Jeremiah 22:18

22:10-19 Here is a sentence of death upon two kings, the wicked sons of a very pious father. Josiah was prevented from seeing the evil to come in this world, and removed to see the good to come in the other world; therefore, weep not for him, but for his son Shallum, who is likely to live and die a wretched captive. Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. Here also is the doom of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful for princes and great men to build, beautify, and furnish houses; but those who enlarge their houses, and make them sumptuous, need carefully to watch against the workings of vain-glory. He built his houses by unrighteousness, with money gotten unjustly. And he defrauded his workmen of their wages. God notices the wrong done by the greatest to poor servants and labourers, and will repay those in justice, who will not, in justice, pay those whom they employ. The greatest of men must look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them accordingly. Jehoiakim was unjust, and made no conscience of shedding innocent blood. Covetousness, which is the root of all evil, was at the bottom of all. The children who despise their parents' old fashions, commonly come short of their real excellences. Jehoiakim knew that his father found the way of duty to be the way of comfort, yet he would not tread in his steps. He shall die unlamented, hateful for oppression and cruelty.

Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim,.... This shows who is before spoken of and described; Jehoiakim, the then reigning king in Judah, whose name was Eliakim, but was changed by Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he deposed his brother Jehoahaz or Shallum, and set him on the throne, 2 Kings 23:34 ; the son of Josiah king of Judah; and who seems to have been his eldest son, though his brother Jehoahaz reigned before him; for he was but twenty three years of age when he began his reign, and he reigned but three months; and Jehoiakim was twenty five years old when he succeeded him, 2 Kings 23:31; his relation to Josiah is mentioned, not so much for his honour, but rather to his disgrace, and as an aggravation of his wickedness, that having so religious a parent, and such a religious education, and the advantage of such an example, and yet did so sadly degenerate: and it also suggests that this would be no security to him from the divine vengeance; but rather provoke it, to deal more severely with him; they shall not lament for him; that is, his people, his subjects, shall not lament for him when dead, as they did for his father Josiah; so far from having any real grief or inward sorrow on account of his death, that they should not so much as outwardly express any, or use the common form at meeting together: saying, ah my brother! or, ah sister! a woman meeting her brother would not say to him, O my brother, what bad news is this! we have lost our king!

Jeremiah 22:18-19 . They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! &c. — “The prophet here repeats part of the funeral ditty or song which the public mourners used to sing at funerals, (see note on Jeremiah 9:17 ; Jeremiah 20:14 , and compare 1 Kings 13:30 ,) signifying, that neither Jehoiakim, nor his queen or family, should be buried with those solemn lamentations with which the memory of his predecessors, particularly that of his father, had been honoured: see 2 Chronicles 35:25 . Saying, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory! — That is, how is his glory departed and vanished! another burden or chorus of the funeral song. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass — None attending him to his grave, none mourning over him. Or, the meaning is, he shall have no burial: for the carcasses of asses are not buried. Drawn and cast forth, &c. — The expression seems to be taken from the custom of dogs to draw about a carcass before they tear and devour it. Jehoiakim, having been advanced to the kingdom by Pharaoh-necho, king of Egypt, 2 Kings 23:34 , followed the fortune of that king, and upon the conquest of Egypt by the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 46:2 , after three years’ reign, was taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar, and put into irons, Daniel 1:2 ; 2 Chronicles 36:6 . But afterward, it seems, the king of Babylon released him and made him a tributary king. After three years’ obedience, however, Jehoiakim rebelled, in confidence of assistance from Egypt.

Soon after which Nebuchadnezzar’s army overran Judea, besieged Jerusalem, and probably took Jehoiakim prisoner in some sally that he made upon them, and killed him, and then cast out his dead body into the highway, denying him the common rites of burial: see 2 Kings 24:1-6 . Accordingly, he is said to have slept with his fathers, but not to have been buried with them: see also Joseph. Antiq., lib. 10. cap. 7, 8.

