John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 37:16

"When Jeremiah was come into the dungeon-house, and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days;" — Jeremiah 37:16 (ASV)

The particle כי, ki, should, I believe, be taken here as an adverb of time—though interpreters have not observed this—meaning, as he says, When Jeremiah came into the house of the pit or dungeon, or prison. The word בור can also mean the grave, but here it signifies a pit or a deep place; he means that it was a dark and filthy prison. And he adds, and to the dwellings. I do not know why some have translated this as “victualing-houses,” because the word החניות, echeniot, means narrow cells or prisons, which we today call cachots. Therefore, he was cast into a dungeon with narrow spaces, so that the holy man had no room to freely rise, stand, sit, or lie down. The Prophet then shows that he was so confined by the narrowness of the place that he could hardly sit, lie down, or stand erect; and he says that he was there for many days.

We must note the circumstances of the case. It was cruel enough in itself that an innocent man, after being beaten, should be thrust into prison; but when a dark and deep prison was chosen, and when he was confined to a narrow space, as though he were in fetters, it greatly added to the indignity offered to him. Since the holy Prophet was treated so atrociously, let us not think it strange when God’s children endure the same thing today, and for the same reason: bearing testimony to celestial truth. The length of time involved further increased the evil, for he was not kept in prison for only a few days or a month, but until the city was taken. This was not, indeed, in that same prison, for the king, as we will soon see, moved him into the court of the prison. He was, however, cast a second time into a filthy prison, as though he were destined to die; from there he was also later removed by the king’s order. But the Prophet says that he was in that dungeon for many days.