Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Belonging to an earlier period than Jeremiah 21:1-14 - namely the reigns of Shallum or Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Jeconiah (Jeremiah 22:10-11; Jeremiah 22:13; Jeremiah 22:18; Jeremiah 22:20; Jeremiah 22:24). Jeremiah often groups his prophecies, not by chronological order, but by similarity of subjects; thus Jeremiah 22:3, "execute judgments," in this chapter corresponds to Jeremiah 21:12. Grotius thinks that Jeremiah here repeats to Zedekiah what he had announced to that king's predecessors formerly (namely, his brother and brother's son), of a similar bearing, and which had since come to pass-a warning to Zedekiah. Probably, in arranging his prophecies, they were grouped for the first time in the present order-an order designed by the Holy Spirit to set forth the series of kings of Judah, all four alike failing in "righteousness;" followed at last by the "King," a righteous Branch raised unto David, in the house of Judah, "the Lord our righteousness" (Jeremiah 23:6). The unrighteousness of Zedekiah suggested the review of his predecessors' failure in the same respects (cf. Jeremiah 22:3 with Jeremiah 21:12), and consequent punishment, which ought to have warned him, but did not.
Go down - the temple (where Jeremiah had been prophesying) was higher than the king's palace on mount Zion (Jeremiah 36:10; Jeremiah 36:12; 2 Chronicles 23:20). Hence, the phrase, "Go down."
The king of Judah - perhaps including each of the four successive kings, to whom it was consecutively addressed, here brought together in one picture: Shallum, Jeremiah 22:11; Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 22:13-18; Jeconiah, Jeremiah 22:24; Zedekiah, the address to whom (Jeremiah 21:1; Jeremiah 21:11-12) suggests notice of the rest.