BIBLES NET. COM
Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible
Back to Biblesnet.com Home Page
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
J E R E M I A H.
CHAP. XXII.
Upon occasion of the message sent in the foregoing chapter to the house
of the king, we have here recorded some sermons which Jeremiah preached
at court, in some preceding reigns, that it might appear they had had
fair warning long before that fatal sentence was pronounced upon them,
and were put in a way to prevent it. Here is,
I. A message sent to the royal family, as it should seem in the reign
of Jehoiakim, relating partly to Jehoahaz, who was carried away captive
into Egypt, and partly to Jehoiakim, who succeeded him and was now upon
the throne. The king and princes are exhorted to execute judgment, and
are assured that, if they did so, the royal family should flourish, but
otherwise it should be ruined,
Jehoahaz, called here Shallum, is lamented,
Jehoiakim is reproved and threatened,
II. Another message sent them in the reign of Jehoiachin (alias,
Jeconiah) the son of Jehoiakim. He is charged with an obstinate refusal
to hear, and is threatened with destruction, and it is foretold that in
him Solomon’s house should fail,
| Jeremiah Preaches before Jehoiakim. | B. C. 590. |
|
|
|
1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of
Judah, and speak there this word,
2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that
sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy
people that enter in by these gates:
3 Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness,
and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do
no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the
widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.
4 For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by
the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David,
riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his
people.
5 But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith
the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith the LORD unto the king’s house of Judah; Thou
art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I
will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not
inhabited.
7 And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with
his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast
them into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say
every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus
unto this great city?
9 Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the
covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and
served them.
Here we have,
I. Orders given to Jeremiah to go and preach before the king. In the
foregoing chapter we are told that Zedekiah sent messengers to the
prophet, but here the prophet is bidden to go, in his own proper
person, to the house of the king, and demand his attention to
the word of the King of kings
(v. 2):
Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah! Subjects must own
that where the word of the king is there is power over them, but kings
must own that where the word of the Lord is there is power over them.
The king of Judah is here spoken to as sitting upon the
throne of David, who was a man after God’s own heart, as holding
his dignity and power by the covenant made with David; let him
therefore conform to his example, that he may have the benefit of the
promises made to him. With the king his servants are spoken to,
because a good government depends upon a good ministry as well as a
good king.
II. Instructions given him what to preach.
1. He must tell them what was their duty, what was the good which the
Lord their God required of them,
v. 3.
They must take care,
(1.) That they do all the good they can with the power they have. They
must do justice in defence of those that were injured, and must
deliver the spoiled out of the hand of their oppressors. This
was the duty of their place,
Herein they must be ministers of God for good.
(2.) That they do no hurt with it, no wrong, no violence. That
is the greatest wrong and violence which is done under colour of law
and justice, and by those whose business it is to punish and protect
from wrong and violence. They must do no wrong to the stranger,
fatherless, and widow; for these God does in a particular matter
patronise and take under his tuition,
2. He must assure them that the faithful discharge of their duty would
advance and secure their prosperity,
v. 4.
There shall then be a succession of kings, an uninterrupted succession,
upon the throne of David and of his line, these enjoying a
perfect tranquillity, and living in great state and dignity, riding
in chariots and on horses, as before,
Note, the most effectual way to preserve the dignity of the government
is to do the duty of it.
3. He must likewise assure them that the iniquity of their family, if
they persisted in it, would be the ruin of their family, though it was
a royal family
(v. 5):
If you will not hear, will not obey, this house shall become
a desolation, the palace of the kings of Judah shall fare no better
than other habitations in Jerusalem. Sin has often been the ruin of
royal palaces, though ever so stately, ever so strong. This sentence is
ratified by an oath: I swear by myself (and God can swear by no
greater,
that this house shall be laid in ruins. Note, Sin will be the ruin of
the houses of princes as well as of mean men.
4. He must show how fatal their wickedness would be to their kingdom as
well as to themselves, to Jerusalem especially, the royal city,
(1.) It is confessed that Judah and Jerusalem had been valuable in
God’s eyes and considerable in their own: thou art Gilead unto me
and the head of Lebanon. Their lot was cast in a place that was
rich and pleasant as Gilead; Zion was a stronghold, as stately as
Lebanon: this they trusted to as their security. But,
(2.) This shall not protect them; the country that is now fruitful as
Gilead shall be made a wilderness. The cities that are now
strong as Lebanon shall be cities not inhabited; and, when the
country is laid waste, the cities must be dispeopled. See how easily
God’s judgments can ruin a nation, and how certainly sin will do it.
