Thus said the Lord unto me... — We enter here on an entirely fresh series of messages, arranged probably in chronological order, but having no immediate connection with what precedes, and narrated with a much fuller account of the circumstances connected with them. This, which begins the series, would appear from Jeremiah 17:25 to have been delivered before the sins of the people had assumed the hopeless, irremediable character which is implied in the two previous Chapter s; and the first part of this may probably be referred therefore to the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. In its circumstances and mode of delivery it is parallel with the discourse of Jeremiah 22:1-5.
The gate of the children of the people... — No gate so described is mentioned in the great topographical record of Nehemiah 3 or elsewhere, and we are therefore left to conjecture where it was. The context shows that it was a place of concourse, a gate of the Temple rather than of the city, perhaps the special gate by which the kings and people of Judah entered into the enclosure of the Temple. The name may indicate, as in Jeremiah 26:23, that it was that “of the common people,” or “laity,” as in 2 Chronicles 35:5, as dis tinguished from that used by the priests and Levites; and it would appear, from the nature of the warning proclaimed there, to have been the scene of some open desecration of the Sabbath — possibly of the sale of sheep or doves for sacrifice, like that of John 2:14; Matthew 21:12, or of the more common articles of the market, as in Nehemiah 13:15. By some writers it has been identified with the “gate of Benjamin” (Jeremiah 20:2; Jeremiah 38:7), but this would seem to have been more conspicuous as a place of judgment than of trade; nor is there any reason why it should be described by a different name here. Some, indeed. have conjectured that we should read “gate of Benjamin “instead of “gate of Beni-am,” which gives the meaning “children of the people.” It is noticeable that the message was to be delivered at the other gates as well, as being a protest against a prevalent sin.