Jeremiah 38:17

Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house:

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
said	וַיֹּ֣אמֶר vai.Yo.mer	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Jeremiah	יִרְמְיָ֣הוּ yir.me.Ya.hu	H3414	Jirmejah · proper noun, a man's name
Zedekiah	צִדְקִיָּ֡הוּ tzid.ki.Ya.hu	H6667	Tsidkijah · proper noun, a man's name
saith	אָמַ֣ר 'a.Mar	H559	to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD	יְהוָה֩ Yah.weh	H3068	Jehovah · proper noun, a title
God	אֱלֹהֵ֨י 'e.lo.Hei	H430	gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct
hosts

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 27:12 I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and ser…
Jeremiah 27:17 Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?
Jeremiah 38:2 Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to…
Jeremiah 21:8-10 And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
Jeremiah 39:3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, even Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim, Rab-saris, Ner…
2 Kings 24:12 And Jehoiachin the king of Judah went out to the king of Babylon, he, and his mother, and his servants, and his princes, and his officers: a…
Jeremiah 7:6-7 If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to y…
1 Chronicles 17:24 Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever, saying, The LORD of hosts is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: a…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 38:14–end

In the foregoing chapter we had the king in close conference with Jeremiah, and here again, though (Jer 38:5) he had given him up into the hands of his enemies; such a struggle there was in the breast of this unhappy prince between his convictions and his corruptions. Observe, I. The honour that Zedekiah did to the prophet. When he was newly fetched out of the dungeon he sent for him to advise with him privately. He met him in the third entry, or (as the margin reads it) the principal entry, that is in, or leads towards, or adjoins to, the house of the Lord, Jer 38:14. In appointing this place of interview with the prophet perhaps he intended to show a respect and reverence for the house of…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 38:17

princes-- (Jer 39:3). He does not say "to the king himself," for he was at Riblah, in Hamath (Jer 39:5; Kg2 25:6). "If thou go forth" (namely, to surrender; Kg2 24:12; Isa 36:16), God foreknows future conditional contingencies, and ordains not only the end, but also the means to the end.

John Gill on Jeremiah 38:17

Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah,.... Being thus indemnified and secured by the king's word and oath, he proceeds freely to lay before the king the whole matter as from the Lord: thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; the prophet does not give the following advice in his own name, but in the name of the eternal Jehovah, the Lord of armies above and below, and who had a special regard to the people of Israel, and their welfare; and therefore it became the king to show the more regard unto it: if thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes; the generals of his army, whose names are mentioned, Jeremiah 39:3; the king not being with his army at this time,…

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John Calvin on Jeremiah 38:17

Jeremiah 38:17 17. Then said Jeremiah unto Zedekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon's princes, then thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burned with fire; and thou shalt live, and thine house: 17. Tunc dixit Jeremias ad Zedechiam, Sic dicit Jehova, Deus exercituum, Deus Israel, Si egrediendo egressus fueris ad proceres regis Babylonis, vivet anima tua, et urbs ista non consumetur (non incendetur) igni, sed vives tu et domus tua. A question may be raised here, Whether God had again bidden his Prophet to repeat what he had so often spoken in vain? To this we cannot say anything certain, except tha…

The Church Fathers

He had often spoken these things previously. We must investigate why in the world he promises safety to those who go out of the city but threatens destruction to those who do not go out. When Nebuchadnezzar had elevated Zedekiah to the kingship, the latter had sworn an oath to him that he would pay tribute and maintain a favorable disposition to the one who had appointed him. But when a short time had passed, he violated the terms of the agreement and both did not pay the tribute and appealed to Egypt for help. Since he had taken these oaths not by some idols lacking any souls but by the Creator of all, and yet he had dared to violate them, the Lord God then ordered him to go out to the Chaldeans and in this way to render service for his perjury.
— Theodoret of Cyrus, ON JEREMIAH 8:38

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

Foreknowledge of God — Acts 2:23; Rom. 8:29; 11:2; 1 Pet. 1:2), one of those high attributes essentially appertaining to him the full import of which we cannot comprehend. In the most absolute sense his knowledge is…
Prisoners · General references — General references
Zedekiah · .Impri — .Impri

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).

Jeremiah 38:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 38:14–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 38:17

John Gill on Jeremiah 38:17

John Calvin on Jeremiah 38:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Jeremiah 38:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 38:14–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 38:17

John Gill on Jeremiah 38:17

John Calvin on Jeremiah 38:17

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Jeremiah 38:17-18

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Jeremiah 38:17-18

Rashi on Jeremiah 38:14