Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 22:1-12

"Thus said Jehovah: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, And say, Hear the word of Jehovah, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates. Thus saith Jehovah: Execute ye justice and righteousness, and deliver him that is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the sojourner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place. For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith Jehovah, that this house shall become a desolation. 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. And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons; and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, Wherefore hath Jehovah done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep sore for him that goeth away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country. For thus saith Jehovah touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, [and] who went forth out of this place: He shall not return thither any more. But in the place whither they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more." — Jeremiah 22:1-12 (ASV)

1. Here, he makes a threat against the kings, according to which they are to be punished in their own person. Concerning this, he makes three points.

   First, the command to announce is given and the place of preaching is indicated with the words go down, because the temple where the prophet was standing to pray was located in an elevated place. Descend, and go with them, doubting nothing, because I have sent them (Acts 10:20).

   Second, he gives counsel for their safety when he seeks an audience: hear. And now, understand, O kings of the earth, be instructed, you who judge the land (Psalms 2:10).

   He proposes the counsel that they should do good and observe justice: thus says the Lord: execute judgment—the execution of justice, which properly belongs to the king and the judge. Love justice, O you who judge the earth . He counsels them to end the perversion of justice: and free the one oppressed by violence. Rescue the poor and deliver the needy from the hand of the sinner (Psalms 81:4). So that the king might be free from the evil of wrongfully taking property, he says: do not afflict the stranger, and the orphan, and the widow. You shall not vex the stranger, neither shall you afflict him (Exodus 22:21). And regarding the killing of the innocent: do not shed innocent blood. The innocent and the just man you shall not slay, because I abhor the wicked (Exodus 23:7).

   He speaks of the fruit of this counsel when he proposes a reward to those who keep it: for if you will surely do this word, kings of the line of David . . . shall enter through the gates of this house. The same is said above (Jeremiah 17:25).

   He also proposes punishment for those who despise it: but if you will not listen to these words, by myself I swear, because I have no one greater. For God in promising to Abraham, swore by himself, because he had no one greater by whom he might swear (Hebrews 6:13). This house, the palace or temple, shall be a waste. It shall be laid waste as when wasted by enemies (Isaiah 1:7).

   Third, he predicts imminent danger.

   First, he speaks against the royal city concerning its glory: for thus says the Lord concerning the house—Jerusalem—Gilead are you to me, the head of Lebanon. This means, you were like the head to me in the entire kingdom, just as Gilead is the head of the plain which is on the height of Lebanon, where Laban found Jacob (Genesis 31:17–25). The Lord loves the gates of Zion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalms 86:2). He predicts a future punishment when he speaks of inflicting punishment regarding the city's desolation: yet surely I will make—it is as though he were saying, “Should I not be believed?”—cities, subject to you. As a garden of pleasure is the land before it, and after it is a desolate wilderness (Joel 2:3).

   Regarding the slaying of men, he speaks of the killing: and I will sanctify. It is as though he were saying, “I will appoint them to fulfill my command.” Likewise, in Isaiah 13:3: I shall command my sanctified ones, and I shall call my strong ones in my wrath. And of the killing: and he shall hew down cedars, that is, the greater among the people, to continue the metaphor. Open your gates, O Lebanon, and fire shall consume your cedars; wail, O fir, for the cedar has fallen, for the great are laid waste (Zechariah 11:1–2).

   He also speaks of the astonishment at the punishment that is inflicted, and nations shall pass by, when he describes the question of those who are astonished: why has the Lord done so to this great city?

   Then comes the response of the listeners: and they will respond. And all the nations shall say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What is the great wrath of his fury?’ And they shall respond, ‘Because they have abandoned the covenant of the Lord, which he made with their fathers’ (Deuteronomy 29:24–25).

   Second, the threat against the royal line is mentioned.

   1. Against Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, at for thus says the Lord (Jeremiah 22:11).
   2. Against Jotham, the son of Josiah,Throughout this section, Thomas Aquinas seems to mistake Jotham (died ca. 736–32 B.C.), son of Uzziah, for Jehoahaz (Shallum). It was Jehoahaz, not Jotham, who was taken into exile in Egypt. It would be impossible for the biblical Jotham to have been one of the four sons of Josiah, for he lived some 126 years before the period under discussion. See 2 Kings 15:30; 2 Chronicles 36:1 ff. at woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness (Jeremiah 22:13).
   3. Against Jeconiah, the son of Jehoiakim, at as I live says the Lord (Jeremiah 22:24). 2 Kings 24 speaks of these things.

