Jeremiah38chapter 38

Jeremiah 38:1

“Then Shephatiah - This was the faction - what Dahler terms the Antitheocratic faction - who were enemies to Jeremiah, and sought his life.”

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.”

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.”

Jeremiah 38:4

“For thus ... - Because he makes the men of war dispirited. No doubt this was true. Jeremiah, however, did not speak as a private person, but as the representative of the government; the temporal ruler in a theocracy being responsible directly to God.”

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.”

Jeremiah 38:5-6

“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?”

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.”

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.”

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 38:6

“Hammelech-- (Jer 36:26). His son followed in the father's steps, a ready tool for evil. sunk in the mire--Jeremiah herein was a type of Messiah (Ps 69:2, 14). "I sink in deep mire," &c.”

Jeremiah 38:7

“Ebed-melech - i. e., the king’s slave. By “Ethiopian” or Cushite is meant the Cushite of Africa, or negro. It seems (compare 2Ki 23:11) as if such eunuchs (or, chamberlains) took their names from the king, while the royal family and the princes generally bore names compounded with the appellations of the Deity.”

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.”

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.”

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].

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.”

Jeremiah 38:13

“At the intercession of Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, by special order from the king, he is taken up out of the dungeon and confined only to the court of the prison,”