Jeremiah 17:20 - Exposition

Jeremiah addresses himself first of all to the kings of Judah . As it would be very unnatural for a public orator to appeal to the yet unborn members of the reigning dynasty, and as there are several indications that the "house of David" was able at this period, as also in that of Isaiah, to exercise a decisive political and civil influence, even, as appears from Jeremiah 21:11 , Jeremiah 21:12 , monopolizing the judicial functions, it is natural to suppose that "kings of Judah" is here used in a very special sense, via. of the members of the various branches of the royal family ("The sons of the king ," Zephaniah 1:8 ; comp. Jeremiah 36:26 , "Jerahmeel, a king's son"), and their descendants, who received the royal title by courtesy (parallels for this will be found in Gesenius's 'Hebrew Thesaurus,' s . v . me'lek ). The queen-mother was probably the leader of this plan; "the mistress," as she was called (see on Jeremiah 13:18 ), and the royal princes (among whom the "house of Nathan," Zechariah 12:12 , would doubtless be reckoned), constituted in fact a body almost as numerous as they did (according to Brugsch Bey) in Egypt, and politically much more influential; so much so indeed that only a king of unusual force of character, like Hezekiah or Josiah, could venture, and that timidly, to oppose them. The weak-principled Zedekiah seems to have been entirely dominated by this powerful caste, and to have been little more than a maire du palais (the same sense of the phrase is required in Jeremiah 19:8 , and probably in Jeremiah 25:18 ).