When this desolating work is to be done,
[1.] There shall be those that shall do it effectually
(v. 7):
“I will prepare destroyers against thee; I will sanctify
them” (so the word is); “I will appoint them to this service and use
them in it.” Note, When destruction is designed destroyers are
prepared, and perhaps are in the preparing, and things are working
towards the designed destruction, and are getting ready for it, long
before. And who can contend with destroyers of God’s preparing? They
shall destroy cities as easily as men fell trees in a forest: They
shall cut down thy choice cedars; and yet, when they are down,
shall value them no more than thorns and briers; they shall cast
them into the fire, for their choicest cedars have become rotten
ones and good for nothing else.
[2.] There shall be those who shall be ready to justify God in the
doing of it
(v. 8, 9);
persons of many nations, when they pass by the ruins of
this city in their travels, will ask, “Wherefore hath the
Lord done thus unto this city? How came so strong a city to be
overpowered? so rich a city to be impoverished? so populous a city to
be depopulated? so holy a city to be profaned? and a city that had been
so dear to God to be abandoned by him?” The reason is so obvious that
it shall be ready in every man’s mouth. Ask those that go by the
way,
Job xxi. 29.
Ask the next man you meet, and he will tell you it was because they
changed their gods, which other nations never used to do. They forsook
the covenant of Jehovah their own God, revolted from their
allegiance to him and from the duty which their covenant with him bound
them to, and they worshipped other gods and served them, in
contempt of him; and therefore he gave them up to this destruction.
Note, God never casts any off until they first cast him off. “Go,” says
God to the prophet, “and preach this to the royal family.”
| The Doom of Shallum and Jehoiakim. | B. C. 590. |
|
|
|
10 Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep
sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor
see his native country.
11 For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah
king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which
went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any
more:
12 But he shall die in the place whither they have led him
captive, and shall see this land no more.
13 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and
his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service
without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
14 That saith, I will build me a wide house and large chambers,
and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled with cedar, and
painted with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice,
and then it was well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was
well with him: was not this to know me? saith the LORD.
17 But thine eyes and thine heart are not but for thy
covetousness, and for to shed innocent blood, and for oppression,
and for violence, to do it.
18 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son
of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying,
Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him,
saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast
forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Kings, though they are gods to us, are men to God, and shall die
like men; so it appears in these verses, where we have a sentence
of death passed upon two kings who reigned successively in Jerusalem,
two brothers, and both the ungracious sons of a very pious father.
I. Here is the doom of Shallum, who doubtless is the same with
Jehoahaz, for he is that son of Josiah king of Judah who reigned in
the stead of Josiah his father
(v. 11),
which Jehoahaz did by the act of the people, who made him king though
he was not the eldest son,
2 Kings xxiii. 30; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 1.
Among the sons of Josiah
there is one Shallum mentioned, and not Jehoahaz. Perhaps the people
preferred him before his elder brother because they thought him a more
active daring young man, and fitter to rule; but God soon showed them
the folly of their injustice, and that it could not prosper, for within
three months the king of Egypt came upon him, deposed him, and carried
him away prisoner into Egypt, as God had threatened,
It does not appear that any of the people were taken into captivity
with him. We have the story
2 Kings xxiii. 34; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 4.
Now here,
1. The people are directed to lament him rather than his father Josiah:
“Weep not for the dead, weep not any more for Josiah.” Jeremiah
had been himself a true mourner for him, and had stirred up the people
to mourn for him
yet now he will have them go out of mourning for him, though it was but
three months after his death, and to turn their tears into another
channel. They must weep sorely for Jehoahaz, who had gone into Egypt;
not that there was any great loss of him to the public, as there was of
his father, but that his case was much more deplorable. Josiah went to
the grave in peace and honour, was prevented from seeing the evil to
come in this world and removed to see the good to come in the other
world; and therefore, Weep not for him, but for his unhappy son,
who is likely to live and die in disgrace and misery, a wretched
captive. Note, Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners
are justly pitied. And so dismal perhaps the prospect of the times may
be that tears even for a Josiah, even for a Jesus, must be restrained,
that they may be reserved for ourselves and for our children,
Luke xxiii. 28.
