5-6.) We have no record of his death; but from this prophecy (repeated in chap. Jer_36:30) we may suppose that he died soon after he reached Babylon, died under his chains, probably “of pestilence or of a broken heart” (Payne Smith), and his body was dragged away without any show of respect. It is just as probable that he was slain by Nebuchadnezzar on his retreat to Babylon, and that his corpse was left unburied by the wayside outside Jerusalem. Certainly, however, he perished miserably, and at the age of thirty-six.
Jer_22:24. “Coniah, son of Jehoiakim:” This was Jehoiachin. He reigned only three months and ten days. He was eighteen years of age (according to 2Ki_24:8) when crowned, but only eight according to 2Ch_36:9—which is probably a corruption of the text. He remained in Babylon a captive during thirty-six years, the lifetime of Nebuchadnezzar; but when Evil-Merodach succeeded Nebuchadnezzar he was considerately raised by that king to some show of dignity and personal regard (2Ki_25:27-30; Jer_52:31-34). Ezekiel dated his prophecies by the year “of king Jehoiachin’s captivity” (Eze_1:2; Eze_8:1; Eze_24:1, &c.) An exciting expectation prevailed among the Jews four years after Jeconiah’s removal to Babylon (Jer_28:4) that he would quickly return to power; but this was probably a rumour created by the sanguine hopes and conversation of the Jewish captives at Babylon.
Jer_22:26. “Thy mother that bare thee.” Nehushta; see chronological note to chap. 13.
7. Natural History—none.
8. Manners and Customs.—Jer_22:10. “Weep ye not for the dead,” &c. An annual lamentation had been celebrated by the nation for good king Josiah (2Ch_35:25). This custom might now be used for one who needed the bemoaning more—his son Shallum.
Jer_22:14. “Ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion.” Jehoiakim’s palace was gorgeously adorned with “cedars” of Lebanon. The “vermilion” was not like ours, a preparation of red lead, but a compound of quicksilver and sulphur; a preparation much valued by Orientals.
9. Literary Criticisms.—Jer_22:7. “I will prepare destroyers:” i.e., consecrate. (Vide note, chap. Jer_6:4.)
Jer_22:14. “A wide house:” בֵּית מִדּוֹת, lit., a house of extensions: (comp. Num_13:32; Isa_45:14), where מִדּוֹת is rendered “stature”—men of large proportions. “A spacious house.” “Large chambers,” from רָוַה; to breathe: airy chambers.
“And it is ceiled with cedars:” סָפוֹן; either roofing it with cedars (Payne Smith), or inlaying it (Hitzig, Graf., &c.)
Jer_22:15. “Closest thyself in cedar.” Various reading. The LXX., Codex Alex., and Ewald give viest with Ahaz: for Ahaz did build the palace (1Ki_22:39). But the literal rendering of received text is, viest in cedar-work.
Jer_22:19. “Beyond the gates”—afar from.
Jer_22:20. “The Passages.” See Geog. Ref. supra, Abarim, a range of mountains.
Jer_22:23. “O inhabitant of Lebanon:” inhabitress. “How gracious shalt thou be:” how wilt thou sigh (Hitzig, Ewald, Graf); how wilt thou groan (Lange, Payne Smith), be pitiable (Gesenius).
Jer_22:27. “Desire to return:” lift up their soul to return. Our English equivalent is “set their heart upon.”
Jer_22:28. “A despised broken idol:” lit., piece of work, a vessel, a piece of common earthenware in which the potter has no interest.
HOMILETIC SURVEY OF CHAPTER 22
Theme: THE ERRORS AND THE DOOM OF JUDAH’S KINGS.
The chapter separates itself into four prophetic messages, containing sentences of judgment on Jehoahaz (Shallum), Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah. Chronological order of events is disregarded in the grouping of these prophecies; but similarity of subject rules. Connecting Jer_21:11—end with chap. 22, the last four kings of Judah are arraigned for judgment. Each is proved to have utterly failed in righteousness, and on each is pronounced the sorrowful denunciation which his impiety invoked.
I. An exhortation to righteous reforms. Addressed to Jehoiakim, probably quickly after his accession to the throne, he is charged, in the name of Jehovah (Jer_22:3)—himself, his ministers, and his people—to act aright, to administer justice, and eschew all wrong. This appeal is emphasised with an encouraging promise of prosperity upon obedience (Jer_22:4), and alarming warnings of desolation if disregarded (Jer_22:5-9).
II. A mournful instance of judgment. The prophet cites the fate of Shallum (Jehoahaz), the predecessor of Jehoiakim, as confirmatory of Jehovah’s warnings. On his accession Shallum assumed the name “Jehoahaz,” meaning “Jehovah sustains,” but Jeremiah refuses to call him by that name, and writes him down in irony as “Shallum,” meaning “retribution”—which had verified its appropriateness in the king’s fate—deposed after three months’ reign, and now a captive in Egypt, never more to behold his native land. So soon may a king be dethroned, so hopelessly may an exile be banished (Jer_22:10-12).
See Addenda: WEEP NOT FOR THE DEAD.
III. A rebuke of ambitious tyranny. Reverting to Jehoiakim (Jer_22:13), and proceeding openly and indignantly to name him as the criminal (Jer_22:18), God denounces him for his vainglory (Jer_22:14), his injustice (Jer_22:13), his covetousness and cruelty (Jer_22:17). Against him the “woe” (Jer_22:13) is uttered; he is derided for his false confidence (Jer_22:15-16) in thinking that his throne is secured by vaunting display of splendour rather than in righteous administration; and his miserable degradation is proclaimed (Jer_22:18-19).
IV. A lamentation over Judah’s ruin. Jeremiah 1. appeals to Jerusalem, whom he personifies as a sorrowing woman, to ascend the mountains which overlook the route her captives would take on being carried into Babylon, and bewail her calamity. 2. Threatens Jeconiah (here called Coniah as if in contempt); who, although he was idolised by his people (Jer_22:24-28), would nevertheless be treated with violence (Jer_22:26-28), carried into exile (Jer_22:25), and with him would end the royal honours of his house (Jer_22:30).
GENERAL TRUTHS SUGGESTED BY THE CHAPTER
I. Perpetuity and prosperity are conditional upon righteousness. This holds good for nations and governments (Jer_22:4), cities (Jer_22:8-9), individuals (Jer_22:11; Jer_22:19; Jer_22:30).
“The most effectual way to preserve the dignity of the government is to do the duty of it.”—Henry. “God does not spare even the authorities, for though He has said that they are as ‘gods,’ yet when they do not rightly administer their office they must die like men (Psa_82:6). No cedars are too high for God. No splendours too mighty; He can destroy all at once, and overturn, overturn, overturn” (Eze_21:27).—Cramer. Sin will be the ruin of the house of princes as well as of meaner men. Even in this world God often makes it clear that He destroys neither nations, cities, nor persons, except for sin; and it will be made clearer in the day of judgment.
II. Advantages and exaltation secure no exception from doom. “The house of the kings of Judah” enjoyed historic dignity and the Divine benignity (Jer_22:6): Jerusalem also (addressed in Jer_22:20-23) had enjoyed “prosperity” (Jer_22:21) and material splendour (Jer_22:23); whereas Jeconiah had seemed peculiarly secure and honoured (Jer_22:24). Yet that house of Judah became a desolation (Jer_22:5); Jerusalem was dethroned (Jer_22:8-9); and “confounded for her wickedness” (Jer_22:22); and Coniah was cut off from royalty (Jer_22:30).
“See how easily God’s judgments can ruin a nation, and how certainly sin will do it.”—Henry. How little is earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! Notwithstanding the privileges of a man’s birth (as with Coniah), if he make himself unworthy of honour, God will cast him off. Yet “God never casts any off until they first cast Him off” (Henry on Jer_22:9). Here, however, may be seen “how perverse and unjustifiable is the illusion that God’s election is a surety against His anger, and a licence to any wilfulness.”—Naegelsbach.
III. Spoliation and punishment are varied according to individual sin. Numerous are the resources of Divine judgment. God “prepares the destroyers, every one with his weapons” (Jer_22:7). And He determines the form of desolation upon individual transgressors. Shallum is doomed to perpetual bondage: Jehoiakim is punished with an unlamented death and contemptible burial—a most despicable end (Jer_22:18-19). Jeconiah, whom the nation had idolised and cherished with “pleasure,” should become despised by his people (28), and be written childless (Jer_22:30).
They expose themselves to fearful possibilities and perils who live in hostility to God. No life is secure from calamity which is not “hid with Christ in God.”
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 22
Jer_22:1-5. Theme: THE CONDITIONS OF CONTINUANCE IN PRIVILEGE.
Hereditary rights, royal prerogatives, are valueless as guarantees of prolonged existence and prosperity as a nation. Righteousness alone protects and preserves governments from overthrow and peoples from extinction. So with a church: it must be and do right, or Christ “will remove the candlestick,” &c. So with the soul: it must faithfully serve and loyally follow Christ, or it forfeits grace.
This message to Jehoiakim is similar in import to that sent to Zedekiah (Jer_21:11-14). See Homilies in loc.
Matthew Henry’s arrangement of this section is—
i. Orders given to Jeremiah to preach before the king.
