---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Jeremiah 42"
description: "CHAPTER 42   :-. THE JEWS
AND JOHANAN INQUIRE
OF GOD, THROUGH
JEREMIAH, AS TO GOING
TO EGYPT, PROMISING
OBEDIENCE TO HIS
WILL. THEIR
SAFETY ON CONDITION
O"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/jeremiah/42"
---

CHAPTER 42

. THE JEWS
AND JOHANAN INQUIRE
OF GOD, THROUGH
JEREMIAH, AS TO GOING
TO EGYPT, PROMISING
OBEDIENCE TO HIS
WILL. THEIR
SAFETY ON CONDITION
OF STAYING IN
JUDEA, AND THEIR
DESTRUCTION IN THE EVENT
OF GOING TO EGYPT,
ARE FORETOLD.
THEIR HYPOCRISY
IN ASKING FOR
COUNSEL WHICH
THEY MEANT
NOT TO FOLLOW,
IF CONTRARY TO
THEIR OWN
DETERMINATION, IS
REPROVED.

**2. Jeremiah**—He probably was
one of the number carried off from Mizpah, and dwelt with Johanan
([Jeremiah 41:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/41/16)). Hence the
expression is, "came near" ([Jeremiah 41:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/41/16)), not "sent."
**Let . . . supplication be
accepted**—literally, "fall" (see on [Jeremiah 41:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/41/16); [Jeremiah 37:20](../../../kjv/jeremiah/37/20)).
**pray for us**— ([Genesis 20:7](../../../kjv/genesis/20/7);
[Isaiah 37:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/37/4); [James 5:16](../../../kjv/james/5/16)).
**thy God**— ([James 5:16](../../../kjv/james/5/16)). The Jews use this form to express their belief in the
peculiar relation in which *Jeremiah* stood to God as His
accredited prophet. Jeremiah in his reply reminds them that God is
*their* God ("*your* God") as well as his as
being the covenant people ([James 5:16](../../../kjv/james/5/16)). They in turn acknowledge this in [James 5:16](../../../kjv/james/5/16), "the Lord *our* God."
**few of many**—as had been
foretold ([Leviticus 26:22](../../../kjv/leviticus/26/22)).

**3.** They consulted God, like
many, not so much to know what was right, as wishing Him to authorize
what they had already determined on, whether agreeable to His will or
not. So Ahab in consulting Micaiah (). Compare Jeremiah's answer () with Micaiah's ().

**4. I have heard**—that is, I
accede to your request.
**your God**—Being His by
adoption, ye are not your own, and are bound to whatever He wills
([Exodus 19:5](../../../kjv/exodus/19/5); [Exodus 19:6](../../../kjv/exodus/19/6);
[1 Corinthians 6:19](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/6/19); [1 Corinthians 6:20](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/6/20)).
**answer you**—that is,
through me.
**keep nothing back**—
([1 Samuel 3:18](../../../kjv/1-samuel/3/18); [Acts 20:20](../../../kjv/acts/20/20)).

**5. Lord be a true . . . witness**—
([Genesis 31:50](../../../kjv/genesis/31/50); [Psalms 89:37](../../../kjv/psalms/89/37);
[Revelation 1:5](../../../kjv/revelation/1/5); [Revelation 3:14](../../../kjv/revelation/3/14);
[Revelation 19:11](../../../kjv/revelation/19/11)).

**6. evil**—not moral evil, which
God cannot command ([James 1:13](../../../kjv/james/1/13)),
but what may be *disagreeable* and *hard* to us. Piety
obeys God, without questioning, at all costs. See the instance
defective in this, that it obeyed only so far as was agreeable to
itself ([1 Samuel 15:3](../../../kjv/1-samuel/15/3); [1 Samuel 15:9](../../../kjv/1-samuel/15/9);
[1 Samuel 15:13-15](../../../kjv/1-samuel/15/13-15); [1 Samuel 15:20-23](../../../kjv/1-samuel/15/20-23)).

