The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man [that is] mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldest put him in prison, and in the stocks.
Ver. 26. The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Jehoiada the priest.] That heroic reformer in the days of Joash 2Ki 11:4 ; 2Ki 11:17 Therefore, as he did by Mattan the Baalite, so do thou by Jeremiah the Anathothite. But neither was Zephaniah a Jehoiada, nor Jeremiah a Mattan. Shemaiah himself was more like a Baalite, and better deserved that punishment which shortly after also befell him, as was foretold. Jer 29:32 A hot spirited man he was, and a firebrand, being therefore the more dangerous. He also seemed to himself to be so much the more holy, by how much the prophet whom he set against was more famous for his holiness.
For every one that is mad.] Maniacus, arreptitius, fanaticus; so God's zealous servants have always been esteemed by the mad world, ever beside itself in point of salvation. See 2Ki 9:11 Act 26:24 Jeremiah 43:2 .
That thou shouldest put him in prison.] As Jeremiah 20:2 .