(7-10) At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation... — The words carry the thoughts of the prophet back to those which had been stamped indelibly on his memory when he was first called to his work (Jeremiah 1:10). He is now taught that that work was throughout conditional. In bold anthropomorphic speech Jehovah represents himself as changing His purpose, even suddenly, “in an instant,” if the nation that is affected by it passes from evil to good or from good to evil. The seeming change is but the expression of an unchanged eternal Law of Righteousness, dealing with men according to their works. This, and not the assertion of an arbitrary, irresistibly predestinating will, was the lesson the prophet had been taught by the parable of the potter’s wheel.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 18:7
Jeremiah 18:7-10
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10 If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.