John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 38:5

"And Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand; for the king is not he that can do anything against you." — Jeremiah 38:5 (ASV)

Zedekiah no doubt 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. He was thus conscious that he was dealing 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 royal power and had become, as it were, a slave to his own counselors, on whom the government of the kingdom depended.

Those who think that the king spoke honorably of his counselors wrongly explain this verse, as though he had said that their prudence and dignity were such 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 that, 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 you so rule that, willing or unwilling, I am forced to yield to you, even in the best cause.” There is then no doubt that it was the bitter complaint of the king when he said, The king can do nothing against you.

But Zedekiah deserved this degradation, for he should have been more teachable from the beginning and submitted to God. In the first place, as we have seen, he had despised prophetic doctrine and did not listen to the voice of God.

In the second place, he treacherously revolted from the Chaldean king and thus became guilty of ingratitude; for when his nephew, Jeconiah or Coniah, was dethroned, he obtained royal power through the favor of the king of Babylon. He had therefore been ungrateful in denying him tribute.

But his impiety was the main cause of all evils. Since he had been such a rebel against God, he deserved for the princes to 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 still his servants.

As for these counselors, their arrogance was inexcusable in daring to condemn Jeremiah, for this was to take away from the king his own right: Let this man die, for he is worthy of death. Why were they not content with accusing him, without also assuming to be his sole judges?

Since they treated the king so disrespectfully, there is no doubt that they were despisers of God when they regarded royal dignity as nothing.

But as for the king, he reaped, as I have said, the fruit of his own impiety, for he had not given God His due honor by embracing the truth taught by the Prophet. It was therefore necessary that he should be treated unworthily and contemptuously, so that he dared not say even one word on 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.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You invite us daily to Yourself with so much kindness, and give us also time to repent, and then offer us the hope of mercy and salvation, if we return to You — O grant that we may not pass by such benevolent warnings with deaf ears, but in due time attend to You, and with true and sincere acknowledgment of all our sins so surrender ourselves to You, that we may find You to be merciful; and that when we return to You we may so continue in obedience to You, that we may be capable of receiving Your constant kindness, until the full fruition of it shall be given us in Your celestial kingdom, through Christ our Lord. Amen.