Jeremiah 18:7,8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, &c. God speaks thus concerning nations and kingdoms in his word, and by his prophets and ministers. Thus he told Jeremiah 1:10, that he had set him over the nations, to root out and pull down That is, to declare they should be rooted out and pulled down, or to make known the divine purposes concerning them. If that nation, against whom 1 have pronounced, turn, &c., I will repent, &c. Repentance in man produces repentance in God. The threatenings of God being conditional, when they are suspended by his long-suffering and mercy, or prevented by the amendment of the persons against whom they are denounced, he is said, in Scripture, to repent; not that the phrase implies that there is any change in him, but that there is a change in us; and that his conduct toward us, provided his denunciations were not conditional, is the same as if he repented or changed his mind. But the reader is desired to see what is said on this subject, Genesis 6:6.