|
Jeremias xxii.
Notes & Commentary:
Ver. 1.
Go. The contents of this chapter are of a more ancient date than those of the foregoing chapter; for the order of time
is not always observed in the writings of the prophets. (Challoner) (Worthington) --- King Joakim, who succeeded Sellum,
the year of the world 3394. (Usher)
Ver. 5.
Myself, having none greater, Hebrews vi. 13. Oaths evince the insincerity of men, who distrust each other; but when
God condescends to use them, it shews men's incredulity. --- House, the temple, or rather the palace, where the king
was sitting at the gate, ver. 2. (Calmet)
Ver. 6.
Galaad, the head of Libanus. By Galaad, a rich and fruitful country, is here signified the royal palace of the kings
of the house of David; by Libanus, a high mountain abounding in cedar-trees, the populous city of Jerusalem. (Challoner) (Worthington)
(Theodoret) --- Both mountains are connected. (St. Jerome) (Strabo xvi.) --- Yet the proper Galaad was at some distance, and
on the side of Ammon very barren. The palaces had arisen from a miserable state to resemble Libanus. They shall surely be
destroyed. (Calmet) --- The advantageous situation of Jerusalem should not protect it, no more than it had done Galaad, 4
Kings xv. 29. (Junius; Grotius)
Ver. 7.
Prepare. Literally, sanctify; (Challoner) as various religious ceremonies were used before the declaration of
war, and to know what would be the success. (Calmet) --- The Chaldeans were destined to execute God's decrees. (St. Jerome)
--- Cedars; fine buildings, (ver. 14.; Calmet) and chiefs. (Haydock)
Ver. 10.
Dead. He means the good king Josias, who by death was taken away, so as not to see the miseries of his country. ---
Away. Sellum, alias Joachaz, who was carried captive into Egypt, (Challoner) ver. 12., and 4 Kings xxiii. 33. (Calmet)
--- He was the fourth son of Josias, (1 Paralipomenon iii. 15.) and had probably the title of king after the death of Sedecias.
(Worthington)
Ver. 13.
Friend. Joakim forced his subjects to work for him for nothing.
Ver. 14.
Wide. Hebrew, "measured;" large, and well-proportioned. --- Vermilion, (cynopide.) This colour was invented
in the town of Pontus, and was used for statues, &c. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 6., and xxxv. 6.) (Wisdom xiii.
14.) (Calmet) --- Hebrew shashar (Haydock) may mean indigo. (Junius) (Calmet)
Ver. 15.
Cedar; Josias. (Calmet) --- Shall thy magnificent palaces secure thy empire? (Haydock) --- Him. Obey the Lord,
in like manner, that thou mayst prosper.
Ver. 18.
Sister. They shall not condole with his consort.
Ver. 19.
Jerusalem. Chap. xxxvi. 30. He died indeed with or like his fathers, 4 Kings xxiv. 6. But it is not said
that he was buried. (St. Jerome) --- The Chaldeans designed to send him to Babylon, (2 Paralipomenon xxxvi. 6.) but slew him
on the road, (Usher, the year of the world 3405) or treated his corpse ignominiously after his arrival. (Grotius)
Ver. 20.
Go; Jerusalem. The verbs are feminine. --- Lovers; citizens, or Egyptians, &c., chap. xxvii. 2.
Ver. 22.
Pastors, or princes, whose expectations of aid will be frustrated, Osee xii. 1. Chaldean, "Thy leaders shall be scattered
to all the winds."
Ver. 24.
Jechonias: Joachin, (4 Kings xxiv. 6.; Worthington) or Chenias, who did not take warning by his predecessor's misfortune.
--- Ring, or seal, if he were most dear to me, the prime minister of the greatest monarch, Aggeus ii. 24. (Calmet)
--- Alexander the Great gave his ring to Perdiccas, designating him his successor, or regent. (Curt. x.)
Ver. 26.
Mother; Nohesta, (4 Kings xxiv. 8.) who perverted, (Calmet) or did not correct him in his youth. (Haydock)
Ver. 27.
Mind; ardently desiring and expecting to be liberated. (Calmet)
Ver. 28.
Jechonias. Protestants, "Koniah, a despised broken idol? is he," &c. Alexandrian Septuagint, "Jechonias
has been dishonoured as a vessel, or which there is no need, for he hath been snatched and cast," &c. (Haydock)
Ver. 30.
Write this man barren. That is childless: not that he had no children, but that his children should never sit on the
throne of Juda, (Challoner) ver. 28., Matthew i. 12., and Ezechiel xvii. 24. Zorobabel was of his seed, yet he never obtained
the title or sovereign power of a king. The Machabees were of a different family. (St. Jerome) --- Joachin, or Jechonias,
was restored indeed to some favour, (4 Kings xxv. 27.) but not to the kingdom, no more than any of his posterity, till Christ.
(Worthington)
 |
|
|
Bible Text & Cross-references:
An exhortation both to king and people to return to God.
The sentence of God upon Joachaz, Joakim, and Jechonias.
1 Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and
there thou shalt speak this word.
2 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that
sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus saith the Lord: *Execute judgement and justice, and deliver him
that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, nor oppress
them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in, by
the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and
their servants, and their people.
5 But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, saith
the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art
to me Galaad, the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities not habitable.
7 And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and
they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every
man to his neighbour: *Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
9 And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the
Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.
10 Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament
him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus saith the Lord to Sellum, the son of Josias, the king of
Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:
12 But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die,
and he shall not see this land any more.
13 Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers
not in judgement: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
14 Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who openeth
to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar? did
not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it
not, therefore, because he knew me, saith the Lord?
17 But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding
innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.
18 Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim, the son of Josias,
king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas! my brother, and alas! sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas! my
lord, or, alas! the noble one.
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth
*without the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry
to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to thee in thy properity: and thou saidst: I will not hear:
this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.
22 The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into
captivity: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.
23 Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how
hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?
24 As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias, the son of Joakim, the king
of Juda, were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and
into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and into the hand of
the Chaldeans.
26 And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange
country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
27 And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their
mind to return thither.
28 Is this man, Jechonias, an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel
wherein is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
30 Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper
in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in
Juda.
____________________
*
3: Jeremias xxi. 12.
8: Deuteronomy xxix. 24.; 3 Kings ix. 8.
19: Jeremias xxxvi. 30.
|
|
|