Then took they Jeremiah
Having the king's leave, or at least no prohibition from him;
they went with proper attendants to the court of the prison, and
took the prophet from thence: and cast him into the dungeon
of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that
[was] in the court of the prison;
this was a dungeon that belonged to the prison which Malchiah had
the care of, or which belonged to his house, which was contiguous
to the court of the prison. The Targum renders it, Malchiah the
son of the king; and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but
it is not likely that Zedekiah should have a son that was set
over his dungeon, or to whom one belonged, or should be called by
his name: here the princes cast the prophet, in order that he
should perish, either with famine or suffocation, or the
noisomeness of the place; not caring with their own hands to take
away the life of a prophet, and for fear of the people; and this
being a more slow and private way of dispatching him, they chose
it; for they designed no doubt nothing less than death: and
they let down Jeremiah with cords;
there being no steps or stairs to go down into it; so that nobody
could come to him when in it, or relieve him: and in the
dungeon [there was] no water, but mire;
so Jeremiah sunk in the mire; up to the neck, as Josephus
F17 says. Some think that it was at
this time, and in this place, that Jeremiah put up the petitions
to the Lord, and which he heard, recorded in ( Lamentations
3:55-57 ) ; and that that whole chapter was composed by him
in this time of his distress.