Jeremiahchapter 38
28 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
“Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
This chapter comes from the last months of the siege, when food was running out and the officials of Judah wanted the war carried on at any cost. Its first hearers knew the men named in it, and some of their names have been found on clay seals in Jerusalem. The chapter sets a prophet who will not change his message against men who want him silenced. A foreign servant of the king takes the prophet's side. Listen for the fear that runs through every speaker, the king most of all. The chapter ends with the last private talk between Jeremiah and Zedekiah.
Context
- Who
- A starving city where saying the wrong thing about the war could get a man killed
- What
- An account of officials having Jeremiah lowered into a muddy cistern, his rescue by Ebed-melech, and his last secret meeting with Zedekiah.
- Where
- Jerusalem: the cistern of Malchiah in the court of the guard, the Benjamin Gate where the king sat, and the third entrance of the house of the LORD.
- When
- The last months of the siege, about 588 to 587 BC.
- Why
- To show the cost of speaking God's word to a city at war, and to set Zedekiah's final choice between surrender and ruin before the reader.
Historical context
Four officials demand Jeremiah's death, and two of them have left their names in the ground. Excavations in the City of David have produced a clay seal impression reading belonging to Yehuchal son of Shelemyahu, and another reading belonging to Gedalyahu son of Pashhur, the same two names, with the same fathers' names, as Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashhur in this chapter's opening verse. Both were found in controlled excavation in the ruins of that period.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
Their complaint is a reasonable one from a general's point of view: this man is weakening the hands of the soldiers by telling them the city will fall. In any war that is a shooting offence, and the king, who is afraid of his own officers, tells them he cannot stop them.
The cistern of Malchiah the king's son is described precisely: they let him down with ropes, there was no water in it, only mud, and he sank in the mud. A Judean cistern was a bottle-shaped pit cut in rock with a narrow mouth and plastered sides, impossible to climb out of, and at the end of a dry siege it would hold exactly what the text says.
The rescue is done by an Ethiopian court official named Ebed-melech, who goes to the king at the Benjamin Gate, gets thirty men, and thinks to fetch old rags and worn-out clothes from a storeroom so the ropes will not cut the prophet's armpits as they haul him out. That detail about the padding is one of the small mercies the Bible bothers to record.
Significance
The first hearers knew the men in this chapter. The seal impressions we now dig up were the business cards of the officials who dropped a prophet in a cistern.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the one who pulled him out was a foreigner from Africa, not a Judean. The chapter ends with a promise made specifically to him: you shall not be given into the hands of the men you fear, because you have put your trust in me.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for this lane, printed no weekly portion and no Haftarah from this chapter, and no festival reading for the book. That table carries the Haftarah of each of the fifty-four weekly portions and the books read whole at the feasts, and it carries nothing for the special Sabbaths or the fast days. This card therefore names no public reading of the chapter and leaves that question to a source that holds those readings.
The corpus joins the chapter to the weeks of the Torah portions through the works arranged by portion. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 11:1. Under the twenty-eighth verse it carries Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 35.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation of it is held to fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern, and his headwords, which carry the verse in that translation's wording, are never quoted.
Rashi explains the phrase of the second verse on life as a prize. As a man profits from plundering booty, "so this person will profit [by saving] his life" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:2:1). The charge against Jeremiah in the fourth verse turns on a word Rashi glosses as "an expression of weakness" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:4:1).
The man who drew Jeremiah out of the pit Rashi identifies in three words: Ebed-melech is "Baruch the son of Neriah" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:7:1). His plea to the king he gives in full sense. Left alone Jeremiah would have died of the famine, "but they have done harm to bring his death closer" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:9:1). The thirty men were needed "Since they were weakened by the famine" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:10:1).
The third entrance of the fourteenth verse Rashi cannot place, and he says "I do not know where it is." He offers the court of Israel as a guess (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:14:1). The friends of the king in the twenty-second verse are "the false prophets, who told you that you would not be caught" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:22:1). The burning of the city in the next verse is laid on Zedekiah: "It is as though you are burning it with your hands for you are causing it" (Rashi on Jeremiah 38:23:1).
