Write ye this man childless—— I cannot agree with the generality of commentators, who suppose that God hereby declares it as a thing certain, and as it were orders it to be inserted among the public acts of his government, that Jeconiah should die absolutely childless. Other parts of Scripture positively assert him to have had children, 1 Chronicles 3:17-18. Matthew 1:12. And both Jeremiah 22:28 and the subsequent part of this verse imply that he either had, or should have seed. But the historians and chroniclers of the times are called upon, and directed to set him down childless; not as being literally so, but yet the same to all intents and purposes of public life; for he was to be the last of his race that should sit upon the throne of David; and his descendants were no more to figure as kings, but to be reduced to the rank and obscurity of private persons. And in this sense the prophesy was actually fulfilled; for, allowing Zerubbabel, who is called governor of Judah, Haggai 1:1 to have been a lineal descendant of Jeconiah, yet he could not be said to sit upon the throne of David, and reign, or rule, in Judah, seeing he was but a provincial governor, a mere servant to the king of Persia, in whom the sovereignty resided; nor were any of those kings who afterwards reigned in Judah, even of the family of David, until the time of Christ, who, though of David's seed, was not the seed of Jeconiah, but descended from the same ancestor in a collateral line.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Kings are God's vicegerents, and accountable to him for their conduct; and when they abuse the power wherewith they are entrusted, or neglect the duties of their station, they may expect his rebukes. Jeremiah is here sent to the king of Judah, Jehoiakim the successor of David, and sitting on his throne, but grievously degenerated from his virtues. He and his servants are summoned to attend.
1. Their duty is set before them: to administer judgment with impartiality; to vindicate the oppressed and injured; to do no wrong themselves, nor permit others to do it with impunity; to protect the stranger, the fatherless, and widow; and shed no innocent blood, either by lawless violence, or under the cloak of justice. Very opposite to which had hitherto been their conduct.
2. This would secure their prosperity, and entail a blessing upon their posterity; preserving long the crown of Judah to the royal race of David, and enabling them to live in splendor answerable to their high dignity.
3. On the contrary, if they persisted in their disobedience, God, by an oath, to make the sentence more awful and tremendous, swears to make the house of the king of Judah a desolation, and that his kingdom should be involved in his ruin. Though thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon, full of riches, and strongly fortified, yet such ravages should be made in the land, that it should be wholly depopulated, and its fertile plains become a howling wilderness: nor should instruments be wanting to execute the threatened vengeance; I will prepare, or sanctify destroyers, raise them up, and give them a commission of most righteous judgment: in consequence of which, they shall as easily cut down and destroy the mighty men of Judah, as the cedars fall before the axe of the hewer, and are cast into the fire. With astonishment the neighbouring nations behold the destruction, and inquire into the cause, that a people once so favoured of Jehovah should now be so abandoned; and the answer is ready, because they have apostatized from the worship of Jehovah, and sunk into foul idolatry. Note; They who forsake God are justly forsaken of him.
2nd, Kings are not too high for God to humble, nor for his prophets to reprove. We have here the sad doom of two read, who reigned successively in Judah, the sons of good Josiah, from whose steps they shamefully departed.
1. Shallum, the same as Jehoahaz, the immediate successor of Josiah, 2 Chronicles 36:1. After a short reign of three months, see Exodus 23:34 he was carried captive into Egypt, and thence he must, by the divine decree, never return, but die in ignominy. Him, therefore, the people are called upon to bewail, and rather to weep over the captive son, than bedew with their tears the corpse of his pious father, who was at rest, and removed from beholding the evil to come. Note; Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are to be pitied.
