Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 37:11–end
We have here a further account concerning Jeremiah, who relates more passages concerning himself than any other of the prophets; for the histories of the lives and sufferings of God's ministers have been very serviceable to the church, as well as their preaching and writing.
I. We are here told that Jeremiah, when he had an opportunity for it, attempted to retire out of Jerusalem into the country (Jer 37:11, Jer 37:12): When the Chaldeans had broken up from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army, upon the notice of their advancing towards them, Jeremiah determined to go into the country, and (as the margin reads it) to slip away from Jerusalem in the midst of the people, who, in that interval o…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 37:16
dungeon . . . cabins--The prison consisted of a pit (the "dungeon") with vaulted cells round the sides of it. The "cabins," from a root, "to bend one's self."
John Gill on Jeremiah 37:16
When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon,.... Or, "into the house of the pit" (l); a dungeon, like a pit or ditch, dark, dirty, or dismal:
and into the cabins; or "cells" (m); into a place more inward than the cells, as the Targum; into the innermost and worst part in all the prison, where a man could not well lie, sit, nor stand:
and Jeremiah had remained there many days; in this very uncomfortable condition; very probably till the Chaldean army returned to Jerusalem, as he foretold it should.
(l) "in, vel ad domum laci", Pagninus, Montanus; "in domum foveae", Schmidt. (m) "et in cellulas illius", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "et ad cellas", Schmidt.
John Calvin on Jeremiah 37:16
Jeremiah 37:16
16. When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon, and into the cabins, and jeremiah had remained there many days;
16. Et quo venit Jeremias in domum lacus, et ad mansiones, et sedit ibi Jeremias diebus multis.
The particle ky, ki, is to be taken here as an adverb of time, as I think, though interpreters have not observed this, When Jeremiah, he says, came into the house of the pit or dungeon, or of the prison. The word vvr means also sometimes the grave, but is to be taken here for a pit or a deep place: he means that it was a dark and filthy prison. And he adds, and to the dwellings I know not why some have rendered it, "victualling houses;" for the word hchnyvt, echeniot, m…
