Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 38:1 - 38:13

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 38:1 - 38:13


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Jeremiah Cast into a Pit

v. 1. Then Shephatiah, the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah, the son of Pashur, the latter being of priestly descent, but full of enmity toward the prophet, and Jucal, the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur, the son of Malchiah, 21:1, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,

v. 2. Thus saith the Lord, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence,
21:9; but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live, since Jehovah had now definitely decided that they should possess the land of Judah; for he shall have his life for a prey and shall live. Though all his goods might perish, the life of every such person would be spared.

v. 3. Thus saith the Lord, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which shall take it.
Sayings of this kind were the gist of Jeremiah's proclamation to the soldiers and to all members of the nation who happened to come into the court of the prison. Although he was under suspicion as favoring the enemy's cause and even of playing traitor to his own nation, Jeremiah was not deterred from his course of action as the Lord's messenger. This fact, however, filled the leaders of the people with the greatest bitterness.

v. 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,
he caused their hands to hang down helplessly, he discouraged them utterly; for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. So far as outward appearances were concerned, there was some foundation for the complaint of the rulers, for the words of Jeremiah certainly tended to discourage any attempts at defending the city. At the same time, Jeremiah was the best of patriots, having the true welfare of his people in view, for the spirit exhibited by the rulers was not a confidence founded on the divine will, but a carnal obstinacy, which was bound to lead to destruction.

v. 5. Then Zedekiah, the king,
weakly yielding to the demand of his counselors, especially since he seems to have harbored a secret grudge against the prophet on his own account, said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you. It was a complimentary speech, but at the same time a confession both of weakness of character and of weakness of authority.

v. 6. Then took they Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon,
a pit formerly used as a cistern, of Malchiah, the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison; and they let down Jeremiah with cords, there being no direct way of access to the bottom of the pit. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire, the mud and settlings that remained after the water had been drawn out; so Jeremiah sunk in the mire. The act shows the hatred of the princes. They did not have Jeremiah executed with the sword, as they might have done; but they deliberately chose this method of letting the prophet die under the most distressing circumstances, while they, at the same time, could quiet the voice of their conscience by declaring that they had not shed Jeremiah's blood.

v. 7. Now, when Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house,
probably the chief officer of the king's harem, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon, the king then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin, one of the northern gates of the city, where he may have been superintending some work connected with the defense of the city,

v. 8. Ebed-melech went forth out of the king's house and spake to the king,
not secretly, but openly, fearlessly championing the cause of the persecuted prophet and risking the displeasure of the capricious king, saying,

v. 9. My lord the king, these men, who had ordered this cruelty to be performed against Jeremiah, have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah, the prophet, whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to die for hunger in the place where he is,
where he would be most likely to be overlooked; for there is no more bread in the city. Jeremiah had formerly received a daily allowance of bread, 37:21, but now either the public store of bread was exhausted, or there was practically no bread left anywhere.

v. 10. Then the king commanded Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian, saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee,
a sufficiently large squad under his command to protect Jeremiah in case some of the princes or their retainers should attempt to interfere with the work of rescuing the prophet, and take up Jeremiah, the prophet, out of the dungeon before he die. The remonstrance of Ebed-melech had had at least this much effect upon Zedekiah, that he determined to prevent outright murder.

v. 11. So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the house of the king under the treasury,
to a room which was evidently used for storage purposes, and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, remnants of cast-off and worn-out garments of every description, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah. Ebed-melech evidently possessed both presence of mind and resourcefulness, for he lost no time in beginning his work of rescuing the prophet.

v. 12. And Ebed-melech, the Ethiopian,
whose nationality is clearly mentioned time and again with the object of making his behavior stand out favorably by way of contrast with that of the Jews, said unto Jeremiah, Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords, to prevent them from cutting into the flesh as they drew him out of the pit. And Jeremiah did so.

v. 13. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him up out of the dungeon; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison,
still under arrest, but no longer in danger of slow death by starvation. God makes use even of the poor and lowly as instruments of His goodness in protecting His children.