---
title: "Clarke"
description: "Verse Jeremiah 22:1. 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"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/clarkes-commentary/jeremiah/22"
---

Verse [Jeremiah 22:1](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/1). ***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 [Jeremiah 22:2](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/2). ***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 [Jeremiah 22:6](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/6). ***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 [Jeremiah 22:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/7). ***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 [Jeremiah 22:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/8). ***Many nations shall pass*** — These words seem borrowed from [Deuteronomy 29:22](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/29/22), &c.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/10). ***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, [2 Kings 23:30-34](../../../kjv/2-kings/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 [Jeremiah 22:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/13). ***Wo unto him that buildeth his house*** — These evils, charged against Jehoiakim, are nowhere else *circumstantially* related. We learn from [2 Kings 23:35-37](../../../kjv/2-kings/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*, &c.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:15](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/15). ***Shalt thou reign, &c.*** — Dost thou think thou art a great king, because thou dwellest in a splendid palace?

Verse [Jeremiah 22:18](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/18). ***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: -
There is another intimation of this ancient and universal custom in [1 Kings 13:30](../../../kjv/1-kings/13/30), where the *old prophet*, who had deceived the *man of God*, and who was afterwards slain by a lion, is represented as mourning over him, and saying, הוי אחי *hoi achi*, "Alas, my brother!" this being the *burden* of the lamentation which he had used on this occasion. Similar instances may be seen in other places, [Jeremiah 30:7](../../../kjv/jeremiah/30/7); [Ezekiel 6:11](../../../kjv/ezekiel/6/11); [Joel 1:15](../../../kjv/joel/1/15); and particularly [Amos 5:16-17](../../../kjv/amos/5/16-17), and [Revelation 18:10-19](../../../kjv/revelation/18/10-19).

Verse [Jeremiah 22:19](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/19). ***With the burial of an ass*** — Cast out, and left unburied, or buried without any *funeral solemnities*, and without such lamentations as the above.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:20](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/20). ***Go up to Lebanon*** — Probably *Anti-Libanus*, which, together with *Bashan* and *Abarim*, which we here translate *passages,* were on the way by which the captives should be led out of their own country.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:21](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/21). ***I spake unto thee in thy prosperity*** — In all states and circumstances I warned thee by my prophets; and thou wilt only be *ashamed* of thy conduct when thou shalt be stripped of all thy excellencies, and reduced to poverty and disgrace, [Jeremiah 22:22](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/22).

Verse [Jeremiah 22:22](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/22). ***The wind shall eat up all thy pastors*** — A *blast* from God's mouth shall carry off thy kings, princes, prophets, and priests.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:23](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/23). ***How gracious shalt thou be*** — A strong irony.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:24](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/24). ***Though Coniah*** — Called *Jeconiah*, probably on ascending the throne. [Jeremiah 22:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/10).
***The signet upon my right hand*** — The most precious seal, ring, or armlet. Though dearer to me than the most splendid gem to its possessor.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:26](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/26). ***I will cast thee out, and thy mother*** — See all this fulfilled, [2 Kings 24:12-13](../../../kjv/2-kings/24/12-13). All were carried by Nebuchadnezzar into captivity together.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/28). Is ***this man Coniah a despised broken idol?*** — These are probably the exclamations of the *people*, when they heard those solemn denunciations against their *king* and their *country*.

Verse [Jeremiah 22:29](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/29). ***O earth*** — These are the words of the *prophet* in reply: O land! unhappy land! desolated land! *Hear the judgment of the* *Lord*!

Verse [Jeremiah 22:30](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/30). ***Write ye this man childless*** — Though he had *seven* sons, [1 Chronicles 3:17](../../../kjv/1-chronicles/3/17), yet having no *successor*, he is to be entered on the *genealogical tables* as one *without children*, for none of his posterity ever sat on the throne of David.

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