Which say, It is not near; let us build houses: this city is the caldron, and we be the flesh. It is not near - That is, the threatened invasion.
This city is the caldron, and we be the flesh - See the vision of the seething pot, Jeremiah 1:13. These infidels seem to say: "We will run all risks, we will abide in the city. Though it be the caldron, and we the flesh, yet we will share its fate: if it perish, we will perish with it." Or they may allude to the above prediction of Jeremiah, in order to ridicule it: "We were to have been boiled long ago: but the fulfillment of that prediction is not near yet."