(19) I am afraid of the Jews . . .--The special form of fear was characteristic of the weak and vacillating king. It was not enough to know that his life would be safe. Would he also be saved from the insults of his own subjects, who had already deserted to the enemy? These were, in the nature of the case, friends and followers of the prophet, and had acted on his advice (Jeremiah 21:9). The king, who had shrunk from Jeremiah's taunts (Jeremiah 37:19), could not, for very shame, expose himself to the derision of others. Perhaps even he feared more than mere derision--outrage, death, mutilation, such as Saul feared at the hands of the Philistines (1Samuel 31:4).

(20?22) Obey, I beseech thee. . . .--The king's misgiving is met in part by an earnest entreaty to obey the voice of the Lord, in part by the assurance that thus it "shall be well with him" (literally, there shall be peace to thee); in part also by bringing before him the mockery which is certain to await him if he persists in his defiance. The women of the harem, the surviving wives and concubines of former kings, as well as his own, should become the spoil of the Chaldaean princes, and should take up their taunting proverbs against him. "Thy friends" (literally, the men of thy peace, as in Jeremiah 20:10; the men who promised peace and safety), "they set thee on, and having dragged thee into the mire of shame, have left thee there." The imagery of the taunt seems drawn from the prophet's recent experience (Jeremiah 38:6). The king was plunging into a worse "slough of despond" than that into which Jeremiah had sunk in the dungeon of Malchiah.

38:14-28 Jeremiah was not forward to repeat the warnings, which seemed only to endanger his own life, and to add to the king's guilt, but asked whether he feared to do the will of God. The less men fear God, the more they fear men; often they dare not act according to their own judgments and consciences.And Zedekiah the king said unto Jeremiah,.... In answer to this advice he gave him, persuading him to give up himself and the city into the hands of the Chaldeans:

I am afraid of the Jews that are fallen to the Chaldeans; who did go out of the city, and surrendered to the Chaldeans, whom Zedekiah had cruelly used, or severely threatened:

lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me; that is, lest the Chaldeans should deliver him into the hands of the Jews, and they should jeer and scoff at him, for doing the same thing he had forbidden them on the severest penalty; or lest they should put him to death in the most revengeful and contemptuous manner, as Kimchi's note is: but all this was either a mere excuse, or showed great weakness and pusillanimity, and was fearing where no fear was; for, on the one hand, it was not reasonable to think that the Chaldeans, when they had got such a prize as the king of the Jews, that they should easily part with him, and especially deliver him up into the hands of his own people; and, on the other hand, it is not likely, that, should he be delivered into their hands, they would ever have treated him in so scornful and cruel a manner, who was their prince, and a partner with them in their captivity.