Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 29:26

26 The LORD hath made thee priest in the stead of Jehoiada the priest n, that ye should be officers in the house of the LORD, for every man that is mad, and maketh himself a prophet, that thou shouldst put him in prison, and in the stocks .

That is High Priest, as some have thought, but it appears from 2 Kings 25.18. that Se[illegible: 1 letter]aiah was at this time the High Priest, and this Zephaniah was the second Priest, as he is there stiled; as also chap. 52.24. nor must any think; that the Iehoiada here meant was the immediate predecessor of Zephaniah, for besides that Iehoiada was High Priest, which Zephaniah never was; there were near 200 years betwixt the death of Iehoiada, and this time, in the stead therefore here signifieth, that thou shouldst be like the good High Priest Iehoiada, unless some other Iehoiada was meant, who was turned out, and this Zephaniah put in his room.

That thou mightest have a care of Religion, and particularly take care of persons, who being mad or phrenetick make themselves Prophets.

The Priests had a power to restrain such persons by imprisoning them, or putting them in the stocks, by which most agree a particular punishment is expressed, but for the nature and way of it, it is not determined; those who in so incertain a thing, have a mind to read what hath been said, may find it both in Mr. Pool's Synopsis Criticorum, and the English Annotations upon this verse, but the Learned Author of them reciting what Authors have said, concludes it at last not with any certainty to be determined.

Marginal references: 2 Kings 9.11. Acts 26.24.; chap. 20.2.