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Commentary on Jeremiah 22 verses 20–30
This prophecy seems to have been calculated for the ungracious inglorious reign of Jeconiah, or Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim, who succeeded him in the government, reigned but three months, and was then carried captive to Babylon, where he lived many years, Jer 52:31. We have, in these verses, a prophecy,
I. Of the desolations of the kingdom, which were now hastening on apace, Jer 22:20-23. Jerusalem and Judah are here spoken to, or the Jewish state as a single person, and we have it here under a threefold character: - 1. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety (Jer 22:21): "I spoke unto thee in thy prosperity, spoke by my servants the prophets, reproofs, admonitions, counsels, but thou saidst, I will not hear, I will not heed, thou obeyedst not my voice, and wast resolved that thou wouldst not, and hadst the front to tell me so." It is common for those that live at ease to live in contempt of the word of God. Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked. This is so much the worse that they had it by kind: This has been thy manner from thy youth. They were called transgressors from the womb, Isa 48:8. 2. Very timorous upon the alarms of trouble (Jer 22:20): "When thou seest all thy lovers destroyed, when thou findest thy idols unable to help thee and thy foreign alliances failing thee, thou wilt then go up to Lebanon, and cry, as one undone and giving up all for lost, cry with a bitter cry; thou wilt cry, Help, help, or we are lost; thou wilt lift up thy voice in fearful shrieks upon Lebanon and Bashan, two high hills, in hope to be heard thence by the advantage of the rising ground. Thou wilt cry from the passages, from the roads, where thou wilt ever and anon be in distress." Thou wilt cry from Abarim (so some read it, as a proper name), a famous mountain in the border of Moab. "Thou wilt cry, as those that are in great consternation use to do, to all about thee; but in vain, for (Jer 22:22) the wind shall eat up all thy pastors, or rulers, that should protect and lead thee, and provide for thy safety; they shall be blasted, and withered, and brought to nothing, as buds and blossoms are by a bleak or freezing wind; they shall be devoured suddenly, insensibly, and irresistibly, as fruits by the wind. Thy lovers, that thou dependest upon and hast an affection for, shall go into captivity, and shall be so far from saving thee that they shall not be able to save themselves." 3. Very tame under the heavy and lasting pressures of trouble: "When there appears no relief from any of thy confederates, and thy own priests are at a loss, then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness," Jer 22:22. Note, Many will never be ashamed of their sins till they are brought by them to the last extremity; and it is well if we get this good by our straits to be brought by them to confusion for our sins. The Jewish state is here called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because that famous forest was within their border (Jer 22:23), and all their country was wealthy, and well-guarded as with Lebanon's natural fastnesses; but so proud and haughty were they that they are said to make their nest in the cedars, where they thought themselves out of the reach of all danger, and whence they looked with contempt upon all about them. "But, how gracious wilt thou be when pangs come upon thee! Then thou wilt humble thyself before God and promise amendment. When thou art overthrown in stony places thou wilt be glad to hear those words which in thy prosperity thou wouldst not hear, Psa 141:6. Then thou wilt endeavour to make thyself acceptable with that God whom, before, thou madest light of." Note, Many have their pangs of piety who, when the pangs are over, show that they have no true piety. Some give another sense of it: "What will all thy pomp, and state, and wealth avail thee? What will become of it all, or what comfort shalt thou have of it, when thou shalt be in these distresses? No more than a woman in travail, full of pains and fears, can take comfort in her ornaments while she is in that condition." So Mr. Gataker. Note, Those that are proud of their worldly advantages would do well to consider how they will look when pangs come upon them, and how they will then have lost all their beauty.