The corpus carries eleven further notes on this chapter without an English text. Each is marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref, so each is cited here and none is quoted. The notes of Metzudat David are cited at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 38:1:1, 38:8:1, 38:15:1, 38:20:1, 38:24:1 and 38:25:1. The notes of Malbim are cited at Malbim on Jeremiah 38:3:1, 38:17:1 and 38:18:1. The notes of Radak are cited at Radak on Jeremiah 38:16:1 and 38:21:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the first verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Yirmiyahu, Introduction 2 and Pesikta Rabbati 26:1. On the second verse it holds Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 4:17 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 38:2. On the fourth verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Shelosha v'Arba'ah 3:12. On the sixth verse it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:4, Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 4:17, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 15:4:2 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 67:8. On the seventh verse it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:28, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Moed Katan 3:2, Ein Yaakov, Moed Katan 3:7, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 12:1:1 and Moed Katan 16b:19. It holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Shelosha v'Arba'ah 2:9, Sifrei Bamidbar 99:1, Sifrei Zuta 12:1:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 737:12 there as well.
On the ninth verse it holds Mishnat Rabbi Eliezer 19:10 and Otzar Midrashim, Midrash Minayin 1:15. On the tenth verse it holds Moed Katan 28b:16. On the eleventh verse it holds Sifrei Zuta; Midrashah shel Lod, Mishnayot in Sifrei Zuta 12. On the twelfth verse it holds Midrash Shmuel 9:7 and Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 53:6. On the thirteenth verse it holds Aggadat Bereshit 68:2, Bereshit Rabbah 40:5, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayigash 11:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Vayigash 10:1.
On the sixteenth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 18:19:4, Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Introduction 4, Otzar Midrashim, Keri & K'tiv, Midrash Ketiv V'lo Keri 5 and Tractate Soferim 6:9. On the twenty-eighth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20, Bamidbar Rabbah 13:5, Bereshit Rabbah 41:3, Bereshit Rabbah 42:3, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 35, Esther Rabbah, Petichta 10 and Esther Rabbah, Petichta 11. It holds Introductions to Tanaitic Literature, Introduction to Halakhic Midrashim, Sifrei Numbers 354 there as well. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 38:2:1 to 38:23:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 38:1:1, 38:8:1, 38:15:1, 38:20:1, 38:24:1 and 38:25:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Jeremiah 38:3:1, 38:17:1 and 38:18:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 38:16:1 and 38:21:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/38.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion and no Haftarah for this chapter and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Cast into the Miry Dungeon; Ebed-melech's Rags and Cords
Jeremiah 38:1-6
heard that Jeremiah had been telling all the people: Four officials say, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors.” Zedekiah answers, “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.” They lower Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern of Malchiah, “which had no water but only mud.”
Jeremiah 38:1
“The deputation in Jer 21:1, to whom Jeremiah gave this reply, if not identical with the hearers of Jeremiah (Jer 38:1), must have been sent just before the latter "heard" him speaking the same words. Zephaniah is not mentioned here as in Jer 21:1, but is so in Jer 37:3. Jucal is mentioned here and in the previous deputation (Jer 37:3), but not in Jer 21:1.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 38:1
“Then Shephatiah - This was the faction - what Dahler terms the Antitheocratic faction - who were enemies to Jeremiah, and sought his life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live: The officials quote this word to the king as their charge. It repeats the choice set before the people at 21:9, with the same promise of life as a spoil of war. Matthew Henry notes that Jeremiah was then eating the king's bread, and it did not stop his mouth.
Jeremiah 38:2
“The princes persist in their malice against Jeremiah. He was faithful to his country and to his trust as a prophet, though he had suffered many a time for his faithfulness; and, though at this time he ate the king's bread, yet that did not stop his mouth.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This city will surely be delivered: The second saying turns from the people to the city. Adam Clarke says Jeremiah bore this word constantly and never wavered. The officials had heard it before, and Jeremiah had already been beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan for it (37:15).
Jeremiah 38:3
“This city shall surely be given - This was a testimony that be constantly bore: he had the authority of God for it. He knew it was true, and he never wavered nor equivocated.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Albert Barnes grants that such words did discourage the warriors. He says Jeremiah spoke for the government of a theocracy, where the king answered to the LORD directly. Adam Clarke says the officials gave their reasons plainly, and the proof was wanting.
