20 "Go up to Lebanon and cry out, And lift up your voice in Bashan ; Cry out also from Abarim , For all your lovers have been crushed . 21 "I spoke to you in your prosperity ; But you said , 'I will not listen !' This has been your practice from your youth , That you have not obeyed My voice . 22 "The wind will sweep away all your shepherds , And your lovers will go into captivity ; Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated Because of all your wickedness . 23 "You who dwell in Lebanon , Nested in the cedars , How you will groan when pangs come upon you, Pain like a woman in childbirth ! 24 "As I live ," declares the Lord , "even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand , yet I would pull you off ; 25 and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life , yes, into the hand of those whom you dread , even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans . 26 "I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where e you were not born , and there you will die . 27 "But as for the land to which they desire e to return , they will not return to it. 28 "Is this man Coniah a despised , shattered jar ? Or is he an undesirable e vessel ? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast into a land that they had not known ? 29 " O land , land , land , Hear the word of the Lord ! 30 "Thus says the Lord , 'Write this man down childless , A man who will not prosper in his days ; For no man of his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah .' "
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 22:20-30
Commentary on Jeremiah 22:20-30
(Read Jeremiah 22:20-30)
The Jewish state is described under a threefold character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful on alarm of trouble. Very much cast down under pressure of trouble. Many never are ashamed of their sins till brought by them to the last extremity. The king shall close his days in bondage. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right hand, must not be secure, but fear lest they should be plucked thence. The Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. 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, then it will be well with us wherever we die, thought it may be in a far country. The Jewish king shall be despised. Time was when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure, some time or other, will be so lowered, that men will have no pleasure in them. Whoever are childless, it is the Lord that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days, cannot expect to prosper. How little is earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! But those who hear the voice of Christ, and follow him, have eternal life, and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty hands.