He is to go in person and demand the king’s attention to a message from the King of kings.
ii. Instructions given him what to preach.
1. He must tell them what was their duty (Jer_22:3). (a.) Do all the good they can with the power they have. (b.) Do no hurt with it.
2. He must assure them that the faithful discharge of their duty would advance and secure their prosperity (Jer_22:4).
3. Likewise that the iniquity of their family if persisted in would be the ruin of their family, though it was a royal family (Jer_22:5).
4. He must show how fatal their wickedness would be to their kingdom as well as to themselves—to Jerusalem especially, the royal city (Jer_22:6-9).
Jer_22:6. Theme: BEAUTY AND MAJESTY DEGRADED.
I. Significant imagery. “Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon.”
i. The meaning of these natural metaphors. They suggest
1. Graceful fertility. “Gilead” was the poetic symbol of this. Dr. Payne Smith notes that it is “extolled for its aromatic plants (chap. Jer_8:22), its grassy uplands where the goats feed (Song Son_4:1; Son_6:5), and one district of it, Bashan, for its sheep (Deu_32:14), its noble breed of cattle (Psa_22:12), its general fertility (Isa_33:9), and especially for its splendid oak forests (Isa_2:13; Zec_11:2).”
2. Surpassing magnificence. “Lebanon” is the metaphor of this. It is the frequent figure for grandeur. “It is praised for its snows (chap. Jer_18:14), its firs and cedars (Isa_37:24), its waving forests (Psa_72:16), its wealth of springs (Song Son_4:15), its flowers (Nah_1:4), and its sweet scents (Song Son_4:11; Hos_14:6-7).”
ii. The reference of this metaphorical address.
1. Primarily to theroyal house of David.
2. By analogy to the “royal priesthood” of Christian believers. The Church is in God’s esteem “the perfection of beauty.”
3. By direct application to the individual Christian. “We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ.” Every Christian should combine in himself beauteous fertility and incomparable majesty—nobleness of character and life.
II. Startling degradation. “Yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.”
i. Its incredibility necessitates that God affirms it with an oath, “Surely I will.” Literally this is, “If I make thee not,” &c.
1. The threatening creates an involuntary recoil. We reply to it—“Surely it can never be so!” The old Jews revolted from the idea that their royal “house of David” could ever become “a desolation” (Jer_22:5). We recoil from the idea that on a Christian church there could ever be inscribed “Ichabod!” Or that a godly soul, a privileged disciple of Jesus, could ever become a “cast-away.” Yet God corrects our “Surely it cannot be” with His “Surely I will!”
2. The threatening seems a total impossibility. The Jews believed in the perpetuity of the Davidic line and the continuance of their national prosperity. So we think of a church and of ourselves. But for the church see Lam_1:1; and Zep_2:15; and for the individual, 1Co_10:12.
Jer_22:8-9. Comp. chaps. Jer_18:15-16; Jer_19:8.
Jer_22:10. Theme: DEATH PREFERABLE TO LIFE. “Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him that goeth away,” &c.
Less reason for tears over Josiah, the righteous father who is dead, than over Jehoabaz, the ungodly son, who, though alive, is yet worse than dead, being banished from all the blessings of life; and who goes away not as his father to the land of rest and joy, but to captivity and dishonour.
I. Death may prove a gracious goal. It was to Josiah. Mors janua vitœ: “Death is the gate of life.” Of course only to the godly. Blessed as life is to the Christian, yet “to die is gain.” Here is a test which divides the ranks of the living. To which of us would death be an advantage—knowing as we do what awaits souls “after death”?
1. Death terminates much that makes life so sad.
(1.) Personal sorrows: physical weaknesses, earthly deceits, life’s cares, struggles with adversity, the risks and delusions incident to all effort and enterprise here, wearying toils.
(2.) Social troubles: misunderstandings and misinterpretations, disappointments and grievances, the anguish over wayward children, the pangs over false friendships and unrequited kindness: desolating bereavements.
(3.) National distresses: so much wounds our patriotism, and urges the outcry, “O for a lodge in some vast wilderness,” &c. (Jer_9:2).
(4.) Spiritual anxieties: conflicts with “besetting sins,” a wayward heart, the world’s seductions, &c., grief over disobedience to God, forgetfulness of Divine love, &c.
“I would not live alway.” “I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.”
2. Death commences much that makes life so glad.
(1.) Heaven won: “to go no more out.” “Neither sorrow, nor crying,” &c.
(2.) Deity beheld in open vision. “We shall see Him as He is.”
(3.) Earth’s mysteries solved. “Now we know in part, but then shall we know,” &c.
(4.) Lost ones regained. “I shall go to her, but she shall not return to me.”
(5.) The perfect life attained. “I shall be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.”
II. Life may prove a grievous path. It would to Shallum.
1. Its pleasures all desolated. Jehoahaz would pine in captivity. Think of
(1.) The invasions of disaster or death. Remember what pestilence and accident have done for once happy families.
(2.) Young lives early blighted: afflicted, crippled, &c.
(3.) Hearts ruthlessly broken: by falsity of lovers, by desertion of relatives, by disgraces brought upon homes through recklessness or wickedness of fathers or sons.
(4.) Losses irretrievably suffered. Change in fortune: children hurled by reverses into penury, &c.
2. Its possibilities all devastated.
(1.) Character or virtue wrecked. By one criminal indulgence or act, confidence may be forfeited, the door of promotion be closed, and honour exchanged for a career of shame.
(2.) Powers suddenly smitten or withered. The right hand may lose its cunning, the mind its balance, &c.
3. Its prospects all destroyed.
(1.) An irreligious career, life’s years spent in practical ungodliness, destroys the soul’s prospects. For sin darkens the soul, and divorces it from all present peace and gracious anticipations, and impenitence shuts out the soul from the redemption of Christ and reconciliation with God.
(2.) An atheistic mind, the abandonment of revelation, the rejection of the Bible, the denial of God and spiritual things: these cover the soul and its outlook with a dense and desolating gloom.
Rather than such a life, “let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his.”
Theme: THE DEAD LESS MOURNED THAN THE LIVING.
I. Evil times enforce this truth. They are “taken away from the evil.” When war or desolation come upon the land, or disaster upon the home, we think this.
II. Wicked careers emphasise the truth. The living Cain more a grief than the dead Abel. We mourn less for the “dead” though we loved them dearly, than for the living who violate all our hopes, and fill us with grief and shame.
III. Divine revelation elucidates the truth. For “blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, they rest from their labours,” &c. See Scriptures which exhibit the future of the redeemed, as contrasted with our lot on earth.
See Addenda: “WEEP NOT FOR THE DEAD.”
Note:
“Dying saints,” says Henry, “may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. And so dismal perhaps the prospects 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).”
See Further, Noticeable Topics: “GRIEF FOR THOSE WHO HAVE GONE AWAY TO WAR.”
Jer_22:13. Theme: RAPACITY DENOUNCED.
See Addenda: COVETOUSNESS.
“He who builds his house with other people’s property, collects stones for his grave.”—Cramer.
“Sepulchri immemor struis domos.”—Horat.
“Though impoverished by the tribute imposed upon them by the king of Egypt (2Ch_36:3), the inhabitants were cruelly ground by Jehoiakim, who scrupled not at the adoption of any measures by which he might be able to carry on the building of a large and splendid palace.”—Henderson.
Not only did Jehoiakim tax the people (2Ki_23:25) for Pharaoh’s tribute, but also took their forced labour without pay for building a splendid palace; in violation of Lev_19:13; Deu_24:14-15.
“God will repay in justice those who will not in justice pay those whom they employ.”—Henry.
“Jehoiakim lived in splendour amid the misery of the nation, amused himself with building palaces when the whole land was ground down by heavy taxation, and miserably perished at the age of thirty-six, so little cared for that his body was cast aside without burial.”—Payne Smith.
Jer_22:15-16. Theme: JEHOIAKIM’S DEGENERACY FROM HIS FATHER’S PIETY.
Jehoiakim’s character given (Jer_22:13 seq.) He a young prince, son of pious father, degenerated; hence God sent awful message in text by Jeremiah. Woe denounced upon him for pride, &c., when nation in distress (Jer_22:13-14). Then God expostulates; wickedness aggravated and inexcusable, because of bright example of piety and righteousness in his father (Jer_22:15-16).
I. God remembereth the piety and usefulness of our ancestors, and observeth how far we resemble them (Jer_22:15-16; contrast Jer_22:17).
1. God can forget nothing. Past, present, “all naked and open.” (1.) Remembers piety of our fathers. As Josiah. Kind remembrance of His faithful servants after left this world: “not unrighteous to forget,” &c. (2.) Instructive to observe with how much respect God mentions those who have been upright before Him. Thus “the righteous Lord loveth righteousness;” treats good men as favourites. (3.) This a great encouragement to be religious: enjoy favour while here, and our memory precious in His sight when forgotten by survivors. (4.) Motive to all, especially children of pious parents, to reverence the memory of saints.
2. God takes notice how far we resemble them. Charges Jehoiakim that trod not in father’s steps. (1.) God makes just estimates of our religious advantages and our improvement of them. (2.) Observes declension. (3.) Whether our hearts be right as our father’s were, e.g., Timothy (2Ti_1:5), or whether as Solomon (1Ki_11:4-6). (4.) An incentive to utmost caution: not cast off the entail of religion, lose truest hereditary honours, involve Divine displeasure.
