Jeremiah 38:22

22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. And they will say: ‘Your trusted friends have betrayed you; they have deceived you; now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they are nowhere to be found.'

Jeremiah 38:22 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 38:22

And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of
Judah's house
That were left in the royal palace when Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were carried captives; or which were left of the famine and pestilence in, Zedekiah's house; or would be left there when he should flee and make his escape; meaning his concubines, or maids of honour, and court ladies; [shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes:
who shall use them as they think fit, and dispose of them at pleasure: and those [women] shall say, thy friends have set thee on, and have
prevailed against thee:
or, "the men of thy peace" F1; the false prophets, and the princes that hearkened to them, and promised and flattered him with peace and prosperity, these deceived him; they set him on to hold out against the Chaldeans, and not believe the Prophet Jeremiah; and they prevailed with him to do so, though it was against himself, and his own interest: thy feet are sunk in the mire;
not literally, as some Jewish writers suppose, that he got into a quagmire when he fled; though there may be a hint in the expression to the miry dungeon in which he suffered the prophet to be cast; and was now got into one himself, in a figurative sense, being involved in difficulties, out of which he could not extricate himself: [and] they are turned away back;
meaning either his feet, which were distorted, and had turned aside from the right way; or now could go on no further against the enemy, but were obliged to turn back and flee; or else the men of his peace, the false prophets and princes, who had fed him with vain hopes of safety, now left him, and every man shifted for himself. This would be said by the women, either in a mournful manner, by way of complaint; or as scoffing at the king, as a silly foolish man, to hearken to such persons; and so he that was afraid of being mocked by the Jews is jeered at by the women of his house.


FOOTNOTES:

F1 (Kmlv yvna) "viri pacis tuae", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt.

Jeremiah 38:22 In-Context

20 "That won't happen," Jeremiah replied, “if you obey the LORD, whose message I bring. You will survive, and all will go well for you.
21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has shown me:
22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. And they will say: ‘Your trusted friends have betrayed you; they have deceived you; now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they are nowhere to be found.'
23 "All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you yourself won't escape from them. The king of Babylon will capture you, and this city will be burned down."
24 Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "No one is to know about these matters or else you will die.
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