Jeremiah 22:29 Kommentar

Upon occasion of the message sent in the foregoing chapter to the house of the king, we have here recorded some sermons which Jeremiah preached at court, in some preceding reigns, that it might appear they had had fair warning long before that fatal sentence was pronounced upon them, and were put in a way to prevent it. Here is, I. A message sent to the royal family, as it should seem in the reign of Jehoiakim, relating partly to Jehoahaz, who was carried away captive into Egypt, and partly to Jehoiakim, who succeeded him and was now upon the throne. The king and princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and are assured that, if they did so, the royal family should flourish, but otherwise it should be ruined (Jer 22:1-9). Jehoahaz, called here Shallum, is lamented (Jer 22:10-12). Jehoiakim is reproved and threatened (Jer 22:13-19). II. Another message sent them in the reign of Jehoiachin (alias, Jeconiah) the son of Jehoiakim. He is charged with an obstinate refusal to hear, and is threatened with destruction, and it is foretold that in him Solomon's house should fail (Jer 22:20-30).

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 22 This chapter is a prophecy of what should befall the sons of Josiah, Jehoahaz or Shallum; Jehoiakim and Jeconiah. It begins with an exhortation to the then reigning prince, Jehoiakim, his family and court, to do justice, relieve the oppressed, and refrain from doing injury to any; with a promise of prosperity upon so doing, Jer 22:1; but, on the contrary behaviour, the king's family, however precious they had been in the sight of the Lord, should be destroyed, by persons described as fit for such work, which would occasion others to inquire the cause of such destruction; when it would be told them, it was for their apostasy from the Lord, their breaking covenant with him, and their idolatry, Jer 22:5; then of Shallum, who was then carried captive, it is predicted that he should never return more, which was matter of greater lamentation than the death of his father Josiah, Jer 22:10; next Jehoiakim, the present king on the throne, is reproved, and a woe denounced upon him for his injustice, luxury, covetousness, rapine, and murders, Jer 22:13; and it is particularly threatened that he should die unlamented, and have no burial, Jer 22:18; and then the people of the land are called upon to mourning and lamentation, their kings one after another being carried captive, Jer 22:20; also Jeconiah the king's son, and who succeeded him, is threatened with rejection from the Lord, and a delivery of him up into the hand of the king of Babylon, with exile in a strange country, and death there, and that without children; so that Solomon's line should cease in him, Jer 22:24.

O earth, earth, earth,.... Not Coniah himself, an earthly man; but either the inhabitants of the whole earth, or of the land of Israel; or rather the earth, on which men dwell, is here called upon as a witness to what is after said; to rebuke the stupidity of the people, and to quicken their attention to somewhat very remarkable and worthy of notice, and therefore the word is repeated three times. Some think reference is had to the land from which, and that to which, the Jews removed, and the land of Israel, through which they passed. So the Targum, "out of his own land they carried him captive into another land; O land of Israel, receive the words of the Lord.'' Jarchi mentions another reason of this threefold appellation, because the land of Israel was divided into three parts, Judea, beyond Jordan, and Galilee; hear the word of the Lord; which follows.

Someone who is in a state of ignorance is sinful and considered “earth and ashes.” Someone who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is already spiritual and thus is considered elect. Scripture calls the senseless and disobedient by the term “dirt,” which is clear from what Jeremiah the prophet says in reference to Joachim and his brothers: “Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Inscribe this man as an outcast.”

(Verse 29, 30.) Earth, earth, earth, listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Write down this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from his seed who sits on the throne of David and has authority in Judah (or Judea). If I were to note every individual difference, how much the Septuagint may have omitted or changed, it would be lengthy, especially since a diligent reader can consider from both editions what has been changed, added, or subtracted. For in Hebrew it is written, Ariri, which in the first edition of Aquila means sterile, in the second, ἀναύξητον, that is, not increasing, Symmachus, empty, Septuagint and Theodotion, abominable and rejected. And the question arises, how can the prophecy stand, that from his offspring no one will be born who will sit on the throne of David, nor will there be a ruler anymore in Judah, when the Lord and Savior is born from his seed; concerning whose birth Gabriel speaks to Mary: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He himself will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:31-33). Therefore, we can say that what is missing in the Septuagint, namely, 'in his days there will be no prosperity or growth', is a question that has been debated by those who are ignorant. For the Seventy translated: Write down this man as a man who is rejected: because no man who descends from him will grow to sit upon the throne of David, a ruler forever in Judah, which is repeated twice in Hebrew; and those who initially wrote it, thinking it was added in the Greek books, removed it. Let us therefore respond that in the days of Jechoniah there will not be a man who will sit upon his throne; but after a long time a descendant of his will be born who will obtain his throne. However, it can also be solved in this way: A man and a human being will not indeed sit upon the throne of David, but God will sit, and his kingdom will not be earthly and short-lived, as David's was, but everlasting and heavenly, as Scripture says: He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32). Therefore, he was born of Joachim, who was the son of Jechoniah, who was the son of Salathiel, who was the son of Zerubbabel, and in this way it comes down to Christ. But in the days of Joachim, a son did not succeed him as king, as he himself had succeeded his father, but he and Salathiel and Zerubbabel were in captivity, and until Christ, no one obtained royal power. However, this happened because it is written in Hebrew: in his days and in his time, there will be no man who sits on the throne of David. For all were captives, and no one from the lineage of David thereafter held the principate in the land of Judaea. Hence, Josephus reports that the priestly line and tribe of Levi were leaders, succeeded by Herod Antipater, a proselyte and son, and later under Vespasian, the kingdom of this line, indeed the image of the empire, was utterly destroyed.

EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE; JUDGMENT ON SHALLUM, JEHOIAKIM, AND CONIAH. (Jer. 22:1-30) Go down--The temple (where Jeremiah had been prophesying) was higher than the king's palace on Mount Zion (Jer 36:10, Jer 36:12; Ch2 23:20). Hence the phrase, "Go down." the king of Judah--perhaps including each of the four successive kings, to whom it was consecutively addressed, here brought together in one picture: Shallum, Jer 22:11; Jehoiakim, Jer 22:13-18; Jeconiah, Jer 22:24; Zedekiah, the address to whom (Jer 21:1, Jer 21:11-12) suggests notice of the rest.

O earth! earth! earth!--Jeconiah was not actually without offspring (compare Jer 22:28, "his seed"; Ch1 3:17-18; Mat 1:12), but he was to be "written childless," as a warning to posterity, that is, without a lineal heir to his throne. It is with a reference to the three kings, Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah, that the earth is thrice invoked [BENGEL]. Or, the triple invocation is to give intensity to the call for attention to the announcement of the end of the royal line, so far as Jehoiachin's seed is concerned. Though Messiah (Mat. 1:1-17), the heir of David's throne, was lineally descended from Jeconiah, it was only through Joseph, who, though His legal, was not His real father. Matthew gives the legal pedigree through Solomon down to Joseph; Luke the real pedigree, from Mary, the real parent, through Nathan, brother of Solomon, upwards (Luk 3:31). no man of his seed . . . upon the throne--This explains the sense in which "childless" is used. Though the succession to the throne failed in his line, still the promise to David (Psa 89:30-37) was revived in Zerubbabel and consummated in Christ. This forms the epilogue to the denunciations of the four kings, in Jer. 21:1-22:30. Next: Jeremiah Chapter 23

Rebuke of the Ungodly Kings Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, and Promise of a Righteous Branch of David. - This discourse begins with an exhortation to the king, his servants, and the people to do right and justice, and to eschew all unrighteousness, and with the warning, that in case of the contrary the royal palace will be reduced to ruins and Jerusalem destroyed by fire. After touching briefly on the fate of Jehoahaz, who has been deported to Egypt (Jer 22:10-12), the discourse turns against Jehoiakim, rebukes his tyranny, in that he builds his house with unrighteousness and schemes only bloodshed and violence, and threatens him with ignominious ruin (Jer 22:13-19). Then, after a threatening against Jerusalem (Jer 22:20-23), it deals with Jechoniah, who is told he shall be carried to Babylon never to return, and without any descendant to sit on his throne (Jer 22:24-30). Next, after an outcry of grief at the wicked shepherds, follows the promise that the Lord will gather the remnant of His flock out of all the lands whither they have been driven, that He will restore them to their fields and multiply them, and that He will raise up to them a good shepherd in the righteous branch of David (Jer 23:1-8). - According to Jer 21:1, Jeremiah spoke these words in the house of the king of Judah; whence we see that in this passage we have not merely ideas and scraps of addresses gathered together, such as had been on various occasions orally delivered by the prophet. It further appears from Jer 22:10 and Jer 22:13-17, that the portion of the discourse addressed to Jehoiakim was uttered in the first year of his reign; and from Jer 22:24, where Jechoniah is addressed as king, that the utterance concerning him belongs to the short period (only three months long) of his reign. But the utterance concerning Jechoniah is joined with that concerning Jehoiakim on account of the close relationship in matter between them. The exhortation and warning against injustice, forming the introduction, as regards it contents, fits very well into the time of Jehoiakim (cf. Jer 22:17 with Jer 22:3). The promise with which the discourse concludes was apparently not spoken till the time of Jechoniah, shortly before his being taken to Babylon. So that we have here the discourses of Jeremiah belonging to the times of Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin respectively, joined into one continuous whole.

The land is to take the king's fate sore to heart. The triple repetition of the summons: Land, gives it a special emphasis, and marks the following sentence as of high importance; cf. Jer 7:4; Eze 21:32; Isa 6:3. Write him down, record him in the family registers, as childless, i.e., as a man with whom his race becomes extinct. This is more definitely intimated in the parallel member, namely, that he will not have the fortune to have any of his posterity sit on the throne of David. This does not exclude the possibility of his having sons; it merely implies that none of them should obtain the throne. ערירי sig. lit., solitary, forsaken. Thus a man might well be called who has lost his children by death. Acc. to Ch1 3:16., Jechoniah had two sons, Zedekiah and Assir, of whom the former died childless, the second had but one daughter; and from her and her husband, of the line of Nathan, was born Shealtiel, who also died childless; see the expos. of Ch1 3:16. Jechoniah was followed on the throne by his uncle Mattaniah, whom Nebuchadnezzar installed under the name of Zedekiah. He it was that rose in insurrection against the king of Babylon, and after the capture of Jerusalem was taken prisoner while in flight; and being carried before Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, saw his sons put to death before his eyes, was then made blind, thrown in chains, and carried a prisoner to Babylon, Kg2 25:4.