II. Young persons often forsake the religion of their fathers through pride and love of elegance, pomp, and show (Jer_22:15). Pride led him to covet splendour and practise injustice.
This sin easily besets and ensnares the young. They scorn their father’s lowliness. Begin with extravagance greater than where their wiser fathers ended. (1.) It leads them to forsake their father’s religious profession. Favours and preferments of the world are not on that side. Count their father’s religion narrow, and abandon their principles. (2.) Love of pomp and elegance lead to the loss of the life and power of godliness. Luxury and irreligion (Jer_22:13), practices their fathers would have abhorred. Go from bad to worse: as Jehoiakim, oppressed Jeremiah and slew Uzziah (Jer_26:21). Won an ill character (Eze_19:6-7).
To the young: Set out in life with moderate desires. Be content with your rank. Strengthen religious dispositions. “Do justice and mercy.” Humility the brighest ornament; religion the defence of the soul.
III. It is a great dishonour and reproach to any to forsake the good ways of their fathers. Jehoiakim was over twenty when Josiah died. God intimates that his conduct was both dishonourable and inexcusable.
1. Religiously trained as he doubtless was, his forsaking religion was a reproach. The good example of our fathers aggravates our guilt and shame. 2. Let young persons consider the usefulness and honour for which their parents were eminent. Was it not “well with them”? They were beloved and lamented (Jer_22:18). 3. Consider for what it is that so many forsake the good ways of their fathers. 4. Here are terrible threatenings from God against this wickedness (Jer_22:19, also Jer_36:30). Forsake religion of ancestors, it will be your shame. “If thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever.”
IV. The way of religion is the way of wisdom, honour, and happiness.
1. Wisdom. Jehoiakim thought himself wise in “building,” &c. His father was a good man and good king, and “was not this to know Me?” (Jer_22:16); Psa_111:10; 1Jn_1:3-4. Right knowledge consists in being religious.
2. Honour. Josiah universally esteemed (2Ch_35:25). Luxury and splendour do not secure honour (Pro_3:3-4).
3. Happiness. “Well with him” (Jer_22:15); repeated (Jer_22:16). Over against this the young prince is asked, “Shalt thou reign because, &c.?” (Jer_22:15). Piety and righteousness a surer foundation and defence.
Way to be happy is to be and do good. While we do well, it will be well with us (Psa_34:12; 1Ti_4:8).
(Abstract of Sermon, by Rev. Job Orton, Kidderminster, A.D. 1775).
Jer_22:18. Theme: A PERVERSE SON. “Thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah.”
That godly men should have ungodly children is a problem hard to solve. Josiah had both a Shallum and a Jehoiakim, both wicked men; David, Absalom, a rebellious son; Eli, Hophni and Phineas, “both sons of Belial that knew not the Lord.”
I. Parental discipline and proper training are suggested as lacking. Stress is laid on the proverb, “Train up a child,” &c. But this assumes without proof
1. That in these instances there was a lack of parental discipline and proper training.
2. That piety in children is the natural result of parental discipline and proper training.
But what are the facts of the case?
(a.) Piety is sometimes found in the children of godless parents, where there has been no religious training at all; whereas
(b.) Impiety will sometimes be seen in the children of godly parents, who have striven to bring them up in the fear of the Lord.
Such facts teach that youthful piety is not the natural result of early training; and the mystery of the entire subject is left unsolved.
II. Religious education does not always form a religious character. Religious habits may be formed without the vital principle of religion possessing the heart
What is the reason why a child cannot be trained to be a Christian?
1. Because to become a Christian is to have a new nature, a new life, which no training can originate. Nothing can be trained except what has life. None can train a dead vine or dead tree. Training supposes life.
2. No child has by nature religious life, but only mental and moral life; and a child can only be trained mentally to think, morally to act.
III. It is God’s prerogative to quicken our children to newness of life.
Parental duty it is to train children: but equally their duty to pray that God would impart the life of real religion, that life without which a correct creed and a cold morality leave the soul “dead in sins.” If parents see in their children the germ of the new life, this is God’s handiwork, and the pledge for the children of a life of grace and a glorious destiny.—D. Pledge.
Jer_22:19. Theme: AN IGNOMINIOUS BURIAL.
The end of some men is very different from what might have been expected, considering their parentage, education, and advantages.
Jehoiakim was the son of a king: naturally suppose that he also would be buried with the pageantry of a prince.
Also the son of a pious father: might have hoped his death had been the death of the righteous.
Sin brings men to an ignominious end.
1. What a blighting thing is sin! Blasts every fond hope. When Jehoiakim was a youth he had fairest earthly prospects; yet what degradation befel him!
2. A degraded burial is not the worst event. Funeral rites have been denied to godly men and faithful witnesses for Christ. But the burial of a man is of little moment: that is not the end of the man: Worse issues follow.
3. Burial affects not our future destiny. Be he interred as a brute, or amid the pomp of royalty, the destiny of a man depends upon life, not upon death and burial.
4. Piety exalts, while wickedness debases men. Jehoiakim’s impiety set him below beggars. Piety raises beggars from the dunghill and sets them among princes. Piety is God’s high-road to heaven: impiety is Satan’s high-road to perdition.—Ibid.
See Addenda: THE SINNER’S BURIAL.
Jer_22:21. Theme: REGARD FOR GOD DEADENED BY PROSPERITY.
The condition of life most coveted may be most harmful—“prosperity.” Only by denials of our wishes are we kept low at God’s feet. We can recall events and experiences in which God came to our souls and arrested them in falling away from Him. Yet notwithstanding all He has done, we are very far from God.
If so far from Him despite all He has done to keep us obedient, what would have been our case had He never crossed our wishes by afflictions and discipline? We should be grateful that He has desolated our “prosperity” and reclaimed us from disloyalty to Him.
Judah’s case shows: A people suffered to advance with a prosperity that became fatal to their spiritual life.
It reflects the state of a church which through “prosperity” declines from spiritual fervour and zeal; of the saint, who through “prosperity” grows indifferent: of the sinner, who through “prosperity” becomes reckless of God’s calls to submission and repentance. “I spake to thee in thy prosperity,” &c.
I. The voice of God is addressing itself to the souls of men.
Effects prove the cause; and in the sinner alarmed, the backslider arrested, the church awakened, we see evidences that God has spoken and made His voice heard.
1. In what ways the voice of God utters its appeals. Whatever speaks of God to the soul is the agent of God. “Earthquakes, fire, or still small voice.” Calamity, pestilence, death, losses; conscience, the Bible, the preacher, the Spirit. God speaks thus in various voices to the heart of man.
2. To what extent God is speaking to men. To all. For there is a common call as well as an effectual call (comp. Jer_22:29).
3. For what purpose God addresses men. He warns against sin, ruinous selfishness, absorption in the world, forgetfulness of God, death and eternity. He appeals to men to repent, be reconciled, “flee from wrath to come,” &c.
II. Man’s attention to God’s voice is influenced by his circumstances.
“I spake in thy prosperity, and thou saidst, I will not hear.” We take no heed in the day of youth and health and ease. But trouble is a good teacher. “In their affliction they will seek Me early.”
1. There is going on in every heart a struggle for ascendancy. Selfishness is at war with conscience, sin with Christ. In every heart there will be a supreme: and if our pleasures or possessions absorb our affections, then the spiritual must succumb.
2. What holds the heart supremely subjugates all else. If any one ungodly thing sways us, then God’s claims become ignored. And the law with us, as with the universe, is advance. No affection is stationary. It strengthens or weakens. Thus, when any object holds our affections before God, or in opposition to God, the heart becomes turned against God, and we repudiate His voice.
III. Prosperity in life deadens our soul’s susceptibilities to Divine appeals.
1. “Prosperity” is not in itself an evil. The Bible honours it. There may be commercial prosperity, social prosperity, spiritual prosperity, church prosperity: and all may be good. May God give you all these “prosperities.”
2. But while in itself good, and coveted as a good, “prosperity” may prove the soul’s snare. It may be bad in its effect on us. What is full can receive no addition; and if prosperity fill our hearts, Christ has no place there. Thus: commercial prosperity has made many spiritually “wretched and poor and miserable.” “Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked.” Few can carry a full cup with a steady hand, or bear the world on their shoulders without bowing to the earth.
So even spiritual prosperity may beget elation, self-security. The successful Christian worker may be ready to trumpet his successes, “Come, see my zeal for the Lord!” Paul found danger “lest he should be exalted above measure by the abundance of revelations.”
There may be less of Christ in a numerically prosperous church, than where there is “little strength:” less of Christ in the prosperous soul than in the heart desolate through darkness and non-success. And hence “I dwell with the humble and contrite.”
IV. Hindrances to our regarding God’s voice He will remove.
Comp. Jer_22:5, also 8, 9.
1. What deadens our attention God dooms. Be it pride, health, or energy, eagerness after success, refuges of lies, favours and privileges. He will remove them far from us, or us from them.
2. God’s voice must be heard. There was a rich man, who was a “fool”; all God’s calls were disregarded. But God made His voice heard at last—in terror, in scorn.
