Jeremiah - 38:22



22 behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those women shall say, Your familiar friends have set you on, and have prevailed over you: (now that) your feet are sunk in the mire, they are turned away back.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Jeremiah 38:22.

Differing Translations

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Behold all the women that are left in the house of the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place, and they have departed from thee.
That, lo, all the women who have been left in the house of the king of Judah are brought forth unto the heads of the king of Babylon, and lo, they are saying: Persuaded thee, and prevailed against thee, Have thine allies, Sunk into mire have thy feet, They have been turned backward.
See, all the rest of the women in the house of the king of Judah will be taken out to the king of Babylon's captains, and these women will say, Your nearest friends have been false to you and have got the better of you: they have made your feet go deep into the wet earth, and they are turned away back from you.
look, all the women who are left in the king of Judah's house shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's officers, and those women shall say, 'Your familiar friends have set you on, and have prevailed over you. Your feet are sunk in the mire, they have turned away back.'
Behold, all the women who remain in the house of the king of Judah will be led away to the rulers of the king of Babylon. And the women will say: 'Your men of peacefulness have led you astray, and they have prevailed against you. They have immersed your feet in mud and have set them in a slippery place. And they have withdrawn from you.'
Et ecce omnes mulieres, quae relictae fuerint in domo regis Jehudah egrediuntur ad proceres regis Babylonis, et ecce ipsae dicent, Suaserunt tibi (alii, deceperunt te, vel, subduxerunt) et praevaluerunt tibi viri pacis tuae; defixi sunt in luto pedes tui, conversi sunt retrorsum.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

All the women that are left - Belonging to the harems of former kings (compare 1-Kings 2:22), attendants, and slaves.
Thy friends - This satirical song (compare Obadiah 1:7) should be translated as a distich:
Thy friends have urged thee on and prevailed upon thee:
Thy feet are stuck in the mire; they have turned back.
Thy friends - literally "men of thy peace," thy acquaintance Jeremiah 20:10. They urge Zedekiah on to a hopeless struggle with the Chaldaeans, and when he gets into difficulties leave him in the lurch.

All the women - brought forth - I think this place speaks of a kind of defection among the women of the harem; many of whom had already gone forth privately to the principal officers of the Chaldean army, and made the report mentioned in the end of this verse. These were the concubines or women of the second rank.

And, behold, all the women that are (k) left in the king of Judah's house [shall be] brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes, and those [women] shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, [and] they are turned away back.
(k) When Jeconiah and his mother with others were carried away, these women of the king's house were left: who will be taken, says the prophet and tell the king of Babel how Zedekiah has been seduced by his familiar friends and false prophets who have left him in the mire.

And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah's house,.... That were left in the royal palace when Jehoiakim and Jeconiah were carried captives; or which were left of the famine and pestilence in, Zedekiah's house; or would be left there when he should flee and make his escape; meaning his concubines, or maids of honour, and court ladies;
shall be brought forth to the king of Babylon's princes: who shall use them as they think fit, and dispose of them at pleasure:
and those women shall say, thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: or, "the men of thy peace" (a); the false prophets, and the princes that hearkened to them, and promised and flattered him with peace and prosperity, these deceived him; they set him on to hold out against the Chaldeans, and not believe the Prophet Jeremiah; and they prevailed with him to do so, though it was against himself, and his own interest:
thy feet are sunk in the mire; not literally, as some Jewish writers suppose, that he got into a quagmire when he fled; though there may be a hint in the expression to the miry dungeon in which he suffered the prophet to be cast; and was now got into one himself, in a figurative sense, being involved in difficulties, out of which he could not extricate himself:
and they are turned away back; meaning either his feet, which were distorted, and had turned aside from the right way; or now could go on no further against the enemy, but were obliged to turn back and flee; or else the men of his peace, the false prophets and princes, who had fed him with vain hopes of safety, now left him, and every man shifted for himself. This would be said by the women, either in a mournful manner, by way of complaint; or as scoffing at the king, as a silly foolish man, to hearken to such persons; and so he that was afraid of being mocked by the Jews is jeered at by the women of his house.
(a) "viri pacis tuae", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt.

women--The very evil which Zedekiah wished to escape by disobeying the command to go forth shall befall him in its worst form thereby. Not merely the Jewish deserters shall "mock" him (Jeremiah 38:19), but the very "women" of his own palace and harem, to gratify their new lords, will taunt him. A noble king in sooth, to suffer thyself to be so imposed on!
Thy friends--Hebrew, "men of thy peace" (see Jeremiah 20:10; Psalm 41:9, Margin). The king's ministers and the false prophets who misled him.
sunk in . . . mire--proverbial for, Thou art involved by "thy friends'" counsels in inextricable difficulties. The phrase perhaps alludes to Jeremiah 38:6; a just retribution for the treatment of Jeremiah, who literally "sank in the mire."
they are turned . . . back--Having involved thee in the calamity, they themselves shall provide for their own safety by deserting to the Chaldeans (Jeremiah 38:19).

The women - Thou that art afraid of the insultings of men, shalt fall under the insultings of the women. Thy friends - For this thou mayest thank thy priests, and false prophets. And they - Have forsaken thee, every one shifting for himself.

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