Jeremiah 17:20

Jer 17:20 And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

Ver. 20. Ye kings of Judah.] Magistrates, being lord keepers of both the tables of the law, should carefully see to it that both be duly observed. Our King Edgar made laws for the sanctification of the Lord’s day, Sabbath, as have also our present governors, to their lasting renown. The first blow given to the German churches was on the Lord’s day, which they carelessly observed; for on that day was Prague lost; as was likewise Constantinople on Whitsunday, as they called it. {a}

{a} Jer. Dike, Of Conscience. - Estius in lib. Sentent. Distinc., xi. cap. 2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

kings--He begins with the kings, as they ought to have repressed such a glaring profanation.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 20. Ye kings of Judah, and all Judah] This last clause is wanting in eight of Kennicott's and De Rossi's MSS., in the Arabic, and some copies of the Septuagint.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He then adds, Thou shalt say to them, Hear the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and let all the people hear, and let all the citizens of Jerusalem hear, who enter in at these gates. The Prophet was commanded to begin with the king himself, who ought to have repressed so great a licentiousness. It was therefore an intolerable indifference in the king silently to bear this contempt of religion, especially in a matter so easy and so evident; for he could not have pretended that he was unacquainted with it: it was indeed the same as though the Jews intended to triumph against God, and to shew that his law was deemed of no value. Hence the profanation of the Sabbath was a proof of their shamelessness, as they thereby shewed that they cared nothing either for God or for his law. We shall hereafter see how great that wickedness was; but; I shall defer the subject, as I cannot now discuss it at large, and a more convenient opportunity will offer itself.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

20. kings] The plural is certainly strange. Cp. the sing, in Jer_22:2. As Co. says, we have here not a concrete situation but a model and abstraction.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And say unto them, hear ye the word of the Lord,.... Concerning the sanctification of the sabbath; for this was not of human, but of divine institution:

ye kings of Judah; which must be understood either, as Kimchi thinks, of the then present king and his sons, so called because they would reign after him; for, there was but one king at a time; and who, perhaps, at this time, was Josiah: or else the king and his nobles, the princes of the land, are meant:

and all Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates; the people in the several parts of the land of Judea, that came to Jerusalem either for trade and merchandise, or for worship, and all that dwelt in the metropolis; for the business the prophet had to charge them with concerned them all.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The word of the Lord equally concerneth the highest and the lowest, the greatest princes as well as the meanest subjects.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jeremiah addresses himself first of all to the kings of Judah. As it would be very unnatural for a public orator to appeal to the yet unborn members of the reigning dynasty, and as there are several indications that the "house of David" was able at this period, as also in that of Isaiah, to exercise a decisive political and civil influence, even, as appears from Jer_21:11, Jer_21:12, monopolizing the judicial functions, it is natural to suppose that "kings of Judah" is here used in a very special sense, via. of the members of the various branches of the royal family, ("The sons of the king," Zep_1:8; comp. Jer_36:26, "Jerahmeel, a king"s son and their descendants, who received the royal title by courtesy (parallels for this will be found in Gesenius"s "Hebrew Thesaurus," s.v. melek). The queen-mother was probably the leader of this plan; "the mistress," as she was called, (see on Jer_13:18) and the royal princes (among whom the "house of Nathan," Zec_12:12, would doubtless be reckoned), constituted in fact a body almost as numerous as they did (according to Brugsch Bey) in Egypt, and politically much more influential; so much so indeed that only a king of unusual force of character, like Hezekiah or Josiah, could venture, and that timidly, to oppose them. The weak-principled Zedekiah seems to have been entirely dominated by this powerful caste, and to have been little more than a maire du palais. (the same sense of the phrase is required in Jer_19:8, and probably in Jer_25:18)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.