Jeremiah 22:11

For thus saith the LORD touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Shallum.—Josiah’s successor appears in the historical books as Jehoahaz (“Jehovah sustains,” meant as a nomen et omen), the latter being probably the name assumed on his succession to the throne. Such changes were common at the time, as in the case of Jehoiakim and Zedekiah (2Kings 23:34; 2Kings 24:17). Shallum (= retribution) might probably have seemed a name of evil augury. In 1Chronicles 3:15 a Shallum appears as the fourth son of Josiah, Jehoiakim being the second, and one otherwise unknown, Johanan, the eldest. This may have been the same as the one now referred to (the order of the last two names being in some way inverted), or there may have been two brothers bearing the same name. The short and disastrous reign of Shallum, and the meaning of the word probably account for the prophet’s using the private rather than the kingly name. The fact that the name had been borne by one of the later kings of Israel whose reign lasted but for a single month (2Kings 15:13) may have given a further point to its use, as being full of disastrous memories that made it ominous of evil. The title “king of Judah” belongs grammatically to Shallum, not to Josiah.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:10-19 Here is a sentence of death upon two kings, the wicked sons of a very pious father. Josiah was prevented from seeing the evil to come in this world, and removed to see the good to come in the other world; therefore, weep not for him, but for his son Shallum, who is likely to live and die a wretched captive. Dying saints may be justly envied, while living sinners are justly pitied. Here also is the doom of Jehoiakim. No doubt it is lawful for princes and great men to build, beautify, and furnish houses; but those who enlarge their houses, and make them sumptuous, need carefully to watch against the workings of vain-glory. He built his houses by unrighteousness, with money gotten unjustly. And he defrauded his workmen of their wages. God notices the wrong done by the greatest to poor servants and labourers, and will repay those in justice, who will not, in justice, pay those whom they employ. The greatest of men must look upon the meanest as their neighbours, and be just to them accordingly. Jehoiakim was unjust, and made no conscience of shedding innocent blood. Covetousness, which is the root of all evil, was at the bottom of all. The children who despise their parents' old fashions, commonly come short of their real excellences. Jehoiakim knew that his father found the way of duty to be the way of comfort, yet he would not tread in his steps. He shall die unlamented, hateful for oppression and cruelty.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

In the two foregoing prophecies Jeremiah stated the general principle on which depend the rise and downfall of kings and nations. He now adds for Zedekiah's warning the history of three thrones which were not established.

The first is that of Shallum the successor of Josiah, who probably took the name of Jehoahaz on his accession (see the marginal references notes).

Jeremiah 22:10

The dead - i. e., Josiah 2 Chronicles 35:25.

That goeth away - Rather, that is gone away.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10, 11. Weep … not for—that is, not so much for Josiah, who was taken away by death from the evil to come (2Ki 22:20; Isa 57:1); as for Shallum or Jehoahaz, his son (2Ki 23:30), who, after a three months' reign, was carried off by Pharaoh-necho into Egypt, never to see his native land again (2Ki 23:31-34). Dying saints are justly to be envied, while living sinners are to be pitied. The allusion is to the great weeping of the people at the death of Josiah, and on each anniversary of it, in which Jeremiah himself took a prominent part (2Ch 35:24, 25). The name "Shallum" is here given in irony to Jehoahaz, who reigned but three months; as if he were a second Shallum, son of Jabesh, who reigned only one month in Samaria (2Ki 15:13; 2Ch 36:1-4). Shallum means "retribution," a name of no good omen to him [Grotius]; originally the people called him Shallom, indicative of peace and prosperity. But Jeremiah applies it in irony. 1Ch 3:15, calls Shallum the fourth son of Josiah. The people raised him to the throne before his brother Eliakim or Jehoiakim, though the latter was the older (2Ki 23:31, 36; 2Ch 36:1); perhaps on account of Jehoiakim's extravagance (Jer 22:13, 15). Jehoiakim was put in Shallum's (Jehoahaz') stead by Pharaoh-necho. Jeconiah, his son, succeeded. Zedekiah (Mattaniah), uncle of Jeconiah, and brother of Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz, was last of all raised to the throne by Nebuchadnezzar.

He shall not return—The people perhaps entertained hopes of Shallum's return from Egypt, in which case they would replace him on the throne, and thereby free themselves from the oppressive taxes imposed by Jehoiakim.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Who this

Shallum was is a little doubted. Some think it was Jehoahaz the son of Josiah, 1 Chronicles 3:15, called Johanan: there is also mentioned one Shallum, but he is there mentioned as the fourth son of Josiah. In the Book of Kings we read only of three sons which Josiah had, viz. Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. Most think that this Shallum was Jehoahaz, or Johanan, (as he is called, 1 Chronicles 3:15) who was indeed the second son of Josiah; for it is plain, from 2 Kings 23:31,36, that Jehoiakim was two years older, otherwise he could not have been twenty-five years old when he began to reign after Jehoahaz, who began to reign at twenty-three years of age, and reigned but three months; but, 1 Chronicles 3:15, he is called Josiah’s first-born, because he was first made king; and here he is called Shallum, for the shortness of his reign, in derision to the Jews, who so called him, upon the account of their good hopes of prosperity under him; and in allusion to Shallum the son of Jabesh, one of the last kings of the ten tribes, mentioned 2 Kings 15:13, who reigned but a month: for this, as some think, could not be that Shallum mentioned after Zedekiah, as the fourth son of Josiah, 1 Chronicles 3:15, for that Shallum, they say, never reigned; this, as the text saith, did reign three months

instead of Josiah his father; which phrase seemeth also to conclude that he immediately succeeded his father Josiah.

