Jeremiah 38:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then Shephaliah, &c. Here are four of the great men, counsellors or chief officers to Zedekiah, named, of whom we have no further mention in holy writ; nor do they deserve to have much inquiry made after them. Some of them were sent by Zedekiah to Jeremiah to inquire concerning the event of the siege, Jeremiah 37:3; Jeremiah 21:1-9. “The answer which Jeremiah returned by them to the king, he afterward published to the people; which was the occasion of the new troubles recorded in this chapter.” Lowth. The fact seems to have been, that, as he was now removed into a little freer air than he had been in, his friends, or such as had a desire to see him, came to him, and being inquisitive concerning the issue of the siege, he could not but tell them what he knew of the mind of God, and advise them the best way he could for their safety. Some of them, it is likely, went to these princes, and informed them of what they had heard from the prophet.