Jeremiah 38:21

But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 38:21-23. But if thou refuse, this is the word that the Lord hath showed me — Namely, what follows in the next two verses. Behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house — The king’s wives, his daughters, and the other women that belong to the king’s court and family, shall become a prey to the chief officers of the king of Babylon’s army. And those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, &c. — They shall tell thee that, for these thy calamities, thou mayest thank thy hearkening to thy priests and false prophets; (called in the Hebrew the men of his peace, because they soothed up the king with the promises of peace;) in other words, those very women shall then reproach thee for having suffered thyself to be insnared by the ill advice of thy friends, and brought under insuperable difficulties. They will say to thee, Thy feet are sunk in the mire — Thou art plunged into calamities from which thou canst not extricate thyself. And they are turned away back — Even thy friends, by following whose counsel thou art brought into these snares and troubles, forsake thee in thy distress, every one shifting for himself. And thus shall a greater evil come upon thee than that which thou fearest, and the fear of which makes the unwilling to comply with the will of God concerning thee. So shall they bring out all thy wives, &c. — The prophet partly repeats and partly enlarges on the argument advanced in the former verse, with a view to prevail on the king to surrender himself to the Chaldeans. He urges, that if he would not do it, not only himself but his wives and children also would fall into his enemies’ hands, and that their reflection upon him, for the misery he had brought upon them and his country, would be no small aggravation of his affliction.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

38:14-28 Jeremiah was not forward to repeat the warnings, which seemed only to endanger his own life, and to add to the king's guilt, but asked whether he feared to do the will of God. The less men fear God, the more they fear men; often they dare not act according to their own judgments and consciences.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Jews that are fallen to the Chaldaeans - These deserters probably formed a numerous party, and now would be the more indignant with Zedekiah for having rejected their original advice to submit.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

19. afraid of the Jews—more than of God (Pr 29:25; Joh 9:22; 12:43).

mock me—treat me injuriously (1Sa 31:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But if thou refuse to go forth,.... Out of Jerusalem, to the Chaldean army, and submit to them:

this is the word that the Lord hath showed me, or the thing which should certainly come to pass; the word of prophecy the Lord had showed to the prophet, and which he now declares to the king; who asked of him a word, was desirous to know whether there was a word from the Lord, and what it was; and this it is which follows, in case he continued impenitent, obstinate, and disobedient.

Geneva Study Bible

But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that the LORD hath shewed me:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. the word] viz. the picture of the women which follows. Dr. makes it to be an actual vision on the part of the prophet, and so renders “all the women … were brought forth … while they said, etc.”

Jeremiah 38:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Against the advice that he should save his life by surrendering to the Chaldeans, Zedekiah suggests the consideration, "I am afraid of the Jews, who have deserted [נפל אל as in Jeremiah 37:13] to the Chaldeans, lest they give me into their hands and maltreat me." התעלּל בּ, illudere alicui, to abuse any one by mockery or ill-treatment; cf. Numbers 22:29; 1 Chronicles 10:4, etc. Jeremiah replies, Jeremiah 38:20., "They will not give thee up. Yet, pray, listen to the voice of Jahveh, in that which I say to thee, that it may be well with thee, and that thy soul may live. Jeremiah 38:21. But if thou dost refuse to go out i.e., to surrender thyself to the Chaldeans, this is the word which the Lord hath shown me has revealed to me: Jeremiah 38:22. Behold, all the women that are left in the house of the king of Judah shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon, and those [women] shall say, Thy friends have misled thee and have overcome thee; thy feet are sunk in the mud, they have turned away back. Jeremiah 38:23. And all thy wives and thy children shall they bring out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape out of their hand; for thou shalt be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt burn this city with fire." - After Jeremiah had once more assured the king that he would save his life by voluntary surrender, he announces to him that, on the other alternative, instead of his becoming the sport of the deserters, the women of his harem would be insulted. The women who remain in the king's house, as distinguished from "thy wives" (Jeremiah 38:23), are the women of the royal harem, the wives of former kings, who remain in the harem as the concubines of the reigning king. These are to be brought out to the generals of the Chaldean king, and to sing a satire on him, to this effect: "Thy friends have misled thee, and overpowered thee," etc. The first sentence of this song is from Obadiah 1:7, where השּׁיאוּך ere stands instead of הסּיתוּך. The friends (אנשׁי שׁלמך, cf. Jeremiah 20:10) are his great men and his false prophets. Through their counsels, these have led him astray, and brought him into a bog, in which his feet stick fast, and then they have gone back; i.e., instead of helping him out, they have deserted him, leaving him sticking in the bog. The expression is figurative, and the meaning of the figure is plain (רגלך is plural). בּץ, ἁπ λεγ.., is equivalent to בּצּה, a bog, Job 8:11. Moreover, the wives and children of Zedekiah are to fall into the hand of the Chaldeans. מוצאים, the participle, is used instead of the finite tense to express the notion of indefinite personality: "they bring them out." תּתּפשׂ בּיד ".tuo meht gnirb , properly, "to be seized in the hand," is a pregnant construction for, "to fall into the hand and be held fast by it." "Thou shalt burn this city," i.e., bring the blame of burning it upon thyself. Ewald, Hitzig, and Graf, following the lxx, Syr., and Chald., would change תּשׂרף into תּשּׂרף, but needlessly.