Which went forth out of this place; he was carried away from Jerusalem presently after he was set up, 2 Kings 23:31,33, imprisoned at Riblah, and, 2 Kings 23:34, died in Egypt.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum,.... Not Shallum the fourth son of Josiah, 1 Chronicles 3:15; for it is not likely that he should immediately succeed his father; nor Zedekiah, as Jarchi; nor Jeconiah, as Kimchi; but Jehoahaz, as Aben Ezra; who seems to have had several names, as Johanan, 1 Chronicles 3:15; and Shallum here:

the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father; the same is said of Jehoahaz, 2 Chronicles 36:1;

which went forth out of this place; out of Jerusalem, being put down there from his throne by Pharaohnecho, and carried by him into Egypt, 2 Chronicles 36:3;

he shall not return thither any more; he died in Egypt, or however out of his own land; but was alive when this prophecy was delivered out, which was in the reign of his brother Jehoiakim, as some following verses show.

Geneva Study Bible

For thus saith the LORD concerning {h} Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place; He shall not return there any more:

(h) Whom some think to be Jehoiachin and that Josiah was his grandfather: but it seems this was Jehoiakim, as in Jer 22:18.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. Shallum] See lntr. p. xiv. Shallum was probably the name which he bore before his accession. Other hypotheses to account for the name being here given to Jehoahaz are unlikely, e.g. (i) that it had reference to the shortness of his reign, as alluding to Shallum king of Israel, who was king for one month (2 Kings 15:13), or (ii) that it means the requited one (from the sense of the Hebrew root), him whom God had marked out for punishment.

Jehoahaz had represented the anti-Egyptian policy, which Jeremiah had always urged. This adds point to the prophet’s lament for him.

Jeremiah 22:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

On Jehoahaz. - Jeremiah 22:10. "Weep not for the dead, neither bemoan him; weep rather for him that is gone away, for he shall no more return and see the land of his birth. Jeremiah 22:11. For thus saith Jahveh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah king of Judah, who became king in his father Josiah's stead, and who went forth from this place: He shall not return thither more; Jeremiah 22:12. but in the place whither they have carried hi captive, there shall he die and see this land no more." The clause: weep not for the dead, with which the prophecy on Shallum is begun, shows that the mourning for King Josiah was kept up and was still heartily felt amongst the people (2 Chronicles 35:24.), and that the circumstances of his death were still fresh in their memory. למת without the article, although Josiah, slain in battle at Megiddo, is meant, because there was no design particularly to define the person. Him that goes or is gone away. He, again, is defined and called Shallum. This Shallum, who became king in his father Josiah's place, can be none other than Josiah's successor, who is called Joahaz in 2 Kings 23:30., 2 Chronicles 36:1; as was seen by Chrysost. and Aben-Ezra, and, since Grotius, by most commentators. The only question is, why he should here be called Shallum. According to Frc. Junius, Hitz., and Graf, Jeremiah compares Joahaz on account of his short reign with Shallum in Israel, who reigned but one month (2 Kings 15:13), and ironically calls him Shallum, as Jezebel called Jehu, Zimri murderer of his lord, 2 Kings 9:31. This explanation is unquestionably erroneous, since irony of such a sort is inconsistent with what Jeremiah says of Shallum. More plausible seems Hgstb.'s opinion, Christ. ii. p. 401, that Jeremiah gives Joahaz the name Shallum, i.e., the requited (cf. שׁלּם, 1 Chronicles 6:13, equals משׁלּם, 1 Chronicles 9:11), as nomen reale, to mark him out as the man the Lord had punished for the evil of his doings. But this conjecture too is overthrown by the fact, that in the genealogy of the kings of Judah, 1 Chronicles 3:15, we find among the four sons of Josiah the name שׁלּוּם instead of Joahaz. Now this name cannot have come there from the present passage, for the genealogies of Chronicles are derived from old family registers. That this is so in the case of Josiah's sons, appears from the mention there of a fourth, Johanan, over and above the three known to history, of whom we hear nothing more. In the genealogical tables persons are universally mentioned by their own proper names, not according to "renamings" or surnames, except in the case that these have received the currency and value of historical names, as e.g., Israel for Jacob. On the ground of the genealogical table 1 Chronicles 3 we must accordingly hold that Joahaz was properly called Shallum, and that probably at his accession he assumed the name יואחז, "Jahveh sustains, holds." But Jeremiah might still have used the name Shallum in preference to the assumed Joahaz, because the former had verified itself in that king's fate. With Jeremiah 22:11 and Jeremiah 22:12, cf. 2 Kings 23:33-35. - The brief saying in regard to Joahaz forms the transition from the general censure of the wicked rulers of Judah who brought on the ruin of the kingdom, to the special predictions concerning the ungodly kings Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin, in whose time the judgment burst forth. In counselling not to weep for the dead king (Josiah), but for the departed one (Joahaz), Jeremiah does not mean merely to bewail the lot of the king carried prisoner to Egypt, but to foreshadow the misery that awaits the whole people. From this point of view Calv. well says: si lugenda est urbis hujus clades, potius lugendi sunt qui manebunt superstites quam qui morientur. Mors enim erit quasi requies, erit portus ad finienda omnia mala: Vita autem longior nihil aliud erit quam continua miseriarum series; and further, that in the words: he shall no more return and see the land of his birth, Jeremiah shows: exilium fore quasi tabem, quae paulatim consumat miseros Judaeos. Ita mors fuisset illis dulcior longe, quam sic diu cruciari et nihil habere relaxationis. In the lot of the two kings the people had to recognise what was in store for itself.