Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 22:20

"Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed." — Jeremiah 22:20 (ASV)

Go up to Lebanon. —The great mountain ranges—Lebanon and Bashan (Psalms 68:15)—running from north to south, that overlooked the route of the Babylonians, are invoked by the prophet, as those of Gilboa had been by David (2 Samuel 1:21), as witnesses of the misery that was coming on the land and people. Even here, as in Jeremiah 22:23, there is probably still the same reference as before to the cedar palaces of Jerusalem. The people are called from the counterfeit “forests of Lebanon” to the height of the real mountains, and instructed to look forth from there.

Cry from the passages. —It is better to take the word Abarim as a proper name. As in Numbers 27:12, Numbers 33:47, and Deuteronomy 32:49, it was part of the range of Nebo, south of Gilead and Bashan, and coming therefore naturally after the last of those two mountains.

All your lovers. —The word points, as in the corresponding language of Ezekiel 23:5 and Ezekiel 23:9, to the Egyptians and other nations with whom Judah had made alliances. The destruction reached its climax in the overthrow of Pharaoh Necho’s army by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2).