II. Here is a prophecy of the disgrace of the king; his name was Jeconiah, but he is here once and again called Coniah, in contempt. The prophet shortens or nicks his name, and gives him, as we say, a nickname, perhaps to denote that he should be despoiled of his dignity, that his reign should be shortened, and the number of his months cut off in the midst. Two instances of dishonour are here put upon him: -
1.He shall be carried away into captivity and shall spend and end his days in bondage. He was born to a crown, but it should quickly fall from his head, and he should exchange it for fetters. Observe the steps of this judgment. (1.) God will abandon him, Jer 22:24. The God of truth says it, and confirms it with an oath: "Though he were the signet upon my right hand (his predecessors have been so, and he might have been so if he had conducted himself well, but he being degenerated) I will pluck him thence." The godly kings of Judah had been as signets on God's right hand, near and dear to him; he had gloried in them, and made use of them as instruments of his government, as the prince does of his signet-ring, or sign manual; but Coniah has made himself utterly unworthy of the honour, and therefore the privilege of his birth shall be no security to him; notwithstanding that, he shall be thrown off. Answerable to this threatening against Jeconiah is God's promise to Zerubbabel, when he made him his people's guide in their return out of captivity (Hag 2:23): I will take thee, O Zerubbabel! my servant, and make thee as a signet. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right hand must not be secure, but fear lest they be plucked thence. (2.) The king of Babylon shall seize him. Those know not what enemies and mischiefs they lie exposed to who have thrown themselves out of God's protection, Jer 22:25. The Chaldeans are here said to be such as had a spite to Coniah; they sought his life; no less than that, they thought, would satisfy their rage; they were such as he had a dread of (they are those whose face thou fearest) which would make it the more terrible to him to fall into their hands, especially when it was God himself that gave him into their hands. And, if God deliver him to them, who can deliver him from them? (3.) He and his family shall be carried to Babylon, where they shall wear out many tedious years of their lives in a miserable captivity - he and his mother (Jer 22:26), he and his seed (Jer 22:28), that is, he and all the royal family (for he had no children of his own when he went into captivity), or he and the children in his loins; they shall all be cast out to another country, to a strange country, a country where they were not born, nor such a country as that where they were born, a land which they know not, in which they have no acquaintance with whom to converse or from whom to expect any kindness. Thither they shall be carried, from a land where they were entitled to dominion, into a land where they shall be compelled to servitude. But have they no hopes of seeing their own country again? No: To the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return, Jer 22:27. They conducted themselves ill in it when they were in it, and therefore they shall never see it more. Jehoahaz was carried to Egypt, the land of the south, Jeconiah to Babylon, the land of the north, both far remote, the quite contrary way, and must never expect to meet again, nor either of them to breathe their native air again. Those that had abused the dominion they had over others were justly brought thus under the dominion of others. Those that had indulged and gratified their sinful desires, by their oppression, luxury, and cruelty, were justly denied the gratification of their innocent desire to see their own native country again. We may observe something very emphatic in that part of this threatening (Jer 22:26), In the country where you were not born, there shall you die. As there is a time to be born and a time to die, so there is a place to be born in and a place to die in. 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, and then it will be well with us, wherever we die, though it should be in a far country. (4.) This shall render him very mean and despicable in the eyes of all his neighbours. They shall be ready to say (Jer 22:28), "This is Coniah a despised broken idol? Yes, certainly he is, and much debased from what he was." [1.] Time was when he was dignified, nay, when he was almost deified. The people who had seen his father lately deposed were ready to adore him when they saw him upon the throne, but now he is a despised broken idol, which, when it was whole, was worshipped, but, when it is rotten and broken, is thrown by and despised, and nobody regards it, or remembers what it has been. Note, What is idolized will, first or last, be despised and broken; what is unjustly honoured will be justly contemned, and rivals with God will be the scorn of man. Whatever we idolize we shall be disappointed in and then shall despise. [2.] Time was when he was delighted in; but now he is a vessel in which is not pleasure, or to which there is no desire, either because grown out of fashion or because cracked or dirtied, and so rendered unserviceable. Those whom God has no pleasure in will, some time or other, be so mortified that men will have no pleasure in them.
2.He shall leave no posterity to inherit his honour. The prediction of this is ushered in with a solemn preface (Jer 22:29): O earth, earth, earth! hear the word of the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world take notice of these judgments of God upon a nation and a family that had been near and dear to him, and thence infer that God is impartial in the administration of justice. Or it is an appeal to the earth itself on which we tread, since those that dwell on earth are so deaf and careless, like that (Isa 1:2), Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! God's word, however slighted, will be heard; the earth itself will be made to hear it, and yield to it, when it, and all the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Or it is a call to men that mind earthly things, that are swallowed up in those things and are inordinate in the pursuit of them; such have need to be called upon again and again, and a third time, to hear the word of the Lord. Or it is a call to men considered as mortal, of the earth, and hastening to the earth again. We all are so; earth we are, dust we are, and, in consideration of that, are concerned to hear and regard the word of the Lord, that, though we are earth, we may be found among those whose names are written in heaven. Now that which is here to be taken notice of is that Jeconiah is written childless (Jer 22:30), that is, as it follows, No man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David. In him the line of David was extinct as a royal line. Some think that he had children born in Babylon because mention is made of his seed being cast out there (Jer 22:28) and that they died before him. We read in the genealogy (Ch1 3:17) of seven sons of Jeconiah Assir (that is, Jeconiah the captive) of whom Salathiel is the first. Some think that they were only his adopted sons, and that when it is said (Mat 1:12), Jeconiah begat Salathiel, no more is meant than that he bequeathed to him what claims and pretensions he had to the government, the rather because Salathiel is called the son of Neri of the house of Nathan, Luk 3:27, Luk 3:31. Whether he had children begotten, or only adopted, thus far he was childless that none of his seed ruled as kings in Judah. He was the Augustulus of that empire, in whom it determined. Whoever are childless, it is God that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days cannot expect to prosper in their days.
