And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house [shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those [women] shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, [and] they are turned away back.
22. all the women that are left ] the women of the harem generally, concubines and their attendants. If Zedekiah prove obstinate, these also will join in the reproaches that shall be heaped upon him.
Thy familiar friends, etc.] lit. as mg. The men of thy peace. The women’s reproaches are in the inah measure.
have set thee on ] incited, instigated thee. Cp. Oba 1:7.
thy feet are sunk in the mire ] “The metaphor answers to the experience through which the prophet had passed. He had been cast by his enemies into the cistern, and his feet had sunk in the mire; Zedekiah had been misled by his friends, but when his feet sank in the mire, no one drew him out.” Peake.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All the women that are left – Belonging to the harems of former kings (compare 1Ki 2:22), attendants, and slaves.
Thy friends … – This satirical song (compare Oba 1:7) should be translated as a distich:
Thy friends have urged thee on and prevailed upon thee:
Thy feet are stuck in the mire; they have turned back.
Thy friends – literally men of thy peace, thy acquaintance Jer 20:10. They urge Zedekiah on to a hopeless struggle with the Chaldaeans, and when he gets into difficulties leave him in the lurch.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. All the women – brought forth] I think this place speaks of a kind of defection among the women of the harem; many of whom had already gone forth privately to the principal officers of the Chaldean army, and made the report mentioned in the end of this verse. These were the concubines or women of the second rank.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou that art afraid of the insultings of men that are thy subjects shalt fall under the insultings and taunts of the women: either the court ladies who were left when Jehoiachin was carried away, or the women belonging to thine own court, shall be taken and brought forth to the king of Babylons princes, to be disposed of at their pleasure; and these women shall deride thee, and tell thee, for this thou mayst thank thy hearkening to thy priests and false prophets, called, in the Hebrew, the men of thy peace, because they soothed up the king with the promises of peace.
Thy feet are sunk in the mire: now they have left thee in evils out of which thou canst not escape.
And they are turned away back; and as for them whom thou believedst and trustedst to, and by whose words thou art brought into these snares, they have forsaken thee, every one shifting for himself.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. womenThe very evil whichZedekiah wished to escape by disobeying the command to go forth shallbefall him in its worst form thereby. Not merely the Jewish desertersshall “mock” him (Jer38:19), but the very “women” of his own palace andharem, to gratify their new lords, will taunt him. A noble king insooth, to suffer thyself to be so imposed on!
Thy friendsHebrew,“men of thy peace” (see Jer 20:10;Psa 41:9, Margin). Theking’s ministers and the false prophets who misled him.
sunk in . . . mireproverbialfor, Thou art involved by “thy friends'” counsels ininextricable difficulties. The phrase perhaps alludes to Jer38:6; a just retribution for the treatment of Jeremiah, wholiterally “sank in the mire.”
they are turned . . .backHaving involved thee in the calamity, they themselvesshall provide for their own safety by deserting to the Chaldeans (Jer38:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house,…. That were left in the royal palace when Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were carried captives; or which were left of the famine and pestilence in, Zedekiah’s house; or would be left there when he should flee and make his escape; meaning his concubines, or maids of honour, and court ladies;
[shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes: who shall use them as they think fit, and dispose of them at pleasure:
and those [women] shall say, thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: or, “the men of thy peace” a; the false prophets, and the princes that hearkened to them, and promised and flattered him with peace and prosperity, these deceived him; they set him on to hold out against the Chaldeans, and not believe the Prophet Jeremiah; and they prevailed with him to do so, though it was against himself, and his own interest:
thy feet are sunk in the mire; not literally, as some Jewish writers suppose, that he got into a quagmire when he fled; though there may be a hint in the expression to the miry dungeon in which he suffered the prophet to be cast; and was now got into one himself, in a figurative sense, being involved in difficulties, out of which he could not extricate himself:
[and] they are turned away back; meaning either his feet, which were distorted, and had turned aside from the right way; or now could go on no further against the enemy, but were obliged to turn back and flee; or else the men of his peace, the false prophets and princes, who had fed him with vain hopes of safety, now left him, and every man shifted for himself. This would be said by the women, either in a mournful manner, by way of complaint; or as scoffing at the king, as a silly foolish man, to hearken to such persons; and so he that was afraid of being mocked by the Jews is jeered at by the women of his house.
a “viri pacis tuae”, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Behold, the women who as yet remain in the palace of the king, shall go forth to the princes of the king of Babylon, that is, having left the city they will betray thee to thine enemies; and they shall say, The men of thy peace have deceived thee, or persuaded thee, and have prevailed; thus fixed in the mire are thy feet, and they have turned backward There is here a part stated for the whole, for under one thing is included the whole calamity of the city. We indeed know that the female sex do not stand in the ranks to fight, and that when a city is taken, women are commonly spared. When, therefore, the Prophet says, Go forth shall women who are yet remaining in the king’s palace, it is the same thing as if he had said, “Even the women shall be compelled to go forth to the enemies, and give themselves up into their power; what then will become of the men, when such shall be the hard condition of the women?”