Verse 18. - Josiah had been bitterly missed and universally lamented ( 2 Chronicles 35:25 ); and so, only perhaps with less heartiness in most cases, Jehoiakim's other predecessors ( Jeremiah 34:5 ). The Babylonian kings, too, received the honors of public mourning, e.g. even the last of his race, who surrendered to Cyrus, according to the British Museum inscription translated by Mr. Pinches. Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! The Septuagint omits the latter part of this phrase, apparently because it seemed inappropriate to the death of Jehoiakim; but the parallelism requires a two-membered clause. According to Movers, the funeral procession is to be conceived of as formed of two parts, condoling with each other on having to share the same fate ('Die Phonizier,' 2. 248). Or perhaps mythology may supply a reason; it is possible that the formulae of public mourning were derived from the ceremonies of the Adonia; Adonis was an androgynous deity (Lenormant, 'Lettres assyriologiques,' 2:209), and might be lamented by his devotees as at once "brother" and "sister." (For another view, see Sayco's edition of G. Smith's 'Chaldean Genesis,' p. 267). Ezekiel ( Ezekiel 8:13 ) testifies to the worship of Tammuz, or Adonis, and the highest compliment a king could receive might be to be lamented in the same terms as the sun-god. Jeremiah does not approve this; he merely describes the popular custom.

The recognition of the deeply rooted heathenism of the Jews before the Exile involves no disparagement to Old Testament religion; rather it increases the cogency of the argument for its supernatural origin. For how great was the contrast between Jeremiah and his semi-heathen countrymen! And yet Jeremiah's religion is the seed of the faith which overcame the world. Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! Lord is in the Hebrew adon (comp. Adonis and see above). His glory is against the parallelism; we should expect "lady" or "queen." Jeremiah 22:18

18 . Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! ] given as the usual formulae in lamenting a death (see 1 Kings 13:30 ). The second is here inappropriate, but it satisfies the parallelism of the Ḳinah metre of the whole passage. Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! ] the lamentations of subjects and friends, those outside his family. 18, 19 . The prediction of the circumstances attendant upon his death. Cp. Jeremiah 36:30 , the similarity of which makes it probable that these were among the “many like words” which were added to the original form of the Roll ( Jeremiah 36:32 ) as read to Jehoiakim, and would thus probably be later than the rest of the passage. The prediction was doubtless fulfilled, or it would not have been included in Jeremiah’s prophecies as edited. It is true that we read 2 Kings 24:6 that Jehoiakim “slept with his fathers,” but mention of his burial is significantly omitted.

Boldly by name is the judgment at length pronounced upon Jehoiakim. Dreaded by all around him, he shall soon lie an unheeded corpse, with no one to lament. No loving relative shall make such wailing as when a brother or sister is carried to the grave; nor shall he have the respect of his subjects, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory!

(18) They shall not lament for him. —The words contrast the death as well as the life of Jehoiakim with that of Josiah. For him there should be no lamentation such as was made for the righteous king ( 2Chronicles 35:25 ), either from kindred mourning, as over a brother or a sister (perhaps, however, as “sister” would not be appropriate to the king, the words are those of a chorus of mourners, male and female, addressing each other), or from subjects wailing over the death of their “lord” and the departure of his “glory.” For the funeral ceremonies of Israel, see 1Kings 13:30 ; Matthew 9:23 ; Mark 5:38 .

Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; a very bad son of a good father, whose name was Eliakim, by Pharaoh-nechoh turned to Jehoiakim, 2 Kings 23:34 , and by him set up. He reigned wickedly, and infinitely oppressed the people for money for Pharaoh-nechoh, that made him king, 22:35. He reigned but eleven years; but rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, we read, 2 Kings 24:1,2 , he was carried by him into Babylon in fetters, 2 Chronicles 36:6 , where, for aught we read, he died. Jehoiachin, or Jeconiah, his son, succeeded him, Jeremiah 22:9 , reigning only three months and ten days. They shall not lament for him; he died not lamented; for as it is not probable his enemies would lament him, so he had disobliged his own people by violence and oppression to that degree, that it is not likely that those of them that were in Babylon made any great lamentation for him.

18. Ah my brother! … sister!—addressing him with such titles of affection as one would address to a deceased friend beloved as a brother or sister (compare 1Ki 13:30). This expresses, They shall not lament him with the lamentation of private individuals [Vatablus], or of blood relatives [Grotius]: as "Ah! lord," expresses public lamentation in the case of a king [Vatablus], or that of subjects [Grotius]. Henderson thinks, "Ah! sister," refers to Jehoiakim's queen, who, though taken to Babylon and not left unburied on the way, as Jehoiakim, yet was not honored at her death with royal lamentations, such as would have been poured forth over her at Jerusalem. He notices the beauty of Jeremiah's manner in his prophecy against Jehoiakim. In Jer 22:13, 14 he describes him in general terms; then, in Jer 22:15-17, he directly addresses him without naming him; at last, in Jer 22:18, he names him, but in the third person, to imply that God puts him to a distance from Him. The boldness of the Hebrew prophets proves their divine mission; were it not so, their reproofs to the Hebrew kings, who held the throne by divine authority, would have been treason. Ah his glory!—"Alas! his majesty."