Jeremiah 38:4
“Therefore the princes said unto the king,.... The four princes mentioned in Jer 38:1, having heard what Jeremiah said to the people, laid the case before the king, and addressed him upon it in the following manner: we beseech thee, let this man be put to death; or, "let this man now be put to death,'' as the Targum.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 38:4
“The Prophet now shews that he was again dragged from the court of the prison to the inner part, which was dark, filthy, and like a grave. The cause of this he states: it was because four of the princes had heard his words.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Zedekiah hands over a man he privately respected. Albert Barnes says all real power lay with the officials, and the king did not dare refuse them. Charles Spurgeon preached on this king as the man who cannot say no, and warned that kings are poor objects of trust.
Jeremiah 38:5
“But, if we cannot trust in men, we think that surely we may trust in princes. If honor were banished from all the rest of the world, it ought to find a home in the breasts of kings! Great men, noble men, men of renown, men of high standing—may we not trust in them? Brethren, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes," for princes are but men, and sometimes hardly that. Princes are not always the truest of men—they are seldom the best of men to trust.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 38:5
“Had it been in a cause that concerned his own honour or profit, he would have let them know that the king is he who can do what he pleases, whether they will or no; but in the cause of God and his prophet, which he was very cool in, he basely sneaks, and truckles to them: The king is not he that can do any thing against you.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 38:5
“Why am I making such a point of all this? Because a monk should not look at the crowd of sinners but reflect on the way of life and the fewness of the saints. The whole of Judea was led into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar had come, and thousands of people were displaced into Babylonia as prisoners. Jeremiah alone was left praising God, and they threw him into a muddy cistern; nevertheless, the soul of this one man was more precious than that of all the people. Would you know what one person can do?”
Jerome · written before 420 · Homilies on the Psalms 54 (Ps 143)patristic
which had no water but only mud: Albert Barnes says houses in Jerusalem had cisterns under them, and a dry one could serve as a prison. The officials meant Jeremiah to starve there in the mud. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown see in the prophet sinking in the mud a type of the Messiah in Psalm 69.
Jeremiah 38:6
“The dungeon - The cistern. Every house in Jerusalem was supplied with a subterranean cistern, so well constructed that the city never suffered in a siege from want of water. So large were they that when dry they seem to have been used for prisons Zec 9:11. Hammelech - See Jer 36:26 note. The prison - The guard. They threw Jeremiah into the nearest cistern, intending that he should die of starvation. Some have thought that Ps. 69 was composed by Jeremiah when in this cistern.”
Jeremiah 38:7-13
heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern: Ebed-melech, a Cushite, goes to the king and says, “these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet.” Ebed-melech lowers “old rags and worn-out clothes” to pad the ropes. The foreigner who rescues the prophet receives his own promise of deliverance in 39:15-18.
Jeremiah 38:7
“Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian, a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, and yet had in him more humanity, and more divinity too, than native Israelites had. Christ found more faith among Gentiles than among Jews.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Ebed-melech went out: Ebed-melech leaves the palace to find the king at the Gate of Benjamin, where Zedekiah sat in public. John Gill notes that he spoke freely and boldly in the presence of the nobles. A foreign court official took the prophet's part before the court.
these men have acted wickedly: Ebed-melech calls the officials' act wicked to the king's face. Adam Clarke says he must have stood high in the king's confidence to speak so against the powerful officials. The bread in the city was nearly gone, and Jeremiah's ration had come from it by the king's command (37:21).
Jeremiah 38:9
“My lord the king, these men have done evil - He must have been much in the king’s confidence, and a humane and noble spirited man, thus to have raised his voice against the powerful cabal already mentioned. There is no more bread in the city - They had defended it to the last extremity; and it appears that bread had been afforded to the prophet according to the king’s commandment, as long as there was any remaining. See Jer 36:21.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 38:9
"Seeing that there is the utmost want of bread in the city, so that even if he were at large, there could no more be regularly supplied to him, much less now in a place where none remember or pity him, so that he is likely to die for hunger." "No more bread," that is, no more left of the public store in the city (Jer 37:21); or, all but no bread left anywhere [MAURER].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Thirty men is a large party to pull one man out of a cistern. Albert Barnes and Adam Clarke both take them as a guard in case the officials resisted the king's command. Barnes says some read three men here.
Jeremiah 38:10
“Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian,.... Being affected with the case of the prophet; and repenting of the leave he had given the princes to do with him as they pleased, gave orders as follows: saying, take from hence thirty men with thee; from the place where the king was, the gate of Benjamin; where very probably at this time was a garrison of soldiers, thirty of which were ordered to be taken; or these were to be taken out of the king's bodyguard, he had here with him.”