2. The reason given is because he shall never return out of captivity,
as he and his people expected, but shall die there. They were loth to
believe this, therefore it is repeated here again and again, He shall
return no more,
v. 10.
He shall never have the pleasure of seeing his native country,
but shall have the continual grief of hearing of the desolations of it.
He has gone forth out of this place, and shall never
return,
v. 11.
He shall die in the place whither they have led him captive,
v. 12.
This came of his forsaking the good example of his father, and usurping
the right of his elder brother. In Ezekiel’s lamentation for the
princes of Israel this Jehoahaz is represented as a young lion, that
soon learned to catch the prey, but was taken, and brought in
chains to Egypt, and was long expected to return, but in vain. See
II. Here is the doom of Jehoiakim, who succeeded him. Whether he had
any better right to the crown than Shallum we know not; for, though he
was older than his predecessor, there seems to be another son of
Josiah, older than he, called Johanan,
1 Chron. iii. 15.
But this we know he ruled no better, and fared no better at last. Here
we have,
1. His sins faithfully reproved. It is not fit for a private person to
say to a king, Thou art wicked; but a prophet, who has a message
from God, betrays his trust if he does not deliver it, be it ever so
unpleasing, even to kings themselves. Jehoiakim is not here charged
with idolatry, and probably he had not yet put Urijah the prophet to
death (as we find afterwards he did,
for then he would have been told of it here; but the crimes for which
he is here reproved are,
(1.) Pride and affection of pomp and splendour; as if all the business
of a king were to look great, and to do good were to be the least of
his care. He must build himself a stately palace, a wide house,
and large chambers,
v. 14.
He must have windows cut out after the newest fashion, perhaps
like sash-windows with us. The rooms must be ceiled with cedar,
the richest sort of wood. His house must be as well-roofed and
wainscoted as the temple itself, or else it will not please him,
Nay, it must exceed that, for it must be painted with minium, or
vermilion, which dyes red, or, as some read it, with
indigo, which dyes blue. No doubt it is lawful for princes and
great men to build, and beautify, and furnish their houses so as is
agreeable to their dignity; but he that knows what is in man knew that
Jehoiakim did this in the pride of his heart, which makes that to be
sinful, exceedingly sinful, which is in itself lawful. Those therefore
that are enlarging their houses, and making them more sumptuous, have
need to look well to the frame of their own spirits in the doing of it,
and carefully to watch against all the workings of vain-glory. But that
which was particularly amiss in Jehoiakim’s case was that he did this
when he could not but perceive, both by the word of God and by his
providence, that divine judgments were breaking in upon him. He reigned
his first three years by the permission and allowance of the king of
Egypt, and all the rest by the permission and allowance of the king of
Babylon; and yet he that was no better than a viceroy will covet to vie
with the greatest monarchs in building and furniture. Observe how
peremptory he is in this resolution: “I will build myself a wide
house; I am resolved I will, whoever advises me to the
contrary.” Note, It is the common folly of those that are sinking in
their estates to covet to make a fair show. Many have unhumbled hearts
under humbling providences, and look most haughty when God is bringing
them down. This is striving with our Maker.
(2.) Carnal security and confidence in his wealth, depending upon the
continuance of his prosperity, as if his mountain now stood so strong
that it could never be moved. He thought he must reign without any
disturbance or interruption because he had enclosed himself in
cedar
(v. 15),
as if that were too fine to be assaulted and too strong to be broken
through, and as if God himself could not, for pity, give up such a
stately house as that to be burned. Thus when Christ spoke of the
destruction of the temple his disciples came to him, to show him what a
magnificent structure it was,
Note, Those wretchedly deceive themselves who think their present
prosperity is a lasting security, and dream of reigning because they
are enclosed in cedar. It is but in his own conceit that the
rich man’s wealth is his strong city.
(3.) Some think he is here charged with sacrilege, and robbing the
house of God to beautify and adorn his own house. He cuts him
out my windows (so it is in the margin), which some
understand as if he had taken windows out of the temple to put into his
own palace and then painted them (as it follows) with
vermilion, that it might not be discovered, but might look of a
piece with his own buildings. Note, Those cheat themselves, and ruin
themselves at last, who think to enrich themselves by robbing God and
his house; and, however they may disguise it, God discovers it.