Someone who is in a state of ignorance is sinful and considered “earth and ashes.” Someone who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is already spiritual and thus is considered elect. Scripture calls the senseless and disobedient by the term “dirt,” which is clear from what Jeremiah the prophet says in reference to Joachim and his brothers: “Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. Inscribe this man as an outcast.”
(Verse 29, 30.) Earth, earth, earth, listen to the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord: Write down this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days. For there will not be a man from his seed who sits on the throne of David and has authority in Judah (or Judea). If I were to note every individual difference, how much the Septuagint may have omitted or changed, it would be lengthy, especially since a diligent reader can consider from both editions what has been changed, added, or subtracted. For in Hebrew it is written, Ariri, which in the first edition of Aquila means sterile, in the second, ἀναύξητον, that is, not increasing, Symmachus, empty, Septuagint and Theodotion, abominable and rejected. And the question arises, how can the prophecy stand, that from his offspring no one will be born who will sit on the throne of David, nor will there be a ruler anymore in Judah, when the Lord and Savior is born from his seed; concerning whose birth Gabriel speaks to Mary: Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He himself will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:31-33). Therefore, we can say that what is missing in the Septuagint, namely, 'in his days there will be no prosperity or growth', is a question that has been debated by those who are ignorant. For the Seventy translated: Write down this man as a man who is rejected: because no man who descends from him will grow to sit upon the throne of David, a ruler forever in Judah, which is repeated twice in Hebrew; and those who initially wrote it, thinking it was added in the Greek books, removed it. Let us therefore respond that in the days of Jechoniah there will not be a man who will sit upon his throne; but after a long time a descendant of his will be born who will obtain his throne. However, it can also be solved in this way: A man and a human being will not indeed sit upon the throne of David, but God will sit, and his kingdom will not be earthly and short-lived, as David's was, but everlasting and heavenly, as Scripture says: He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:32). Therefore, he was born of Joachim, who was the son of Jechoniah, who was the son of Salathiel, who was the son of Zerubbabel, and in this way it comes down to Christ. But in the days of Joachim, a son did not succeed him as king, as he himself had succeeded his father, but he and Salathiel and Zerubbabel were in captivity, and until Christ, no one obtained royal power. However, this happened because it is written in Hebrew: in his days and in his time, there will be no man who sits on the throne of David. For all were captives, and no one from the lineage of David thereafter held the principate in the land of Judaea. Hence, Josephus reports that the priestly line and tribe of Levi were leaders, succeeded by Herod Antipater, a proselyte and son, and later under Vespasian, the kingdom of this line, indeed the image of the empire, was utterly destroyed.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 22:29 stands as a profound and urgent divine summons, a triple invocation of "earth" that underscores the universal and undeniable authority of God's word. Delivered through the prophet Jeremiah during a period of profound national crisis and spiritual apostasy in Judah, this verse acts as a cosmic declaration, calling all creation to bear witness to the impending judgment against the unrighteous kings and the people who have repeatedly spurned the Lord's commands. It is a solemn pronouncement, highlighting the gravity and finality of God's decree when His warnings are persistently ignored, serving as a climactic exclamation point to the preceding condemnations.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 22:29 is rich in Rhetorical Devices, primarily employing Apostrophe and Repetition. The direct address "O earth, earth, earth" is a classic example of Apostrophe, where the speaker directly addresses an inanimate object or an absent person. This device lends dramatic intensity and a sense of cosmic significance to the message, implying that if humanity refuses to listen, even the very ground beneath their feet is called to bear witness. The Repetition of "earth" three times (Tripling for Emphasis or Superlative) is a powerful Hebrew literary technique used to denote utmost solemnity, totality, and certainty. It elevates the pronouncement to an undeniable, universal decree, akin to an oath or a profound truth being proclaimed. This triple repetition creates a sense of urgency and finality, underscoring the unchangeable nature of the divine judgment being declared.