I. “The dead,” probably Josiah, for whom a long mourning was kept (2Ch_35:24; Zec_12:11). Shallum is Jehoahaz (2Ki_23:33).
II. The chapter, even the text, suggests the picture of the disappointment of the prophet and the sympathy of the prophets.
1. Jeremiah had begun to work when a better time seemed to dawn (Jer_1:2). His hopes had been baffled, his words neglected, by “the guilt that scorns to be forgiven.” Could human lot be more sad than thus to foresee the coming ruin, and to be helpless to avert it?
2. The true prophet, in spite of the people’s sin, sympathises with them (1Sa_12:20-22). The Prophet of prophets did so. The king’s captivity was only a type and foretaste of that of the nation.
III. The love of one’s country is freely recognised in scripture (Psa_137:1-9; Psa_102:1-28). National life is an ordinance of nature. National as real as home affections. The sorrows and joys which they bring are alike used for our discipline by Him who knows whereof we are made.
IV. The captivities, terrible as they were, served good ends.
1. To wean the people from idolatry.
2. To draw them nearer to God. All affliction used aright does so.
3. To turn the people more to prayer, which seems to have become more common after the Babylonian captivity (Isa_66:1-2; Dan_6:10; Dan_9:3; Dan_9:19).
V. The dead are in the hands of God, beyond our reach. Weep rather for those who are living, torn away from the city of God.
1. Those who have been ensnared by their own sins and carelessness.
2. Those who are brought up in vice through circumstances of birth. Slaves of worse than Egyptian bondage (Joh_8:34).
3. Those of our own countrymen who, from duty or circumstances, are in foreign lands, and away from outward tokens of the Church. But should we merely mourn for these, and do nothing for them?
VI. Jeremiah a forerunner of the Lord, and a type of His servants in witnessing to the truth, and in the endurance of persecution and disappointment of hope. (B. Moffett, M. A.)