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 38:10
“Take from hence thirty men - The king was determined that he should be rescued by force, if the princes opposed.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 38:10
“Ebed-melech gained his point, and soon brought Jeremiah the good news; and it is observable how particularly the manner of his drawing him out of the dungeon is related (for God is not unrighteous to forget any work or labour of love which is shown to his people or ministers, no, nor any circumstance of it, Heb. vi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 38:10
“Thirty men - So large a number suggests that Zedekiah expected some resistance. (Some read “three” men.)”
old rags and worn-out clothes: The rescue is told in unusual detail. Matthew Henry says God forgets no part of a kindness done to his servants. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say God can make the least things, here old rags and worn-out clothes, serve his people.
Jeremiah 38:11
“Went into the house of the king - and took thence - The eastern kings had their wardrobes always well furnished; as garments were a usual present to ambassadors, etc. I cannot think that, in the proper acceptation of the words, these were in any part of the king’s house. Old cast clouts, and old rotten rags - The fact seems to be this: there were several garments that had been used, and would not be used again; and there were others which, through continuing long there, had by insects, etc., been rendered useless.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Ebed-melech cares for the prophet's body as well as his life. Ropes drawn under the arms of a man stuck fast in mud would cut him, so the rags go between. Matthew Henry takes the lesson that the distressed should be relieved with compassion and marks of respect.
they pulled him up with the ropes: Jeremiah comes up from the mud and goes back to the courtyard of the guard, where the king had placed him at 37:21. Matthew Henry notes that the king's special order returned him there at Ebed-melech's plea. He stays there until the city falls (38:28).
Go Forth and Live: a Secret Word at the Third Entry
Jeremiah 38:14-18
Do not hide anything from me.”: Zedekiah meets Jeremiah and asks him to hide nothing, and Jeremiah answers, “you will surely put me to death.” The king swears secretly to spare him. The word sets two outcomes: if he surrenders, “you will live,” and if he refuses, he “will not escape their grasp.”
Jeremiah 38:14
“Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him,.... When the prophet was taken out of the dungeon, and brought to the court of the prison, of which the king had knowledge, he sent some person or persons to bring him to him, to have some private conversation with him: into the third entry that is in the house of the Lord; what place is meant Jarchi confesses his ignorance of, but conjectures it was the court of the Israelites; the outward court, and the court of the women, being before it.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 38:14
“The third entry - There was probably a passage from the palace to the temple at this entry, and the meeting would take place in some private chamber close by.”
Jeremiah asks for a pledge of his life first. Matthew Henry says a prophet ready to die for his word may still seek to preserve his life by lawful means, as the apostles did. Albert Barnes takes the second clause as a plain statement that the king will not listen.
Jeremiah 38:15
“I am afraid thou wilt " (so some take it); "what else can I expect when thou art led blindfold by the princes?" Not that Jeremiah was backward to seal the doctrine he preached with his blood, when he was called to do so; but, in doing our duty, we ought to use all lawful means for our own preservation; even the apostles of Christ did so.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 38:15
“Wilt thou not hearken ...! - Rather, Thou wilt not hearken.”
who has given us this life: Zedekiah swears in secret, by the LORD who gave both men their life. Albert Barnes calls the addition unusual in an oath and reads it as strengthening the pledge, with the king owning God's power over his soul. Adam Clarke calls it the first recorded oath by the soul.
Jeremiah 38:16
“As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul - He is the living God, and he is the Author of that life which each of us possesses; and as sure as he lives, and we live by him, I will not put thee to death, nor give thee into the hands of those men who seek thy life. A very solemn oath; and the first instance on record of the profane custom of swearing by the soul.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah names the officers because Nebuchadnezzar was at Riblah, as Clarke and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say from 39:5. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown say God knows what either choice would bring, and ordains the means as well as the end. The king's life and the city hang on his answer.
Jeremiah 38:17
“Wilt assuredly go - On the king’s obedience to the advice of the prophet the safety of the city depended. Unto the king of Babylon’s princes - The generals of the army then returning to the siege from the defeat of the Egyptians; for Nebuchadnezzar himself was then at Riblah, in Syria, Jer 39:5, Jer 39:6.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
The other half of the choice mirrors the first clause for clause, with the city burned and the king taken. Matthew Henry's summary is that sinners must either bend or break. Jeremiah repeats the same terms at 38:23, adding that the king's wives and children will be handed over.
