translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: JER

label: NET study note

text: These two verses ( 37:1-2 ) are introductory to chs. –38 and are intended to characterize Zedekiah and his regime as disobedient just like Jehoiakim and his regime had been ( Jer 36:27 ; cf. 2 Kgs 24:19-20 ). This characterization is important because Zedekiah is portrayed in the incidents that follow in 37–38 as seeking the Lord ’s help or seeking a word from the Lord . However though he did send to inquire of Jeremiah three times, he did not pay attention to the warnings that he received in reply and was ultimately responsible for the fall of Jerusalem (). As elsewhere in the book of Jeremiah, Jeconiah’s reign is passed over in silence because it was negligible and because Jeremiah did not wish to legitimize the hopes that many in Israel and Babylon had in his returning from exile and resuming rule over Judah (see further the study notes on 22:24, 30 and 33:30 ).


text: This is the second of two delegations that Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah to ask him to pray for a miraculous deliverance. Both of them are against the background of the siege of Jerusalem which was instigated by Zedekiah’s rebelling against Nebuchadnezzar and sending to Egypt for help (cf. Ezek 17:15 ). The earlier delegation ( 21:1-2 ) was sent before Nebuchadnezzar had clamped down on Jerusalem because the Judean forces at that time were still fighting against the Babylonian forces in the open field (see 21:4 and the translator’s note there). Here the siege has been lifted because the Babylonian troops had heard a report that the Egyptian army was on the way into Palestine to give the Judeans the promised aid (vv. 5, 7 ). The request is briefer here than in 21:2 but the intent is no doubt the same (see also the study note on 21:2 ).


text: Jehucal was one of the officials who later sought to have Jeremiah put to death for what they considered treason ( 38:1-4 ).


text: The priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah was a member of the earlier delegation ( 21:2 ) and the chief of security in the temple to whom the Babylonian false prophet wrote a letter complaining that Jeremiah should be locked up for his treasonous prophecies ( 29:25-26 ). See the study notes on 21:2 and 29:25 for further details.


text: This statement anticipates v. 15 . Verses 3-4 are parenthetical to the narrative thread which is picked up in v. 5 . They provide background information necessary for understanding the situation at the time the delegation comes to Jeremiah.


text: The Benjamin Gate would have been a gate in the northern wall leading out toward the territory of Benjamin. It is mentioned only here and in Jer 38:7 and Zech 14:10 .


text: Nothing further is known about Irijah . It is generally agreed that the Hananiah mentioned here is not the same as the false prophet of the same name whom Jeremiah confronted approximately six years earlier ( 28:1, 5, 10, 15 ).


text: The officials mentioned here are not the same as those mentioned in Jer 36:12 , most of whom were favorably disposed toward Jeremiah, or at least regarded what he said with enough trepidation to try to protect Jeremiah and preserve the scroll containing his messages ( 36:16, 19, 24 ). All those officials had been taken into exile with Jeconiah in 597 b.c. ( 2 Kgs 24:14 ).


text: Jeremiah’s answer even under duress was the same that he had given Zedekiah earlier. (See Jer 34:3 and see the study note on 34:1 for the relative timing of these two incidents.)