(4.) He is here charged with extortion and oppression, violence and
injustice. He built his house by unrighteousness, with money
unjustly got and materials which were not honestly come by, and perhaps
upon ground obtained as Ahab obtained Naboth’s vineyard. And, because
he went beyond what he could afford, he defrauded his workmen of their
wages, which is one of the sins that cries in the ears of the Lord
of hosts,
Jam. v. 4.
God takes notice of the wrong done by the greatest of men to their poor
servants and labourers, and will repay those, in justice, that will not
in justice pay those whom they employ, but use their neighbour’s
service without wages. Observe, The greatest of men must look upon
the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them accordingly, and
love them as themselves. Jehoiakim was oppressive, not only in his
buildings, but in the administration of his government. He did not do
justice, made no conscience of shedding innocent blood, when it was to
serve the purposes of his ambition, avarice, and revenge. He was all
for oppression and violence, not to threaten it only, but
to do it; and, when he was set upon any act of injustice, nothing
should stop him, but he would go through with it. And that which was at
the bottom of all was covetousness, that love of money which is the
root of all evil. Thy eyes and thy heart are not but for
covetousness; they were for that, and nothing else. Observe, In
covetousness the heart walks after the eyes: it is therefore called
the lust of the eye,
1 John ii. 16; Job xxxi. 7.
It is setting the eyes upon that which is not,
Prov. xxiii. 5.
The eyes and the heart are then for covetousness when the aims and
affections are wholly set upon the wealth of this world; and, where
they are so, the temptation is strong to murder, oppression, and all
manner of violence and villany.
(5.) That which aggravated all his sins was that he was the son of a
good father, who had left him a good example, if he would but have
followed it
(v. 15, 16):
Did not thy father eat and drink? When Jehoiakim enlarged and
enlightened his house it is probable that he spoke scornfully of his
father for contenting himself with such a mean and inconvenient
dwelling, below the grandeur of a sovereign prince, and ridiculed him
as one that had a dull fancy, a low spirit, and could not find in his
heart to lay out his money, nor cared for what was fashionable; that
should not serve him which served his father: but God, by the prophet,
tells him that his father, though he had not the spirit of building,
was a man of an excellent spirit, a better man than he, and did better
for himself and his family. Those children that despise their parents’
old fashions commonly come short of their real excellences. Jeremiah
tells him,
[1.] That he was directed to do his duty by his father’s practice: He
did judgment and justice; he never did wrong to any of his
subjects, never oppressed them, nor put any hardship upon them, but was
careful to preserve all their just rights and properties. Nay, he not
only did not abuse his power for the support of wrong, but he used it
for the maintaining of right. He judged the cause of the poor and
needy, was ready to hear the cause of the meanest of his subjects
and do them justice. Note, The care of magistrates must be, not to
support their grandeur and take their ease, but to do good, not only
not to oppress the poor themselves, but to defend those that are
oppressed.
[2.] That he was encouraged to do his duty by his father’s prosperity.
First, God accepted him: “Was not this to know me, saith the
Lord? Did he not hereby make it to appear that he rightly knew his
God, and worshipped him, and consequently was known and owned of him?”
Note, The right knowledge of God consists in doing our duty,
particularly that which is the duty of our place and station in the
world. Secondly, He himself had the comfort of it: Did he
not eat and drink soberly and cheerfully, so as to fit himself for
his business, for strength and not for drunkenness?
Eccl. x. 17.
He did eat, and drink, and do judgment; he did not (as perhaps
Jehoiakim and his princes did) drink, and forget the law, and
pervert the judgment of the afflicted,
Prov. xxxi. 5.
He did eat and drink; that is, God blessed him with great
plenty, and he had the comfortable enjoyment of it himself and gave
handsome entertainments to his friends, was very hospitable and very
charitable. It was Jehoiakim’s pride that he had built a fine house,
but Josiah’s true praise that he kept a good house. Many times those
have least in them of true generosity that have the greatest affection
for pomp and grandeur; for, to support the extravagant expense of that,
hospitality, bounty to the poor, yea, and justice itself, will be
pinched. It is better to live with Josiah in an old-fashioned house,
and do good, than live with Jehoiakim in a stately house, and leave
debts unpaid. Josiah did justice and judgment, and then it
was well with him,
v. 15,
and it is repeated again,
He lived very comfortably; his own subjects, and all his neighbours,
respected him; and whatever he put his hand to prospered. Note, While
we do well we may expect it will be well with us. This Jehoiakim knew,
that his father found the way of duty to be the way of comfort, and yet
he would not tread in his steps. Note, It should engage us to keep up
religion in our day that our godly parents kept it up in theirs and
recommended it to us from their own experience of the benefit of it.
