Jeremiah 21:8 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And unto this people thou shalt say, &c. By the civil message which the king sent to Jeremiah it appeared that both he and the people began to have respect for him; but the reply which God obliged him to make was sufficient to crush that little respect, and to exasperate them against him more than ever. Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death Both the law and the prophets had often set before them life and death in another sense; life, if they would obey the voice of God; death, if they should persist in disobedience, Deuteronomy 30:19. But they had slighted that way of life which would have made them truly happy; to upbraid them with which the prophet here uses similar expressions, which signify, not as those of Moses, a fair proposal, but a melancholy dilemma, advising them, of two evils, to choose the least. And that lesser evil, a shameful and wretched captivity, is all the life now left for them to propose to themselves. He that abideth in this city And trusts to it to secure him; shall die by the sword Without the city; or by the famine, or pestilence within it. But he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans Giving up his vain hopes of safety in the city, and bringing his spirit down to his condition; shall live God had declared it to be his purpose to give up Judea and the neighbouring countries to the dominion of the Chaldeans: so they who would comply with his declared will should have their lives spared, the rest should be destroyed as fighting against God. And his life shall be unto him for a prey That is, he shall save his life with as much difficulty and hazard as a prey is taken from the mighty: he shall escape but very narrowly. Or, he shall think himself a considerable gainer by escaping with his life in so general a destruction. For I have set my face against this city To lay it waste and not to protect it; for evil Which shall have no good mixed with it, no mitigation, or merciful allay; and, therefore, you have no way of safety, but begging quarter of the Chaldeans, and surrendering yourselves prisoners of war. In vain did Rabshakeh persuade the Jews to do this, while they had God for them, Isaiah 36:16. But it was the best course they could take now, God being against them.