EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)
(20)
Go up to Lebanon.—The great mountain-ranges—Lebanon and Bashan (
Psalm 68:15)—running from north to south, that overlooked the route of the Babylonians, are invoked by the prophet, as those of Gilboa had been by David (
2Samuel 1:21), as witnesses of the misery that was coming on the land and people. Even here, as in
Jeremiah 22:23, there is probably still the same reference as before to the cedar-palaces of Jerusalem. The people are called from the counterfeit “forests of Lebanon” to the height of the real mountains, and bidden to look forth from thence.
Cry from the passages.—It is better to take the wordAbarimas a proper name. As inNumbers 27:12;Numbers 33:47;Deuteronomy 32:49, it was part of the range of Nebo, south of Gilead and Bashan, and coming therefore naturally after the last of those two mountains.
All thy lovers.—The word points, as in the corresponding language ofEzekiel 23:5;Ezekiel 23:9, to the Egyptians and other nations with whom Judah had made alliances. The destruction reached its climax in the overthrow of Pharaoh-nechoh’s army by Nebuchadnezzar at Carchemish (Jeremiah 46:2).
Jeremiah 22:20.
Go up to Lebanon, and cry,&c. — The verbs here being in the feminine gender, the city of Jerusalem, or the land of Judea, seems to be addressed and called upon ironically to go to the tops of the high mountains, and to the frontiers of the country, and cry aloud for help to the neighbouring powers, but in vain, since all those who had any inclination to favour her, the Egyptians in particular, were themselves disabled and crushed by the arms of Nebuchadnezzar.
Cry from the passages— Hebrew,
מעברים,
from the borders,or rivers, which are the bounds of your country. For the word signifies, not only the
fords,or
passagesof a river, but the parts along each bank, and the confines or extremities of a country.
For all thy lovers are destroyed— Or
broken,as
נשׁברוsignifies: all thy foreign allies, whose friendship and assistance thou hast sought, and whom thou hast courted, by complying with their idolatries, are humbled.
22:20-30 The Jewish state is described under a threefold character. Very haughty in a day of peace and safety. Very fearful on alarm of trouble. Very much cast down under pressure of trouble. Many never are ashamed of their sins till brought by them to the last extremity. The king shall close his days in bondage. Those that think themselves as signets on God's right hand, must not be secure, but fear lest they should be plucked thence. The Jewish king and his family shall be carried to Babylon. We know where we were born, but where we shall die we know not; it is enough that our God knows. Let it be our care that we die in Christ, then it will be well with us wherever we die, thought it may be in a far country. The Jewish king shall be despised. Time was when he was delighted in; but all those in whom God has no pleasure, some time or other, will be so lowered, that men will have no pleasure in them. Whoever are childless, it is the Lord that writes them so; and those who take no care to do good in their days, cannot expect to prosper. How little is earthly grandeur to be depended upon, or flourishing families to be rejoiced in! But those who hear the voice of Christ, and follow him, have eternal life, and shall never perish, neither shall any enemy pluck them out of his almighty hands.
The third example, Jehoiachin. With him all the best and noblest of the land were dragged from their homes to people the void places of Babylon.
The passages - Really, Abarim, a range of mountains to the south of Gilead, opposite Jericho (seeNumbers 27:12;Deuteronomy 32:49). Jeremiah names the chief ranges of mountains, which overlook the route from Jerusalem to Babylon, in regular order, beginning with Lebanon upon the north, then Bashan on the northeast, and lastly Abarim on the southeast.
Thy lovers - i. e., the nations in alliance with Judah, especially Egypt, whose defeat at CarchemishJeremiah 46:2 gave all western Asia into the power of Nebuchadnezzar.
20. Delivered in the reign of Jehoiachin (Jeconiah or Coniah), son of Jehoiakim; appended to the previous prophecy respecting Jehoiakim, on account of the similarity of the two prophecies. He calls on Jerusalem, personified as a mourning female, to go up to the highest points visible from Jerusalem, and lament there (see on [919]Jer 3:21) the calamity of herself, bereft of allies and of her princes, who are one after the other being cast down.
Bashan—north of the region beyond Jordan; the mountains of Anti-libanus are referred to (Ps 68:15).
from the passages—namely, of the rivers (Jud 12:6); or else the borders of the country (1Sa 13:23; Isa 10:29). The passes (1Sa 14:4). Maurer translates, "Abarim," a mountainous tract beyond Jordan, opposite Jericho, and south of Bashan; this accords with the mention of the mountains Lebanon and Bashan (Nu 27:12; 33:47).
lovers—the allies of Judea, especially Egypt, now unable to help the Jews, being crippled by Babylon (2Ki 24:7).
The Hebrew verb being feminine, lets us know that Jerusalem was the place to which this speech is directed; to the inhabitants of which the prophet here calleth to
go up to Lebanon; and
to Bashan. Both Lebanon and Bashan were hills or places that looked towards Assyria, from whence the Jews looked for help, and had it sometimes, as
2 Kings 16:7: he calls to them ironically to go up to the mountainous parts of them, where standing and crying they might be soonest and best heard. What we translate
from the passages, others translate
from the borders, or
from the sides; others,
from Abarim, which is the name of a mountain, as well as Lebanon and Bashan; see
Numbers 27:12 33:47; which seemeth to me the best interpretation: the meaning is, Go and cry for help from all places, but it will be in vain;
for all thy lovers are destroyed; the Egyptians and Assyrians, to whom thou wert wont heretofore to fly, choosing rather to trust to them than in me, are themselves in the power or danger of the Chaldeans, who shall also destroy them.
Go up to Lebanon, and cry,.... These words are directed to Jerusalem and its inhabitants, and to the people of the Jews; not to go up to the temple, as the Targum interprets it, so called, because made of the wood of Lebanon, as in
Zechariah 11:1; or, as the Rabbins say, because it made white the sins of Israel; but the mountain of Lebanon, and from thence call to their neighbours for help in their present distress, as the Assyrians and Egyptians;
and lift up thy voice in Bashan; another high hill in the land of Israel. The Targum interprets this also of the gates of the mountain of the house; so called, as Jarchi thinks, because made of the oaks of Bashan; or, as Kimchi, because there were beasts continually there for sacrifice, as in Bashan, a pasture for cattle; but the mountain itself is intended;
and cry from the passages; or "from Abarim"; a mountain of this name on the borders of Moab,Numbers 27:12. Now these several high mountains are named, because from hence they might look around them, and call to their neighbours, if any of them could help them: it is ironically spoken, for it is suggested that none of them could:
for all thy lovers are destroyed; their friends and allies, with whom they had not only entered into leagues, but had committed spiritual fornication with them; that is, idolatry, as the Egyptians and Assyrians; but these were now subdued by Nebuchadnezzar, and were at least so weakened and destroyed by him, that they could give no assistance to the Jews; see2 Kings 24:7.
Go up to{n} Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in{o} Bashan, and cry from the passes: for all thy lovers are destroyed.(n) To call to the Assyrians for help.
(o) For this was the way out of India to Assyria, by which is meant that all help would fail: for the Chaldeans have subdued both them and the Egyptians.
