Jeremiah (1-31) 22:24 Commentary and Bible Study

These verses go on to say why God's anger is upon Judah’s kings. So this part of Jeremiah’s prophesy is all addressed to the royal household of Judah, and the three different kings, ending up with Zedekiah, and speaks of how God will judge them.‘As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence.’ This about God determination to act. If Judah is comforting herself with the idea that God will never remove her king and the line of kings that comes from David, she had better think again. The oath at the start of this verse – ‘As I live’ – reinforces the Lord’s determination to act. God swears by himself because he can swear by none greater; he is a witness to every word that comes out of his mouth and nothing that he says can fail. So, even if it was the case that Coniah was the signet ring upon the right hand of God – a most treasured item, not ordinarily to be parted with under any circumstances, and used to sign documents by making an impression on wax – then God would do this painful thing of plucking the ring from his finger and casting it away. Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, is given other names in Scripture. He is called Jeconiah (1 Chronicles 3:16), and also Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:6), and he reigned for three months and ten days in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 36:9). He was taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC at the time of his second assault on Jerusalem, and Zedekiah his uncle, the last king of Judah, was put on the throne in place of him. This was done in fulfilment of the prophecy given here: ‘And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.’At the same time 2 Kings records that Nebuchadnezzar carried away ‘the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon’ (2 Kings 24:15). This was done in fulfilment of the word of Jeremiah here: ‘And I will cast thee out, and thy mother [Nehushta] that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.’ Jehoiachin would long to return to his native land, but would never do so. For his sin God would take from him that which he longed for most of all. Though he was only eighteen years old, ‘he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father had done’ (2 Kings 24:9). In this case, it was like father, like son.What can account for this casting away of the king? In a rhetorical question the Lord asks, ‘Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?’ The implied answer is, yes. Yes, he is a vessel wherein is no pleasure. If he was an idol to the people, he is now a broken idol. These kings are cast out because, after all this time, they have exhausted the patience of the Lord. Even then there is going to be a recovery of the nation, but not a single further king in the line of David will reign on earth from Jerusalem.‘O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.’ The repetition shows the depth of feeling involved as God pronounces his sentence on this king whose descendants go no further, and therefore on the whole line of kings that ended this period of Israel’s and Judah’s history.‘Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.’ The prediction is that Jehoiachin will be like a childless man. The prophecy is very specifically fulfilled. Some versions translate this ‘Write this man down as childless’, that is, count him as childless. Why? Because none of his children are going to occupy the throne. Jehoiachin did in fact have children (1 Chronicles 3:17-18), but none of them reigned. It was his uncle who replaced him on the throne, not his son.