Zedekiah--a prince having some reverence for sacred things, for which reason he sends an honorable embassy to Jeremiah; but not having moral courage to obey his better impulses.
Pashur--son of Melchiah, of the fifth order of priests, distinct from Pashur, son of Immer (Jer 20:1), of the sixteenth order (Ch1 24:9, Ch1 24:14).
Zephaniah--of the twenty-fourth order. They are designated, not by their father, but by their family (Ch1 24:18).
according to all his wondrous works--Zedekiah hopes for God's special interposition, such as was vouchsafed to Hezekiah against Sennacherib (Kg2 19:35-36).
he--Nebuchadnezzar.
go up from us--rise up from the siege which he sat down to lay (Jer 37:5, Jer 37:11, Margin; Num 16:24, Num 16:27; Kg1 15:19, Margin).
turn back the weapons--I will turn them to a very different use from what you intend them. With them you now fight against the Chaldees "without the walls" (the Jewish defenders being as yet able to sally forth more freely, and defend the fountains outside the walls in the valley under Mount Zion; see Jer 21:13; Jer 19:6-7); but soon ye shall be driven back within the city [MAURER], and "in the midst" of it, I will cause all your arms to be gathered in one place ("I will assemble them," namely, your arms) by the Chaldean conquerors [GROTIUS], who shall slay you with those very arms [MENOCHIUS].
seek their life--content with nothing short of their death; not content with plundering and enslaving them.
smite with . . . sword--This was the fate of Zedekiah's sons and many of the Jewish nobles. Zedekiah himself, though not put to a violent death, died of grief. Compare as to the accurate fulfilment, Jer 34:4; Eze 12:13; Kg2 25:6-7.
falleth to--deserts to.
life . . . a prey--proverbial, to make one's escape with life, like a valuable spoil or prey that one carries off; the narrowness of the escape, and the joy felt at it, are included in the idea (Jer 39:18).
in the morning--alluding to the time of dispensing justice (Job 24:17; Psa 101:8); but the sense is mainly proverbial, for "with promptness" (Psa 90:14; Psa 143:8). MAURER translates, "every morning."
lest my fury . . . like fire--Already it was kindled, and the decree of God gone forth against the city (Jer 21:4-5), but the king and his house may yet be preserved by repentance and reformation. God urges to righteousness, not as if they can thereby escape punishment wholly, but as the condition of a mitigation of it.
forest thereof--namely of your city, taken from Jer 21:13. "Forest" refers to the dense mass of houses built of cedar, &c., brought from Lebanon (Jer 22:7; Jer 52:13; Kg2 25:9).
Belonging to an earlier period than the twenty-first chapter, namely, the reigns of Shallum or Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (Jer 22:10, Jer 22:13, Jer 22:20). Jeremiah often groups his prophecies, not by chronological order, but by similarity of subjects; thus Jer 22:3 corresponds to Jer 21:12. GROTIUS thinks that Jeremiah here repeats to Zedekiah what he had announced to that king's predecessors formerly (namely, his brother and brother's son), of a similar bearing, and which had since come to pass; a warning to Zedekiah. Probably, in arranging his prophecies they were grouped for the first time in the present order, designed by the Holy Spirit to set forth the series of kings of Judah, all four alike, failing in "righteousness," followed at last by the "King," a righteous Branch raised unto David, in the house of Judah, "the Lord our righteousness" (Jer 23:6). The unrighteousness of Zedekiah suggested the review of his predecessors' failure in the same respects, and consequent punishment, which ought to have warned him, but did not.