Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Does it make you a king to excel in cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He administered justice and righteousness, and so it went well with him.

“Did he need to build costly palaces to secure his throne? Nay, he did secure it by "judgment and justice"; whereas thou, with all thy luxurious building, sittest on a tottering throne. then--on that account, therefore.”

Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’

“The boldness of the Hebrew prophets proves their divine mission; were it not so, their reproofs to the Hebrew kings, who held the throne by divine authority, would have been treason. Ah his glory!--"Alas! his majesty."”

He will be buried like a donkey, dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.

“This is not formally narrated. But 2Ch 36:6 states that "Nebuchadnezzar bound him in fetters to carry him to Babylon"; his treatment there is nowhere mentioned. The prophecy here, and in Jer 36:30, harmonizes these two facts.”

“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on My right hand, I would pull you…

“Jehoiachin's popularity is probably here referred to. right hand--the hand most valued. I would pluck thee thence--(Compare Ob 4); on account of thy father's sins, as well as thine own (2Ch 36:9).”

Is this man Coniah a despised and shattered pot, a jar that no one wants?

“Luke the real pedigree, from Mary, the real parent, through Nathan, brother of Solomon, upwards (Lu 3:31). no man of his seed . . . upon the throne--This explains the sense in which "childless" is used.”

In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is His name by which He will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.

“Ex 17:15), yet when applied to Messiah it must express His Godhead manifested in justifying power towards us (1Ti 3:16). our--marks His manhood, which is also implied in His being a Branch raised unto David, whence His human title, "Son of David" (compare Mt 22:42-45).”

As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble.

“But Vulgate, Septuagint, &c., make this the inscription of the prophecy, CONCERNING THE PROPHETS: as in Jer 46:2; Jeremiah expresses his horror at the so-called "prophets" not warning the people, though iniquity so fearfully abounded, soon to be followed by awful judgments.”

Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone out with fury, a whirlwind swirling down upon the heads of the wicked.

“So far from all prosperity awaiting the people as the false prophets say (Jer 23:17), wrath is in store for them. grievous--literally, "eddying," whirling itself about, a tornado. In Jer 30:23, "continuing" is substituted for "grievous." fall grievously--it shall be hurled on.”

“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?”

“Let not the false prophets fancy that their devices (Jer 23:25) are unknown to Me. Are ye so ignorant as to suppose that I can only see things near Me, namely, things in heaven, and not earthly things as being too remote?”

How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds?

“prophets--a different Hebrew form from the usual one, "prophesiers." "How long," cries Jeremiah, impatient of their impious audacity, "shall these prophecy-mongers go on prophesying lies?" The answer is given in Jer 23:29-34.”

Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD.

“The test is adherence to, or forgetfulness of, Me and My law (Jer 23:27). that hath a dream--that pretends to have a divine communication by dream, let him tell it "faithfully," that it may be compared with "my word" (2Co 4:2).”

“Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?”

“"My word" which is "wheat" [Jer 23:28], that is, food to the true prophet and his hearers, is a consuming "fire," and a crushing "hammer" (Mt 21:44) to false prophets and their followers (2Co 2:16).”

“Now when this people or a prophet or priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you are to say to them, ‘What burden?

“What is the burden--play on the double sense of the Hebrew: an oracle and a burden. They scoffingly ask, Has he got any new burden (burdensome oracle: for all his prophecies are disasters) to announce (Mal 1:1)?”

This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

“The result of My judgments shall be, ye shall address the prophet more reverentially hereafter, no longer calling his message a burden, but a divine response or word. "What hath the LORD answered?"”

One basket had very good figs, like those that ripen early, but the other basket contained very poor figs, so bad they could not be eaten.

“They are called good and bad respectively, not in an absolute, but a comparative sense, and in reference to the punishment of the latter.”

I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD.

“The source of their conversion is here stated to be God's prevenient grace. for they shall return--Repentance, though not the cause of pardon, is its invariable accompaniment: it is the effect of God's giving a heart to know Him.”

The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and…

“Turn . . . dwell--In Hebrew there is expressed by sameness of sounds the correspondence between their turning to God and God's turning to them to permit them to dwell in their land: Shubu . . . shebu, "Return" . . .”

behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this…

“The Medes and other northern peoples, confederate with Babylon, are included with the Chaldeans. my servant--My agent for punishing (Jer 27:6; 43:10; compare Jer 40:2). Cyrus, "My shepherd." God makes even unbelievers unconsciously to fulfil His designs.”

to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day—Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials;

“Jerusalem--put first: for "judgment begins at the house of God"; they being most guilty whose religious privileges are greatest (1Pe 4:17). kings--Jehoiakim, Jeconiah, and Zedekiah. as it is this day--The accomplishment of the curse had already begun under Jehoiakim.”

all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

“Zimri--perhaps the Zabra mentioned by PTOLEMY between Mecca and Medina. Zimran also, as Dedan, was one of Abraham's sons by Keturah (Ge 25:2). Elam--properly, west of Persia; but used for Persia in general.”

all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another—all the kingdoms on the face of the earth.

“In the Cabalistic system (called Athbash, the first Hebrew letter in the alphabet being expressed by the last) Sheshach would exactly answer to Babel.”

and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting…

“The charge against Jeremiah was that of uttering falsehood in Jehovah's name, an act punishable with death (De 18:20). His prophecy against the temple and city (Jer 26:11) might speciously be represented as contradicting God's own words (Ps 132:14).”

But Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people, “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have…

“They had used the same Hebrew word (Jer 26:11), which ought to be translated "concerning," though they meant it in the unfavorable sense.”

Then the officials and all the people told the priests and prophets, “This man is not worthy of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the…

“The priests, through envy of his holy zeal, were more his enemies than the princes, whose office was more secular than religious.”

“Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and told all the people of Judah that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Zion will…

“Morasthite--called so from a village of the tribe Judah. Hezekiah--The precedent in the reign of such a good king proved that Jeremiah was not the only prophet, or the first, who threatened the city and the temple without incurring death.”