And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah
In answer to this advice he gave him, persuading him to give up himself and the city into the hands of the Chaldeans: I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans;
who did go out of the city, and surrendered to the Chaldeans, whom Zedekiah had cruelly used, or severely threatened: lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me;
that is, lest the Chaldeans should deliver him into the hands of the Jews, and they should jeer and scoff at him, for doing the same thing he had forbidden them on the severest penalty; or lest they should put him to death in the most revengeful and contemptuous manner, as Kimchi's note is: but all this was either a mere excuse, or showed great weakness and pusillanimity, and was fearing where no fear was; for, on the one hand, it was not reasonable to think that the Chaldeans, when they had got such a prize as the king of the Jews, that they should easily part with him, and especially deliver him up into the hands of his own people; and, on the other hand, it is not likely, that, should he be delivered into their hands, they would ever have treated him in so scornful and cruel a manner, who was their prince, and a partner with them in their captivity.