Bible Commentaries

Gilead - Gilead was a country fertile for pastures; upon which account the Reubenites and Gadites, being men whose estate lay in cattle, begged it of Moses for their portion. Lebanon also was a very pleasant place: they were both in the lot of Gad and Manasseh. Perhaps God compares the king of Judah's house to these places, in regard of the height and nobleness of the structure, or for the pleasantness and delightfulness of it.

Weep not - For Josiah your dead prince. Josiah is happy, you need not trouble yourselves for him; but weep for Jehoahaz, who is to go into captivity.

Shallum - Most think that this Shallum was Jehoahaz. Went forth - He was carried away from Jerusalem presently after he was set up, imprisoned at Riblah, and died in Egypt.

Was not this - They only truly know God who obey him; men vainly pretend to piety who are defective in justice and charity.

Of an ass - None attending him to his grave, none mourning for him.

Lebanon - Jerusalem was the place to which this speech is directed: the inhabitants of which the prophet calls to go up to Lebanon. Both Lebanon and Bashan were hills that looked towards Assyria, from whence the Jews looked for help. Abarim - Abarim is the name of a mountain, as well as Lebanon and Bashan. Go and cry for help from all places, but it will be in vain; for the Egyptians and Assyrians to whom thou wert wont to fly, are themselves in the power of the Chaldeans.

Pastors - Thy rulers and governors, they shall be blasted by my judgments, as plants are blasted by winds. Thy lovers - And those that have been thy friends, Syria and Egypt.

Lebanon - Jerusalem is called an inhabitant of Lebanon, because their houses were built of wood cut down out of the forest of Lebanon. Cedars - Their houses were built of the Cedars of Lebanon. How gracious - What favour wilt thou find when my judgments come upon thee, as the pains of a woman in travail come upon her.

Coniah - By Coniah he means Jehoiakim, whose name was Jeconiah, 1 Chronicles 3:13 , (for all Josiah's sons had two names, and so had his grandchild Jeconiah) here in contempt called Coniah. The signet - Tho' he were as dear as a signet, which every man keeps safe.

Is this - The prophet speaks this in the person of God, affirming that this prince, who was the idol of the people, was now become like a broken idol. A vessel - So cracked, or so tainted, that they can make no use of it.

Childless - He is said to be childless, either because all his children died before their father; or because he had no child that sat upon the throne, or ever had any ruler's place in Judah.