¹ tn Heb “Zedekiah king of Judah.”

¹ tn This probably refers to King Zedekiah.

¹ sn The prince is a reference to Zedekiah.

² tn Heb “and he made Zedekiah his brother king.” According to the parallel text in 2 Kgs 24:17, Zedekiah was Jehoiachin’s uncle, not his brother. Therefore many interpreters understand אח (ʾakh) here in its less specific sense of “relative” (NEB “made his father’s brother Zedekiah king”; NASB “made his kinsman Zedekiah king”; NIV “made Jehoiachin’s uncle, Zedekiah, king”; NRSV “made his brother Zedekiah king”).

¹ sn The identity of this second lion is unclear; the referent is probably Jehoiakim or Zedekiah. If the lioness is Hamutal, then Zedekiah is the lion described here.

¹ tn The parable assumes the defection of Zedekiah to Egypt and his rejection of Babylonian lordship.

¹ tn Heb “So King Zedekiah secretly swore an oath to Jeremiah, saying.”

¹ tn Heb “I spoke to Zedekiah…according to all these words, saying.”

¹ sn This refers to the relief offered by the withdrawal of the Babylonian troops to fight against the Egyptians, who were coming to Zedekiah’s aid (cf. 37:5, 7, 11).

³ sn There he will die. This was fulfilled when King Zedekiah died in exile (Jer 52:11).

¹ sn Jehucal was a member of the delegation sent to Jeremiah by Zedekiah in Jer 37:3.

³ sn 2 Kgs 25:5 and Jer 52:8 mention that the soldiers all scattered from him. That is why the text focuses on Zedekiah here.

² sn Zedekiah held out this hope of escape until the end. He tried to escape but was unsuccessful (cf. 39:4-5).

¹ tn Heb “Then King Zedekiah sent and brought him, and the king asked him privately [or more literally, in secret] and said.”

² sn The verbs in this verse are all plural. They are addressed to Zedekiah and his royal advisers (compare 22:2).

² tn Heb “his [Zedekiah’s] mouth will speak with his [Nebuchadnezzar’s] mouth, and his eyes will see his eyes.” The verbs here are an obligatory imperfect and its vav consecutive perfect equivalent. (See IBHS 508-9 §31.4g for discussion and examples of the former and IBHS 528 §32.2.1d, n. 16, for the latter.)

¹ tn Heb “took of the seed of the land.” For the vine imagery, “seedling” is a better translation, though in its subsequent interpretation the “seed” refers to Zedekiah through its common application to offspring.

² sn He will not see it. This prediction was fulfilled in 2 Kgs 25:7 and Jer 52:11, which recount how Zedekiah was blinded before being deported to Babylon.

³ sn Jeremiah’s answer, even under duress, was the same that he had given Zedekiah earlier. (See Jer 34:3 and see the study note on 34:1 for the relative timing of these two incidents.)

² tn The condition here is, of course, purely hypothetical, and the consequence is a poetic exaggeration. The intent is to assure Zedekiah that there is absolutely no hope of the city being spared.