When Jerusalem was under pressure, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal to the prophet Jeremiah with a plain request: “Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.” The same man, spelled Jucal in the next chapters, is then named among those who heard Jeremiah telling the people to give up the city. The princes who heard him went to the king and asked that Jeremiah be put to death. So the verses show one official standing close to both the king’s hope and the prophet’s hard words. Jeremiah 37 and 38 give the whole account.
3 verses
And Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, Pray now unto the LORD our God for us.
Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashur, and Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that Jeremiah had spoken unto all the people, saying,
Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death: for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt.
Matthew George Easton, 1897
Able, the son of Shelemiah. He is also called Jucal (Jer. 38:1). He was one of the two persons whom Zedekiah sent to request the prophet Jeremiah to pray for the kingdom (Jer. 37:3) during the time of its final siege by Nebuchadnezzar. He was accompanied by Zephaniah (q.v.).
William Smith, 1884
(able), son of Shelemiah; one of two persons sent by King Zedekiah to Jeremiah to entreat his prayers and advice. (Jeremiah 37:3) (B.C. 589.)