   Concerning the first point, there are two things.

   First, the threat is mentioned, where he forbids mourning for Josiah who has been killed: do not cry for the dead, namely, Josiah. Cry little for the dead, for they are at rest . And he commands a lament for Jotham [Jehoahaz], who has been taken captive by Pharaoh: mourn for him. The eye which saw him shall not see, neither shall his place behold him any more (Job 20:9). It is called “weeping” when there is a profusion of tears; “mourning” adds a certain solemnity, but “lament” adds a further sense of complaining through words.

   Second, the confirmation of the threat is given by a divine sentence: for thus says the Lord to Shallum, Jehoiakim, because all the sons of Josiah were called Shallum,Thomas Aquinas seems to be mistaken here. Shallum was the third son and immediate successor of Josiah. He took the name Jehoahaz, not Jehoiakim, upon ascending the throne in 609 B.C. Three months later he was deposed by the pharaoh, Necho II, who then made Eliakim, his older brother, king; Eliakim took the name of Jehoiakim. See 2 Chronicles 36:4. that is, “fulfillment,” because the kingdom came to an end in them. The Lord will cast you like a ball into a wide and spacious land. There you will die (Isaiah 22:18). According to this, the entire prophecy of this chapter took place in the time of Jehoiakim. He speaks of the captivity of Jotham [Jehoahaz] as though it were already past, and speaks of the captivity of others as though it were yet to come. Jerome, however, interprets what has been said as relating to Zedekiah, and that from the beginning of chapter 2 to this point the prophecy took place in the time of Zedekiah, and then Jehoiakim.

   ^22:13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his chambersHeb. עֲלִיּוֹתָ֖יו: his upper rooms. by injustice, that will oppress his friend without cause, and not give him his wages.

   ^22:14 Who says, ‘I shall build myself a broad house, and spacious chambers’; who opens windows for himself, and makes paneled roofs of cedar, and paints them with sinopia.Sinopia is a dark, reddish-brown, earth pigment, which is so-called from the name of the city where it was mined, Sinopis, in Cappadocia. See Pliny, Natural History 35.6.13.

   ^22:15 Shall you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar?Heb. הֲתִֽמְלֹ֔ךְ כִּ֥י אַתָּ֖ה מְתַחֲרֶ֣ה בָאָ֑רֶז: shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and execute judgment and justice, and then it was well with him?

   ^22:16 He judged the cause of the poor, and the needy for his own good; was it not, therefore, because he knew me? says the Lord.Heb. הֲלֹוא־הִ֛יא הַדַּ֥עַת אֹתִ֖י: was this not knowledge of me?

   ^22:17 But your eyes and heart are set upon greed, and spilling innocent blood, and calumny, and running after evil works.

   ^22:18 Because of these things the Lord says to Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: they shall not mourn him, ‘Alas, brother!’ and, ‘Alas sister!’ They shall not lament for him, ‘Alas, lord,’ and, ‘Alas, glorious one!’

   ^22:19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, corruptedHeb. סָח֣וֹב: dragged. and cast outside the gates of Jerusalem.

   ^22:20 Go up to Lebanon, and shout, and in Bashan give your voice; and cry to those who are passing by,Heb. וְצַֽעֲקִי֙ מֵֽעֲבָרִ֔ים: cry out from Avarim, a place name. for all your lovers are destroyed.

   ^22:21 I spoke to you in your abundance, and you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This is your way from your youth, because you would not hear my voice.

   ^22:22 The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; and then you will be ashamed, and you will blush at all your wickedness.

   ^22:23 You who sit in Lebanon, and build a nest in the cedars, how you moaned when pain came upon you, like the pains of a woman in labor.

2. Here, a threat is made against Jehoiakim.

   First, he reproves him for the sin of unjust building: woe to him who builds—namely, Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah—chambers (Latin: cenacula), which are rooms, properly those to which one ascends by a ladder or steps, so-called from the verb “to eat” (Latin: cenare). He who builds his house at other men’s charges is like the one who gathers his stones in winter . He continues: That will oppress his friend without cause, when he seeks help to build. The wages of your hired man shall not remain with you until morning (Leviticus 19:13).

   He also speaks of the building’s decoration: who says, ‘I shall build myself a broad house’ . . . paneled roofs, which go up with ostentation by way of elevated chambers to the terrace; with sinopia, a red color, so-called from a city of the Persians.

