The princes and people B. C. 589. n B. C. 569. A. M. 3415. 21 Then Zedekiah the king com- || bread out of the bakers' street, " until A. M. 3415. manded that they should commit all the bread in the city were spent. Jeremiah into the court of the prison, and Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the that they should give him daily a piece of prison. This chapter contains the last transaction in which Jeremiah was prophetically concerned before the taking of Jerusalem. (1,) The princes of Judah, offended with Jeremiah for repeating to the people, who visited him in the court of the prison, the message he was charged with, chap. xxi. 9, 10, caused him to be cast into a deep and miry dungeon, 1-6. (2,) Ebedmelech obtains an order from the king, and takes him out of it, 7-13. (3,) The king consults with him in private; he seeks to persuade the king to give himself up to the king of Babylon's officers, as the only means of safety to himself, and of preserving the city from destruction, 14–23. (4,) The king assures to him his life, but requires him not to divulge the secret of his conference to the princes, who inquire about it, but receive an evasive answer; and Jeremiah remains in the court of the prison, 24-28. NOTES ON CHAPTER XXXVIII. Verse 1. Then Shephatiah, &c.-Here are four of the great men, counsellors or chief officers to Zedekiah, named, of whom we have no further mention in holy writ; nor do they deserve to have much inquiry made after them. Some of them were sent by Zedekiah to Jeremiah to inquire concerning the event of the siege, chap. xxxvii. 3, and xxi. 1-9. "The answer which Jeremiah returned by them to the king, he afterward published to the people; which was the occasion of the new troubles recorded in this chapter."-Lowth. The fact seems to have been, that, as he was now removed into a little freer air than he had been in, his friends, or such as had a desire to see him, came to him, and being inquisitive concerning the issue of the siege, he could not but e B. C. 589. 3 Thus saith the LORD, This city A. M. 3415. shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it. 4 Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, 'let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. 1 tell them what he knew of the mind of God, and advise them the best way he could for their safety. Some of them, it is likely, went to these princes, and informed them of what they had heard from the prophet. Verses 2-5. Thus saith the Lord, He that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live-This had been the constant tenor of this prophet's prophecies. The crime of which he was now accused, seems to lie in this, that in such a time of danger he should repeat this prophecy, and also advise the people to leave the city, and go out to the Chaldeans, telling them that if they did so, though the city would be lost, yet they should save their lives, which might induce some to desert their posts. This they interpret to be not seeking the welfare of the people, but their hurt; though, indeed, their welfare was that alone which he sought, knowing that there was no other way for them to save their lives, but by submitting to the Chaldeans. The great men, however, would not believe it; for they would not form their judgments on the revelations which God had been pleased to make of his will, but were determined to judge of their safety from what they wished. Hence, for any one not to be of their opinion was to be an enemy to the state. Therefore the princes said unto the king-See chap. xxxvi. 12, 21; We beseech thee, let this man be put to death-His crime deserves no less a punishment; for he weakeneth the hands of the men of war-By making them despair of success. Then the king said, Behold he is in your hand-At your disposal; I give him up into your power. Though Zedekiah was convinced that Jeremiah was a prophet sent of God, yet he had not courage to own this conviction, but weakly yielded to the violence of his persecutors. For the king is not he that can do any thing against you -He speaks as one who did not dare, in such difficult times, to contradict the great men about him. Blaney renders the clause, " For the king can carry no point in competition with you;" observing, "The king evidently speaks this in disgust with the princes for endeavouring to frustrate his clemency. He had once rescued Jeremiah out of their hands, and taken him under his royal protection. But his prerogative, he tells them, was likely to avail but little when opposed by their obstinate and repeated importunities. The power was in reality theirs and not his." deep and miry dungeon. B. C. 589. 7Th Now when Ebed-melech the A. M. 3415 Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin ; 8 Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house, and spake to the king, saying, 9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the dun h Chap. xxxix. 16. Verses 7-9. Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian -Or Cushite, as the Hebrew is. His country seems to be mentioned to let us know that this prophet of the Lord found more kindness from a stranger, who was a native heathen, than from his own countrymen; one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house-That is, one of the court officers. It is probable that the princes had put Jeremiah into this miserable place privately, but by some means the report of what they had done providentially reached this officer's ears. The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin-Namely, to hear the complaints of the people, and to administer justice; the courts for that purpose being usually held in the gates of the city. Ebed-melech went forth and spake to the king-The zeal as well as courage of this good officer was very || remarkable. He did not stay till the king returned to his house, but went to him as he was sitting in the gate administering justice, where doubtless he was not alone, but was probably attended by some of those very princes who had thrown Jeremiah into the dungeon: Ebed-melech, however, was not afraid of them, but complains openly to the king of their cruelty to Jeremiah, saying, My lord the king, these. men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah-They deal unjustly with him, for he had not deserved any punishment at all, and they deal barbarously with him, so as they used not to deal with the vilest malefactors. And he is like to die— Hebrew, лn, he will die upon the spot; for hunger, for there is no bread-That is, as some interpret the clause, "There was no need for those Verse 6. Then they took Jeremiah and cast him who desired his death to put him into so filthy and into the dungeon of Malchiah—A place of much the loathsome a place; since, if he had continued in the same nature with that mentioned chap. xxxvii. 16, court of the prison, he must have died through the but in another prison. And they let down Jeremiah || famine which threatens the city. The words, howwith cords-It seems there was no passage into this ever, are more literally rendered, When there is no dungeon by stairs, and, as it was deep, they were longer any bread in the city. Ebed-melech supposed obliged to let him down in this manner. So Jere- with reason that when the bread failed, Jeremiah miah sunk in the mire-Which was in the bottom must perish with hunger in the dungeon; for he of this pit. Josephus asserts that he sunk up to his would be of course neglected, and not have it in his neck in it, and adds, that their intention in putting power to make those shifts for subsistence which him into so foul a place was, that he might perish in persons at liberty might avail themselves of. Such it, Antiq., lib. ix. cap. 10. It has been thought by was the compassion which the stranger had for the some, that during his abode in this loathsome place Lord's prophet, whom his own countrymen would he composed the melancholy meditations contained have destroyed! And God, who put these sentiin the third chapter of his Lamentations; but this ments of pity and benevolence into Ebed-melech's seems highly improbable. heart, afterward recompensed him by delivering him Jeremiah is released B. C. 589. 3 CHAPTER XXXVIII. A. M. 3415. geon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city. 10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die. 11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. 12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine arm-holes under Heb. he will die. Heb. in thy hand.- - Verse 6. from death when the city was taken, chap. xxxix. 15, 16. But how remarkable it is, that in the whole city of Jerusalem no person was found, save this Ethiopian, to appear publicly, as the friend and advocate of the prophet in his distress! Thus is the justice of God vindicated in giving up this people into the hands of their enemies, when there was not a single person of their nation willing to hazard his life or character in the cause of God, to save the life of one who had been known among them for a true prophet between twenty and thirty years. from the dungeon. B. C. 589. the cords. And Jeremiah did so. A. M. 3415. 15 Then Jeremiah said unto Zedekiah, If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, wilt thou not hearken unto me? 16 So Zedekiah the king sware secretly unto Jeremiah, saying, As the LORD liveth, that *Chap. xxxvii. 21.— Or, principal.—1 Isa. lvii. 16. place in the third entry in, or leading toward, or adjoining to, the house of the Lord. Dr. Lightfoot explains this of the third passage or gate which lay between the king's palace, where the prison was, and the temple, whither the king now retreated for fear of the Chaldean army. And the king said, I will ask thee a thing-Hebrew, 77 x xv, I am asking thee a word, namely, of prediction, counsel, or comfort, a word from the Lord, chap. xxxvii. 17. Whatever word thou hast for me, hide it not from me-Let me know the worst. He had been plainly told what would be the issue of the measures they were pursuing; but, like Balaam, he asks again, in hopes to get a more pleasing answer; as if God, who is in one mind, were altogether such a one as himself, who was in many minds. Verses 10-13. Then the king commanded, &c.The king, who a little while ago durst do nothing against the princes, has now his heart wonderfully and suddenly changed, and will have Jeremiah released in defiance of them; ordering no fewer than Verse 15. Then Jeremiah said, If I declare it thirty men, and those probably of the life-guard, to unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to death?