Глава 22

“Now thus saith the Lord against the house of the king of Judah: Thou art Gilead unto me, O chief of Lebanon, unless I bring thee into the wilderness, into uninhabited cities, and I will bring upon thee a slaying man, and an ax in his hand, and they shall cut off thy chosen cedars” (Jer. 22:6-7). The prophet speaks of the king's house, or of his palace, or of the royal city, which was preparing for destruction; He calls Jerusalem Gilead, an alien name, showing that its inhabitants are alienated by God. And he calls the princes of Judah and the priests chosen cedars. “Do not weep for the dead, but weep for him,” that is, do not weep for King Josiah, whom those who know him are consigning to burial; the same thing did not happen to him as happens to someone who is taken captive, who dies on someone else’s side, and has no one to give him burial. “Weep weeping for what is departing, because he who will not return will see the land of his birth” (Jer. 22:10), that is, weep for Shallum (Sellim), or Jehoahaz, the son of Josiah. “Before this the Lord spoke to Sellim the son of Joseph... who went out... from this place: no one will return to this place, but in that place, even if he has gone before him, there he will die, and no one will see this land” (Jer. 22:11-12). He will be taken into captivity in Egypt, and will not see his city or the king's house. But that alien land that will accept him, and after his death will hide his body within itself. “Woe to the king of Judah, who builds his house... not in judgment” (Jer. 22:13). The prophet speaks these and the following words about Joachim, the father of Jehoiachin, and first counts his sins to him, and then foreshadows his destruction. “Food will reign, as you are encouraged about... cedar ah?” You think that your reign will continue for many years, and therefore you are “encouraged about ... cedar ah,” that is, you decorate houses with cedar and build magnificent buildings. “Your father ate and drank, but... did righteousness” (Jer. 22:15). And Josiah, your father, like you, owned the kingdom, and inherited all the blessings of Solomon’s kingdom: his wealth was great, and he was glorious, but he did justice and righteousness, which you do not do. “I... did good to him” (Jer. 22:21), because he did righteousness, I poured out good things on him and helped him, and sent death upon him before the disasters that befell his children after his death. “They will not mourn him... The donkey will be buried by burial” (Jer. 22:18–19). King Nebuchadnezzar put to death Joachim, the son of Josiah, who retreated from him three times; Joachim's body was pulled out and thrown far beyond the gates of Jerusalem, into an unclean place. “Go up to Lebanon and cry, and let your voice come to Bashan, and cry to the floor of the sea, for you have destroyed all your loves” (Jer. 22:20). Here the prophet speaks to the entire tribe of Judah and shows him how vain is the hope for the nations allied with him, because they too will be defeated by the Chaldeans, humiliated under the yoke of slavery, and will not be able to help their neighbors. “If you sit in Lebanon and nest in cedar trees, you will groan when sicknesses come to you, like those who give birth” (Jer. 22:23). The Prophet condemns the luxury and arrogance in which the Jews of that time indulged, and therefore likens them to the tall cedars of Lebanon; and under the image of the illnesses and groans of the woman giving birth, he predicts for them the humiliation and sorrow that will befall them in the migration. “O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord” (Jer. 22:29). These words are in connection with those said above, where the prophet denounces the Jews for their hardness of heart, saying: “I will not hear your words in your abundance, and your words: I will not hear” (Jer. 22:21). The prophet speaks beautifully here, calling on the earth to listen to his words, because the Jews, who should have heard the prophetic words, became like the insensitive earth. They were as deaf as the earth. When the prophet spoke, he spoke as if to the earth. The Jews did not listen to what Jeremiah told them. “This is the word of the Lord: Write this man who is declared childless, who will not prosper in his days; for from his seed there will be a man who will sit on the throne of David” (Jer. 22:30). This is Jehoiachin, the son of Joachim, the prophet says about him that he will go “to a strange land”, to Babylon, “and will not return” from there, and therefore calls him “an indecent vessel” (Jer. 22:26-28). The words: “a man... declared childless” do not have the meaning that Jehoiachin had no children, but that his children will not possess the kingdom of their father. For the last king of Judah was Zedekiah, the uncle of Jeconiah, the son of Josiah, and Shelaphiel, the son of Jeconiah, was never on the throne of his father, but died in a foreign land. You might be interested in: