Jeremiah Chapter 22 verse 18 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 18. - Josiah had been bitterly missed and universally lamented (2 Chronicles 35:25); and so, only perhaps with less heartiness in most cases, Jehoiakim's other predecessors (Jeremiah 34:5). The Babylonian kings, too, received the honors of public mourning, e.g. even the last of his race, who surrendered to Cyrus, according to the British Museum inscription translated by Mr. Pinches. Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! The Septuagint omits the latter part of this phrase, apparently because it seemed inappropriate to the death of Jehoiakim; but the parallelism requires a two-membered clause. According to Movers, the funeral procession is to be conceived of as formed of two parts, condoling with each other on having to share the same fate ('Die Phonizier,' 2. 248). Or perhaps mythology may supply a reason; it is possible that the formulae of public mourning were derived from the ceremonies of the Adonia; Adonis was an androgynous deity (Lenormant, 'Lettres assyriologiques,' 2:209), and might be lamented by his devotees as at once "brother" and "sister." (For another view, see Sayco's edition of G. Smith's 'Chaldean Genesis,' p. 267). Ezekiel (Ezekiel 8:13) testifies to the worship of Tammuz, or Adonis, and the highest compliment a king could receive might be to be lamented in the same terms as the sun-god. Jeremiah does not approve this; he merely describes the popular custom. The recognition of the deeply rooted heathenism of the Jews before the Exile involves no disparagement to Old Testament religion; rather it increases the cogency of the argument for its supernatural origin. For how great was the contrast between Jeremiah and his semi-heathen countrymen! And yet Jeremiah's religion is the seed of the faith which overcame the world. Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! Lord is in the Hebrew adon (comp. Adonis and see above). His glory is against the parallelism; we should expect "lady" or "queen."

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(18) They shall not lament for him.--The words contrast the death as well as the life of Jehoiakim with that of Josiah. For him there should be no lamentation such as was made for the righteous king (2Chronicles 35:25), either from kindred mourning, as over a brother or a sister (perhaps, however, as "sister" would not be appropriate to the king, the words are those of a chorus of mourners, male and female, addressing each other), or from subjects wailing over the death of their "lord" and the departure of his "glory." For the funeral ceremonies of Israel, see 1Kings 13:30; Matthew 9:23; Mark 5:38.