They told us that they had found the promises which godliness has of
the life that now is made good to them, and that religion and
piety are friendly to outward prosperity. So that we are inexcusable if
we turn aside from that good way.
2. Here we have Jehoiakim’s doom faithfully read,
We may suppose that it was in the utmost peril of his own life that
Jeremiah here foretold the shameful death of Jehoiakim; but thus
saith the Lord concerning him, and therefore thus saith he.
(1.) He shall die unlamented; he shall make himself so odious by his
oppression and cruelty that all about him shall be glad to part with
him, and none shall do him the honour of dropping one tear for him,
whereas his father, who did judgment and justice, was
universally lamented; and it is promised to Zedekiah that he should be
lamented at his death, for he conducted himself better than Jehoiakim
had done,
His relations shall not lament him, no, not with the common
expressions of grief used at the funeral of the meanest, where they
cried, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister! His subjects shall
not lament him, nor cry out, as they used to do at the graves of their
princes, Ah, lord! or Ah his glory! It is sad for any to
live so that, when they die, none will be sorry to part with them. Nay,
(2.) He shall lie unburied. This is worse than the former. Even those
that have no tears to grace the funerals of the dead with would
willingly have them buried out of their sight; but Jehoiakim shall be
buried with the burial of an ass, that is, he shall have no
burial at all, but his dead body shall be cast into a ditch or upon a
dunghill; it shall be drawn, or dragged, ignominiously, and
cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. It is said, in the
story of Jehoiakim
that Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters, to carry him to
Babylon, and
that he was brought in chains to the king of Babylon. But it is
probable that he died a prisoner, before he was carried away to Babylon
as was intended; perhaps he died for grief, or, in the pride of his
heart, hastened his own end, and, for that reason, was denied a decent
burial, as self-murderers usually are with us. Josephus says that
Nebuchadnezzar slew him at Jerusalem, and left his body thus exposed,
somewhere at a great distance from the gates of Jerusalem. And it
is said
he slept with his fathers. When he built himself a stately
house, no doubt he designed himself a stately sepulchre; but see how he
was disappointed. Note, Those that are lifted up with great pride are
commonly reserved for some great disgrace in life or death.
| The Desolation of Judah; The Doom of Jeconiah. | B. C. 590. |
|
|
|
20 Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan,
and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I
will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that
thou obeyedst not my voice.
22 The wind shall eat up all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall
go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and
confounded for all thy wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars,
how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as
of a woman in travail!
24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of
Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet
would I pluck thee 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, even
into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the
hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee,
into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye
die.
27 But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither
shall they not return.
28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a
vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore 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 ye this man childless, a man
that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed
shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any
more in Judah.
This prophecy seems to have been calculated for the ungracious
inglorious reign of Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, who
succeeded him in the government, reigned but three months, and was then
carried captive to Babylon, where he lived many years,
We have, in these verses, a prophecy,
I. Of the desolations of the kingdom, which were now hastening on
apace,
Jerusalem and Judah are here spoken to, or the Jewish state as a single
person, and we have it here under a threefold character:–
1. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety
(v. 21):
“I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, spoke by my servants the
prophets, reproofs, admonitions, counsels, but thou saidst, I will
not hear, I will not heed, thou obeyedst not my voice, and
wast resolved that thou wouldst not, and hadst the front to tell me
so.” It is common for those that live at ease to live in contempt of
the word of God. Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. This is so
much the worse that they had it by kind: This has been thy manner
from thy youth. They were called transgressors from the
womb,
Isa. xlviii. 8.
2. Very timorous upon the alarms of trouble
(v. 20):
“When thou seest all thy lovers destroyed, when thou findest thy
idols unable to help thee and thy foreign alliances failing thee, thou
wilt then go up to Lebanon, and cry, as one undone and giving up all
for lost, cry with a bitter cry; thou wilt cry, Help, help, or we
are lost; thou wilt lift up thy voice in fearful shrieks
upon Lebanon and Bashan, two high hills, in hope to be heard
thence by the advantage of the rising ground. Thou wilt cry from the
passages, from the roads, where thou wilt ever and anon be in
distress.” Thou wilt cry from Abarim (so some read it, as a
proper name), a famous mountain in the border of Moab. “Thou wilt cry,
as those that are in great consternation use to do, to all about thee;
but in vain, for
(v. 22)
the wind shall eat up all thy pastors, or rulers, that
should protect and lead thee, and provide for thy safety; they shall be
blasted, and withered, and brought to nothing, as buds and blossoms are
by a bleak or freezing wind; they shall be devoured suddenly,
insensibly, and irresistibly, as fruits by the wind. Thy lovers,
that thou dependest upon and hast an affection for, shall go into
captivity, and shall be so far from saving thee that they shall not
be able to save themselves.”
3. Very tame under the heavy and lasting pressures of trouble: “When
there appears no relief from any of thy confederates, and thy own
priests are at a loss, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for
all thy wickedness,”
Note, Many will never be ashamed of their sins till they are brought by
them to the last extremity; and it is well if we get this good by our
straits to be brought by them to confusion for our sins. The Jewish
state is here called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because that
famous forest was within their border
(v. 23),
and all their country was wealthy, and well-guarded as with Lebanon’s
natural fastnesses; but so proud and haughty were they that they are
said to make their nest in the cedars, where they thought
themselves out of the reach of all danger, and whence they looked with
contempt upon all about them. “But, how gracious wilt thou be when
pangs come upon thee! Then thou wilt humble thyself before God and
promise amendment. When thou art overthrown in stony places thou wilt
be glad to hear those words which in thy prosperity thou
wouldst not hear,
Ps. cxli. 6.
Then thou wilt endeavour to make thyself acceptable with that God whom,
before, thou madest light of.” Note, Many have their pangs of piety
who, when the pangs are over, show that they have no true piety. Some
give another sense of it: “What will all thy pomp, and state, and
wealth avail thee? What will become of it all, or what comfort shalt
thou have of it, when thou shalt be in these distresses? No more than
a woman in travail, full of pains and fears, can take comfort in
her ornaments while she is in that condition.” So Mr. Gataker. Note,
Those that are proud of their worldly advantages would do well to
consider how they will look when pangs come upon them, and how they
will then have lost all their beauty.
II. Here is a prophecy of the disgrace of the king; his name was
Jeconiah, but he is here once and again called Coniah, in
contempt. The prophet shortens or nicks his name, and gives him, as we
say, a nickname, perhaps to denote that he should be despoiled of his
dignity, that his reign should be shortened, and the number of his
months cut off in the midst. Two instances of dishonour are here put
upon him:–
1. He shall be carried away into captivity and shall spend and
end his days in bondage. He was born to a crown, but it should quickly
fall from his head, and he should exchange it for fetters. Observe the
steps of this judgment.
(1.) God will abandon him,
The God of truth says it, and confirms it with an oath: “Though he
were the signet upon my right hand (his predecessors have been so,
and he might have been so if he had conducted himself well, but he
being degenerated) I will pluck him thence.” The godly kings of
Judah had been as signets on God’s right hand, near and dear to him; he
had gloried in them, and made use of them as instruments of his
government, as the prince does of his signet-ring, or sign manual; but
Coniah has made himself utterly unworthy of the honour, and therefore
the privilege of his birth shall be no security to him; notwithstanding
that, he shall be thrown off. Answerable to this threatening against
Jeconiah is God’s promise to Zerubbabel, when he made him his people’s
guide in their return out of captivity
(Hag. ii. 23):
I will take thee, O Zerubbabel! my servant, and make thee as a
signet. Those that think themselves as signets on God’s right hand
must not be secure, but fear lest they be plucked thence.
(2.) The king of Babylon shall seize him. Those know not what
enemies and mischiefs they lie exposed to who have thrown themselves
out of God’s protection,
The Chaldeans are here said to be such as had a spite to Coniah;
they sought his life; no less than that, they thought, would
satisfy their rage; they were such as he had a dread of (they are those
whose face thou fearest) which would make it the more terrible
to him to fall into their hands, especially when it was God himself
that gave him into their hands. And, if God deliver him to them,
who can deliver him from them?
(3.) He and his family shall be carried to Babylon, where they shall
wear out many tedious years of their lives in a miserable
captivity–he and his mother
(v. 26),
he and his seed
(v. 28),
that is, he and all the royal family (for he had no children of his own
when he went into captivity), or he and the children in his loins; they
shall all be cast out to another country, to a strange country, a
country where they were not born, nor such a country as that where
they were born, a land which they know not, in which they have
no acquaintance with whom to converse or from whom to expect any
kindness. Thither they shall be carried, from a land where they were
entitled to dominion, into a land where they shall be compelled to
servitude. But have they no hopes of seeing their own country again?
