Jeremiah 39:13

39:11-14 The servants of God alone are prepared for all events; and they are delivered and comforted, while the wicked suffer. They often meet with more kindness from the profane, than from hypocritical professors of godliness. The Lord will raise them up friends, do them good, and perform all his promises.

So Nebuzaradan captain of the guard sent,.... When he was come to Jerusalem, one of the first things he did was, he sent a messenger or messengers to the court of the prison where Jeremiah was, to bring him from thence; and this he did not alone, but with the rest of the princes, who had the same charge, and were joined in the commission with him: two of them are mentioned by name, Nebushasban Rabsaris and Nergalsharezer Rabmag; the latter of these is manifestly one of the princes that first entered Jerusalem, at the taking of it; see Gill on Jeremiah 39:3; and perhaps the former is the same with Sarsechim Rabsaris, as Hillerus (n) thinks, mentioned at the same time, who might have two names; unless we suppose there were two persons in the same office: and all the king of Babylon's princes: so that great honour was done to the prophet, to have them all charged with his commission from the king; and to be sent unto, and for, by them all. (n) Onomastie. Sacr. p. 604.

Jeremiah 39:13-14 . Nebuzar-adan sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison — Where he was when the city was taken, Jeremiah 38:28 ; and committed him unto Gedaliah — Namely, after he had been carried out of Jerusalem with the rest of the captives as far as Ramah: see Jeremiah 40:1-5 . Observe here, reader, a king of Israel and his princes put the Lord’s prophet in prison, and a heathen king and his princes took him out! God’s people and ministers have often met with fairer and kinder treatment among strangers and infidels than among those who call themselves of the holy city. St. Paul found more favour and justice with King Agrippa than with Ananias the high-priest. But we shall meet with a more full account of Jeremiah’s release, and of the kind treatment he received from the Chaldeans, in the next chapter.

Verse 13. - Nebushasban . The name occurs in a list of proper names, under the form Nabu-sizibanni , "Nebo, rescue me!" It is remarkable that a different name is given to the Rab-saris in ver. 3; and the conjecture is not unreasonable that Sarsechim is a corruption of the latter part of the name Nebushasban. In ver. 3 the Septuagint has Nabu sachar instead of Sarsechim (other copies read Nabusarsechim). Jeremiah 39:13

(13) Nebushasban. —The name, which occurs in the Annals cf Assur-banipal ( Records of the Past, i. 64), is possibly another form of the Nebo-sarsechim of Jeremiah 39:3 . Rab-saris ( = chief eunuch, or chamberlain) is, as before, his title. Ashpenaz appears as holding the same position, possibly, as Nebushasban’s predecessor, in Daniel 1:3 .

Nebuchadnezzar gave orders regarding Jeremiah, through Nebuzaradan, the chief of the body-guards: "Take him, and set thine eyes upon him, and do him no harm; but, just as he telleth thee, so do with him." In obedience to this command, "Nebuzaradan, the chief of the body-guards, sent-and Nebushasban the head chamberlain, and Nergal-sharezer the chief magician, and all (the other) chief men of the king of Babylon-they sent and took Jeremiah out of the court of the prison, and delivered him over to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him out to the house. Thus he dwelt among the people." - On the names of the Chaldean grandees, see on Jeremiah 39:3 . Instead of the chief chamberlain (רב־סריס) Sarsechim, there is here named, as occupying this office, Nebushasban, who, it seems, along with Nebuzaradan, was not sent from Riblah till after the taking of Jerusalem, when Sarsechim was relieved. We cannot come to any certain conclusion regarding the relation in which the two persons or names stand to one another, since Nebushasban is only mentioned in Jeremiah 39:13, just as Sarsechim is mentioned only in Jeremiah 39:3. Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the man who had already on a former occasion given protection to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:24), was, according to Jeremiah 40:5, placed by the king of Babylon over the cities of Judah, i.e., was nominated the Chaldean governor over Judah and the Jews who were left in the land.

To him, as such, Jeremiah is here (Jeremiah 39:14) delivered, that he may take him into the house. בּית is neither the temple (Hitzig) nor the palace, the king's house (Graf), but the house in which Gedaliah resided as the governor; and we find here הבּית, not בּביתו, since the house was neither the property nor the permanent dwelling-place of Gedaliah. - According to this account, Jeremiah seems to have remained in the court of the prison till Nebuchadnezzar came, to have been liberated by Nebuzaradan only at the command of the king, and to have been sent to Gedaliah the governor. But this is contradicted by the account in Jeremiah 40:1., according to which, Nebuzaradan liberated the prophet in Ramah, where he had been kept, confined by manacles, among the captives of Judah that were to be carried to Babylon: Nebuzaradan sent for him, and gave him his liberty. This contradiction has arisen simply from the intense brevity with which, in this verse, the fate of Jeremiah at the capture and destruction of Jerusalem is recorded; it is easy to settle the difference in this way: - When the city was taken, those inhabitants, especially males, who had not carried arms, were seized by the Chaldeans and carried out of the city to Ramah, where they were held prisoners till the decision of the king regarding their fate should be made known. Jeremiah shared this lot with his fellow-countrymen.