Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that [was] in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon [there was] no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
6. the dungeon of Malchijah ] mg. pit; a cistern for storage of water; see on Jer 6:7. The depth and wretchedness of this place of confinement are shewn by the means employed to place Jeremiah in it.
the king’s son ] better than mg. the son of Hammelech. See on Jer 36:26.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The dungeon – The cistern. Every house in Jerusalem was supplied with a subterranean cistern, so well constructed that the city never suffered in a siege from want of water. So large were they that when dry they seem to have been used for prisons Zec 9:11.
Hammelech – See Jer 36:26 note.
The prison – The guard. They threw Jeremiah into the nearest cistern, intending that he should die of starvation. Some have thought that Ps. 69 was composed by Jeremiah when in this cistern.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. So Jeremiah sunk in the mire.] Their obvious design was, that he might be stifled in that place.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison; a place much of the same nature with that of which we read Jer 37:16, but in another prison. It should seem there was no passage into it by stairs, so as they were forced to let him down with cords. And in the bottom was nothing but mire, into which the prophet sank, in respect of which circumstances it was a much worse place than the dungeon in the prison in Jonathans house appeared to be, though Jeremiah feared that he should die there. It is probable these princes thrust him into this place, designing he should die in this hole a miserable death, but God otherwise provided for him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. dungeonliterally, the”cistern.” It was not a subterranean prison as that inJonathan’s house (Jer 37:15),but a pit or cistern, which had been full of water, but was emptiedof it during the siege, so that only “mire” remained. Suchempty cisterns were often used as prisons (Zec9:11); the depth forbade hope of escape.
Hammelech (Jer36:26). His son followed in the father’s steps, a ready tool forevil.
sunk in the mireJeremiahherein was a type of Messiah (Psa 69:2;Psa 69:14). “I sink in deepmire,” &c.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then took they Jeremiah,…. Having the king’s leave, or at least no prohibition from him; they went with proper attendants to the court of the prison, and took the prophet from thence:
and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that [was] in the court of the prison; this was a dungeon that belonged to the prison which Malchiah had the care of, or which belonged to his house, which was contiguous to the court of the prison. The Targum renders it, Malchiah the son of the king; and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions; but it is not likely that Zedekiah should have a son that was set over his dungeon, or to whom one belonged, or should be called by his name: here the princes cast the prophet, in order that he should perish, either with famine or suffocation, or the noisomeness of the place; not caring with their own hands to take away the life of a prophet, and for fear of the people; and this being a more slow and private way of dispatching him, they chose it; for they designed no doubt nothing less than death:
and they let down Jeremiah with cords; there being no steps or stairs to go down into it; so that nobody could come to him when in it, or relieve him:
and in the dungeon [there was] no water, but mire; so Jeremiah sunk in the mire; up to the neck, as Josephus q says. Some think that it was at this time, and in this place, that Jeremiah put up the petitions to the Lord, and which he heard, recorded in La 3:55; and that that whole chapter was composed by him in this time of his distress.
q Antiqu. l. 10. c. 7. sect. 5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
HERE is narrated the extreme presumption as well as cruelty of the princes; for they cast the holy Prophet into a pit, where he sank in the mire. It was a proof of hardened impiety not to spare so excellent a servant of God; and it was also a savage cruelty, when they had no cause of being so filled with rage, except that Jeremiah had obeyed God, and faithfully performed the office committed to him.
Let us at the same time learn from this example, whenever it pleases the Lord to try our patience, to bear with resignation what we see to have been borne by the holy Prophet. If, then, we shudder at any time at the horrors of the cross, so that it may seem hard to us to bear persecution, let us remember this example of the Prophet. In a word, there is here, on the one hand, shewn to us, as in a picture, the wickedness of the world; and on the other, the wonderful constancy and also the singular meekness of God’s servant shine forth gloriously.
Jeremiah then says, that he was taken by the princes and cast into a pit, which was in the court of the prison; and in that part, where one of the counselors dwelt, even Malchiah the son of Hamelech And at the same time he describes the state of the place, that it was a miry pit, so that he sank down in the mud. He does not mean that he was covered with mud, but that he was fixed in it, as the Hebrew word intimates; and we may thus rightly render the words, “He lay fixed in the mud.” It now follows —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) The dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech.Literally, the pit, or cistern. The LXX. agrees with the marginal reading in describing him as a son of the king. The same phrase is so translated in 1Ki. 22:26; 2Ch. 28:7, and would seem to have been an official or court title, applied to one of the royal house, as distinguished from. others. (See Note on Jerahmeel in Jer. 36:26.) We have no data for judging whether this Malchiah is identical with the lather of Pashur in Jer. 38:1; but it is not unlikely. In Lam. 3:53-55 we have probably a reminiscence of these days of horrible suffering. The cistern had been partly dried up (possibly through the supply of water having been cut off during the protracted siege), but there remained a thick deposit, three or four feet deep, of black foetid mud,, and there, it is obvious from Jer. 38:9 of this chapter, his enemies meant to leave him to die of hunger. They probably shrank from the odium of a public execution, or thought, with the strange superstition of the Eastern mind, that in this way they could escape the guilt of shedding the prophets blood. The death by starva-tion might easily be represented, even to themselves, as a death by disease.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
JEREMIAH’S CLOSER CONFINEMENT AND RELEASE, Jer 38:6-13.
