Jeremiah 36:12

And, lo, all the princes sat there. — The following particulars may be noted as to the princes thus named. Elishama may have been identical with the prince of that name in 2 Kings 25:25, and, if so, was the grandfather of a man who afterwards plays a conspicuous part in the history of the prophet’s life (Jeremiah 41) He appears to have taken a purely official line, as scribe, standing neutral between the prophet and his opponents. Delaiah (the name signifies “the Lord delivers,” and is found as that of a priest in the time of David, 1 Chronicles 24:18) joins Elnathan and Gemariah in pleading against the king’s destruction of the prophetic roll. The name Shemaiah, which appears here as that of his father, is found in Nehemiah 6:10 as belonging to a son of Delaiah, and this probably indicates relationship. On Elnathan, the son of Achbor, see Note on Jeremiah 26:22. On Gemariah, see Note on Jeremiah 36:10. Of Zedekiah nothing more is known, unless his father Hananiah be the prophet who opposes Jeremiah in Jeremiah 28:1.