Jeremiah 36:3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

It may be that the house of Judah will hear, &c. That is, will hearken, and lay to heart, all the evil, &c., that they may return, &c. Blaney translates the verse, “Peradventure the house of Judah may hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them, so as to return every one from his evil way, and I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” See the like expression, Jeremiah 36:7; Jeremiah 26:3; Ezekiel 12:3; Amos 5:15; in which places God is introduced as speaking after the manner of men, and using such methods as, in human probability, might be most likely to prevail: compare Jeremiah 8:6. These, and expressions of the like kind, sufficiently indicate that God's foreknowledge of future events lays no restraint on the will of man, nor takes away the liberty of human actions. That I may forgive their iniquity and their sin Forgiveness of sin in Scripture sometimes signifies the acquitting of a sinner from the obligation sin had laid him under to eternal death; sometimes the remission of a temporal punishment: it may here be understood as comprehending both, though it is probable the latter is principally intended.