Jeremiah 38:24

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

Jeremiah 38:24 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 38:24

Then said Zedekiah to Jeremiah
Not a word signifying his approbation of the counsel given him, or that he intended to take it; his silence showed the reverse: let no man know of these words:
that had passed between them; of the conference and conversation they had had together, at least not the particulars of it; the thing itself was known, as appears by what follows, that the king and prophet had been discoursing together; but what they talked of, he desires might be concealed, pretending the prophet's good, though it was his own honour and safety he sought: and thou shall not die;
as he had promised he should not, and had sworn to it; but suggests by this, that if he disclosed the conversation, he should took upon himself free from his word and oath; so that this carried something menacing in it: or it may be rendered "that thou die not" F3; intimating, that if the princes should come to the knowledge of what he had said, of the advice he had given, they would surely put him to death; and therefore, for his own safety, he desires the whole may be kept a secret.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (twmt alw) "ne moriaris", Gataker, Schmidt; "ut non moriaris", Piscator.

Jeremiah 38:24 In-Context

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.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.