5 Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you.
5 "He is in your hands," King Zedekiah answered. "The king can do nothing to oppose you."
5 King Zedekiah said, "Behold, he is in your hands, for the king can do nothing against you."
5 King Zedekiah caved in: "If you say so. Go ahead, handle it your way. You're too much for me."
5 Then Zedekiah the king said, "Look, he is in your hand. For the king can do nothing against you."
5 King Zedekiah agreed. "All right," he said. "Do as you like. I can't stop you."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 38:5
Commentary on Jeremiah 38:1-13
(Read Jeremiah 38:1-13)
Jeremiah went on in his plain preaching. The princes went on in their malice. It is common for wicked people to look upon God's faithful ministers as enemies, because they show what enemies the wicked are to themselves while impenitent. Jeremiah was put into a dungeon. Many of God's faithful witnesses have been privately made away in prisons. Ebed-melech was an Ethiopian; yet he spoke to the king faithfully, These men have done ill in all they have done to Jeremiah. See how God can raise up friends for his people in distress. Orders were given for the prophet's release, and Ebed-melech saw him drawn up. Let this encourage us to appear boldly for God. Special notice is taken of his tenderness for Jeremiah. What do we behold in the different characters then, but the same we behold in the different characters now, that the Lord's children are conformed to his example, and the children of Satan to their master?