[4–5] The fate is surprisingly mitigated.
Zedekiah is reassured of a natural death, as mt expounds in v. 3, and even of
the honor of a royal funeral, complete with the ritual of burning aromatic
spices (cf. 2 Chr 16:14; 21:19) and public mourning (cf. Jer 22:18). At first
sight the promise seems to envision the king’s reinstatement, but the funeral
may simply mark the consolation of respect for the exiled king, such as
Jehoiachin enjoyed a different manner (52:31–34). More perplexing is the way
the promise cuts across other forecasts made during the same period of
Babylonian invasion, a categorical one that Zedekiah was shortly to die (21:7)
and a conditional one that he would survive only if he surrendered (38:17–20).
The present passage promising survival presupposes his failure to surrender,
along the lines of 38:21–23. An attempt at harmonization has been made by
regarding the call to attention in v. 4a as an implicit conditional clause
signifying, “But if you obey the word of the Lord” (nab; for the syntax cf. Ps
139:18), and then deleting the following quotation formula as a subsequent
misunderstanding of the clause (Rudolph 220–21; BHS; Holladay 2:232–34; cf. Bright 216; Brueggemann 324–25), though
nab retains the formula. This expedient imports a novel element to the text; it
is better to take each passage as it stands and think of various prophetic
encounters with the king. Nevertheless, the question arises why a concession is
made to Zedekiah here. The answer may come from two perspectives. First, the
passage is reminiscent of the reward of survival for meritorious service in the
cases of Ebed-melech and Baruch (39:15–18; 45:1–5). Indeed, mt’s addition in v.
4b intensifies the similarity, when compared with 39:18. Zedekiah is presented
in the book as an ambivalent character, and perhaps this message once belonged
in a setting of his protection of Jeremiah (cf. 37:20–21; 38:10). It does so no
longer, neither here nor in its echo in 32:3–5, where its dignified end for
Zedekiah is retained but toned down. Second and more pertinently, the two
passages (vv. 1–7 and 8–22) are now meant to be read together, as their
parallel elements attest. Verses 3–5 correspond with the lesser sentence for
Zedekiah at v. 21, in comparison with that to be meted out in v. 20. Verse 21
functions as the implicit reason for the announcement of vv. 4–5, which serves
to amplify the understated contrast in v. 21 with the fate of lack of burial in
v. 20 and so to enhance the horror of the latter. (Leslie C. Allen, Jeremiah: A Commentary [The Old
Testament Library; Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008], 385-86)
