John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 40:5
Now while he was not yet gone back, he said , go back also to Gedaliah ,.... These words, by different versions, are made difficult to be understood, both, whose words they are, and of whom they are spoken. Jarchi makes them to be words of God, and the sense this, "and by all this he (Jeremiah) had no mind to return; and God said to him, go back to Gedaliah.' According to the Targum, they are the words of Nebuzaradan, which paraphrases them thus; "if thou wilt not return (that is,... read more
Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 40:1-6
The title of this part of the book, which begins the chapter, seems misapplied (The word which came to Jeremiah), for here is nothing of prophecy in this chapter, but it is to be referred to Jer. 42:7; where we have a message that God sent by Jeremiah to the captains and the people that remained. The story between is only to introduce that prophecy and show the occasion of it, that it may be the better understood, and Jeremiah, being himself concerned in the story, was the better able to give... read more