Jeremiah 38:8

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Ebedmelech went forth out of the king's house, and spoke to the king, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

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עֶֽבֶד

ʻEbed Melek

H5663

“Ebed-melech”

Noun, Proper

Appears 12× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Jeremiah 38:7

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H5650 and H4428

TWOT: None

Ebed-melech = "servant of the king" - an Ethiopian eunuch in the service of king Zedekiah, through whose interference Jeremiah was released from prison

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

9: words
7: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is עֶֽבֶד Ebed-melech H5663 — appearing just 12 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

עֶֽבֶד Ebed-melech H5663 occurs in 6 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

וַיֵּצֵ֥א Qal · Sequential Imperfect
וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר Piel · Sequential Imperfect
לֵאמֹֽר Qal · Infinitive Construct

Repetition

Words recur within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

עֶֽבֶד Ebed-melech H5663 ×2
הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ king H4428 ×2

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Jeremiah 38:8 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֵּצֵ֥א עֶֽבֶד מֶ֖לֶךְ מִבֵּ֣ית הַמֶּ֑לֶךְ וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֶל הַמֶּ֖לֶךְ לֵאמֹֽר

Ebedmelech went forth out of the king's house, and spoke to the king, saying,

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּנְפֵק עַבְדָא דְמַלְכָּא מִבֵּית מַלְכָּא וּמַלֵיל עִם מַלְכָּא לְמֵימָר:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Jeremiah 38:8 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jer 38:8 Ebedmelech went forth out of the king’s house, and spake to the king, saying,

Ver. 8. Ebedmelech.] Not more the king’s servant (so his name signifieth) than God’s. Joseph of Arimathea was such another, who went boldly to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus. Faith quelleth and killeth distrustful fear.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

went forth . . . and spake--not privately, but in public; a proof of fearless magnanimity.

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

John Calvin's Commentaries

It now follows, that Ebed-melech went forth from the palace and came to the king’s tribunal, that he might there plead the cause of the Prophet. It is right to notice this circumstance as well as the former. For if Ebedmelech had met the king accidentally, he might have spoken to him in passing; but as he went forth from the palace, it is clear that he had been meditating on what he was going to do, and that he had not felt only a sudden impulse of compassion: but that when he might have rested quietly in the palace, he came of his own accord to the king to make known his complaint. And further, he did not address the king in a room or in some private corner of the palace, but he spoke to him in the gate, that is, in a public assembly. We hence see that the previous circumstance commends to us the perseverance of this man, for he was not only suddenly moved, but persevered in his holy purpose; and the second circumstance commends to us his magnanimity, for he did not shun ill-will, but openly and boldly spoke for Jeremiah before the people; and he amplified the excellency of the Prophet by bringing an accusation against the princes. He no doubt knew that he was bringing himself into danger, but he exposed his own life that he might aid the Prophet.

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.

John Gill's Exposition

And Ebedmelech went forth out of the king's house,.... As soon as he heard of the prophet's distress, he immediately went out from his apartments in the king's palace, where he performed his office, and his business chiefly lay, or where he dwelt, to the gate of Benjamin, where the king was; and if he was here for the administration of justice, it was a proper time and place for Ebedmelech to lay the case of Jeremiah before him:

and spake to the king; freely, boldly, and intrepidly, in the presence of his nobles:

saying; as follows:

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Jeremiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 9 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is ʻEbed Melek (“Ebed-melech”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

What does “Ebed-melech” (ʻEbed Melek) contribute to the verse as a whole?
Jeremiah 38:7 shares the word «Ebed-melech» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“Ebed-melech” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיֵּצֵ֥א» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 10 words in this verse.
“Ebed-melech” occurs 2× in this single verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.