Jeremiah 37:4

Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) Jeremiah came in and went out among the people.—The statement is made in reference to the event narrated in Jeremiah 37:15. He was free when the king’s message came to him: it was his answer to that message that led to his imprisonment.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

37:1-10 Numbers witness the fatal effects of other men's sins, yet heedlessly step into their places, and follow the same destructive course. When in distress, we ought to desire the prayers of ministers and Christian friends. And it is common for those to desire to be prayed for, who will not be advised; yet sinners are often hardened by a pause in judgments. But if God help us not, no creature can. Whatever instruments God has determined to use, they shall do the work, though they seem unlikely.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This embassy is not to be confounded with that Jeremiah 21:1 which took place when Nebuchadnezzar was just marching upon Jerusalem; this was in the brief interval of hope occasioned by the approach of an Egyptian army to raise the siege. The Jews were elated by this temporary relief, and miserably abused it Jeremiah 34:11. Zedekiah seems to some extent to have shared their hopes, and to have expected that the prophet would intercede for the city as successfully as Isaiah had done Isaiah 37:6. Jehucal was a member of the warlike party Jeremiah 38:1, as also was the deputy high priest Zephaniah, but otherwise he was well affected to Jeremiah.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. Jeremiah … not put … into prison—He was no longer in the prison court, as he had been (Jer 32:2; 33:1), which passages refer to the beginning of the siege, not to the time when the Chaldeans renewed the siege, after having withdrawn for a time to meet Pharaoh.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

We shall read afterward, Jeremiah 37:15, that he was imprisoned; and we have heard, Jeremiah 32, of two revelations he had while he was in prison; but as yet he walked at liberty.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people,.... Was at full liberty, and could go out of the city, and come in, when he pleased; or go into any part of it, and converse with the people, and prophesy to them; which he could not do in the latter part of Jehoiakim's reign, who sent persons after him and Baruch to take them, and they were obliged to hide themselves, yea, the Lord hid them, Jeremiah 36:19; but now he was under no restraint, as least as yet:

for they had not put him into prison; not yet; they afterwards did, Jeremiah 37:15.

Geneva Study Bible

Now Jeremiah came {d} in and went out among the people: for they had not put him into prison.

(d) That is, was out of prison and free.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. came in and went out] was still coming in and going out, was still free, had not suffered arrest. That was immediately to follow.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - Now Jeremiah came in and went out, etc. Had he been a prisoner, an embassy of high officials could not, with propriety, have been sent to him (comp. ver. 17; Jeremiah 38:14). Jeremiah 37:4

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The account of what befell Jeremiah and what he did during the last siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, until the taking of the city, is introduced, Jeremiah 37:1 and Jeremiah 37:2, with the general remark that Zedekiah - whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had made king in the land of Judah in place of Coniah (on which name see on Jeremiah 22:24) - when he became king, did not listen to the words of the Lord through Jeremiah, neither himself, nor his servants (officers), nor the people of the land (the population of Judah). Then follows, Jeremiah 37:3-10, a declaration of the prophet regarding the issue of the siege, which he sent to the king by the messengers who were to beseech him for his intercession with the Lord. Jeremiah 37:3-5. The occasion of this declaration was the following: Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah two of his chief officers, Jehucal the son of Shelemiah (see on Jeremiah 38:1), and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest (see Jeremiah 21:1 and Jeremiah 29:25), with this charge: "Pray now for us to Jahveh our God." This message was sent to Jeremiah while he still went in and out among the people, and had not yet been put in prison (כּליא, Jeremiah 37:4 and Jeremiah 52:31, an unusual form for כּלא, Jeremiah 37:15 and Jeremiah 37:18, for which the Qeri would have us in both instances read כּלוּא); the army of Pharaoh (Hophra, Jeremiah 44:30), too, had marched out of Egypt to oppose the Chaldeans; and the latter, when they heard the report of them (שׁמעם, the news of their approach), had withdrawn from Jerusalem (עלה מעל, see on Jeremiah 21:2), viz., in order to repulse the Egyptians. Both of these circumstances are mentioned for the purpose of giving a clear view of the state of things: (a) Jeremiah's freedom to go in and out, not to prepare us for his imprisonment afterwards, but to explain the reason why the king sent two chief officers of the realm to him, whereas, after his imprisonment, he caused him to be brought (cf. Jeremiah 37:17 with Jeremiah 38:14); and (b) the approach of the Egyptians joined with the raising of the siege, because this event seemed to afford some hope that the city would be saved. - This occurrence, consequently, falls within a later period than that mentioned in Jeremiah 21:1-14.