Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 22:29-30

"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 22:29-30 (ASV)

1. Here, God threatens a sterility that will not even be able to hold on to the fruit of the present prosperity. O earth, earth, earth; it is as if he were saying, “Although men do not listen, at least inanimate things will obey.” Alternatively, this is metonymy—substituting the container for what is contained—and he speaks this way for greater emphasis. A third possibility is that he refers to the three parts of the earth, as in Deuteronomy 32:1: let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

   Write this down as a sentence, which is given in writing so that it may be remembered. As it says above: the sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, and a nail of diamond (Jeremiah 17:1). He will be sterile, because he will not perceive with his mind those things that would be useful to him. He is a man who will not prosper in his works. He will also be sterile regarding the fruit of succession to the royal dignity. For no man from his line who is purely human will sit on the throne; Christ was indeed of his seed, but He was both God and man, as it says in Matthew 1. Nor was Christ a king in that same manner of earthly reigning; instead, He reigns eternally at the right hand of God the Father. And he will not have royal power, because Zerubbabel, his grandson, was not king of the people. As it says below: there shall be no one left of him who may sit upon the throne of David (Jeremiah 36:30).

A note concerning the verse, do not cry for the dead (Jeremiah 22:10): one must not weep excessively for the dead for several reasons:

• The uselessness of grieving: do not give your heart to sadness, but drive it from you .
• The fact that death is common to all: we all die, and like water, which does not return again, we are poured out on the earth (2 Samuel 14:14).
• Their freedom from guilt: he was taken lest wickedness change his understanding, or falsehood deceive his soul .
• Their rest from labor: from henceforth now, says the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors (Revelation 14:13).
• Their attainment of glory: for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens (2 Corinthians 5:1).

Also, concerning the verse, the wind shall feed all your shepherds (Jeremiah 22:22), note that sometimes the shepherds of the Church are fed by:

• The wind of self-importance: the wind shall bear all of them away, and the breeze shall take them (Isaiah 57:13).
• The wind of excessive expectation: as one who grasps a shadow, and one who chases the wind, so is one who attends to lying visions .
• The wind of captivity: you shall scatter a third part to the wind, and you shall draw the sword after them (Ezekiel 5:2).
• The wind of future damnation, as it says above: as a burning wind I will scatter them before the enemy. In the day of their destruction, I shall show them my back, and not my face (Jeremiah 18:17).