Yeremia 38:5

38:5 King Zedekiah said to them, “Very well, you can do what you want with him. ¹  For I cannot do anything to stop you.” ² 

Yeremia 38:14-16

Jeremiah Responds to Zedekiah’s Request for Secret Advice

38:14 Some time later ³  Zedekiah sent and had Jeremiah brought to him at the third entrance ⁴  of the Lord’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I would like to ask you a question. Do not hide anything from me when you answer.” ⁵  38:15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I answer you, you will certainly kill me. ⁶  If I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” 38:16 So King Zedekiah made a secret promise to Jeremiah and sealed it with an oath. He promised, ⁷  “As surely as the Lord lives who has given us life and breath, ⁸  I promise you this: I will not kill you or hand you over to those men who want to kill you.” ⁹ 

Yeremia 38:24-27

38:24 Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about the conversation we have had. ¹⁰  If you do, you will die. ¹¹  38:25 The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. ¹²  Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.’ ¹³  38:26 If they do this, tell ¹⁴  them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to die in the dungeon of Jonathan’s house.’” ¹⁵  38:27 All the officials did indeed come and question Jeremiah. ¹⁶  He told them exactly what the king had instructed him to say. ¹⁷  They stopped questioning him any further because no one had actually heard their conversation. ¹⁸ 

Yeremia 38:1

Jeremiah Is Charged with Treason and Put in a Cistern to Die

38:1 Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal ¹⁹  son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur ²⁰  son of Malkijah had heard ²¹  the things that Jeremiah had been telling the people. They had heard him say,

Kisah Para Rasul 14:1-4

Paul and Barnabas at Iconium

14:1 The same thing happened in Iconium ²²  when Paul and Barnabas ²³  went into the Jewish synagogue ²⁴  and spoke in such a way that a large group ²⁵  of both Jews and Greeks believed. 14:2 But the Jews who refused to believe ²⁶  stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds ²⁷  against the brothers. 14:3 So they stayed there ²⁸  for a considerable time, speaking out courageously for the Lord, who testified ²⁹  to the message ³⁰  of his grace, granting miraculous signs ³¹  and wonders to be performed through their hands. 14:4 But the population ³²  of the city was divided; some ³³  sided with the Jews, and some with the apostles.

[38:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Behold, he is in your hands [= power/control].”

[38:5]  ² tn Heb “For the king cannot do a thing with/against you.” The personal pronoun “I” is substituted in the English translation due to differences in style; Hebrew style often uses the third person or the title in speaking of oneself but English rarely if ever does. Compare the common paraphrasis of “your servant” for “I” in Hebrew (cf. BDB 714 s.v. עֶבֶד 6 and usage in 1 Sam 20:7, 8) and compare the usage in Pss 63:11 (63:12 HT); 61:6 (61:7 HT) where the king is praying for himself. For the meaning of יָכֹל (yakhol) as “to be able to do anything,” see BDB 407 s.v. יָכֹל 1.g.

[38:14]  ³ tn The words “Some time later” are not in the text but are a way of translating the conjunction “And” or “Then” that introduces this narrative.

[38:14]  ⁴ sn The precise location of this entrance is unknown since it is mentioned nowhere else in the OT. Many commentators equate this with the “king’s outer entry” (mentioned in 2 Kgs 16:18) which appears to have been a private entryway between the temple and the palace.

[38:14]  ⁵ tn The words “when you answer” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection. They are supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness of style.

[38:15]  ⁶ tn Or “you will most certainly kill me, won’t you?” Heb “Will you not certainly kill me?” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer. In situations like this BDB s.v. לֹא 4.b(β) says that הֲלֹא (halo’) “has a tendency to become little more than an affirmative particle, declaring with some rhetorical emphasis what is, or might be, well known.” The idea of certainty is emphasized here by the addition of the infinitive absolute before the finite verb (Joüon 2:422 §123.e).

[38:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “So King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah, saying.”

[38:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “who has made this life/soul/ breath [נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh] for us.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ refers to the living, breathing substance of a person which constitutes his very life (cf. BDB 659 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 1; 3).

[38:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “who are seeking your life.”

[38:24]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “about these words.”