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 22:29 profoundly emphasizes God's absolute sovereignty and the inherent authority of His spoken word. By calling upon the "earth" to "hear," God asserts His dominion over all creation, demonstrating that His decrees are not limited by human will or political power. This verse highlights the prophetic understanding that God's word is an active, potent force, capable of bringing about what it declares—whether judgment or blessing. It serves as a stark reminder that persistent disobedience to divine revelation incurs severe consequences, and that God's justice will ultimately be executed, with creation itself bearing witness to His righteous acts. The call to "hear" is a fundamental biblical imperative, signifying not just auditory reception but a responsive obedience that leads to life and righteousness.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 22:29 delivers a timeless and potent message for believers today: the imperative to truly "hear the word of the LORD." In a world saturated with noise, distractions, and competing voices, this verse challenges us to cultivate a posture of profound attention and receptivity to divine revelation. Just as the ancient earth was summoned to witness God's unheeded warnings and impending judgments, so too are we called to recognize the living and active nature of God's word in our lives. Ignoring or dismissing God's truth, as Judah did, invariably leads to spiritual and practical consequences. Conversely, a heart that genuinely hears—meaning, understands, believes, and obeys—positions itself for wisdom, guidance, and blessing. This verse reminds us that God's word is not merely ancient text but a dynamic, authoritative declaration that continues to speak into our contemporary circumstances, demanding our earnest heed and faithful response. It calls us to examine whether our lives truly reflect a listening and obedient heart, or if we, like Judah, are deaf to the divine call.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why is the word "earth" repeated three times in this verse?
Answer: The threefold repetition of "earth" (Hebrew ʼerets) is a powerful rhetorical device in the Hebrew Bible, known as a "tripling for emphasis" or a "superlative." It is used to convey the utmost solemnity, intensity, and totality of a declaration. In this context, it signifies that the message is of the gravest importance, a cosmic summons demanding universal attention. It implies that if humanity refuses to listen, even the inanimate creation is called upon to bear witness to and acknowledge God's profound and unchangeable pronouncements, underscoring the absolute authority of the word of the LORD.
Does God literally expect the physical earth to "hear" His word?
Answer: While the physical earth is not sentient in the human sense, the apostrophe to "earth" serves a profound theological and literary purpose. It emphasizes the universal scope of God's authority and the undeniable nature of His decree. By addressing the earth, God is asserting His dominion over all creation, implying that His word is so powerful and His judgment so certain that even the foundations of the world are called to witness it. It's a dramatic way of saying that the message is for everyone and everything, leaving no room for denial or escape from the consequences of ignoring the divine will.
What is the significance of "the word of the LORD" in the book of Jeremiah?
Answer: In Jeremiah, "the word of the LORD" (Hebrew dâbâr Yᵉhôvâh) is the central and driving force of the prophet's ministry. It is the source of his authority, the content of his prophecies, and the standard by which Judah is judged. Jeremiah frequently emphasizes that his messages are not his own, but direct divine revelation. The consistent refusal of the kings and people to "hear" and obey this word is the primary reason for Judah's impending destruction and exile. The book highlights the dynamic, active, and often confrontational nature of God's word, which both warns of judgment and offers hope of restoration for those who truly turn and listen.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 22:29, with its cosmic summons to "hear the word of the LORD," finds its ultimate Christ-centered fulfillment in the person and ministry of Jesus. He is the very Word of God made flesh (John 1:14), the supreme embodiment of divine revelation. While Jeremiah's cry summoned the earth to hear a word of judgment and warning, Jesus came proclaiming a word of grace, truth, and ultimate salvation, yet also one of profound authority. When Jesus taught, He did so with an authority that astonished His hearers, often beginning with "Truly, truly, I say to you," a declaration of divine weight that transcended the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 7:29). The heavens themselves opened at His baptism, and a voice declared, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him!" (Matthew 17:5), echoing and amplifying the ancient imperative to "hear the word of the LORD." Furthermore, Jesus' redemptive work on the cross, the ultimate act of obedience to the Father's will, was a cosmic event that reverberated through creation, as the earth quaked and the sun was darkened (Matthew 27:51). Thus, the universal call to "hear" in Jeremiah 22:29 is not merely a historical echo but a perpetual invitation to heed the voice of the one through whom all things were made and by whom all things are sustained—the Living Word, Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:16).