2. Jehoiakim his successor has not a more favourable judgment. His sins were great; and, though he now sat on his throne, the prophet faithfully dares to rebuke him. Proud, and affecting to rival the greatness of his most illustrious predecessors, during the most flourishing state of their kingdom; though himself no better than a viceroy, first to the king of Egypt, and then to the Babylonish monarch, he was building or enlarging his palace in the most magnificent taste, and with the most expensive decorations; and as the revenues of his kingdom probably were insufficient, he became tyrannical and oppressive, extorting money from his subjects, or constraining them to serve and supply him with materials, without paying them for their labour. Secure, and self-confident, he promised himself many long years to enjoy his house of cedar, and that his pomp would be his protection: unjust and cruel withal, unlike his pious father, who lived in sobriety and temperance, and administered justice with impartiality. Was not this to know me? saith the Lord; it shewed true regard to God, and consequently was attended with the divine blessing; then it was well with him. But he with harpy talons stopped at no violence to gratify the insatiate covetousness of his heart, and shed the blood of the innocent, that he might seize their substance. In consequence of which his doom is read: he shall die unlamented; neither his subjects nor relations shall express the least concern for his fate; his corpse shall not have a tear dropped over it, and even want a grave, buried with the burial of an ass; drawn with ignominy, and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem; which, though not observed in the history of the kings, was no doubt literally accomplished. Note; (1.) That great men should dwell in palaces, is becoming; but when pride rears the structure, condemnation lies against the soul. (2.) The chambers built by wrong will cry out for vengeance against the oppressor; and God will not let the defrauded labourer's complaint pass by unheard. (3.) They who place dependence on prosperity and the enjoyment of the fruits of iniquity, will find their hopes terribly disappointed. (4.) Covetousness is the root of all evil: hence spring rapine, bloodshed, and every evil work. (5.) The way to prosper is to know God, and serve him; while destruction inevitable must be the portion of those who forget and forsake him. (6.) It is an aggravation of sin to have lived under pious parents, and in the face of their instructions and examples to prove rebellious. (7.) They who are lifted up the highest in pride, will shortly fall the lowest in misery.
3rdly, We have line upon line, and warning upon warning, yet all insufficient to alarm a stupid people.
1. Their misery and distress are painted in lively colours. When their enemies were advancing, they are represented as running to the mountain-tops, and calling out for help to the neighbouring nations; but in vain; for all thy lovers are destroyed, and none willing to shew them the least kindness in the day of their calamity. They had been deaf to the warnings of the prophets, from the day when they came out of Egypt, and disobedient to the voice of God; vain of their prosperity, and confident that they should never be removed. But now their desolation approaches, when they should be ashamed and confounded for all their wickedness; as destitute of help within, as of assistance from without; because the wind shall eat up all thy pastors, the governors in church and state, kings, nobles, priests, and prophets, as weak to resist the Chaldean hosts, as stubble to oppose the furious whirlwind. Though lofty in pride as Lebanon, and dwelling in houses ceiled with cedar, these would be no security, but be food for the devouring flames; while from their enemies they might expect to find no favour, in the day when their deepest anguish should seize them as the pangs of a travailing woman. The words, נחנת מה mah neichant, How gracious shalt thou be, some render, What favour wilt thou find? others, How shalt thou groan? (see the notes) and intimates the desperateness of their case, which seems most agreeable to the context; though they may also be interpreted of the effects which these judgments should have upon them, when their distresses should drive them in penitence to God, and they should find mercy with him in the land of their captivity. Note; (1.) Prosperity is a dangerous state: they who live at ease too often care not to attend the warnings of God. (2.) Creature-dependence will fail in the day of calamity. (3.) It is well for us, if what we suffer brings us at last in pangs of real repentance to God.
2. Their king's judgment is pronounced. He is called Coniah, instead of Jeconiah, in contempt. His name is shortened, intimating that his reign should be cut short, and his regal honour depart from him. Doomed to a miserable servitude, God threatens to give him up into the hands of the king of Babylon, whom he feared, and who sought his life, with his mother and family; and, pining in vain for the land of their nativity, they should long drag their ignominious chain, and die in the place of their captivity. His pious fathers had been as a signet on God's right hand; so dear to him, and valued by him as the ring which bears the picture, or is the gift, of the person whom we love: but his ill conduct had cast him out of favour, and therefore God in high displeasure threatens that he will pluck him thence, and abandon him to ruin: and this his determination is irrevocable, confirmed with an oath: As I live, saith the Lord, who, since he can swear by no greater, swears by himself. Note; (1.) They are undone for ever whom God abandons. (2.) The greatest must not be too confident: they know not what strange calamities may await them.
3. All who beheld this monarch fallen would tauntingly say, Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? Yes: so despicable is he grown, who late was idolized. Is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? he that was late the people's darling, is now disregarded, and cast by as a broken vessel; led, with all that pertained to him, into a strange land, there to suffer the punishment of his iniquities.
4. The earth is summoned to mark his judgment: either the people of Judah in particular, or of the world in general: or, as if the clod under their feet would be more attentive than the hardened hearts of the men of that generation, it is called upon to hear the solemn sentence. Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; after a short reign of three month's, he spent his whole life in captivity in Babylon: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.