Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 38

Verses 1-28

Under these circumstances he continued to foretell the victory of the Chaldeans, with the result that the anger of the princes was stirred up against him, and he was cast into a most loathsome dungeon. From that dungeon he was released through the intercession of Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian eunuch, who evidently was in favor with Zedekiah. Again the king sought an interview with him, charging him to hide nothing from him as to the future. Jeremiah advised him earnestly to submit to Babylon, warning him that if he did not do so the women of his household would eventually heap reproaches upon him because of the visitation which would overtake the city and the people.

Nothing is more marked throughout all this story than the absolute and unswerving loyalty of Jeremiah to the message of judgment which he was called on to deliver. In the hour when it seemed as though it could not be fulfilled because the Chaldean army had temporarily left the neighborhood, in spite of the angry opposition of the princes and his suffering, and notwithstanding all the temptations created by his access to the king, he never swerved. However clear at times was his vision of an ultimate restoration of the people by Jehovah, he knew that at the moment punishment was in the purpose of God from which there could be no escape; yet not for one moment did he attempt to hide the fact.