Jeremiah 38:21-28

21 That if thou wilt not go out, this is the word which the Lord showed to me, (But if thou wilt not go out, this is what the Lord told me,)

22 Lo! all the women, that were left in the house of the king of Judah, shall be led out to the princes of the king of Babylon; and those women shall say, Thy peaceable men deceived thee, and had the mastery against thee; they drenched thee [down] in [the] filth, and thy feet in sliderness, and [they] went away from thee. (Lo! all the women, who were left in the house of the king of Judah, shall be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women shall say, The king's friends have deceived him, and had the mastery over him; they have drowned him down in the filth, and his feet have slid, and now they have all gone away from him.)

23 And all thy wives and thy sons shall be led out to [the] Chaldees, and thou shalt not escape the hands of them; but thou shalt be betaken into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn this city with fire. (And all thy wives and thy sons and daughters shall be led out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape from their hands; but thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn down this city.)

24 Therefore Zedekiah said to Jeremy, (Let) No man know these words, and thou shalt not die.

25 Soothly if the princes hear, that I spake with thee, and they come to thee, and say to thee, Show thou to us what thou spakest with the king, hide thou not from us, and we shall not slay thee; and what the king spake with thee, (But if my officers hear, that I spoke with thee, and they come to thee, and say to thee, Tell thou to us what thou saidest to the king, and what the king said to thee, hide thou it not from us, and we shall not kill thee;)

26 (then) thou shalt say to them, Kneelingly I setted forth my prayers before the king, that he should not command me to be led again into the house of Jonathan, and (so) I should die there.

27 Therefore all the princes came to Jeremy, and asked him (And so all the officers did come to Jeremiah, and asked him); and he spake to them by all the words which the king had commanded to him, and they ceased from him; for why nothing was heard.

28 Therefore Jeremy dwelled in the porch of the prison, till to the day in which Jerusalem was taken; and it was done, that Jerusalem should be taken. (And so Jeremiah lived in the courtyard of the prison, until the day when Jerusalem was taken; and indeed it was done, that Jerusalem was taken.)

Jeremiah 38:21-28 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 38

This chapter is taken up in giving an account of Jeremiah's being cast into a dungeon; his deliverance from it; and private conversation with King Zedekiah. The occasion of the prophet's being cast into a dungeon was his discourse to the people, which four of the princes represented to the king as seditious, and moved to have him put to death; and, being delivered into their hands, was put into a miry dungeon, Jer 38:1-6. Ebedmelech, the Ethiopian, hearing of his miserable case, represented it to the king, and interceded for his release; which being granted, with the help of thirty men, and by means of old clouts and rotten rags, let down by cords, drew him up, and placed him in the court of the prison, Jer 38:7-13. King Zedekiah sends for Jeremiah, and has a private conference with him about the state of affairs; when the prophet faithfully told him how things would issue, and gave him his best advice, Jer 38:14-23; upon parting, the king desires the conference might be kept a secret from the princes, which was accordingly done, Jer 38:24-27; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison till the taking of Jerusalem, Jer 38:28.