Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 44:20–end
Daring sinners may speak many a bold word and many a big word, but, after all, God will have the last word; for he will be justified when he speaks, and all flesh, even the proudest, shall be silent before him. Prophets may be run down, but God cannot; nay, here the prophet would not.
I. Jeremiah has something to say to them from himself, which he could say without a spirit of prophecy, and that was to rectify their mistake (a wilful mistake it was) concerning the calamities they had been under and the true intent and meaning of them. They said that these miseries came upon them because they had now left off burning incense to the queen of heaven. "No," says he, "it was because you had forme…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 44:27
watch over . . . for evil-- (Jer 1:10; Eze 7:6). The God, whose providence is ever solicitously watching over His people for good, shall solicitously, as it were, watch for their hurt. Contrast Jer 31:28; Jer 32:41.
John Gill on Jeremiah 44:27
Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good,.... To bring the evil of punishment upon them, the particulars of which are after mentioned, and not the blessings of goodness, as formerly; and this he would be as careful and diligent to bring about, as one that watches all opportunities to do hurt to another; and it must be dreadful to be under the vigilant avenging eye of God:
and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword, and by the famine, until there be an end of them; that is, the greatest part of them, excepting a few that shall escape, hereafter mentioned, particularly Jeremiah and Baruch; but as for the main body of such, who went o…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Jeremiah 44:27
Jeremiah 44:27
27. Behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah that are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
27. Ecce ego vigilo super eos in malum, et non in bonum; et consumentur omnes viri (omnis vir, ad verbum) Jehudah, quicunque sunt in terra Aegypti gladio et fame usque dum consumantur (est quidem, aliud verbum, sed ejusdem significationis.)
Here he more dearly expresses what he had said in the last verse, that none of the Jews would remain alive in Egypt. He now then points out the manner, even because he would not cease to consume them until they wholly perished and were brough…
