Jeremias 22:30
Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Hæc dicit Dominus : Scribe virum istum sterilem, virum qui in diebus suis non prosperabitur : nec enim erit de semine ejus vir qui sedeat super solium David, et potestatem habeat ultra in Juda.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- γράψον τὸν ἄνδρα τοῦτον ἐκκήρυκτον ἄνθρωπον, ὅτι οὐ μὴ αὐξηθῇ ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ καθήμενος ἐπὶ θρόνου Δαυείδ, ἄρχων ἔτι ἐν τῷ Ἰούδᾳ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כֹּ֣ה אָמַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה כִּתְב֞וּ אֶת הָאִ֤ישׁ הַזֶּה֙ עֲרִירִ֔י גֶּ֖בֶר לֹא יִצְלַ֣ח בְּיָמָ֑יו כִּי֩ לֹ֨א יִצְלַ֜ח מִזַּרְע֗וֹ אִ֚ישׁ יֹשֵׁב֙ עַל כִּסֵּ֣א דָוִ֔ד וּמֹשֵׁ֥ל ע֖וֹד בִּיהוּדָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Write this man barren. That is childless: not that he had no children, but that his children should never sit on the throne of Juda, (Challoner) ver. 28., Matthew i. 12., and Ezechiel xvii. 24. Zorobabel was of his seed, yet he never obtained the title or sovereign power of a king. The Machabees were of a different family. (St. Jerome)
Joachin, or Jechonias, was restored indeed to some favour, (4 Kings xxv. 27.) but not to the kingdom, no more than any of his posterity, till Christ. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter XXIII. The Same Subject Continued
The soul is not then sent down from heaven to what is worse. For God works all things up to what is better. But the soul which has chosen the best life, the life that is from God and righteousness, exchanges earth for heaven. With reason therefore, Job, who had attained to knowledge, said, “Now I know that thou canst do all things; and nothing is impossible to Thee. For who tells me of what I know not, great and wonderful things with which I was unacquainted? And I felt myself vile, considering myself to be earth and ashes.” For he who, being in a state of ignorance, is sinful, “is earth and ashes;” while he who is in a state of knowledge, being assimilated as far as possible to God, is already spiritual, and so elect. …
St Basil The Letters, To the same Amphilochius
3. As to Jeconias, whom the prophet Jeremiah declares in these words to have been rejected from the land of Judah, “Jeconias was dishonoured like a vessel for which there is no more use; and because he was cast out he and his seed; and none shall rise from his seed sitting upon the throne of David and ruling in Judah,” the matter is plain and clear. On the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the kingdom had been destroyed, and there was no longer an hereditary succession of reigns as before. Nevertheless, at that time, the deposed descendants of David were living in captivity. …