Verse 10
He shall burn it with fire - What a heavy message to all; and especially to them who had any fear of God, or reverence for the temple and its sacred services!
Verse 12
Execute judgment in the morning - Probably the time for dispensing judgment was the morning, when the people were going to their work; but the words may mean, Do justice promptly, do not delay. Let justice be administered as soon as required.
Verse 13
O inhabitant of the valley, and rock of the plain - Dr. Blayney translates: "O thou inhabitant of the levelled hollow of a rock." With all his explanation I cannot see the good sense of this translation. Jerusalem itself, though partly on two hills, was also extended in the valley; and Zion, the city of David, was properly a rock, strongly fortified both by nature and art; and by its ancient possessors, the Jebusites, was deemed impregnable.
Who shall come down against us? - Probably the words of those courtiers who had persuaded Zedekiah to rebel against the king of Babylon.
Verse 14
I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof - I will send destruction into its center, that shall spread to every part of the circumference, and so consume the whole.
The beginning of the thirty-fourth chapter should follow here. See the arrangement on [Jer 34:1] (note).
Introduction
This section of prophecy, extending to the end of the eighth 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, [Jer 22:14]; but threatens them, in case of disobedience, with utter destruction, [Jer 22:5-9]. The captivity of Shallum, the son of Josiah, is declared to be irreversible, [Jer 22:10-12]; and the miserable and unlamented end of Jeconiah, contemptuously called Coniah, is foretold, [Jer 22:13-19]. His family is threatened with the like captivity, and his seed declared to be for ever excluded from the throne, [Jer 22:20-30].
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.
Verse 2
O king of Judah - thou, and thy servants - His ministers are here addressed, as chiefly governing the nation; and who had counselled Zedekiah to rebel.
Verse 6
Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon - Perhaps in allusion, says Dahler, to the oaks of Gilead, and the cedars of Mount Lebanon, of which the palace was constructed. Lebanon was the highest mountain in Israel, and Gilead the richest and most fertile part of the country; and were, therefore, proper emblems of the reigning family. Though thou art the richest and most powerful, I, who raised thee up, can bring thee down and make thee a wilderness.
Verse 7
They shall cut down thy choice cedars - The destruction of the country is expressed under the symbol of the destruction of a fine forest; a multitude of fellers come against it, each with his axe; and, there being no resistance, every tree is soon felled to the earth. "These destroyers," God says, "I have prepared, קדשתי kiddashti, I have sanctified - consecrated, to this work. They have their commission from me."
Verse 8
Many nations shall pass - These words seem borrowed from [Deu 29:22], etc.
Verse 10
Weep ye not for the dead - Josiah, dead in consequence of the wound he had received at Megiddo, in a battle with Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt; but he died in peace with God.
But weep sore for him that goeth away - Namely, Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah, called below Shallum, whom Pharaoh-necho had carried captive into Egypt from which it was prophesied he should never return, [2Kgs 23:30-34]. He was called Shallum before he ascended the throne, and Jehoahaz afterwards; so his brother Eliakim changed his name to Jehoiakim, and Mattaniah to Zedekiah.
Verse 13
Wo unto him that buildeth his house - These evils, charged against Jehoiakim, are nowhere else circumstantially related. We learn from [2Kgs 23:35-37], that he taxed his subjects heavily, to give to Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt: "He exacted the silver and gold of the people of the land, and did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord." The mode of taxation is here intimated; he took the wages of the hirelings, and caused the people to work without wages in his own buildings, etc.
Verse 15
Shalt thou reign, etc - Dost thou think thou art a great king, because thou dwellest in a splendid palace?
Verse 18
They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! - These words were no doubt the burden of some funeral dirge. Alas! a brother, who was our lord or governor, is gone. Alas, our sister! his Queen, who has lost her glory in losing her husband. הדה hodah is feminine, and must refer to the glory of the queen.
The mournings in the east, and lamentations for the dead, are loud, vehement, and distressing. For a child or a parent grief is expressed in a variety of impassioned sentences, each ending with a burden like that in the text, "Ah my child!" "Ah my mother!" as the prophet in this place: הוי אחי hoi achi, "Ah my brother!" הוי אחות hoi achoth, "Ah sister!" הוי אדון hoi adon, "Ah lord!" הוי הדה hoi hodah "Ah the glory." Mr. Ward, in his Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, gives two examples of lamentation; one of a mother for the death of her son, one of a daughter for her departed mother. "When a woman," says he, "is overwhelmed with grief for the death of her child, she utters her grief in some such language as the following: -
Ah, my Hureedas, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
My golden image, Hureedas, who has taken? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
I nourished and reared him, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Take me with thee. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
He played round me like a golden top. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Like his face I never saw one. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
The infant continually cried, Ma Ma! - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Ah my child, crying, Ma! come into my lap. - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Who shall now drink milk? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Who shall now stay in my lap? - 'Ah my child, my child!'
Our support is gone! - 'Ah my child, my child!' "The lamentations for a mother are in some such strains as these: -
Mother! where is she gone? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'
You are gone, but what have you left for me? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'
Whom shall I now call mother, mother? - 'Ah my mother, my mother!'