Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Jeremiah 22:1

CHAPTER 22

Jr 22:1-30. Exhortation to Repentance; Judgment on Shallum, Jehoiakim, and Coniah.

Belonging to an earlier period than the twenty-first chapter, namely, the reigns of Shallum or Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (Jr 22:10, 13, 20). Jeremiah often groups his prophecies, not by chronological order, but by similarity of subjects; thus Jr 22:3 corresponds to Jr 21:12. Grotius thinks that Jeremiah here repeats to Zedekiah what he had announced to that king's predecessors formerly (namely, his brother and brother's son), of a similar bearing, and which had since come to pass; a warning to Zedekiah. Probably, in arranging his prophecies they were grouped for the first time in the present order, designed by the Holy Spirit to set forth the series of kings of Judah, all four alike, failing in "righteousness," followed at last by the "King," a righteous Branch raised unto David, in the house of Judah, "the Lord our righteousness" (Jr 23:6). The unrighteousness of Zedekiah suggested the review of his predecessors' failure in the same respects, and consequent punishment, which ought to have warned him, but did not.

1. Go down--The temple (where Jeremiah had been prophesying) was higher than the king's palace on Mount Zion (Jr 36:10, 12; 2Ch 23:20). Hence the phrase, "Go down."

the king of Judah--perhaps including each of the four successive kings, to whom it was consecutively addressed, here brought together in one picture: Shallum, Jr 22:11; Jehoiakim, Jr 22:13-18; Jeconiah, Jr 22:24; Zedekiah, the address to whom (Jr 21:1, 11, 12) suggests notice of the rest.