6. Dungeon Literally, as above, cistern. As every house was supplied with these they easily served as ready-made prisons. In a cistern like to these, in the field or pasture, Joseph was placed by his brethren at Dothan. This explains the allusion in Zec 9:11, “prisoners out of the pit in which is no water.” Hence also the use of cords to let down Jeremiah into the prison.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 38:6. Then took they Jeremiah It is commonly thought that Jeremiah, during his abode in this loathsome place, composed the melancholy meditations inserted in the third chapter of his Lamentations. See Lam 3:53; Lam 3:55. Josephus asserts, that he sunk up to his neck in the mire; and adds, that their intention in putting him into so noisome a place was, that he might perish in it. See Antiq. lib. 9: cap. 10 and Calmet. This account of the dungeon accords with what was mentioned in the note on ch. Jer 37:16. For if the dungeon was in the open court, and left open like a well at top, there being no other way of giving it air and light, the falling of rain mixing with the earth below would occasion mud in a place where the sun’s rays could not reach to dry up the moisture.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 38:6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that [was] in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon [there was] no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
Ver. 6. Then took they Jeremiah. ] Whom the king had now (against his conscience, as afterwards Pilate dealt by Jesus), either through fear or favour, betrayed unto his deadly enemies; and so he was in a pitiful plight, in a forlorn condition. But Jeremiah, de profundis, out of the deep called upon God (whom he found far more facile than these princes did Zedekiah), “Thou drewest near,” saith he, “in the day when I called upon thee; thou saidst, Fear not.” Lam 3:57 I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.
And they let down Jeremiah with cords.
And in the dungeon there was no water but mire.
So Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
a Fuller’s Church Hist., 168.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
dungeon. See note on Jer 37:16.
Hammelech = the king. See note on Jer 36:26.
prison = house of detention.
sunk in the mire. To be preferred to the moral sinking of Zedekiah in Jer 38:22.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
then took they
(See Scofield “Jer 37:11”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
took: Jer 37:21, Psa 109:5, Luk 3:19, Luk 3:20
into: Jer 37:16, Lam 3:55, Act 16:24, 2Co 4:8, 2Co 4:9, Heb 10:36
Hammelech: or, the king, Jer 36:26
and they: Jer 38:11, Jer 38:12
And in: This dungeon, which seems to have belonged to one of Zedekiah’s sons, appears to have been a most dreadful place; the horrors of which were probably augmented by the cruelty of the jailor. “The eastern people,” observes Sir J. Chardin, “have not different prisons for the different classes of criminals; the judges do not trouble themselves about where the prisoners are confined, or how they are treated, considering it merely as a place of safety; and all that they require of the jailor is, that the prisoner be forthcoming when called for. As to the rest, he is master to do as he pleases; to treat him well or ill; to put him in irons or not; to shut him up close, or hold him in easier restraint; to admit people to him, or to suffer nobody to see him. If the jailor and his servants have large fees, let the person be the greatest rascal in the world, he shall be lodged in the jailor’s own apartment, and the best part of it; and on the contrary, if those that have imprisoned a man give the jailor greater presents, or that he has a greater regard for them, he will treat the prisoner with the greatest inhumanity.” This adds a double energy to those passages which speak of “the sighing of the prisoner,” and to Jeremiah’s supplicating that he might not be remanded to the dungeon of Jonathan – Jer 38:26, Jer 37:20. Jer 38:22, Gen 37:24, Psa 40:2, Psa 69:2, Psa 69:14, Psa 69:15, Lam 3:52-55, Zec 9:11
Reciprocal: Exo 12:29 – dungeon Exo 23:2 – to decline 1Ki 22:27 – Put this fellow 2Ch 18:25 – and carry him back 2Ch 36:16 – misused Job 30:19 – cast me Isa 24:22 – shall they Isa 51:14 – die Jer 1:19 – And they Jer 20:2 – smote Jer 29:26 – that thou Jer 32:2 – Jeremiah Jer 36:5 – General Jer 37:15 – in the Jer 38:13 – So Lam 3:1 – the man Lam 3:7 – hedged Lam 3:53 – cut Dan 3:23 – fell Luk 4:28 – were 2Co 6:5 – imprisonments Heb 11:36 – bonds
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 38:6. Their motive might have been to let Jeremiah die of starvation and exposure without directly putting him to death. We have reason to suspect them of this for they had called for his death (verse 4). This dungeon lias the same original as the word in the preceding chapter. We there saw the word could mean a cistern or a pit dug for other purposes. In this place it might have been dug for use as a cistern but It was almost empty except the mire in the bottom, Jeremiah sank down In the mire and was thus a prisoner in a double sense.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 38:6. Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah A place of much the same nature with that mentioned Jer 37:16, but in another prison. And they let down Jeremiah with cords It seems there was no passage into this dungeon by stairs, and, as it was deep, they were obliged to let him down in this manner. So Jeremiah sunk in the mire Which was in the bottom of this pit. Josephus asserts that he sunk up to his neck in it, and adds, that their intention in putting him into so foul a place was, that he might perish in it, Antiq, lib. 9. cap. 10. It has been thought by some, that during his abode in this loathsome place he composed the melancholy meditations contained in the third chapter of his Lamentations; but this seems highly improbable.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The nobles had Jeremiah placed in a cistern of one of the royal princes, Malchijah, which was in the court of the guardhouse. Jeremiah had previously been confined in this court or stockade (Jer 37:21), but now he was lowered into the cistern with ropes. The cistern had no water in it, but the bottom was very muddy, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. The nobles wanted him to die there of "natural causes," i.e., hunger-probably to alleviate their guilt (cf. Gen 37:18-20; Gen 37:24; Gen 37:26-27).
"A typical cistern was dug out of limestone rock and consisted of a narrow neck perhaps three feet across and three or four feet in depth opening into a much longer bulbous cavity of varying depth. Water from catchment areas was directed to the opening." [Note: Thompson, p. 638.]