Jeremiah 38:19-28
Zedekiah names his fear: “I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans.” Jeremiah answers, “They will not hand you over,” and describes the palace women mocking the king: “Your feet sank into the mire.” He remains in the courtyard “until the day Jerusalem was captured.”
Jeremiah 38:19
“All he suggests is, " I am afraid, not of the Chaldeans; their princes are men of honour, but of the Jews, that have already gone over to the Chaldeans; when they see me follow them, and who had so much opposed their going, they will laugh at me, and say, Hast thou also become weak as water? " Isa. xiv.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah meets the king's fear with a direct promise. Matthew Henry says he begs the king to obey the LORD at last, after so many foolish turns, and so live. The remnant will make the same promise to obey at 42:6, and then break it.
the LORD has shown me: What follows is a scene Jeremiah was shown, set out in verses 22 and 23. John Gill notes that the king had asked for a word from the LORD, and this is the word he receives if he refuses. It answers his question at 37:17.
Jeremiah 38:21
“But if thou refuse to go forth,.... Out of Jerusalem, to the Chaldean army, and submit to them: this is the word that the Lord hath showed me, or the thing which should certainly come to pass; the word of prophecy the Lord had showed to the prophet, and which he now declares to the king; who asked of him a word, was desirous to know whether there was a word from the Lord, and what it was; and this it is which follows, in case he continued impenitent, obstinate, and disobedient.”
All the women who remain in the palace: The women of the palace will sing a taunt at the king, and it turns Jeremiah's ordeal in the mud back on him. Albert Barnes renders the friends literally as men of his peace, who urged him into a hopeless struggle and left him stuck.
Jeremiah 38:22
“All the women - brought forth - I think this place speaks of a kind of defection among the women of the harem; many of whom had already gone forth privately to the principal officers of the Chaldean army, and made the report mentioned in the end of this verse. These were the concubines or women of the second rank.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
All your wives and children will be brought out: Adam Clarke separates these wives, the mothers of the king's children, from the women of verse 22. Albert Barnes renders the last clause as the king burning the city, his own act as surely as if done by his hand. Refusal would make Zedekiah the one who set the fire.
Zedekiah's only answer to the word is a demand for secrecy. Matthew Henry notes that he makes no promise even to consider God's counsel. His fear of the officials, the fear that gave Jeremiah up in verse 5, still governs him.
Jeremiah 38:24
“5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you. 6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
If the officials hear that I have spoken with you: The king foresees the officials questioning Jeremiah under threat of death. Their demand echoes his own plea to the prophet in verse 14, that nothing be hidden. Adam Clarke describes Zedekiah as a weak king between factious and powerful officials, and here he fears his own court.
The answer the king supplies is true in part. Jeremiah had asked at 37:20 not to be sent back to the house of Jonathan the scribe. Adam Clarke calls it the truth and nothing but the truth, though short of the whole truth.
Jeremiah 38:26
“I presented my supplication - This was telling the truth, and nothing but the truth, but not the whole truth. The king did not wish him to defile his conscience, nor did he propose any thing that was not consistent with the truth.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 38:26
“Compare Ge 20:2, 12; on the other hand, 1Sa 16:2, 5. left off speaking with--Hebrew, "were silent from him," that is, withdrawing from him they left him quiet (1Sa 7:8, Margin).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the exact words the king had commanded him to say: The officials ask and hear only the king's words. Matthew Henry and Adam Clarke both call the answer part of the truth, and Jeremiah owed the officials nothing more. Clarke says the whole account would have set the weak king against his officials and put Jeremiah's life at risk.
Jeremiah 38:27
“The matter was not perceived - They did not question him farther; and the king’s commandment to remove him from the house of Jonathan being well known, they took for granted that they had all the information that they sought. And he was most certainly not obliged to relate any thing that might embroil this weak king with his factious but powerful princes, or affect his own life. He related simply what was necessary, and no more.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
until the day Jerusalem was captured: Jeremiah stays under guard until the city falls, and chapter 39 takes up the story from that day. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown and Albert Barnes report that some editors join the last words here to the opening of chapter 39. The prophet who foretold the capture lives to see it.
Jeremiah 38:28
“And he was there when ... - These words are altered by some to “and it came to pass when” etc., and taken to form the opening of Jer. 39.”
Keep studying
Studies2
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2178: “Zedekiah—or, the Man Who Cannot Say, "No"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.