Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin;
Ver. 7. Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian.] But a proselyte, and a religious prince; a stranger, but (as that good Samaritan in the Gospel) more merciful than any of the Jewish nation, who gloried in their privileges. See Romans 2:26,27 .
One of the eunuchs.] And eunuchs, say the Rabbis, are ordinarily more cruel than other men; but so was not this Cushite. Piety is the fountain of all virtues whatsoever.
Which was in the king's house.] As Obadiah was in Ahab's, Nehemiah in Artaxerxes's; some good people in Herod's; Luk 8:3 and Nero's; Php 4:22 Cromwell and Cranmer in Henry VIII's.
The king then sitting in the gate of Benjamin.] Sitting in judgment, where Jeremiah's enemies had once apprehended him for a fugitive, but durst not try it out with him, though Ebedmelech there entreated with the king for him in the presence of some of them, as it is probable.