Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he [is] in your hand: for the king [is] not [he that] can do [any] thing against you.
5. the king is not he, etc.] The LXX, perhaps rightly, make this clause a comment of the narrator (“For the king was not able against them”).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
All real power was in their hands, and as they affirmed that Jeremiahs death was a matter of necessity, the king did not dare refuse it to them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 38:5
For the king is not he that can do anything against you.
Zedekiah weakened and ruined through fear of man
Zedekiah was one of those unfortunate characters, frequent in history, like our own Charles I. and Louis XVI. of France, who find themselves at the head of affairs during a great crisis, without having the strength of character to enable them to do what they know to be right, and whose infirmity becomes moral guilt. The princes of his court had him completely under their influence (Jer 38:5). The king is not he that can do anything against you. This view of his character is the key to Jer 38:17. The king had some sympathy with the imprisoned prophet. He had also a desire to hear the Word of the Lord; but he was afraid of the princes. He did not dare openly to show his sympathy, openly to declare his reverence for the Divine message; so he had a secret interview with him. Jeremiahs address to the king may be divided into three parts–
(1) A prophecy,
(2) A personal defence,
(3) A request.
He declared that the King of Babylon should be victorious; he also declared his own innocence of any design against king or people, and compared his own conduct with that of the prophets who, to please the people, had spoken smooth things unto them; and he asked for some alleviation of his treatment.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 5. He is in your hand] Ye have power to do as you please; I must act by your counsel. Poor weak prince! you respect the prophet, you fear the cabal, and you sacrifice an innocent man to your own weakness and their malice!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
He is in your hand; that is, in your power, either by the established law against false prophets, or else I yield up my power to you, I surrender him into your hands. But neither of these seemeth very probable, for here is no mention of the sitting of the sanhedrim to judge him as a false prophet, nor of any judicial proceedings of that nature: and it should seem by Zedekiahs relieving of him soon after from the dungeon, into which they threw him, that he had not surrendered Jeremiah so into their hands, but he to himself a superintendency upon them to correct their too severe dealings with him. The meaning seems rather to be, If you will do any such thing, I shall not oppose you, but I will not be the author of it.
For the king is not he that can do any thing against you; I see I am as it were no king, I can do nothing against you, you will do what you please. I incline to this sense from the consideration of the favour showed him by Zedekiah, both before and after this.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. the king is not heZedekiahwas a weak prince, and now in his straits afraid to oppose hisprinces. He hides his dislike of their overweening power, whichprevented him shielding Jeremiah as he would have wished, undercomplimentary speeches. “It is not right that the king shoulddeny aught to such faithful and wise statesmen”; the king is notsuch a one as to deny you your wishes [JEROME].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Zedekiah the king said, behold, he [is] in your hand,…. In your power, to do with him as you please. This is either a grant of the king, allowing them to do as they thought fit; or a declaration of their power, supposing them to be the princes of the sanhedrim, as Grotius thinks, to judge of a false prophet, and condemn him; but that they were such does not appear; nor does their charge of the prophet, or their procedure against him, confirm it. The former sense seems best:
for the king [is] not [he that] can do [any] thing against you; which is said either in a flattering way, that such was their interest in him, and so great his regard for them, that he could not deny them any thing. So it is in the old translations, “for the king may deny you nothing”; and, “the king can deny you nothing”: or else in a complaining way, suggesting that, he was a king, and no king; that he had no power to oppose them; they would do as they pleased; and therefore it signified nothing applying to him; he should not say any thing against it; he would have no concern in it; they might do as they pleased, since he knew they would.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Zedekiah doubtless knew that wrong was done to the holy Prophet; for though he wished him to remain as he was, yet he knew that the Prophet had not threatened the people from ill-will or a hostile mind; and he was thus conscious that he had to do with God rather than with a mortal man. However this may have been, he knew that Jeremiah was not an enemy to the public safety according to the charge brought by the princes. He might then have wished to deliver the Prophet from their hands, but he submitted to their fury; for he was divested of all regal power, and was become, as it were, a slave to his own counselors, on whom depended the government of the kingdom.
