Jeremiah 22:24-28 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah were the signet, or, rather, the ring, upon my right hand By Coniah he means Jehoiachin, whose name was Jeconiah, 1 Chronicles 3:16, (for all Josiah's sons had two names, and so had his grandchild Jeconiah,) here, in contempt, called Coniah; yet would I pluck thee thence Though he were never so near and dear to me, as dear as a signet, or ring, which every man keeps safe, yet his wickedness would make him forfeit all my favour toward him. “The ring was anciently worn as a mark of sovereignty. When Alexander was dying, he gave his ring to Perdiccas, thus, as it were, marking him out for his successor.” And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee We are informed, (2 Kings 24:15,) that Nebuchadnezzar carried away Jehoiachin, that is, Jeconiah or Coniah, to Babylon, and his mother, and his wives, &c. Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol, &c. Blaney renders the verse more literally, thus: “A contemptible, broken idol is this man Coniah? Or a vessel in which none delighteth? Wherefore are they cast forth, he and his seed, and thrown upon a land which they knew not?” As if he had said, “Would any one have thought that this man, who was invested with royal dignity, should be rendered no better than a broken image of royalty, a mere potsherd, utterly contemptible and useless?”