— be employed in fetching him out of the dungeon, "The prophet had so much experience of the unlest the princes should raise a party to oppose it. steadiness of the king's temper, of his backwardness So Ebed-melech took the men-He lost no time, but in following good counsel, and want of courage to immediately went about this good work, and used as stand by those that durst advise him well, that he much tenderness as despatch in accomplishing it; might, with good reason, resolve not to venture his going into the king's house and fetching thence old || life to serve a man that was in a manner incapable soft rags and pieces of cloth, to be put under the pro- || of being directed. And although God had showed phet's arm-holes, to prevent the cords, wherewith he him what would be the effect of his advice, if it were was to be drawn up, from hurting him. This cir- || followed, (verse 17,) yet it doth not appear that he cumstance, trivial as it may appear, is here particu- had commanded him to make this known to Zedelarly noticed and recorded to the honour of this pious || kiah.”—Lowth. And if I give thee counsel, wilt Gentile; for God is not unrighteous to forget any thou not hearken unto me?-Rather, wilt thou hearkwork or labour of love which is shown to his people en unto me? Which is undoubtedly the sense inor ministers; no, nor any circumstance thereof, tended, unless we translate the words, as some do, Heb. vi. 10. Observe, reader, those that are in dis- without an interrogation, thou wilt not hearken unto tress should not only be relieved, but relieved with me. So Jeremiah might well conclude from the compassion and marks of respect, all which things king's former behaviour, for he had often been adwill be remembered, and will be found to a good vised by him, but would never take his advice, and account, in the day of final recompense. the prophet knew the same would be the case still, that the king would be overruled by a corrupt court and his own aversion to change his state as a king to the state of a prisoner. || Verse 14. Then Zedekiah sent, &c.-Here we have an account of the honour which the king did the prophet after he was fetched out of the dungeon: he sent for him to advise with him privately what Verse 16. The king sware, As the Lord liveth, that measures it would be best to take in the present ca- made this soul-That is, who gave me my life and lamitous state of public affairs. The interview took || thee thine, and who, as he is the author, so he is the m2 Kings xxiv. 12.- Chapter xxxix. 3.- Chap. xxxii. 4; Heb. Men of thy peace.—9 Chap. xxxix. 6 ; xli. 10.——— Verse xxxiv. 3; Verse 23.-P 1 Sam. xxxi. 4. preserver, of our life and being: who may uphold or take them away as and when he pleases. I will not put thee to death, &c.-Zedekiah says nothing to the prophet as to obeying his counsel, but he gives him the security of his oath that he would neither || himself slay him, by giving an immediate command from himself for his being slain, nor surrender him up into the hands of those princes who, he perceived,|| sought his life. 18. - Heb. thou shalt burn, &c. self up to them, should deliver him into the hands of those Jews who had fallen to them, and they should insult over and deride him, as being obliged at last to do what he had blamed, and, if he had been able, would have punished them for doing. Thus the Vulgate, Solicitus sum propter Judæos, qui transfugerunt ad Chaldæs: ne forte tradar in manus eorum et illudant mihi. He was conscious he had acted a base part in violating the oath of homage and Verses 17, 18. Then said Jeremiah, Thus saith fidelity which he had given to the king of Babylon, the Lord-Here we have the good advice which and that he was considered by many of the Jews, Jeremiah gave him, with the reasons why the king especially by those who had gone over to the Chalought to take it; reasons drawn, not from any pru- deans, as having ruined his country by his impolitic dence or politics of his own, but in the name of the measures. Thus he was more concerned for his Lord, the God of hosts, and God of Israel. If honour than for his life, and the lives of his wives thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Baby- and children, and the safety of the whole city. And lon's princes-Those mentioned chap. xxxix. 3, and thus often great persons are more patient of death submit thyself to them; then thy soul shall live- || than of reproach and dishonour. But Jeremiah said, That is, thou shalt live; and this city shall not be They shall not deliver thee-The Chaldeans will burned, &c.-Thou shalt save the city from destruc- not do so base an act, but deal with thee as with a tion by fire, and thy wives and children from suf- prince. God foresees all possible events, and what fering a violent death. It must be observed that would be the consequence of the several counsels Nebuchadnezzar was not now in person at the siege men propose to themselves. Obey, I beseech thee, of Jerusalem, but at Riblah in Syria, chap. xxxix. 5, 9. the voice of the Lord: so it shall be well with thee His army was commanded by his generals; and it is -Let not thy fears, therefore, respecting the treatto them, here termed princes, that Jeremiah counsels ment thou wilt meet with, be a temptation to thee to Zedekiah to go forth, and through them to submit disobey the command of God: for if thou doest as himself to the king, by whom he had been established thou art advised to do, thou shalt live-Though not on the throne. But if thou wilt not go forth, &c.