No: To the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they
not return,
v. 27.
They conducted themselves ill in it when they were in it, and therefore
they shall never see it more. Jehoahaz was carried to Egypt, the land
of the south, Jeconiah to Babylon, the land of the north, both far
remote, the quite contrary way, and must never expect to meet again,
nor either of them to breathe their native air again. Those that had
abused the dominion they had over others were justly brought thus under
the dominion of others. Those that had indulged and gratified their
sinful desires, by their oppression, luxury, and cruelty, were justly
denied the gratification of their innocent desire to see their own
native country again. We may observe something very emphatic in that
part of this threatening
(v. 26),
In the country where you were not born, there shall you die. As
there is a time to be born and a time to die, so there is
a place to be born in and a place to die in. We know where we were
born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God
knows. Let it be our care that we die in Christ, and then it will be
well with us, wherever we die, though it should be in a far country.
(4.) This shall render him very mean and despicable in the eyes of all
his neighbours. They shall be ready to say
(v. 28),
“This is Coniah a despised broken idol? Yes, certainly he is,
and much debased from what he was.”
[1.] Time was when he was dignified, nay, when he was almost deified.
The people who had seen his father lately deposed were ready to adore
him when they saw him upon the throne, but now he is a despised
broken idol, which, when it was whole, was worshipped, but, when it
is rotten and broken, is thrown by and despised, and nobody regards it,
or remembers what it has been. Note, What is idolized will, first or
last, be despised and broken; what is unjustly honoured will be justly
contemned, and rivals with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we
idolize we shall be disappointed in and then shall despise.
[2.] Time was when he was delighted in; but now he is a vessel in
which is not pleasure, or to which there is no desire, either
because grown out of fashion or because cracked or dirtied, and so
rendered unserviceable. Those whom God has no pleasure in will, some
time or other, be so mortified that men will have no pleasure in
them.
2. He shall leave no posterity to inherit his honour. The prediction of
this is ushered in with a solemn preface
(v. 29):
O earth, earth, earth! hear the word of the Lord. Let all the
inhabitants of the world take notice of these judgments of God upon a
nation and a family that had been near and dear to him, and thence
infer that God is impartial in the administration of justice. Or it is
an appeal to the earth itself on which we tread, since those that dwell
on earth are so deaf and careless, like that
(Isa. i. 2),
Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! God’s word, however
slighted, will be heard; the earth itself will be made to hear it, and
yield to it, when it, and all the works that are therein, shall be
burnt up. Or it is a call to men that mind earthly things, that
are swallowed up in those things and are inordinate in the pursuit of
them; such have need to be called upon again and again, and a third
time, to hear the word of the Lord. Or it is a call to men
considered as mortal, of the earth, and hastening to the earth again.
We all are so; earth we are, dust we are, and, in consideration
of that, are concerned to hear and regard the word of the Lord,
that, though we are earth, we may be found among those whose names are
written in heaven. Now that which is here to be taken notice of is
that Jeconiah is written childless
(v. 30),
that is, as it follows, No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting
upon the throne of David. In him the line of David was extinct as a
royal line. Some think that he had children born in Babylon because
mention is made of his seed being cast out there
(v. 28)
and that they died before him. We read in the genealogy
of seven sons of Jeconiah Assir (that is, Jeconiah the captive) of whom
Salathiel is the first. Some think that they were only his adopted
sons, and that when it is said
(Matt. i. 12),
Jeconiah begat Salathiel, no more is meant than that he
bequeathed to him what claims and pretensions he had to the government,
the rather because Salathiel is called the son of Neri of the
house of Nathan,
Luke iii. 27, 31.
Whether he had children begotten, or only adopted, thus far he was
childless that none of his seed ruled as kings in Judah. He was the
Augustulus of that empire, in whom it determined. Whoever are
childless, it is God that writes them so; and those who take no care to
do good in their days cannot expect to prosper in their days.
|
[Previous] [Next] |
Matthew Henry |
|
Back to Bibles Net . Com – Online Christian Library Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary – Free Download |
Copyright 2008. Bibles Net. Com. All Rights Reserved.