For if we refuse to hear through life, death will come when that awful Voice will drown all others, and in judgment it will silence all appeals in its sentence of doom.
See Addenda: PROSPERITY.
Theme: INFLUENCE OF PROSPERITY.
“I spake unto thee in thy prosperity, and thou saidst, I will not hear.”
In heaven, the more abundantly God’s bounties are dispensed, the more is He loved and adored; but on earth, the richer His gifts, the more will He be neglected and disobeyed. A striking proof of our depravity, that constant prosperity hardens, and is unfavourable to piety.
I. That abundant earthly blessings do tend to make the heart rebellious towards God.
1. Scripture teachings are emphatic on this matter. The Israelites were warned (Deu_8:12-14). A frequent metaphor likens men to beasts luxuriantly fed (Hos_13:6). Agur’s prayer was prompted by distrust of himself (Pro_30:8-9).
2. Experience confirms Scripture. David, the man after God’s heart, when exalted became a polluted murderer. Solomon, the wisest man, was transformed into a besotted sensualist. Moses, the meekest man, spoke contemptuously, “Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch water,” &c. In these instances we see that the highest human virtues and holiest saints of God were unable to withstand the influence of prosperity. They could endure affliction and profit thereby—as certain liquors ripen in the shade, which under the noonday beams turn to acidity and corruption.
Similar instances occur now. Many a religious career, which began with fervour and zeal, has, been checked by worldly prosperity and ended amid the stupidity and sensuality of a worldling.
3. It is doubtful whether there ever was a single instance of piety which could pass uninjured through the ordeal of unmingled prosperity. Tone of religion is lowered amid riches and honours. Where simplicity and humility of spirit are preserved amid prosperity, it is owing to some hidden trouble, which like the cord on the feet of the aspiring bird keeps the proud spirit lowly and abased.
II. If then, upon the highest religious characters worldly prosperity has a hardening influence, what must be its effect on those who have no religious principle to counteract it, and who are avowedly lovers of the world and its pleasure?
1. They will not heed the messages of God. In the chamber of sickness and among the afflicted there may be success; but none among the children of prosperity and nurslings of vanity.
2. Religion, with its sober realities, is despised. Their heart is set upon the world, wealth invites to its enjoyment.
3. Those favoured of fortune are the most pitiable objects in the world. We may not limit God’s grace, which can bring the soul from amid unmingled prosperity to bow in lowly subjection before the sceptre of Jesus. Affliction may bring down the soul, or it may become surfeited with life’s good things, and then God’s message will be heard; but those who are “full” and “laugh now” too often inherit only the Saviour’s “woes.”
III. They who have worldly prosperity should be led to self-inquiry as to its effect upon themselves.
1. In no country like our own are there so many who have risen from small beginnings to great estates and honours. Has God “granted your requests but sent leanness into your souls”? When riches increased, have you set your heart upon them? Are you the same simple-hearted and sincere follower of Jesus as when you began to lay the foundation of your worldly exaltation? “Remember from whence thou hast fallen.”
2. What a caution is here to those who are seeking prosperity! Can you discover a means of preserving a lowly spiritual mind amid prosperity? Unless so, there is no alternative but that you must suffer adversity to keep you humble, or become worldly and spiritually hardened.
3. They who have become more indisposed to hear the voice of God should awake to their peril. Had you been placed amid afflictions and deprivations, it might have been better for your soul. “The goodness of God should lead thee to repentance;” but it has had the opposite effect, and led to greater sin. What depravity is here! Is not that a brutish nature which is more rebellious to its owner the richer the pasture he provides? Is this the spirit of a reasonable intelligent creature? Does not such a heart need a change?
4. Prosperous ones may well regard their case with apprehension. The evil days will come when they will say, “I have no pleasure in them.” Spare yourselves the blow by renouncing the world for Christ. Is the sacrifice too great for Him who gave His life for you?—W. H. Lewis, D.D., “Sermons for the Christian Year.”
Theme: PROSPERITY BANEFUL.
Scripture uniformly teaches that distance from God is the greatest misery—nearness to Him the greatest good. Hell is the extreme point of distance from Him: Heaven is the perfection of nearness and resemblance to Him. In proportion as we are under the power of religion, we are said to walk with God, conforming ourselves to His will, placing ourselves beneath His eye, and rejoicing in the proofs of His acceptance and favour. In proportion as we are destitute of religion, we are said to live without God in the world—we neither are solicitous for His glory, nor are mindful of His friendship, nor are disposed to listen to His voice. In affliction we do not bow in holy resignation to His will, in prosperity we do not own the hand from whence our mercies flow. And this is the description of Israel: “I spake to thee in thy prosperity, but thou wouldst not hear.”
The text is a charge brought against the Jewish nation; and it is accompanied with a threat of the removal of those mercies they had abused by a long and mournful captivity. The same charge is applicable to most men in a greater or less degree.
I. The exactness with which God observes all that relates to human character and conduct.
The text is the language of regret. A father weeping over a child: a benefactor—a Saviour deploring “I spake in prosperity.”
1. All our relative circumstances are immediately before His eye; and He notices with tender and faithful scrutiny the various effects which His merciful dispensations have upon the mind. In riches and poverty, in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness, in joy and sorrow, in youth and age: and He traces with most minute inspection the different effects produced with a view to the development and progression of moral character. Not with angry eye merely, but with kind solicitude and regard: as a father a child.
How different a thing is life in human and Divine estimation. Man thinks what shall I eat. But God looks to growth of piety and principle.
2. The circumstances of human life, however produced, are undoubtedly under the guidance of Providence, and therefore subservient to a wise and perfect design. Each man’s history is arranged and adapted with utmost precision to the growth of permanent character. When the outline is fully sketched, when the discipline has had its perfect operation, when the education is completed not to our conceptions but to the eye of Deity, we no longer continue here. The fruit being set, the winds scatter the blossoms; the fruit being ripe, the sun loses its power; the fruit falling or being gathered, winter is at hand.
God marks everything. “This thy manner from thy youth. Thou hast not obeyed.” A faithful record is kept.
II. The tendency of unsanctified prosperity to render us insensible to the claims of religion and separate us still farther from God.
Prosperity and adversity relative terms.
1. Uninterrupted comfort tends to lessen our confidence in God: to form in the mind a feeling of self-confidence: a security nothing can shake: so much so that religion can make no entrance into the mind. It overcomes that feeling of humility and dependence which is the source of every virtue, and consequently weakens the hold of principle, and aims directly at the foundation of all religion.
2. Another fatal effect of it is to harden the heart. God would have every temporal blessing raise the inquiry, “Lord, what is man?” But wicked and irreligious men are only concerned for enjoyment, and for scope for their ambition. They feed and grovel like swine beneath the oak, without looking up to the boughs that bore the fruit or the hand that shakes it down. Hence prosperity is but a bad nurse to virtue, a nurse which is like to starve it in its infancy and to spoil it in its growth. The corrupt affection, which seemed dead and chill under the winter of affliction, is like the serpent warmed into life and venom by the sun of prosperity.
3. Then comes pride. Hezekiah shows his treasures. Nebuchadnezzar exclaims, Is not this Babylon? Pride and pomp. Then God is forgotten: prayer neglected. If Jeshurun wax fat, ten to one he kicks against Him who made him so.
4. Leaves a dulness and lethargy of mind. All Divine threatenings, warnings, promises unheeded.
III. Various ways in which God rebukes this tendency and humbles men.
God speaks to men in various ways, and He distinctly marks the various impressions produced upon the mind by His communications. He speaks to us by His Word and ordinances, by the instructions we receive in religious education, by the various dispensations of His providence, by affliction, by mercies, all are the voice of God to man. “I spake.”
The externals of life undesirable. “Give me neither poverty nor riches.”
Affliction—its design.
The care of the soul is “the one thing needful.”
Immediately apply to Christ.
—Samuel Thodey, A.D. 1828.
SERMON TO THE YOUNG.
“This has been thy manner from thy youth” (Jer_22:21).
The habits formed in youth generally continue in future life. The early customs of Judah led on to the settled condition of indifference to God’s calls and counsels.
I. Mankind generally continue to live according to the habits formed in youth.
There are some exceptions. Youths who were profligate have in after life become godly, &c. By the period of youth I mean from, say twelve to twenty-five: this is the season when habits are formed. And the words of the text will apply to those
1. Whose life is given to the luxury of pleasure.
2. Who pass the season of youth in indulging in gross vices. (a.) To the Sabbath-breaker; (b.) to the profane; (c.) to the drunkard.
3. Equally relevant to vices of the mind. (a.) Selfishness; (b.) pride; (c.) malignity.
4. So also as regards their attitude towards religion. (a.) Those who pass their youth in a merely formal regard to the external duties of religion usually become formalists. (b.) Those who practise guile and deceit become hypocritical. (c.) Those who in youth slight the Gospel, in old age are seen to be unfeeling and hardened. (d.) Those who are sceptical frequently become confirmed infidels.
Youth is generally the season when a decision is made either in favour of religion or against.
II. Custom in any course generally issues in confirmed habits. “This has been thy manner from thy youth.”
1. The commencement of a course in life is often attended with a struggle and with difficulties. When a young person begins a sinful course, there is the struggle against instruction, remonstrances of conscience, &c. So also in a religious career.
2. But continuance in a course renders habits congenial and easy. So difficult then is it for those who have accustomed themselves to pursue evil ways to desist, that little hope is entertained for a change. “Shall the Ethiopian change his skin?” &c. “This has been thy manner from thy youth.”
III. Solemn uses to which these truths may be applied.
You are old enough now to decide your future. You are now in the most important season of your life. Accept
1. A few cautions.
(1.) Guard against slighting parental instruction. (2.) Against slighting the gospel. (3.) Against slighting the Sabbath. (4.) Avoid also ungodly companions.
2. A few exhortations—founded upon the fact that your future life may be expected to correspond with the habits formed in youth.
(1.) Accustom yourselves to consider your accountability to God. “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth;” and think that for the sins and habits of your youth He will require an account in the day of judgment. (2.) Study the Sacred Book by which your future should be directed.
(3.) Decide early in favour of religion. This will be the best security from the evils to which you will surely be exposed. It will equip you to be useful in life. It will ensure your future happiness. It will prepare you for death. There is another world beyond the present.—Old MS.
Jer_22:20-23. Theme: HASTENING DESOLATIONS.
Judah and Jerusalem, spoken to as an individual, appear in a threefold character.
i. Very haughty in the day of peace and safety (Jer_22:21). It is common for those who live at ease to live in contempt of the Word of God. This is so much the worse because it is habitual—“thy manner from thy youth.”
ii. Very timorous at the alarms of trouble (Jer_22:20). When “thy lovers,” idols and foreign alliances, fail thee, thou wilt ascend the mountains and cry for help (Jer_22:20); but all in vain (Jer_22:22).
iii. Very tame under the heavy and lasting pressures of trouble (Jer_22:22). “Ashamed and confounded,” &c. Many will never be ashamed of their sins till they are brought by them to their last extremity. She was proud and self-secure in her prosperity (Jer_22:23), “made her nest in cedars:” but in her humiliation she will promise God to be humble and amend her ways: “how gracious wilt thou be,” &c.—Henry.
Jer_22:24. Theme: THE PUNISHMENT OF THE IMPENITENT.
Such punishment is both—(a) inevitable: (b) justifiable.
I. Awful instances in which God has verified this declaration.
1. The apostate angels. 2. Our first parents. 3. Destruction of mankind by the Flood. 4. The children of Israel. 5. Moses, David, the disobedient prophet. 6. The death of Christ as man’s substitute.
II. Reasons which support this declaration.
1. Not a disposition to give pain: nor a desire for revenge. 2. It is the nature and tendency of sin to produce misery.—Payson.
Theme: WOE TO CONIAH.
Here, in this malediction, the prophet describes Jehoiachin under three similes:—
I. A signet plucked from God’s hand. A signet was like the “great seal” of England, the badge of office. It meant the loss of kingship and royal authority.
1. Plucked off by God Himself (Jer_22:24). So that God by special action renounces this godless king.
2. Handed over to the Chaldean tyrant (Jer_22:25). Thus God puts him, entirely separated from Himself, into the power of Nebuchadnezzar; “without God in the world”—given over to the foe!
Zerubbabel, God’s servant, the nephew of Jeconiah, was made by God “as a signet” (comp. Hag_2:23; see also Gen_41:42; 1Ki_21:8; Est_3:10; Est_8:2; Dan_6:17; 2Ti_2:19; Rev_7:3; Rev_9:4).
Jeconiah was a signet, but plucked and cast away. After only three months’ reign, he was carried captive to Babylon.
Thus God can “put down the mighty from their seats, and exalt them of low degree” (Luk_1:51-53).
II. A cherished idol despised (Jer_22:28). Coniah was once idolised by the Jews; and great things had been expected of him. Indeed it was hoped he would frustrate the Chaldean power, avert or bring back Judah from the Chaldean captivity, and thus falsify Jeremiah’s sad prediction.
He had also been exalted by Jehovah as king of God’s favoured and covenant people.
Henry states these facts thus:
1. Time was when he was dignified, almost deified. But now that he is deposed, he is despised. “What is unjustly honoured will be justly contemned; and rivals with God will be the scorn of men.”
2. Time was when he was delighted in. But now he is “a vessel in which is no pleasure,” because either out of fashion or unserviceable. Those whom God has no pleasure in will some time or other be so mortified that men will have no pleasure in them (see Psa_21:13; Hos_8:8).
III. A king deprived of posterity (Jer_22:30). Jeconiah was not literally childless (comp. Jer_22:28 : “his seed,” 1Ch_3:17-18; Mat_1:12); but was to be “written” lineally childless. Messiah was only lineally descended from Jeconiah through Joseph, who though His legal was not His real father. The succession to the throne failed in his line: nevertheless, the promise to David (Psa_89:30-37) was revived in Zerubbabel, and consummated in Christ.
The king who succeeded Jeconiah was his uncle Zedekiah, and with him the Hebrew monarchy as a visible institution was destroyed.
See Addenda: WRITTEN CHILDLESS.
Eusebius, the historian (Eccles. Hist. iii. 20), says, “Jeconiah was the last king of David’s line. His uncle indeed actually reigned after him, but perished with his sons long before Jeremiah’s death (chap. Jer_52:10). In the legal genealogies Salathiel (Heb. Shealtiel), who was descended from David through his son Nathan, is counted as his son, but neither he nor Zerubbabel prospered so as to sit on David’s throne. And gradually their descendants became so insignificant as to be but ‘a cut-down tree’ (Isa_11:1), and ‘a dry ground’ (Isa_53:2). When from this uncrowned lineage Christ had come, and the growing strength of Christianity had aroused the jealous fears of Domitian, he caused a search to be made for the descendants of David; but when they were brought before him, they proved to be such simple country people that he despised them and let them go.”
1. From so proud an ancestor no descendant of note ever rose upon the notice of history.
2. Yet from a family so utterly fallen, came the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Jer_22:29. Theme: MISSIONARY SERMON. GOD’S CALL TO THE WORLD.
Judah would not heed or believe God’s message (Jer_22:19); so God appeals to the world to record His denunciations and watch their fulfilment. The treble repetition of “earth” emphasises the appeal: it is therefore urgent that earth should hear God’s Word. The repetition is also an intensitive form, and expresses God’s earnestness in making this call to “earth.”
I. The whole wide earth engages God’s solicitude.
1. As His creative product. He formed the world; and peopled it.
2. As His undivided possession. Satan may deem himself “god of this world,” but it is only a temporary and delusive occupancy. “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” “All souls are Mine.”
3. As the sphere of His benignant rule. He works not locally, in limited territories, bounded by narrow geographical lines: but over the wide world His Providence works. As wide as the light of His sun floods, &c., so is His rule. “He doeth according to His will among the inhabitants of the world.” “The nations are but as a drop in the bucket,” &c. None overlooked. There is not an isolated spot on earth where God has not worked, adorning it with life and beauty.
4. The whole round world is man’s sphere of being. And “His delights are with the sons of men.” This is regardless of national divisions. “God hath made of one blood all the nations for to dwell upon the earth.”
5. God is intent on making the entire globe the theatre of His most glorious reign. “The uttermost parts of the earth” are to share in His glory. “All men shall be blessed in Him, and all nations call Him blessed.”
II. To the whole wide earth God addresses His messages.
1. Under Old Testament dispensations there were world-wide communications which overleaped the restrictions of Judaism. The Jews would have kept Jehovah to themselves, and all His revelations. But many grand truths were gathered into the Mosaic code, the Jewish Scriptures, which were for all people. The Sabbath was not for the Jews alone, but a law for all nations and all time. God’s character declared on Sinai was a revelation for every one. His words of mercy to sinners, “Come, let us reason together,” “Let the wicked forsake his way,” &c., were without any Jewish limitation. “In every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him” (Act_10:34-35).
2. Prior to the Gospel, God gathered the whole world into His love. The Gospel but expressed that love. “He so loved that He gave His Son.” Glad fact that the love of God is older than the Incarnation. It is everlasting love—universal love.
3. Jesus Christ proclaimed the universal religion. God’s message to sinners. “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.”
4. In God’s revelations there is adaptation to and provision for the whole earth. Warnings: counsels: invitations: pleadings: promises.
“Enough for each, enough for all.”
III. Over the whole wide earth His Word is to be proclaimed.
1. By human lips. Jeremiah is the speaker. Men who know the “Word of the Lord” must tell it.
2. With impassioned earnestness. Pleading and appealing. “O earth, earth, earth!” Enthusiasm should impel us.
3. With restless urgency. “Not holding our peace day or night, we that make mention of the Lord.”
4. With dauntless persistency. Men will not heed the first cry—then cry again; “O earth, earth, EARTH!”
5. With universal fulness. Tell a Gospel which is “unto all people,” to “all people;” till “every soul shall know the joyful sound:” till “Christ is Lord indeed.”
See also Noticeable Topics: “GOD’S VOICE TO MAN.”
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 22
Topic: WAR THEME: GRIEF FOR THOSE WHO HAVE GONE AWAY TO WAR. (Jer_22:10.)
For those who, as soldiers or seamen, have left their native country, there is more occasion to mourn than for “the quiet dead.”
Notice some of the TEMPTATIONS, TRIALS, and DANGERS to which they are exposed.
