Jeremiah 21:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 21:1
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
a word · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Jeremiah
יִרְמְיָ֖הוּyir.me.Ya.hu
H3414
Jirmejah · proper noun, a man's name
LORD
יְהוָ֑הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
king
הַמֶּ֣לֶךְha.Me.lekh
H4428
a king · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Zedekiah
צִדְקִיָּ֗הוּtzid.ki.Ya.hu
H6667
Tsidkijah · proper noun, a man's name
sent
בִּשְׁלֹ֨חַbish.Lo.ach
H7971
to send away · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Pashur
פַּשְׁחוּר֙pash.Chur
H6583
Pashchur · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶּןben-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Melchiah
מַלְכִּיָּ֔הmal.ki.Yah
H4441
Malkijah · proper noun, a man's name
Zephaniah
צְפַנְיָ֧הtze.fan.Yah
H6846
Tsephanjah · proper noun, a man's name
son
בֶןven-
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct
Maaseiah
מַעֲשֵׂיָ֛הma.'a.se.Yah
H4641
Maasejah · proper noun, a man's name
priest
הַכֹּהֵ֖ןha.ko.Hen
H3548
literally one officiating · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saying
לֵאמֹֽרle.Mor
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 29:25 Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, Because thou hast sent letters in thy name unto all the people that are at Jerus…
Jeremiah 37:3 And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray n…
Jeremiah 38:1 Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the…
Jeremiah 52:24 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
2 Kings 24:17-18 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah his father’s brother king in his stead, and changed his name to Zedekiah.
2 Kings 25:18-21 And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door:
1 Chronicles 9:12 And Adaiah the son of Jeroham, the son of Pashur, the son of Malchijah, and Maasiai the son of Adiel, the son of Jahzerah, the son of Meshul…
Jeremiah 32:1-3 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 21:1-7
Here is, I. A very humble decent message which king Zedekiah, when he was in distress, sent to Jeremiah the prophet. It is indeed charged upon this Zedekiah that he humbled not himself before Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord (Ch2 36:12); he did not always humble himself as he did sometimes; he never humbled himself till necessity forced him to it; he humbled himself so far as to desire the prophet's assistance, but not so far as to take his advice, or to be ruled by him. Observe,
1. The distress which king Zedekiah was now in: Nebuchadrezzar made war upon him, not only invaded the land, but besieged the city, and had now actually invested it. Note, Those that put the…
The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord,.... This prophecy stands out of its proper place, being made in the times of Zedekiah, and when Jerusalem was besieged by the king of Babylon; whereas, after this, there are prophecies which were delivered in the times of Jehoiakim and Jeconiah, who both reigned before Zedekiah; see Jeremiah 22:11, &c.
when King Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah; this was another Pashur from him that is spoken of in the preceding chapter, and is called "Magormissabib"; he was the son of Immer; this of Melchiah; he was of the sixteenth course of the priesthood; this of the "fifth":
and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest; who was of the "…
Jeremiah 21:1-4
1. The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
1. Sermo qui datus fuit Jeremiae (factus fuit ad Jeremiam) a Jehova, cum misisset ad eum rex Zedekias Phassur filium Malchiah et Zephaniam filiam Maassiah sacerdotem (vel, sacerdotis) dicendo,
2. Enquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.
2. Interroga (inquire) nunc pro nobis (aut, consule pro nobis) Jehovam; quia Nebuchadnezer rex Babylonis praeli…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter 21, verses 1 and following) The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 'Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.' Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who struck Jeremiah, had a son named Pashhur. But Phasur is the son of Melchiah. This is why, so that no one might think he is the same. And King Zedekiah sends to the Prophet, not wanting either the people or the leaders to know, in order to secretly through messengers inquire, what judgment the Lord has against the city of Jerusalem and the people of Judah. And what he brings forward: Because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is making war against us, it is already shown that Jerusalem is besieged, Sedekiah inquires about this from the Prophet. And it should be noted, that in the Prophets, especially in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, the order of kings and times is not followed, but rather in reverse, that which happened later is recounted first, and that which happened earlier is recounted later. For it is one thing to write history, and another to write prophecy: as in this place, Zedekiah, who was captured with the city of Jerusalem, is mentioned sending a letter to Jeremiah, and at the same time when Jerusalem was under siege, and later the history of his brother Jehoiakim is narrated, who was king before him, and Jehoiachin. That is, Jechoniah, who was the son of Joachim, about whom it will be said in the following.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Maaseiah — The work of Jehovah. (1.) One of the Levites whom David appointed as porter for the ark (1 Chr. 15:18, 20). (2.) One of the “captains of hundreds” associated with Jehoiada in restoring king Jehoash…
Melchiah — (Jehovah’s king), a priest, the father of Pashur. (Jeremiah 21:1)
Pashur — Release. (1.) The son of Immer (probably the same as Amariah, Neh. 10:3; 12:2), the head of one of the priestly courses, was “chief governor [Heb. paqid nagid, meaning “deputy governor”] of the…
Zephaniah — Jehovah has concealed, or Jehovah of darkness. (1.) The son of Cushi, and great-grandson of Hezekiah, and the ninth in the order of the minor prophets. He prophesied in the days of Josiah, king of…
Jeremiah · .Time of his prophecies — .Time of his prophecies
Maaseiah · 10:18,21,22; — 10:18,21,22;
Malchiah · .An Aaronite — .An Aaronite
Pashur · .An inf — .An inf
Zedekiah · .Seeks the intercession of — .Seeks the intercession of
Zephaniah · intercession and prayers — intercession and prayers
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The Taking of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans. - Jer 21:1 and Jer 21:2. The heading specifying the occasion for the following prediction. "The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying: Inquire now of Jahveh for us, for Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all His wondrous works, that he may go up from us." The fighting of Nebuchadrezzar is in Jer 21:4 stated to be the besieging of the city. From this it appears that the siege had begun ere the king sent the two men to the prophet. Pashur the son of Malchiah is held by…
From this point forward in the book of Jeremiah, there is specific information about the last several kings of Judah, particularly Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. The narratives are mostly written in prose and are not always in exact chronological sequence.
21:1-10 This section moves to the beginning of the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 588 BC (cp. 52:1-23; 2 Kgs 24:18–25:21; 2 Chr 36:11-21). The Lord communicated with Judah through his messenger Jeremiah.
21:1 The reign of King Zedekiah spanned 597–586 BC. • The Pashhur mentioned here is not the one mentioned in 20:1-6 because they had different fathers. He and Zephaniah bore the full authority of the king, yet when they met the prophet, they…
