John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 22:28

"Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein none delighteth? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they know not?" — Jeremiah 22:28 (ASV)

Since the Prophet found it difficult to convince the Jews of what he had foretold, he confirms it; but he speaks here as if about something incredible. He adopts the persona of someone greatly astonished, so that others might stop wondering. He then asks whether it was possible for Jeconiah to be driven into exile and perish there miserably.

We now see the Prophet's purpose: since the Jews thought the kingdom would be permanent, it was necessary to dispel such a notion, so that they might know that God had not threatened in vain what we have already observed. However, there is a kind of irony in these questions. The Prophet could have made a direct assertion in plain words, but out of consideration for others, he hesitates out of wonder, or seems to doubt, as if it were something monstrous.

Is he a statue? he says. Some translate this as “a vessel;” but it seems to be used here, as in other places, in its literal sense, as a statue. Is this man Coniah, then, a despised and a broken statue? For פוף, puts, means both to fail and to break. We have mentioned that part of his name was omitted out of contempt. Yet, since the Jews were so blinded by the royal dignity that they could not believe the prophecy, he asks about it as if it were something incredible.

He adds, Is he a vessel? and so on. The Hebrew word כלי, cali, we know, is used for any kind of vessel, because the ancients called all kinds of furnishings vessels. He asks, then, Is he a contemptible vessel? Is he a vessel in which there is no delight? He had previously said that he was a despised statue.

Why are they cast forth, he and his seed, and thrown into a land which they have not known? That is, into a distant land? We know that it is a hard fate when one is driven far from one's own country. There is, then, no doubt that the Prophet heightens the severity of the evil when he speaks of an unknown land, for Zedekiah, who was placed on the throne, was his uncle, and the first of his descendants, Salathiel, was born in exile.