I. Temptations to vice, which meet those who leave virtuous homes and enter the camp or the ship of war. They may have been the children of many prayers, &c. But away from home restraints—the scoffer’s jest, licentious inducements, the gambling table, allure them from Bible-reading, Sabbath reverence, &c., and they go down to graves of infamy and woe. Of how many such is it true, that
“Doubly dying, they go down
To the vile dust from whence they sprang,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung.”
II. Exposure to sickness and death, when far removed from home and those who love them. It may be “easy to die in battle” where the spirit is stirred to a courageous madness, and
“Fame is there to tell who bleeds,
And Honour’s eye’s on daring deeds.”
But to waste away by sickness through exposure to drenching rains and deadly climate, to be crushed or mangled by a blow, and left to rude attentions until death ends all!
III. Ponder the horrors of captivity to which battles expose soldiers and sailors. The crowded prison-cell, scanty food and drink, fiend-like foes, and sufferings and cruelties inflicted on the conquered: from such horrors we turn away in bitter indignation and anguish; feeling and saying—
“O judgment! thou hast fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!”
IV. The horrors of the battle-field. Truly, “every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood.” The maimed and mangled left to bleed and die! Or turn to naval battles, where are bursting shells, shattered masts, gory decks, shrieks of anguish, and heaps of slain!
V. Brutalising effect of war on soldiers. What secret theft, open and violent robbery, the outrages on virtue and humanity, now abandoned to the heat of passion, to unbridled lust, &c.
Such is war: cruel and relentless, with hands of violence and eyes of flaming rage, with gory locks and crimson banners, &c. The rejoicing of nations for victories won is mingled with the wail of the widow, the cry of the orphan, the anguish of parents bereaved.
All this should constrain us to
1. Do all we can for the spiritual good of our army and navy. Succour them with all bodily comforts amid the miseries of battle, but write them personal letters when we can, and also send them messengers and ministers of sacred truth.
2. Pray for them that God may restrain them from temptations and lead them as good soldiers of the Cross to triumph over their spiritual foes. Thus, should they die, we may hope they would gain the victor’s crown of life on high.
The more we do for the spiritual good of our national defenders the sooner may we hope for enduring national peace, and for the coming years of universal peace: when
“No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o’er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in the ploughshare end.”
—Rev. Charles Rockwell, New York, 1864.
Topic: GOD’S VOICE TO MAN. “O earth, hear the word of the Lord” (Jer_22:29).
The Bible is the Word of God, and every man is interested in its contents. It is God’s own message to His own world—a message transparent with light and warm with love. It brings, as we believe, its own evidence of its truth, the credentials of its Divine original in every page—for the best argument in favour of the Bible is the Book itself—in the grandeur of its doctrines, in the purity of its precepts, in the richness of its promises; in the faithfulness of its warnings, and above all in its complete adaptation to the state and condition of guilty man; revealing as it does an atoning sacrifice and a sanctifying Spirit, a sacrifice worthy of God to accept, and equal to the salvation of a fallen world. The evidences of this religion, sustained as they have been by MIRACLE and by PROPHECY, have been sufficient to satisfy the keenest inquiry of the wisest and best of men, and to guide countless myriads in their path to heaven, who, living, have owned its power, and dying, have rejoiced in its grace. We may go round to all the varieties of this world’s population and say, O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord, assured of finding a ready echo and response in every honest and penitent mind. The great doctrine this text contains is the importance of listening to the Bible as the voice of God. Hear the Word.
I. Specify some respects in which we should hear God’s voice.
1. In the still small voice of heavenly mercy.
This threefold adjuration supposes great indifference, great reluctance on man’s part to listen to God’s voice of mercy. We might well ask, Are the inhabitants of the world dead or deaf that God calls the cold and barren earth to listen to His Word when man would not?
The Gospel itself, though it proclaims peace on earth and goodwill to man, is coldly regarded. How striking that announcement of the angels, “unto you is born a Saviour;” to you MEN, not to US ANGELS. There was no olive branch in their deluge: no brazen serpent in their rebellious camp: no city of refuge in all their courts: no star of Bethlehem in their sky: no “mighty to save” travailed in the greatness of His strength on their behalf. When angels sinned, justice took its own unfettered course; but when Adam fell, a Saviour was provided.
“From heaven the sinning angels fell,
And wrath and vengeance chained them down;
But man, vile man, forsook his bliss,
And mercy lifts him to a crown.”
It is under this last best dispensation of heavenly truth and grace that we are living. O listen to the still small voice of eternal mercy.
2. In the loud thunder of God’s providential dispensation.
God calls attention to the overthrow of Judea and its monarchy. It is, therefore, to the crash of falling thrones and of extinguished dynasties that God appeals, to teach His people that sin is a great destroyer; for wherever guilt reigns, the pale angel of retribution is sure to follow. The Bible is the interpreter of Providence, and Providence is the best interpreter of the Bible. The Jews have a saying, “That God spake as truly to Israel by His ten plagues in Egypt, as He did by His ten words on Sinai.” We are exhorted to hear the Rod and Him that appointed it; and we are sure that, sooner or later, they who will not hear His voice in His WORD, must be made to feel the weight of His ROD.
3. In your personal and relative afflictions, God speaks and demands a hearing.
The various methods in which God meets with man and causes solemn warnings to affect the heart, form a striking part of His procedure; and every such appeal rejected will constitute a fearful item in our last account. God has been no niggard in His communications, and has studied economy in nothing so little as in the impressions and convictions He conveys to the guilty conscience. Men are met, day by day, in their business, in their families, in their public walks, in their private retirements, in the exchange of merchandise, in the temple of religion, with warning voices and monitions, of which God is the immediate author. In every family affliction, in every sudden death, in every instance of wounded affection, or disappointed ambition, or ruined hope, and in the overwhelming dismay created by the prospect of poverty on the one hand, or by the removal from our side of those upon whose right arm we leaned, God comes very near to us, and seems to say in accents we cannot misunderstand, “Now I will be seen; now I will make Myself heard.” God speaks to us from the grave of a friend; from the cradle of a child; from the death of an enemy; and from the great changes and losses always going on in the troubled theatre of human affairs, “The Lord’s voice crieth unto the city,” in every variety of accent, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord.”
It has often been remarked that in the time of the great plague in Florence, in Venice, and in London, those who escaped became more dissipated and abandoned to evil than ever, acting upon the libertine sentiment, “Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.” Affliction where it does not soften, only hardens the more.
4. In the ample promises and encouragements addressed to returning penitents.
To humble the sinner and to exalt the Saviour is the leading design of the whole Record, but it is the death of the sin and not the death of the soul that God contemplates. Truly the case of the long-hardened sinner is mournful and hazardous, but it is not either remediless or desperate, seeing that there is a great sacrifice provided for sin, and an all-sufficient Saviour revealed in the Gospel.
Yet think not that repentance and faith, important as they are in the order of means, can be in any sense the meritorious conditions of salvation. This were to put those things in Christ’s stead, which are only the stepping-stones in our way to Him. It is not the virtue of our believing, but the merit of Him in whom we believe that avails for acceptance and pardon.
Nor is it to the strength of our faith merely that the promise is made, but to the reality of it. The weak hand of a child may hold that precious pearl which worlds want wealth to buy; and faith which is as a grain of mustard-seed has power to remove mountains.
Come, upon the strength of His own invitation: or let urgent and desperate necessity be your warrant, for you must perish if you stay away. Let the acceptance which others have found induce you to come; for their experience is your encouragement. Let the wonders of His redemptive work urge your footsteps towards His throne. Return to Me, for I have redeemed thee. Every leaf of His Book has a voice to say RETURN. All the threatenings and all the promises say RETURN; all His judgments and all His mercies say RETURN. The whole intelligent universe would seem to have but one voice. Voices from heaven and voices from hell say RETURN. If the redemption of the soul be precious, RETURN. If the terrors of hell be awful, if the joys of heaven be attractive, RETURN. “O earth, earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord.”
II. Enumerate some reasons why the whole earth is interested in these communications.
i. Because the Gospel shows the only plan of salvation.
ii. Because the progressive improvement and advancement of the race is connected with this message.
Christian nations have been distinguished by intelligence. The spirit of science rests solely with them: in dark ages it burnt in secret. Since the Reformation the progression of knowledge has been constant. In the East the mind has lost somewhat of its capacity and power. In the West, under the auspices of Christianity, men appear to have attained a vigour in intellectual exertions. An impregnable barrier is fixed against the return of general ignorance and barbarism.
iii. Because the success of missionary work shows the practicability of diffusing it.
iv. Because the signs of the times are in direct accord with the promises of God.
—Samuel Thodey.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 22 ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer_22:10. WEEP NOT FOR THE DEAD.
“Weep not for the dead,” i.e., of Jehoiakim, who died on the road when taken captive.
“Weep for him that goeth away,” i.e., Jehoiachin, who was a prisoner thirty-seven years, and ultimately died in captivity.
The prophet says they should not weep for Jehoiakim, for he died at once, a death common to mortals, but should weep for Jehoiachin, because he lingered in wretchedness and dishonour, and never returned to his beloved country.
So enlarging on the evils of the Captivity, he would not have them weep for the warriors of the house of David who had died in honourable conflicts, and who had slept in sepulchres of their ancestors, but for those who had been taken captive, and died away from home.
