26. thee . . . in the stead of Jehoiada--Zephaniah's promotion as second priest, owing to Jehoiada's being then in exile, was unexpected. Shemaiah thus accuses him of ingratitude towards God, who had so highly exalted him before his regular time.
      ye should be officers . . . for every man--Ye should, as bearing rule in the temple (see on Jer 20:1), apprehend every false prophet like Jeremiah.
      mad--Inspired prophets were often so called by the ungodly (2Ki 9:11; Ac 26:24; 2:13, 15, 17, 18). Jeremiah is in this a type of Christ, against whom the same charge was brought (Joh 10:20).
      prison--rather, "the stocks" (see on Jer 20:2).
      stocks--from a root, "to confine"; hence rather, "a narrow dungeon." According to De 17:8, 9, the priest was judge in such cases, but had no right to put into the stocks; this right he had assumed to himself in the troubled state of the times.

JFB.