And they shall know that I [am] the Lord,.... As in Ezekiel 6:7;
[and that] I have not said in vain; either within himself, in his own purposes and decrees; so the Targum,
"I have not in vain decreed in my word;''
or by the mouth of the prophets:
that I would do this evil unto them; in carrying them captive, and dispersing them in other lands; for this is not the evil of sin, but the evil of punishment, or of affliction.