They wrongly explain this verse, who think that the king spoke honorably of his counselors, as though he had said, that such was their prudence and dignity, that nothing could be denied them. They pervert the meaning of the Prophet; for the king, on the contrary, acknowledges here, that he was reduced to such a condition, as though he were a private individual, he, in short, confessed that he was the servant of servants; “Now I see,” he says, “that I am no king, but that ye so rule, that, willing or unwilling, I am forced to yield to you, even in the best cause.” There is then no doubt but that it was the bitter complaint of the king when he said, The king can do nothing against you. (110)
But Zedekiah deserved this degradation: for he ought to have been from the beginning more teachable, and to submit to God. But in the first place, as we have seen, he had despised prophetic doctrine, and hearkened not to the voice of God; and in the second place, he revolted perfidiously from the Chaldean king, and became thus guilty of ingratitude, for when his nephew was dethroned, that is, Jeconiah or Coniah, he obtained the regal power through the favor of the king of Babylon. He had therefore been ungrateful in denying tribute to him. But his impiety was the main cause of all evils. As then he had been such a rebel against God, he deserved that the princes should prove rebels to him. He then degraded himself, and deprived himself of royal authority, when he refused submission to the word of God, and also when he denied tribute to the king of Babylon. It was no wonder, then, that God made him subject to the princes and counselors, who were yet his servants.
As to these couriers, their arrogance was inexcusable in daring to condemn Jeremiah; for this was to take away from the king his own right; Die let this man, for he is worthy of death. Why was it that they were not content with accusing him, without assuming also to be his sole judges? As, then, they treated the king so disrespectfully, there is no doubt but they were despisers of God, when they deemed as nothing the royal dignity. But as to the king, he reaped, as I have said, the fruit of his own impiety, for he had not given to God his due honor in embracing the truth taught by the Prophet. It was therefore necessary, that he should be unworthily and contumeliously treated, so that he dared not to say even one word in behalf of a just and good cause. This was the reason why he said, He is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you
(110) “The king,” observes Blayney, “evidently speaks this in disgust with the princes, for endeavoring to frustrate his clemency.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
5. For the king, etc. The exact construction of the original is doubtful and disputed. But following the Masoretic text, we must translate, The king cannot as to you a word, (or matter;) that is, the king cannot over-bear you in any matter. It is a confession of imbecility, indeed, but also suggests a real dislike of Jeremiah.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 38:5. For the king is not he, &c. Nor is it proper for the king to deny you any thing. Houbigant. Nothing can give a higher idea of the weakness and pusillanimity of Zedekiah than this passage.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 38:5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he [is] in your hand: for the king [is] not [he that] can do [any] thing against you.
Ver. 5. Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand. ] O nihil regem, qui ne verbulo quidem cruentis viris obluctatur! O king of clouts, saith one, who, knowing the prophet’s innocence and these princes’ blood thirstiness, durst not say a word for him or against them! This inconsistancy of his, and impotence of spirit, proceeded merely from diffidence and distrust in God.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
for: 1Sa 15:24, 1Sa 29:9, 2Sa 3:39, 2Sa 19:22, Pro 29:25, Joh 19:12-16
Reciprocal: Gen 16:6 – in Exo 23:2 – to decline Jos 9:25 – we are Job 1:12 – power Job 31:34 – Did I Jer 26:14 – As for Jer 37:17 – asked Jer 38:19 – I Dan 6:16 – the king
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 38:5. By giving these men unrestricted authority in their dealing noth Jeremiah the king became a party to whatever they did.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
38:5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he [is] in your hand: for the king [is] not [he that] can do [any] {d} thing against you.
(d) In which he grievously offended in that not only would he not hear the truth spoken by the prophet, but also gave him to the lusts of the wicked to be cruelly treated.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Zedekiah turned Jeremiah over to the nobles. He claimed he could not overrule their will. Obviously he should have stood up for Jeremiah, but he feared his state officials (cf. Jer 38:25-27). He was an early-day Pontius Pilate who washed his hands of his responsibility (cf. Mat 27:24).