The ancients in the Gemara say, “Weep not for the dead”—that is immoderately: three days are allowed for weeping; on the seventh the obsequies are performed; after which they dress not showily, but shave and anoint. “But weep for him that goeth”—that is, childless. Our sages apply this moral, that in our feelings we should combine nature with Scripture; meaning, feel as mortals, but with moderation as Israelites, to whom it was forbidden to indulge in the excesses of the heathen, and who might hope to meet at the resurrection of the dead.
The ancients apply it to Abram and Esau (Gen_25:34). Esau coming in, saw Jacob cooking lentiles—asking why? “For their grandfather, Abram,” said Jacob, “it being food for mourners.” Esau said, “Is it possible that upright man was included in the pain of death? Then there is no reward nor resurrection,” and he resolved to sell his birthright as useless benefit. Weep not for dead, i.e., Abram; but for him that goeth, i.e., Esau, who went and despised his primogeniture. Conciliator: By R. M. BEN ISRAEL (E. H. Linto.)
Vide Kitto’s Daily Readings: “ISAIAH AND THE PROPHETS,” on this verse.
Jer_22:13. COVETOUSNESS. “Some men are so covetous, as if they were to live for ever; and others so profuse, as if they were to die the next moment.”—Aristotle.
“The covetous man lives as if the world were made altogether for him, and not he for the world, to take in everything and part with nothing.”—South.
“The covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus up to the chin in water and yet thirsty.”—Adams.
BUILDETH BY UNRIGHTEOUSNESS. Such injurious and therefore accursed builders were the pyramid-makers in Egypt. Tarquinius Priscus, Caligula, Nero, Phocas, who is said to have heard this voice of heaven—“Though thou shouldst erect thine edifice as high as heaven, yet sin that lieth at the foundation will soon overturn all.” Bernard inveigheth against some in his time who did with great care and cost (erigere muros, negligere moros) build high manors, but not amend their manners.—Trapp.
Jer_22:19. “BURIAL OF AN ASS.” He who had such a stately house in Jerusalem should not have a grave to house his carcase in. Our Richard III., for his exactions to maintain a great court and favourites, lost his kingdom, was starved to death at Pomfret Castle, and scarce afforded common burial. King Stephen was interred in Faversham monastery, but since, his body, for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined, was cast into the river. Let great ones so live as that they meet not in the end with the death of a dog, the burial of an ass, and the epitaph of an ox, such as Aristotle calleth that of Sardanapalus—“ταῦτʼ ἔχω Εφαγον καὶ εφύβρισσα,” &c.—Trapp.
THE SINNER’S BURIAL.
“Wrapt in a Christless shroud,
He sleeps a Christless sleep;
Above him the eternal cloud,
Beneath, the fiery deep.
Laid in a Christless tomb,
There bound with felon-chain,
He waits the terrors of his doom,
The judgment and the pain.
O Christless shroud, how cold!
How dark, O Christless tomb!
O grief that never can grow old!
O endless, hopeless doom.
O Christless sleep, how sad!
What waking shalt thou know?
For thee no star, no dawning glad,
Only the lasting woe!
To rocks and hills in vain
Shall be the sinner’s call;
O day of wrath, and death, and pain,
The lost soul’s funeral!
O Christless soul, awake,
Ere thy last sleep begin!
O Christ, the sleeper’s slumbers break;
Burst Thou the bands of sin.”
—Bonar.
Jer_22:21. PROSPERITY. “It is the bright day that brings out the adder.” “Too much sail is dangerous.”—Common Proverbs.
“No sooner does the warm aspect of good fortune shine, than all the plans of virtue, raised like a beautiful frostwork in the winter of adversity, thaw and disappear.”—Warburton.
“Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament.” [How many eminent saints from being poor grew rich, as Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, David, Daniel.] “Adversity is the blessing of the New Testament.” [As we see in Peter, James, John, Paul,” &c.].—Lord Bacon.
“What shall I come to, father,” said a young man, “if I go on prospering in this way?” “To the grave,” replied the father.
“Men are usually best when worst, and worst when best; like the snake which being frozen lieth quiet and still, but waxing warm, stirreth and stingeth. It is as hard to bear prosperity as to drink much wine and not be giddy. In rest we contract rust.”—Trapp.
“Who feels no ills
Should therefore fear them; and, when fortune smiles,
Be doubly cautious, lest destruction come
Remorseless on him, and he fall unpitied.”
—Sophocles.
“More ships in calms on a deceitful coast,
Or unseen rocks, than in high storms, are lost.”
—Denham.
“Behold, Sir Balham, now a man of spirit,
Ascribes his gettings to his parts and merit;
What late he called a blessing, now was wit,
And God’s good Providence a lucky hit.
Things change their titles as their manners turn:
His counting house employed the Sabbath morn:
Seldom at church (’twas such a busy life),
But duly sent his family and wife.”—Pope.
Jer_22:30. WRITTEN CHILDLESS. “As to succession in the royal dignity as well as to success in his reign. This God would have to be written—put upon public record for the use of posterity. Our chronicles tell us of John Dudley, that great Duke of Northumberland in King Edward VI.’s days, who endeavoured by all means to engrand his posterity, reaching at the crown also, which cost him his head; that though he had six sons, all men, all married, yet none of them left any issue behind them. ‘Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; serve the Lord with fear.’ ”—Trapp.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Jer 22:8-9
Jer 22:8-9
I. The man who wrote these words was a very sorrowful man; one who was full of grief for what he saw, and for what he expected. He was an Israelite, one of the race of Abraham. He believed that God had chosen his nation to be a blessing to all nations. But he felt that his country, the country which he loved, was polluted by the evil things that were done in it. He could not tear himself from his nation. He was tearing himself from God if he did. God’s covenant was with Israel. He was in God’s covenant because he was an Israelite. Whatever calamities befel Israel must befal him. Jeremiah supposes that people of other countries would walk through the land of Israel, and see its capital city in ruins, and would say, "Wherefore hath the Lord done this to this great city?" And this, he says, would be the answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord, and have worshipped other gods and served them." He who was their true Lord would let them learn by hard punishment what was the fruit of their wilful ways, what comes of forgetting His commandments.
Read full note →
II. God has made with us a new covenant; a better covenant than that which He made with the Jews, because God does not merely say to us, "Keep My commandments," but He says, "I will give you My Holy Spirit that you may keep them." But the commandments which He bids us to keep are the very same. And when people grow indifferent to these commandments, then it fares with us as it fared with the Jews. We cease to be a strong people, a united people, a wise and understanding people, in the sight of the nations; we become weak, and divided, and foolish. If we hold fast to the covenant it will go well with us, and with our seed after us. We shall be true citizens of our land. God will bless our land and cause His face to shine upon it.
F. D. Maurice, Sermons Preached in Country Churches, p. 305.
References: Jer 22:19.—J. Thain Davidson, Talks with Young-Men, p. 233. Jer 22:21.—Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts’ for the Times," vol. i., p. 48.
Jer 22:29
I. The manner of this cry. In form it is obviously and intensely peculiar. When the awakener utters such a piercing cry you may conclude that the sleep of the sleeper is deep. The two elements multiplied into each other which swell into a peal so loud, are the mercy that glows in the warner’s breast, and the danger to which the sleeper lies exposed. The earth itself—all the creatures on it under man—have a quick ear for their Maker’s voice, and never needing, never get a call so urgent. The alacrity of the creatures that lie either above or beneath him in the scale of creation brings out in higher relief the disobedience of man. The mystery of God’s mercy to man is, we know, one thing into which unfallen angels desire to look; the mystery of man’s heedlessness of God must be another. Angels, our elder brothers, must wonder both at our deep sleep and at God’s long, loud, awakening cry. Both mysteries lie beyond their view.
II. The matter of this cry. (1) The speaker is the only living and true God. (2) The thing spoken is the word of the Lord. (a) The word of the Lord lies in the Scriptures; (b) the word of the Lord in the Scriptures is mercy; (c) the word of the Lord is Christ. (3) The injunction to regard that word: "O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord." The Eternal Word has come into the world to show us the Father, "Hear ye Him."
III. Several aspects of this shrill warning cry remain for consideration. (1) The earth so summoned, has already, in a sense most interesting and important, heard the word of the Lord. Christ’s Kingdom is even now more powerful on the earth than any other kingdom. (2) The earth through all its bounds will one day hear and obey the word of the Lord. (3) When the earth hears its Lord’s word forthwith it calls upon the Lord. (4) Earth—that is, men in the body—should hear the word of the Lord, for to them it brings a message of mercy. (5) Earth—the dust of the dead in Christ—shall hear the word of the Lord, and shall come forth.
W. Arnot, Roots and Fruits of the Christian Life, p. 198.
Reference: Jer 22:29.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 151.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain 1-9. Call to amendment of life.
1-9. Call to amendment of life.
1. Go down] The king's house was on lower ground than the Temple: cp. Jer_36:12.
Read full note →
3. The reference is to the special crimes of Jehoiakim more fully stated in Jer_36:13 : cp. 2Ki_23:35. He oppressed his people in order that though paying tribute to Necho he might yet build himself sumptuous palaces. Neither shed innocent blood] For his sins in this respect cp. Jer_26:20.
