Jeremiah 38:23

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.)

Jeremiah 38:23 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 38:23

So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the
Chaldeans
Not the citizens of Jerusalem; but, as Kimchi observes, the Chaldeans that should enter the city shall bring them out to the Chaldeans without: or it may be rendered impersonally, "they shall be brought out": not only the ladies at court, that waited on him and his queen, as before; but all his wives and concubines, and his children, or his sons rather; for at the taking of the city no mention is made of daughters, only of sons, who were slain before his eyes, ( Jeremiah 39:6 ) ; and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the
hand of the king of Babylon;
not by him personally, for he was not present at the taking of him, but by his army, who having taken him, brought him to him, and delivered him into his hand, ( Jeremiah 39:5 ) ; and thou shalt cause this city to be burnt with fire;
or, "thou shall burn this city with fire" ^F2; be the moral cause of it; through his sin and obstinacy, impenitence and unbelief, the burning of the city might be laid to his charge; his sin was the cause of it; and it was all one as if he had burnt it with his own hands. All this is said to work upon him to hearken to the advice given; but all was in vain.

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FOOTNOTES:

F2 (vab Pdvt) "combures igne", Vatablus, Schmidt; "cremabis in igne", Montanus.

Jeremiah 38:23 In-Context

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;)