[38:24]  ¹¹ tn Or “so that you will not die.” Or “or you will die.” See the similar construction in 37:20 and the translator’s note there.

[38:24]  sn This is probably not a threat that the king himself will kill Jeremiah, but a premonition that if the pro-Egyptian party that was seeking to kill Jeremiah found out about the conversation they would go ahead and kill Jeremiah (cf. 38:2-4).

[38:25]  ¹² tn The phrase “and what the king said to you” is actually at the end of the verse, but most commentators see it as also under the governance of “tell us” and many commentaries and English versions move the clause forward for the sake of English style as has been done here.

[38:25]  ¹³ tn Or “lest we kill you”; Heb “and we will not kill you,” which as stated in the translator’s note on 37:20 introduces a negative purpose (or result) clause. See 37:20, 38:24 for parallel usage.

[38:26]  ¹⁴ tn Verses 25-26 form a long compound, complex conditional sentence. The condition is found in v. 25 and contains a long quote. The consequence is found in v. 26 and contains another long quote. The Hebrew sentence literally reads: “And if the officials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Please tell us what you said to the king. Do not hide from us and we will not kill you [so that we will not kill you] and [tell us] what the king said to you,’ then tell them.” The sentence has been broken up to better conform with contemporary English style.

[38:26]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I was causing to fall [= presenting] my petition before the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.” The word “dungeon of” is supplied in the translation to help the reader connect this petition with Jeremiah’s earlier place of imprisonment where the officials had put him with every intention of letting him die there (37:15-16, 20).

[38:26]  sn See Jer 37:15-16, 20.

[38:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him.”

[38:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And he reported to them according to all these words which the king had commanded.”

[38:27]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “And they were silent from him because the word/matter [i.e., the conversation between Jeremiah and the king] had not been heard.” According to BDB 578 s.v. מִן 1.a the preposition “from” is significant in this construction, implying a verb of motion. I.e., “they were [fell] silent [and turned away] from him.”

[38:1]  ¹⁹ tn The name is spelled “Jucal” in the Hebrew text here rather than “Jehucal” as in Jer 37:3. The translation uses the same spelling throughout so that the English reader can identify these as the same individual.

[38:1]  sn Jehucal was a member of the delegation sent to Jeremiah by Zedekiah in Jer 37:3.

[38:1]  ²⁰ sn Pashhur was a member of the delegation sent to Jeremiah in 21:2. For the relative sequence of these two delegations see the study note on 21:1.

[38:1]  ²¹ tn J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 226, 30) is probably correct in translating the verbs here as pluperfects and in explaining that these words are prophecies that Jeremiah uttered before his arrest not prophecies that were being delivered to the people through intermediaries sent by Jeremiah who was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse. For the use of the vav consecutive + imperfect to denote the pluperfect see the discussion and examples in IBHS 552-53 §33.2.3a and see the usage in Exod 4:19. The words that are cited in v. 2 are those recorded in 21:9 on the occasion of the first delegation and those in v. 3 are those recorded in 21:10; 34:2; 37:8; 32:28 all except the last delivered before Jeremiah was confined in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

[14:1]  ²² sn Iconium. See the note in 13:51.

[14:1]  ²³ tn Grk “they”; the referents (Paul and Barnabas) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[14:1]  ²⁴ sn See the note on synagogue in 6:9.

[14:1]  ²⁵ tn Or “that a large crowd.”

[14:2]  ²⁶ tn Or “who would not believe.”

[14:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “embittered their minds” (Grk “their souls”). BDAG 502 s.v. κακόω 2 has “make angry, embitter τὰς ψυχάς τινων κατά τινος poison the minds of some persons against another Ac 14:2.”

[14:3]  ²⁸ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[14:3]  ²⁹ sn The Lord testified to the message by granting the signs described in the following clause.

[14:3]  ³⁰ tn Grk “word.”

[14:3]  ³¹ tn Here the context indicates the miraculous nature of the signs mentioned.

[14:4]  ³² tn BDAG 825 s.v. πλῆθος 2.b.γ has this translation for πλῆθος (plhqo").

[14:4]  ³³ tn These clauses are a good example of the contrastive μὲν…δέ (men…de) construction: Some “on the one hand” sided with the Jews, but some “on the other hand” sided with the apostles.