Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 22:6

"For thus saith Jehovah concerning the house of the king of Judah: Thou art Gilead unto me, [and] the head of Lebanon; [yet] surely I will make thee a wilderness, [and] cities which are not inhabited." — Jeremiah 22:6 (ASV)

Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon. —The conjunction, which is not found in the Hebrew, is better omitted. Even in his utterance of woes the prophet’s mind is still that of a poet.

The chief point of the comparison in both cases is found in the forests that crowned the heights of both mountain ranges. The “oaks of Bashan,” in the Gilead district (Isaiah 2:13; Zechariah 11:2), were as famous as the cedars of Lebanon, and both alike were the fit symbol of the glory of sovereignty (Isaiah 37:24; Ezekiel 17:3). There may be a reference to the group of cedar-buildings, which long ago gave one of the palaces the name “the house of the forest of Lebanon” (2 Samuel 7:2; 2 Samuel 7:7; 1 Kings 7:2; 1 Kings 10:21).