Jeremiah 42:10 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.

If ye will still abide in this land - namely, under the Babylonian authority, to which God hath appointed. that all should be subject (Daniel 2:37-38). To resist the King of Babylon was to resist God.

Then will I build ... plant you - metaphor for I will firmly establish you (Jeremiah 24:6).

I repent me of the evil - (Jeremiah 18:8; Deuteronomy 32:36, "The Lord shall repent Himself for His servants, when He seeth that their power is gone, and that there is none shut up or left"). I am satisfied with the punishment I have inflicted on you, if only you add not a new offence (Grotius). God said to "repent" when he alters His outward ways of dealing.

Jeremiah 42:10

10 If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.