Jeremiah 22:19

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.

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass,.... Have no burial at all, or no other than what any brute creature has; which, when it dies, is cast into a ditch, and becomes the food of dogs, and the fowls of the air. The "ass" is mentioned, as being a sordid stupid creature; and such an one was this king; drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem; as the carcass of a beast is dragged about by dogs; or as a malefactor, when executed, is dragged and cast into a ditch: this perhaps was done by the Chaldeans, who, when he was slain, dragged him along, and cast him beyond the gates of Jerusalem. So Josephus (w) says, that when Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem, he slew the most robust and beautiful with Jehoiakim their king, and ordered him to be cast without the walls unburied; and so, though he is said to "sleep with his fathers", yet not to be buried with them, 2 Kings 24:6. Kimchi says that he died without Jerusalem, as they were carrying him into captivity a second time; and the Chaldeans would not suffer him to be buried. Jerom reports, from the Hebrew history, that he was killed by the robbers and thieves of the Chaldeans, Syrians, Ammonites, and Moabites.

Some think, that as he was bound in chains, in order to be carried to Babylon, that he was had there, and there died, and after his death used in this ignominious manner: and the words will bear to be rendered, "cast forth far beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (x); even as far as Babylon; see 2 Chronicles 36:6. (w) Antiqu. l. 10. c. 6. sect. 3.((x) "et projiciendo procul ultra portas Hierosolymae", Schmidt. So Grotius and Gataker.

Verse 19. - Jehoiakim's miserable death, without even the honor of burial. The prediction is repeated in Jeremiah 36:30 , where the statement is made in plain language. At first sight it appears to conflict with 2 Kings 24:6 , "So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers: and Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead;" but it is only appearance, and when we remember that the complete formula for describing the natural death of a king of Judah is, "slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David" ( 1 Kings 14:31 ; 1 Kings 15:24 ; 1 Kings 22:50 ; 2 Kings 8:24 ; 2 Kings 15:7, 38 ; 2 Kings 16:20 ), and that the phrase, "slept with his fathers," is used of Ahab, who fell on the field of battle ( 1 Kings 22:40 ), we are naturally led to the conjecture that Jehoiakim did not die a natural death, but fell in battle in some sally made by the besieged. Buried with the burial of an ass ; i.e. cast out unburied. Beyond the gates; rather, far from the gates . Jeremiah 22:19

He shall be {m} buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (m) Not honourably among his fathers, but as carrion are cast in a hole, because their stink should not infect, read 1Ki 14:10. Josephus writes that the enemy slew him in the city and commanded him to be cast before the walls unburied, see Jer 36:30.

(19) He shall be buried with the burial of an ass. —The same prediction appears in another form in Jeremiah 36:30 . The body of the king was “to be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.” We have no direct record of its fulfilment, but its reproduction shows that the prophet’s word had not failed. The king was dragged in chains with the other captives, who were being carried off to Babylon ( 2Chronicles 36:6 ), and probably died on the journey, his corpse left behind unburied as the army marched. The phrase “he slept with his fathers” in 2Kings 24:6 cannot be pressed as meaning more than the mere fact of death. So Ahab, who died in battle, “slept with his fathers” ( 1Kings 22:40 ).

He shall be buried with the burial of an ass; that is, he shall not be buried at all, or he shall be buried in an indecent and contemptible manner, none attending him to his grave, none mourning for him. The last words of this verse incline some to think that Jehoiakim was buried near to Jerusalem; but the Scripture, which mentioneth his being carried into Babylon, saith nothing of his being brought back; nor is that very probable which some say, that the king of Babylon thought to have carried him to Babylon, but upon second thoughts altered his purposes, and caused him to be slain at Jerusalem, and his body to be ignominiously dragged out of the gates. The Scripture saith expressly he was carried to Babylon, 2 Kings 24:15 ; and if he died there, yet this text remaineth true, the scope of which seemeth to be to show the vanity of this prince in his great and stately buildings, which he was not like long to enjoy, nor to be buried nigh to them, nor in any degree of honour proportionate to the splendour of them.

19. burial of an ass—that is, he shall have the same burial as an ass would get, namely, he shall be left a prey for beasts and birds [Jerome]. This is not formally narrated. But 2Ch 36:6 states that "Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon"; his treatment there is nowhere mentioned. The prophecy here, and in Jer 36:30, harmonizes these two facts. He was slain by Nebuchadnezzar, who changed his purpose of taking him to Babylon, on the way thither, and left him unburied outside Jerusalem. 2Ki 24:6, "Jehoiakim slept with his fathers," does not contradict this; it simply expresses his being gathered to his fathers by death, not his being buried with his fathers (Ps 49:19). The two phrases are found together, as expressing two distinct ideas (2Ki 15:38; 16:20).

As punishment for this, his end will be full of horrors; when he dies he will not be bemoaned and mourned for, and will lie unburied. To have an ass's burial means: to be left unburied in the open field, or cast into a flaying-ground, inasmuch as they drag out the dead body and cast it far from the gates of Jerusalem. The words: Alas, my brother! alas, etc.! are ipsissima verba of the regular mourners who were procured to bewail the deaths of men and women. The lxx took objection to the "alas, sister," and left it out, applying the words literally to Jehoiakim's death; whereas the words are but a rhetorical individualizing of the general idea: they will make no death-laments for him, and the omission destroys the parallelism. His glory, i.e., the king's. The idea is: neither his relatives nor his subjects will lament his death. The infinn. absoll. סחוב והשׁלך, dragging forth and casting (him), serve to explain: the burial of an ass, etc. In Jeremiah 36:30 , where Jeremiah repeats this prediction concerning Jehoiakim, it is said: His dead body shall be cast out (exposed) to the heat by day and to the cold by night, i.e., rot unburied under the open sky. As to the fulfilment of this prophecy, we are told, indeed, in 2 Kings 24:6 that Jehoiakim slept with his fathers, and Jehoiachin, his son, was king in his stead. But the phrase "to sleep with his fathers" denotes merely departure from this life, without saying anything as to the manner of the death.

It is not used only of kings who died a peaceful death on a sickbed, but of Ahab (1 Kings 22:40), who, mortally wounded in the battle, died in the war-chariot. There is no record of Jehoiakim's funeral obsequies or burial in 2 Kings 24, and in Chr. there is not even mention made of his death. Three years after the first siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, and after he had become tributary to the king of Babylon, Jehoiakim rose in insurrection, and Nebuchadnezzar sent against him the troops of the Chaldeans, Aramaeans, Moabites, and Ammonites. It was not till after the accession of Jehoiachin that Nebuchadnezzar himself appeared before Jerusalem and besieged it (2 Kings 24:1-2, and 2 Kings 24:10). So it is in the highest degree probable that Jehoiakim fell in battle against the Chaldean-Syrian armies before Jerusalem was besieged, and while the enemies were advancing against the city; also that he was left to lie unburied outside of Jerusalem; see on 2 Kings 24:6, where other untenable attempts to harmonize are discussed. The absence of direct testimony to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us can be no ground for doubting that it was fulfilled, when we consider the great brevity of the notices of the last kings' reigns given by the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles.