Matthew Henry Commentary Jeremiah 22:20-30

"Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all thy lovers are destroyed. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice. The wind shall feed all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: surely then shalt thou be ashamed and confounded for all thy wickedness. O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail! As I live, saith Jehovah, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence; and I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them of whom thou art afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die. But to the land whereunto their soul longeth to return, thither shall they not return. 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? O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling in Judah." — Jeremiah 22:20-30 (ASV)

The Jewish state is described under a threefold character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful at the alarm of trouble. Very much cast down under the pressure of trouble. Many are never ashamed of their sins until their sins bring them to the last extremity.

The king shall end his days in bondage. Those who think of themselves as signets on God's right hand must not be secure, but must fear that they might be plucked from there. The Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. We know where we were born, but where we will die, we do not know; it is enough that our God knows.

Let it be our care that we die in Christ; then it will be well with us wherever we die, though it may be in a distant country. The Jewish king shall be despised. There was a time when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure, at some time or other, will be so lowered that people will have no pleasure in them.

Whoever are childless, it is the Lord who writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days cannot expect to prosper. How little earthly grandeur is to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! But those who hear the voice of Christ and follow him have eternal life, and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty hands.