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Jer_21:1 The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
Ver. 1. The word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord.] This history is here set down out of course; {a} for Jerusalem was not besieged till Jer_32:2, and Jehoiakim reigned Jer_25:1 It was in the ninth year of Zedekiah that this present prophecy was uttered. {2Ki_25:1-2} This Zedekiah was one of those semiperfectae virtutis homines, as Philo calleth some professors, cakes half-baked., {Hos_7:8} no flat atheist, nor yet a pious prince. Of Galba the emperor, as also of our Richard III, it is recorded that they were bad men but good princes. We cannot say so much of Zedekiah; two things he is chiefly charged with: (1.) That he broke his oath and faith plelged to the King of Babylon; {Eze_17:16} (2.) That he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord. {2Ch_36:12-13} Hitherto he had not: but now in his distress he seeketh to this prophet; yea, sendeth an embassy. Kings care not for soldiers, said a great commander, till their crowns hang on the one side of their heads. Sure it is that some of them slight God’s ministers till they cannot tell what to do without them, as here. Kingdoms have their cares, and thrones their thorns. Antigonus cried out of his diadem, O vilis pannus, O base rag, not worth taking up at a man’s feet. Julian complained of his own unhappiness in being made emperor. Dioclesian laid down the empire as weary of it. Thirty of the ancient kings of this our land, saith Capgrave, resigned their crowns; such were their cares, crosses, and emulations. Zedekiah now could gladly have done as much. But since that might not be, he sendeth to Jeremiah, whom in his prosperity he had slighted, and, to gratify his wicked counsellors, wrongfully imprisoned.
He sent unto him Pashur.] Not that Magormissabib, {Jer_20:1} but another of his name, though not much better, as it afterwards appeared, when, seeing Jeremiah’s stoutness for the truth, he counselled the king to put him to death. {Jer_38:4}
And Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah.] Of whom see further, Jer_29:25-29; Jer_37:3.
{a} Est hic hysterologia sive praeposterus ordo.