**7. ten days**—Jeremiah did not
speak of himself, but waited God's time and revelation, showing the
reality of his inspiration. Man left to himself would have given an
immediate response to the people, who were impatient of delay. The
delay was designed to test the sincerity of their professed
willingness to obey, and that they should have full time to
deliberate ([Deuteronomy 8:2](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/8/2)). True
obedience bows to God's time, as well as His way and will.

**10. If ye . . . abide**—namely,
under the Babylonian authority, to which God hath appointed that all
should be subject ([Daniel 2:37](../../../kjv/daniel/2/37);
[Daniel 2:38](../../../kjv/daniel/2/38)). To resist was to
resist God.
**build . . . plant**—metaphor
for, *I will firmly establish* you ([Daniel 2:38](../../../kjv/daniel/2/38)).
**I repent . . . of the evil**—
([Jeremiah 18:8](../../../kjv/jeremiah/18/8); [Deuteronomy 32:36](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/32/36)).
*I am satisfied with the punishment I have inflicted on you,* if
only you add not a new offense [GROTIUS].
God is said to "repent," when He alters His outward ways of
dealing.

**12. show mercies**—rather, I
*will excite* (in him) *feelings of mercy* towards you
[CALVIN].
**cause you to return**—permit
you to return to the peaceable enjoyment of the possessions from
which you are wishing to withdraw through fear of the Chaldeans. By
departing in disobedience they should incur the very evils they
wished thereby to escape; and by staying they should gain the
blessings which they feared to lose by doing so.

**13. if ye say,** &c.—avowed
rebellion against God, who had often (), as now, forbidden their going to Egypt, lest they should
be entangled in its idolatry.

**14. where we shall see no war**—Here
they betray their impiety in not believing God's promise ([Jeremiah 42:10](../../../kjv/jeremiah/42/10);
[Jeremiah 42:11](../../../kjv/jeremiah/42/11)), as if He were a liar
([1 John 5:10](../../../kjv/1-john/5/10)).

**15. wholly set your faces**—*firmly
resolve* ([Luke 9:51](../../../kjv/luke/9/51)) in spite
of all warnings ([Jeremiah 44:12](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/12)).

**16. sword, which ye feared, shall
overtake you**—The very evils we think to escape by sin, we bring
on ourselves thereby. What our hearts are most set on often proves
fatal to us. Those who think to escape troubles by changing their
place will find them wherever they go (). The "sword" here is that of Nebuchadnezzar, who
fulfilled the prediction in his expedition to Africa (according to
MEGASTHENES, a heathen
writer), 300 B.C.

**17. all the men**—excepting the
"small number" mentioned ([Jeremiah 44:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/14);
[Jeremiah 44:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/44/28)); namely, those who
were forced into Egypt against their will, Jeremiah, Baruch, &c.,
and those who took Jeremiah's advice and fled from Egypt before the
arrival of the Chaldeans.

**18. As mine anger,** c.—As ye
have already, to your sorrow, found Me true to My word, so shall ye
again ([Jeremiah 7:20](../../../kjv/jeremiah/7/20) [Jeremiah 18:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/18/16)).
**shall see this place no
more**—Ye shall not return to Judea, as those shall who have been
removed to Babylon.

**19. I have admonished**—literally,
"testified," that is, solemnly admonished, having
yourselves as My *witnesses;* so that if ye perish, ye
yourselves will have to confess that it was through your own fault,
not through ignorance, ye perished.

**20. dissembled in your
hearts**—rather, "ye have used deceit against your (own)
souls." It is not God, but yourselves, whom ye deceive, to your
own ruin, by your own dissimulation () [CALVIN]. But the
words following accord best with *English Version, ye have
dissembled in your hearts* (see on ) towards me, *when ye sent me* to consult God for you.

**21. declared it**—namely, the
divine will.
**I . . . but ye**—antithesis.
*I* have done my part; *but ye* do not yours. It is no
fault of mine that ye act not rightly.

**22. sojourn**—*for a time,*
until they could return to their country. They expected, therefore,
to be restored, in spite of God's prediction to the contrary.

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