   Second, he dismisses the false confidence by which Jehoiakim promised himself the prosperity his father Josiah had enjoyed, making a foolish comparison: shall you reign because you compare yourself to the cedar, to your father? I saw the wicked raised up and lifted high like the cedars of Lebanon (Psalms 36:35). He shows the difference between them when he describes the righteousness of the father: your father did eat, and nevertheless did not forsake righteousness because of his prosperity, and therefore it went well for him. And when I sat as king, with his army standing about him, I was as one who comforts those who mourn (Job 29:25).

   Then he describes the unrighteousness of the son: but your eyes, with regard to thought; and heart, with regard to the affections of the heart; upon greed, with regard to the unjust taking of property; calumny—the false imputation of a crime, so that with such a pretext they might oppress; and running after evil. It is as though he were saying, “What you conceive in your heart, you fulfill in deed.” Every thought of the heart of man is set on evil at all times (Genesis 6:5).

   Third, he threatens a punishment: because of these things the Lord says.

   First, regarding the king himself, there will be a lack of mourning: they, his relatives, shall not mourn. They shall not lament—his subjects being immediately at peace. As said above: they shall not be mourned, and they shall not be buried; they shall be like dung upon the face of the earth (Jeremiah 16:4).

   And there will be a lack of burial: he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey because he will be thrown out to be devoured by beasts. All the kings of the nations, all have slept in glory, each man in his house; but you have been cast out of your tomb, like an unprofitable branch, defiled, and wrapped up with those who have been slain by the sword, and have gone down to the bottom of the pit (Isaiah 14:19).

   Various things are said in various places about Jehoiakim. For in 2 Kings 24:2 it is said that the Lord sent robbers from the neighboring nations against him, to kill him; and he slept with his fathers. But in 2 Chronicles 36, it is said that the king of Babylon came up against him and led him to Babylon as a captive. Josephus, however, says that when Nebuchadnezzar, or Nebuzaradan, had entered the city, he broke the treaty and killed many young men, among whom was Jehoiakim.Josephus Scotus, Epitome explanationum in Isaiam (Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis [CCCM] 284), 5/6 on Isaiah 14, 18–20.

   Now, this was said because he was unburied. Therefore, to bring all of this into harmony, one must know that Jehoiakim had been substituted for his brother Jotham [Jehoahaz] and that he reigned with the king of Egypt. In the eighth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar came against him, and Jehoiakim surrendered. He was also made a tributary to him for two years.

   In the tenth year, however, he rebelled. For this reason, Nebuchadnezzar came against him and led him captive to Babylon. He made a treaty with him while en route, and he was returned to Jerusalem. But Nebuzaradan, having gathered robbers from the neighboring nations, entered Jerusalem, broke the treaty, and killed him. When he had been buried in the tombs of the kings by the people of the land, Nebuzaradan became indignant and had him dug up and thrown to the beasts to be devoured.

   Second, he speaks against his princes, concerning their destruction: go up to Lebanon, the temple mount, and in Bashan, which lies next to the mount of Jerusalem.Figuratively. Bashan is a good distance north of Jerusalem to the east of the Sea of Galilee and south of Mt. Hermon in modern-day Syria. You who tell good news to Zion go up a high mountain (Isaiah 40:9). The lovers are the princes and defenders.

   He also gives the reason for this, which arises from disobedience: I spoke to you in your abundance, that is, when you abounded with good things given to you by me. As it says above: attend to the voice of the trumpet. But they said, ‘We shall not attend’ (Jeremiah 6:17). The reason also comes from ancient custom: this is your way, namely, disobedience, from your youth, from the time they came out of Egypt. I have called you a transgressor from the womb (Isaiah 48:8). As it says above: from of old you have broken my yoke, you have burst my chains asunder, and you have said, ‘I will not serve’ (Jeremiah 2:20).

   He gives the manner and order of their destruction: all your shepherds, that is, the princes, the wind shall feed, driving them into captivity; and your lovers, the Egyptians. Ephraim pastures on the wind, and follows the burning heat (Hosea 12:1).

   Third, he makes a threat against the royal city itself—shame: and you will blush . . . who sit in Lebanon, which signifies pride. What fruit, therefore, have you had from those things of which you are now ashamed? (Romans 6:21). He also threatens sorrow: how you moaned when pain came upon you, like the pains of a woman in labor. Here, the past is used to describe the future. There were pains as of a woman in labor (Psalms 47:7).