And Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes
These were either the princes of the blood, the sons of Zedekiah, and his nobles and courtiers, as distinct from the princes in ( Jeremiah 34:19 ) ; these shall not be spared, neither the king, nor his sons, nor those of the privy council: but those will I give I to the hands of their enemies, and into the hand of them
that seek their life;
as in ( Jeremiah 34:20 ) ; and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army;
or, "even into the hand" F2 &c. and so this is an explanation of the former, and shows who their enemies were, and those that sought their life. The accomplishment of this may be seen in ( Jeremiah 52:9-11 ) ; which are gone up from you;
departed from Jerusalem, as the Chaldean army did upon hearing that Pharaoh king of Egypt was marching with his army to raise the siege of Jerusalem; upon which they left it, and went forth to meet him; and this encouraged the wicked Jews to break their covenant, and reduce their servants to bondage again, they had let go free; see ( Jeremiah 37:5 ) .