Comentario sobre Jeremías 37:22

reigned as king Since from now on, i.e., from this point, he comes to tell and to say that the retributions that he prophesied until now were fulfilled, he started to tell in this manner, that when the time of the visitation, when the days drew near that the words should be fulfilled, another king reigned over Judah instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, etc.

And Jeremiah was coming and going among the people When Zedekiah assumed the throne, he gave an order and they freed him from the jail where Jehoiakim had imprisoned him, for Zedekiah was a righteous man and the people of his generation were wicked, whereas Jehoiakim was a wicked man and the people of his generation were righteous.

Now Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt to aid Judah.

is returning to his land Egypt They were coming in ships, and the Holy One, blessed be He, signaled to the sea and caused a type of bottles and flasks (i.e., inflated) resembling human skins to float on it. They said to each other, What is this? They replied, These are our forefathers, whom the forefathers of these whom we are going to aid, drowned. They immediately returned to their land.

to share [land] from there among the people Jonathan [renders]: To share his inheritance among the people, and as long as the Chaldeans were besieging it, he did not leave it, for he prayed that it should not be taken.

and there was the captain of the guard Appointed to guard so that no man should leave the city to make peace with the Chaldeans.

the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah That is Hananiah the son of Azzur. He was his grandson, and for the following reason Scripture traced his lineage, [viz.] to teach that whoever flatters a wicked man eventually falls into his hands or into the hands of his son or into the hands of his grandson, and Jeremiah flattered him, for he said to him, “Amen! (28:6) [So may the Lord do.] May the Lord fulfil your words” (Sotah 41b). And [according to] the Midrash Aggadah, Hananiah commanded his son, “See that I am dying because of Jeremiah, and he made me a liar in my prophecy. If you can cause him to stumble, cause him to stumble. And his son commanded his son also in that manner, and when the time came, he caused him to stumble.

and to the cells Jonathan renders: within the cells. There were cells before that prison.

from the street of the bakers Heb. מחוץ, from the street of the bakers. Cf: “And you shall make streets (וחצות) for yourself in Damascus” (I Kings 20:34).