2. Nebuchadrezzar. This spelling, which occurs frequently in Jeremiah, is closer to the Babylonian Nabû-kudurri-uṣur than is the common English form Nebuchadnezzar (see on Dan. 1:1).
If so be. Although the messengers came to make inquiry as to the course the king should take, they suggested, and so expected, an answer favorable to Zedekiah. They desired that the Lord would perform “his wondrous works” in delivering the city from its danger. In view of God’s miraculous destruction of the army of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19; Isa. 37), this action may have been one of assumed reverence, having as its purpose the luring of the prophet to join those resisting the Babylonians. Later there was another attempt to win over Jeremiah to the king’s side (Jer. 37:3).
Go up from us. That is, raise the siege.