4. Cp. Jer_17:25.
6. Gilead, with its balm (Jer_8:22) and its flocks of goats (Son_4:1; Son_6:5), and the forests crowning the highest parts of Lebanon, represent things that are most precious.
7. Prepare] see on Jer_6:4. Thy choice cedars] either the house of the forest of Lebanon (see on Jer_22:6), or figuratively for the chief men of the state.
10-12. Lament for the fate of Jehoahaz.
10. Weep ye not for the dead] viz. Josiah. The sense is that even his fate (as slain at Megiddo) is preferable to that of his son and successor Jehoahaz (Shallum) carried into hopeless captivity in Egypt: see 2Ki_23:29-34. Lamentations for Josiah came to be a fixed custom (2Ch_35:25).
13-23. Jehoiakim's evil deeds and fate.
15. Closest thyself] RV 'strivest to excel,' rivalling Solomon with his cedar palaces instead of aiming at just rule. Thy father] Josiah.
18. Ah my brother! or, Ah sister] The reference may be to a chorus of mourners male and female addressing themselves antiphonally.
18, 19. The capture and death of Jehoiakim are mentioned in 2Ch_36:6; 2Ki_24:6.
20. The passages] RV 'Abarim,' a range of mountains in the SE. Thy lovers] Egypt and the other nations whose aid Judah hoped for: see Jer_27:3.
23. Inhabitant of Lebanon] referring to the king and his nobles as dwelling in cedar houses. How gracious] RV 'how greatly to be pitied.'
24-30. Punishment of Jehoiachin.
24. Coniah] so in Jer_37:1 : called Jeconiah in Jer_24:1, etc. The change of his name to Jehoiachin, as in the case of his uncle Jehoahaz (the Shallum of Jer_22:11), was probably made on his accession to the throne. All three names mean, 'The Lord will establish.' Signet] emblem of royal authority.
26. See Jer_52:31.
28. A lament over Jehoiachin's fate. Idol] RV 'vessel,' a piece of earthenware cast out as useless.
29. For the emphasis by three-fold repetition cp. Jer_7:4.
30. Write ye, etc.] addressed to those who kept his family registers. They are bidden to enter the fact now instead of waiting for his death. Even though he had children (1Ch_3:17.) they were not to succeed to the throne. 'Whether childless or not Jehoiachin was the last king of David's line. His uncle, indeed, actually reigned after him, but perished with his sons long before Jehoiachin's death (Jer_52:10).'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Concerning the Kings of Judah (22:1-23:8)
Concerning the Kings of Judah (22:1-23:8)
CHAPTER 22
Read full note →
1. The message in the house of the king of Judah (Jer 22:1-9)
2. Touching Shallum, the King of Judah (Jer 22:11-12)
3. Concerning Jehoiakim and his fate (Jer 22:13-19)
4. Concerning Coniah and his fate (Jer 22:20-30)
Jer 22:1-10. What a figure Jeremiah was as he stood, obedient to the divine command, before the royal palace to deliver his God-given message! The door of mercy still is open. Let them execute judgment, let them stop oppressing the stranger, the widows and orphans, let them shed no longer innocent blood, then the house of David shall prosper. If not, the house shall become a desolation. The nations astonished at the destruction and overthrow of the city will hear the answer that it is “because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshipped other gods and served them.”
Jer 22:11-12. He is also called Jehoahaz 1Ch 3:15; 2Ki 23:30-37. He was carried away by Pharaoh-Necho into Egypt; he will return.
Jer 22:13-19. This wicked king and his evil doings are described in these verses. He was a cruel despot, who built his palaces by forced labor; covetousness, shedding of innocent blood, oppression and violence characterized his reign. Then his ignominious burial, the burial of an ass, is predicted. It means that an ass has no burial and so Jehoiakim would have no burial; he is the only king of Judah whose burial is not recorded. It may be possible that Jeremiah added these words by divine command, after this king had cut the roll to pieces and burned it in the fire Jer 36:1-32. The prophet wrote the same words contained in the roll (all these chapters beginning with chapter 2 constitute the roll the king burned), and many others were added. Most likely because he had done that wicked work in cutting the Word of God to pieces and casting it into the fire, this special shameful end was announced. Beware you cutters of the Bible, you mutilators of the Word of God, your end, too, will be an ignominious end!
Jer 22:20-30. Coniah, also called Jehoiachin, Joiakim and Joachim, after a brief reign of a few months had been carried away to Babylon to die there. Then the prophet’s voice breaks in with a mighty appeal, “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.” Every true believer feels like shouting these words in the present days of departure from God and rejection of His Word. Then there is a prediction as to Jeconiah, “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.” A curse was thus pronounced upon the house of David in the line of Solomon. But there was still the line of Nathan the son of David. Messiah, the Son of David, could therefore not spring from the line of Solomon; he must come from the line of Nathan. Joseph, the husband of the virgin Mary of Nazareth was a son of David through the line of Solomon, the disinherited line; but Mary of Nazareth was a daughter of David through the line of Nathan.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Warning Against Unrighteousness and Oppression
Warning Against Unrighteousness and Oppression
v. 1. Thus saith the Lord, Go down to the house of the king of Judah, from the Temple to the palace, which was situated at a lower level, and speak there this word, not merely in the presence of the king, but as a message to the entire nation,
Read full note →
v. 2. and say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, a fact which committed him to the high standards set by that friend of God, thou and thy servants, the members of his court, and thy people that enter in by these gates, those of the royal palace:
v. 3. Thus saith the Lord, Execute ye judgment and righteousness, as the fundamental principle of Jehovah’s nation, Cf. Jer 7:6; Jer 21:12, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, rescuing those who were being systematically plundered by the mightier people of the nation; and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, in excessive taxation and other unjust exactions, neither shed innocent blood in this place, all of these transgressions having freely been committed by the later kings of Judah; for in the same measure as their standing among the nations lost in prestige, they practiced tyranny at home.
v. 4. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, as his successors in a direct line, riding in chariots and on horses, he and his servants and his people. Cf. Jer 17:25.
v. 5. But if ye will not hear these words, disregarding their solemn warning, I swear by Myself, saith the Lord, by the highest instance to which appeal can be made at any time, that this house shall become a desolation, the splendid royal palace becoming a total ruin.
v. 6. For thus saith the Lord unto the king’s house of Judah, concerning the royal palace with all its inestimable splendor. Thou art Gilead unto Me and the head of Lebanon, the point of comparison being the many pillars and ornaments of costly wood derived from the forests of Gilead and of Lebanon, which made the complex of buildings comprising the royal palace a veritable forest of oaks and cedars; yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, a treeless wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
v. 7. And I will prepare destroyers against thee, consecrated, as it were, to perform His will in bringing destruction upon Jerusalem and the palace of the king, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars and cast them into the fire, the picture of a forest’s destruction being maintained to this point.
v. 8. And many nations shall pass by this city, the entire capital being destroyed with the Temple and the royal palace, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, in wonder and astonishment over such utter desolation, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?
v. 9. Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord, their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them. Cf Deu 29:23 ff. ; 1Ki 9:8-9. Jerusalem is only one of the many cities which, in the course of time, have become spectacles of God’s vengeance, as a warning to all men to heed His commands.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 the house of the king of Judah
the house of the king of Judah
"the palace of the king of Judah." The word "house" has a range of possible meanings. In this case it refers to the royal palace where the king lived.
Read full note →
proclaim this word
"proclaim this message"
listen to the word of Yahweh
"pay attention to the word of Yahweh"
you who sit on David's throne
This refers to the king of Judah.
sit on David's throne
The metonym "throne" refers to having authority as king, like David had. AT: "rule as king, like David before you" (See: Metonymy)
your people who come through these gates
These gates are the gates of the king's palace. AT: "your people who come to visit the king" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Perform justice and righteousness
The abstract nouns "justice" and "righteousness can be stated as actions. AT: "Act fairly and justly" (See: Abstract Nouns)
anyone who has been robbed—rescue him from the hand of the oppressor
"rescue anyone who has been robbed from the hand of the oppressor"
the hand of the oppressor
Here "the hand" refers to power or control. AT: "the power of the oppressor" or "the one who would harm him" (See: Metonymy)
Do not mistreat
"Do not treat badly"
orphan
a child who does not have parents
Do not ... pour out innocent blood
Here "pour out ... blood" is associated with murder, and "blood" refers to the murdered people. AT: "Do not ... murder innocent people" (See: Idiom and Synecdoche)
in this place
Possible meanings are 1) Jerusalem or 2) the whole country of Judah. This does not imply that it is good to murder people in other places.
translationWords
Yahweh
king
kingdom of Judah
preach
word of God
David
throne
servant
gate
just
righteous
hand
oppress
innocent
blood
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:1–23:8 This collection of messages to the last Davidic…
22:1–23:8 This collection of messages to the last Davidic kings of Judah culminates in the promise that God would one day place a true descendant of David over his people.
22:1-5 Jeremiah delivered a statement, drawn from the Sinai covenant, that summarized the duties of a king of Judah. Fulfillment of these duties would ensure the continuation of the dynasty of David in Jerusalem; refusal would bring the unimaginable disappearance of the palace and the kingdom.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.