Vers, 17 — 19. — ITie secret question of a kivg and the lold answer o/a prophet. L Thb SEOBET QUESTION OF A EiNQ. 1. The secrecy. Why should a king with all his authority do a thing in secrecy ? Was it policy or fear that dictated this secret consul- tation with Jeremiah ? Fear, probably, was the largest element. He was afraid ot what the princes and courtiers around him would say. Note other secret interviews sought by men of rank and authority, Herod, a king, privily calls the wise men from the East. Nicodemus, a mier of the Jews, comes to Jesus by night. What men ot position do cannot be concealed easily. The very effort to conceal is often only a more effective publication. The lesson is that, however quietly and unobtrusively we may do a thing, we must do it so as not in the least fearing publicity. The very difficulty of keeping secrets is a divinely ordained difBculty to help in keeping men in the paths of righteousness. 2. The evident faith of the king in Jeremiah's office. The faith was superstitious and unpractical, but still, such as it was, it exerted a power over the king's conduct. This increases the king's responsibility, for it shows that he was not able to get Jeremiah and his message out of his mind. 3, The indication as to what sort of aniwer was expected. Not in words, of course, but we can guess what the tone of the inquiry was. Jeremiah came from a prison to prophesy, and doubtless the king thought that the privations of the past and the hopes of liberty might draw some flattering word from the prophet. Altogether, what a pitiable position this king was in — ^waiting eagerly, half in terror, half in threatening, upon the word of one of his humble subjects, and the same a prisoner!
n. The bold answer of a prophet. What great things are required from a prophet I He must always be in close and living relation to truth. He must always be ready to meet the manifold temptations which beset a man who is specially sent forth to speak the truth. His first question must ever be, not — What is the safe path, or the easy
giith ? but— What is God's path ? Here he was in close and private dealing with a king, erhaps, as he looked upon Zedekiah thus sending for him secretly, he compassionated him rather than feared him. It was such a revelation of the hollowness of human grandeur. Jeremiah here before Zedekiah is even somewhat of a type of Jesus before Pilate. Jesus will go on testifying to the truth. He will not make Pilate's task one whit easier by accommodating himself to Pilate's desires. Truth, eternal realities, fundamental duties, fidelity to the clear voice of God within the lieart, — these must prevail in every one who would follow in the path of Jesus or of prophets and apostles. There is neither real prudence nor real charity without these things. — X.
EXPOSITION.
OHAPTEB xxxynL
OONTINCATION.
The objeot of the princes being frustrated [tat in the "court of the guard" Jeremiah
had perfeot freedom and opportnnity oi speech), the princes resolve upon a more e£feotnal means of stopping the propbet^i month. He is thrown into a miry pit, with the object that he may die of starvation.
OH. mvm. 1— 28.J IRH BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.
131
Ter. 1. — ^Two Paahnn appear to be men- tioned here : one probably the Bsme who put Jeremiah in the stoeka (ch. xx. 1, 2); the other a member of the first of Zedekiah's two embasBiea to the prophet (ch. xxi. 1). On Jnoal, see ch. xxxvii. 3. Had spoken; rather, kept speaking.
Vers. 2, 3. — He that remaineth, etc. Jeremiah repeats what he had said to Zedekiah's embassy in ch. xxi. 9, 10.
Ver. 4. — For thus; literally, /or <ftere/or«; i.e. because he is left in impunity (comp. the use of the phrase in ch. xxix. 2S). He weakeneth the hands of the men of war ; i.e. he dispirits them. It is important to get this " outside view '' of the preaching of Jeremiah. There is evidently some excuse for the opponents of Jeremiah. It was a matter of life and death to resist the Chal- deans, and Jeremiah was, according to tlie politicians, playing into the hands of the enemy (see further in general Introduc- tion). The addition of the words, that re- main, shows that the bitter end of the resistance was fast approaching.
Ver. 5. — He is in your band. The grow- ing power of the " princes " (see on oh. xxii. 4) seems to have confined the king to a merely secondary r6le.
Ver. 6. — The dungeon ; more literally, the cistern. '• Every house in Jerusalem was sup- plied with a subterranean cistern, so well constructed tliat we never read of the city sufiering in a siege from want of water" (Dr. Payne Smith). A grotto bearing the name of Jeremiah has been shown at Jerusalem since the fifteenth century. Under its floor are vast cisterns, the deepest of which professes to be the prison into which the prophet was thrown. The objec- tion is that tlje sacred narrative proves that the prison was in the city, whereas " the present grotto was not included within the walls until the time of Herod Agrippa" (Thomson, ' The Land and the Book,' 1881, p. 555). The son of Hammeleoh; rather, a royal prince (as ch. xxxvi. 26).
Ver. 7. — llbed-melech the Ethiopian. The name means " the king's slave." Bbers re- marks that the euuuchs employed in the modern East are nearly all negroes, on whom the shameful operation has been per- formed by Copts in Upper Egypt. Zede- kiah's harem is referred to in vers. 22, 23.
Ver. 9. — For there is no more bread in the city. It would almost seem as if the little remaining bread had been brought tog;ether by command of the magistrates, and that it was given out in rations by them (comp. ch. xxxvii. 21).
Ver. 10.— Thirty men. Why so many wer« lent is not ol^r. Are we to suppose tb^t ibe princes wnnld resist Jeremiah's
nlearc? But "the king is not he," eta, (ver. 5). Is it not a scribe's error fo( "three" (so Ewald, Hitzig, and GraQ?
Ver. 11. — Under the treasury; rather, (• (o room) under the treaewry. Old cast olontl, eto. ; literally, rage of torn garment$ and rags of worn-out garments.
Ver. 14.— The third entry. What this means exactly is not cli^ar; probably the " entry " led from the palace to the temple. It must have been a private place, else it would not have been chosen for this inter- view. I will ask thee a thing ; rather, I uiiU ask of thee a word ; i.e. a revelation from Jehovah (comp. oh. xxxvii. 17).
Ver. 15. — Wilt thou not hearken ; lather, thou loilt not hearken,
Ver. 16. — That made us this sonl. A very unusual formula (cump. Isa. Ivii. 16).
Ver. 17. — The king of Babylon's princes. Kebuchadnezzar himself was in Biblah (oh. xxxix. 5).
Ver. 22. — ^AIl the women that are left; i.e. probably the wives of Zedekiah's royal