Jeremiah 38:7-9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Now when Ebed-melech the Ethiopian Or Cushite, as the Hebrew is. His country seems to be mentioned to let us know that this prophet of the Lord found more kindness from a stranger, who was a native heathen, than from his own countrymen; one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house That is, one of the court officers. It is probable that the princes had put Jeremiah into this miserable place privately, but by some means the report of what they had done providentially reached this officer's ears. The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin Namely, to hear the complaints of the people, and to administer justice; the courts for that purpose being usually held in the gates of the city. Ebed-melech went forth and spake to the king The zeal as well as courage of this good officer was very remarkable. He did not stay till the king returned to his house: but went to him as he was sitting in the gate administering justice, where doubtless he was not alone, but was probably attended by some of those very princes who had thrown Jeremiah into the dungeon: Ebed- melech, however, was not afraid of them, but complains openly to the king of their cruelty to Jeremiah, saying, My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah They deal unjustly with him, for he had not deserved any punishment at all, and they deal barbarously with him, so as they used not to deal with the vilest malefactors. And he is like to die Hebrew, וימת תחתיו, he will die upon the spot; for hunger, for there is no bread That is, as some interpret the clause, “There was no need for those who desired his death to put him into so filthy and loathsome a place; since, if he had continued in the court of the prison, he must have died through the famine which threatens the city. The words, however, are more literally rendered, When there is no longer any bread in the city. Ebed-melech supposed with reason that when the bread failed, Jeremiah must perish with hunger in the dungeon; for he would be of course neglected, and not have it in his power to make those shifts for subsistence which persons at liberty might avail themselves of. Such was the compassion which the stranger had for the Lord's prophet, whom his own countrymen would have destroyed! And God, who put these sentiments of pity and benevolence into Ebed-melech's heart, afterward recompensed him by delivering him from death when the city was taken, Jeremiah 39:15-16. But how remarkable it is, that in the whole city of Jerusalem no person was found, save this Ethiopian, to appear publicly, as the friend and advocate of the prophet in his distress! Thus is the justice of God vindicated in giving up this people into the hands of their enemies, when there was not a single person of their nation willing to hazard his life or character in the cause of God, to save the life of one who had been known among them for a true prophet between twenty and thirty years.