XXXII.

(1) In the tenth year of Zedekiah . . .--We are carried over a period of six years from the prophecy of Jeremiah 28:1 to B.C. 589, when the treacherous and intriguing policy of Zedekiah had provoked Nebuchadnezzar to besiege Jerusalem in the ninth year of the king of Judah's reign, and the king, irritated by Jeremiah's continued predictions of defeat, had imprisoned him in the dungeon for state-prisoners attached to the palace (Nehemiah 3:25). It would appear from Jeremiah 37:15; Jeremiah 38:26, both of an earlier date than this chapter, that he had previously been confined in the house of Jonathan the scribe as a private prison, and that the king had removed him thence with a view to consulting him on the probable issue of the siege. He was not allowed to leave his prison, but friends were permitted to have access to him.

(3. 4) Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon . . .--A comparison of these verses with Jeremiah 34:2-3; Jeremiah 38:23, shows that Jeremiah never for a moment varied in his tone. To see the king of Babylon face to face, to stand before him in shame and confusion--that was to be the end of the king's frantic resistance to the Divine purpose. The prophecy of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 12:13), and the fact that Nebuchadnezzar put out the eyes of the captive king (Jeremiah 39:7), give a special force to Jeremiah's word. The face of the great king, in all the terror of his wrath, was to be the last object Zedekiah was to behold on earth (2Kings 25:6-7; Jeremiah 39:6; Jeremiah 52:10-11).

Verses 1-5. - Time and circumstances of the following revelation. It took place in the tenth year of Zedekiah, the eighteenth of Nebuchadnezzar (comp. Jeremiah 25:1; Jeremiah 52:12). The siege of Jerusalem had Begun in the preceding year (Jeremiah 39:1), but had been temporarily raised on the approach of an Egyptian army (Jeremiah 37:5, 11). Jeremiah, who had declared resistance hopeless, had been accused of treason, and imprisoned (Jeremiah 37:13), and in prison he remained till the close of the siege. Like St. Paul at Rome, however, he was allowed free communication with visitors, as appears from ver. 8 and Jeremiah 38:1. Vers. 2-5 are parenthetical (see on ver. 6).

32:1-15 Jeremiah, being in prison for his prophecy, purchased a piece of ground. This was to signify, that though Jerusalem was besieged, and the whole country likely to be laid waste, yet the time would come, when houses, and fields, and vineyards, should be again possessed. It concerns ministers to make it appear that they believe what they preach to others. And it is good to manage even our worldly affairs in faith; to do common business with reference to the providence and promise of God.The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,.... The word of prophecy, as the Targum, concerning Jeremiah's buying the field of his uncle's son, Jeremiah 32:6; and concerning the delivery of the city of Jerusalem into the hands of the Chaldeans, Jeremiah 32:26; and the return of the captivity, Jeremiah 32:36;

in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar; the same with Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, a year before the taking of the city by him; for that was in the eleventh of Zedekiah, and the nineteenth of Nebuchadnezzar; see Jeremiah 52:1.