—in that splendour in which thou now livest, yet in a As he had before used exhortations and promises, so here he uses warnings and threatenings to prevail with the king to take that course by which alone he could preserve Jerusalem, and himself, and family from ruin. much more comfortable state than if the city be taken by storm. Verses 21-23. But if thou refuse, this is the word that the Lord hath showed me-Namely, what follows in the next two verses. Behold, all the women Verses 19, 20. Zedekiah said, I am afraid of the||that are left in the king of Judah's house-The Jews, &c.-The sense seems to be, that he was afraid lest the Chaldeans, when he had given him king's wives, his daughters, and the other women that belong to the king's court and family, shall be Jeremiah's advice to the king. A. M. 3415. B. C. 589. 24 Then said Zedekiah unto || he would not cause me to return to A. M. 3415. Jeremiah, Let no man know of these Jonathan's house, to die there. words, and thou shalt not die. 27 Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, 25 But if the princes hear that I have talked ||and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee: 26 Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplications before the king, that 28 So " Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken. Chap. xxxvii. 20.-t Chap. xxxvii. 15.- Heb. they were silent from him." Chap. xxxvii. 21; xxxix. 14. come a prey to the chief officers of the king of Baby-ly show that Zedekiah stood in fear of his courtiers. lon's army. And those women shall say, Thy friends This is the righteous judgment of God, that those have set thee on, &c.-They shall tell thee that, for who will not sanctify the Lord of hosts in their these thy calamities, thou mayest thank thy heark- hearts, and make him their fear, shall fear men, ening to thy priests and false prophets; (called in whom to fear is to be in a state of ignoble and misethe Hebrew the men of his peace, because they rable bondage. But if the princes hear, &c.—It soothed up the king with the promises of peace ;) in was hardly possible that Zedekiah should have this other words, those very women shall then reproach || private discourse with Jeremiah, but some or other thee for having suffered thyself to be insnared by of his courtiers should come to the knowledge of it. the ill advice of thy friends, and brought under in- || But here we see in what a state of miserable subjecsuperable difficulties. They will say to thee, Thy tion this poor prince was to them, in that he could feet are sunk in the mire-Thou art plunged into discourse to nobody, but they must come and incalamities from which thou canst not extricate thy-quire what he had said. Thou shalt say, I presentself. And they are turned away back-Even thyed my supplication, &c.-Jeremiah had been forfriends, by following whose counsel thou art brought merly kept prisoner in Jonathan's house, chap. into these snares and troubles, forsake thee in thy xxxvii. 15. But the last time he was imprisoned distress, every one shifting for himself. And thus was in the dungeon of Hammelech, verse 6 of this shall a greater evil come upon thee than that which chapter: a place which, perhaps, might at this time thou fearest, and the fear of which makes the unwill-be put to some other use. Then came all the princes ing to comply with the will of God concerning thee. || to Jeremiah-As the king suspected, so it came to So shall they bring out all thy wives, &c.—The pro- pass: his private discourse with the prophet transphet partly repeats and partly enlarges on the argu-||pired, and all the princes then at court came and ment advanced in the former verse, with a view to prevail on the king to surrender himself to the Chaldeans. He urges, that if he would not do it, not only himself but his wives and children also would fall into his enemies' hands, and that their reflection || upon him, for the misery he had brought upon them and his country, would be no small aggravation of his affliction. inquired of Jeremiah what was the substance of it. And he told them according to all that the king had commanded-He told them part of the truth, but not all, concealing from them the advice which he had given to the king, with relation to the questions he had proposed to him. For a man is not bound in all cases to discover the whole truth, particularly to those who have no right to the knowledge of it, Verses 24-27. Then said Zedekiah, Let no man which, in this case, these princes had not. So the know of these words, &c.-Keep what has passed matter was not perceived-The princes never got between us secret, and I will keep my promise to to know what was the principal subject of the king's thee of preserving thy life. These words sufficient-conference with the prophet. CHAPTER XXXIX. This chapter contains an account, (1,) Of the taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldean army, after eighteen months siege, 1–3. (2,) of the flight of Zedekiah, and the particulars of his punishment, after he was taken and brought before the king of Babylon, 4-7. (3,) Of the burning of the city, and removal of the people, a few of the poor only excepted, 8-10. (4) Of the release of Jeremiah, and the kindness wherewith he was treated, in consequence of a special charge from Nebuchadnezzar, 11-14. (5,) The piety of Ebed-melech is rewarded with a promise of personal safety amidst the ensuing public calamities, 15-18. |