We now perceive the meaning of the Prophet: Go forth then shall women, that is, when the city is taken, the women in the palace shall be drawn forth from their hiding-places, and be constrained to appear before their enemies. And then he adds, and, behold, they shall say, etc. He used the particle הנה, ene, twice, in order to lead Zedekiah into the very scene itself; for it is necessary thus to rouse those who are torpid in their apathy. And, behold, he says, they will say Here Jeremiah declares that women would be witnesses to bear testimony to the folly of the king, and also to the wickedness and obstinacy of the princes, as though he had said, “Thou wilt not obey me to-day, and thy counsel-lors also pertinaciously resist; God has already pronounced judgment on you: ye despise, and regard it as nothing: God will at length rouse up women, who will openly proclaim thy folly, O king, and the perverseness of thy counselors, for having despised all the prophecies.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
22. All the women As the alternative of the mocking that might come to him should he go over to the Chaldeans, the prophet intimates that if he fails to do so the women of his household shall be insulted, and shall take up a satire against him.
In the mire A very expressive figure, setting forth the difficulties into which he had been led, and then deserted by his friends.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 38:22. And, behold, all the women, &c. Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house, go forth to the king of Babylon’s princes: lo, they say of thee, His friends deceive and delude him, they have placed his feet in the mire, and have turned away from him; Jer 38:23. Lo, all thy wives and thy children shall go forth to the Chaldeans, neither shalt thou escape their hands; for thou shalt be taken by the king of Babylon, and this city shall be burned with fire. Jeremiah in the 21st verse says, This is the word which the Lord hath shewed me; namely, what follows in the two next verses; in the first of which he speaks of what passed before his eyes in the present tense; and in the 23rd, explaining what he had seen, he speaks in the future. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 38:22 And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house [shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those [women] shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, [and] they are turned away back.
Ver. 22. And, behold, all the women that are left. ] These shall mock thee and make songs of thee, exagitantes regem socordissimum, for a simple and sorry man, who hath undone them altogether with himself, by listening to flatterers and false prophets.
Thy feet are sunk in the mire.
And they are turned away backward.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
princes. Showing that Nebuchadnezzar himself was not there. Compare Jer 39:1.
set thee on = persuaded thee. See note on Jer 20:7.
sunk in the mire. The moral sinking of Zedekiah far worse than Jeremiah’s physical sinking.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
all: Jer 41:10, Jer 43:6, Lam 5:11
and those: Mr. Harmer would render, “and here (hennah or reading hinneh behold), the women (wont to sing on public occasions) shall say,” etc.; observing “that these bitter speeches much better suit the lips of women belonging to the conquering nation, singing before a captive prince, than of his own wives and concubines.” This he illustrates by the following extract from Della Valle: When he was at Lar, in Persia, the king of Ormuz was brought thither in triumph; and “this poor unfortunate king entered Lar, with his people, in the morning, music playing, and girls and women singing and dancing before him, according to the custom of Persia, and the people flocking together with a prodigious concourse, and conducting him in a pompous and magnificent manner, particularly with colours displayed, like what the Messenians formerly did to Philopoemen, the general of the Athenians, their prisoner of war, according to the report of Justin.”
Thy friends: Heb. The men of thy peace, Jer 38:4-6, Jer 20:10, Psa 41:9,*marg.
have set: Jer 38:19, Lam 1:2, Mic 7:5
thy feet: Jer 38:6, Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14
they are: Jer 46:5, Jer 46:21, Isa 42:17, Lam 1:13
Reciprocal: Jer 30:14 – lovers Oba 1:7 – men that were at peace with thee
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 38:22. If the king chooses to be taken by force, then the women who were still left In his house would be taken also by the king of Babylon. If that happens these women will reproach Zedekiah and say he had even been betrayed by his friends (meaning the false prophets who had deceived him). Feet are sunk in the mire is used figuratively, meaning he would find himself in deep trouble. The figure Is an allusion to the persecution of Jeremiah whose feet were literally put in the mire.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
38:22 And, behold, all the women that are {k} left in the king of Judah’s house [shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those [women] shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, [and] they are turned away back.
(k) When Jeconiah and his mother with others were carried away, these women of the king’s house were left: who will be taken, says the prophet and tell the king of Babel how Zedekiah has been seduced by his familiar friends and false prophets who have left him in the mire.