Jeremiah 27:1

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah,.... This is the same date with the prophecy of the preceding chapter and some think that this verse should conclude that,

In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.

CHAPTER 27 The prophet sendeth yokes to five neighbour kings, thereby foreshowing their subjection to Nebuchadnezzar, . he exhorteth them to yield, and not to believe false prophets, . The like he doth to Zedekiah, . The remnant of the vessels shall be carried to Babylon, and continue there till the appointed time, . Here is a difficulty ariseth from this verse, which there have been various attempts to resolve, and whether any hath been fully satisfactory I doubt. It is said this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, and, , the prophet is bid to send the bonds and yokes by the hand of the messengers which came to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah, who began not to reign till about eleven years after the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim. To solve this difficulty, 1. Some think Jehoiakim was a common name to all the sons of Josiah, and that Zedekiah is here called Jehoiakim, but I see no foundation for that conjecture from holy writ. 2. Others think it is an error in those that copied out the prophecies, but it is dangerous to admit that. 3. Others think that the prophecy came in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, but was to be concealed until the reign of Zedekiah. 4. I had rather agree with those who think that this command came to the prophet first in the time of Jehoiakim, but was to be repeated by the prophet often, and accordingly was so until and in the time of Zedekiah; not that he always went about with bonds and yokes about his neck, but that by times lie put them on, and went about with them, as a type of that bondage which the Jews were suddenly to endure.

Jeremiah 27:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,Ver. 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.] By the date of this prophecy, compared with Jeremiah 27:12; Jeremiah 28:1, it should seem that it lay dormant for fourteen or fifteen years ere it was recited.

XXVII. (1) In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.—The mention of the name of Zedekiah as king of Judah in Jeremiah 27:3 shows that the Hebrew text has here perpetuated an error, due probably to the transcriber or first editor of the collected prophecies. We have to think, accordingly, of the state of things which followed on the death of Jehoiakim, and the deposition and exile of Jehoiachin. The tone of the prophecy seems to indicate a time about the middle of Zedekiah’s reign. His position was that of a tributary sovereign, subject to Nebuchadnezzar. He and the neighbouring kings, who were in a like position, had not quite renounced the hope of throwing off the yoke, and asserting their independence.

CHAPTER XXVII Ambassadors being come from several neighbouring nations to solicit the king of Judah to join in a confederacy against the king of Babylon, Jeremiah is commanded to put bands and yokes upon his neck, (the emblems of subjection and slavery,) and to send them afterwards by those ambassadors to their respective princes; intimating by this significant type that God had decreed their subjection to the Babylonian empire, and that it was their wisdom to submit. It is farther declared that all the conquered nations shall remain in subjection to the Chaldeans during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, and those of his son and grandson, even till the arrival of that period in which the Babylonians shall have filled up the measure of their iniquities; and that then the mighty Chaldean monarchy itself, for a certain period the paramount power of the habitable globe, shall be voted with a dreadful storm of Divine wrath, through the violence of which it shall be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel, the fragments falling into the hands of many nations and great kings, 1-11. Zedekiah, particularly, is admonished not to join to the revolt against Nebuchadnezzar, and warned against trusting to the suggestions of false prophets, 11-18. The chapter concludes with foretelling that what still remained of the sacred vessels of the temple should be carried to Babylon, and not restored till after the destruction of the Chaldean empire, 19-22. NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII Verse 1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim] It is most evident that his prophecy was delivered about the fourth year of ZEDEKIAH, and not Jehoiakim, as in the text. See Jeremiah 28:1. Three of Kennicott's MSS. (one in the text, a second in the margin, and the third upon a rasure) have Zedekiah; so likewise have the Syriac and the Arabic. Houbigant, Lowth, Blayney, Dahler, and others declare for this reading against that in the present text. And it is clear from the third and twelfth verses, where Zedekiah is expressly mentioned, that this is the true reading.

1. In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim] It is clear from Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 27:12; Jeremiah 27:20 that for Jehoiakim we must read (with mg.) Zedekiah (so Syr.). The LXX omit the verse. It is a later insertion in the text either in its present form, or more probably with Zedekiah’s name, as in ch. Jeremiah 28:1, whence the time-heading should probably be transposed here (see above). The substitution of “Jehoiakim” may have arisen through the influence of Jer 26:1.

Of Jehoiakim - Really, of Zedekiah, as the Syriac reads (see Jeremiah 27:3). In the Septuagint the verse is missing. Some scribe has confused the title of this chapter with that of Jer. 26.

THE OF KINGS, 1-11.1. Jehoiakim — A single Codex and the Syriac and Arabic Versions have Zedekiah, and this is manifestly correct.