So that none of the remnant of Judah, which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain, that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return but such as shall escape.
None ... shall escape ... that they should return ... The Jews had gone to Egypt with the idea that a return to Judea, which they thought hopeless to their brethren in Babylon, would be an easy matter to themselves in Egypt: the exact reverse should happen in the case of each respectively. The Jews whom God sent to Babylon were there weaned from idolatry, and were restored; those who went to Egypt, by their perverse will were hardened in idolatry, and perished there.
Have a desire - literally, lift up their soul - i:e., their hopes (cf. Jeremiah 22:27, margin; Deuteronomy 24:15).
None shall return but such as shall escape - namely, "the small number" (Jeremiah 44:28) who were brought by force into Egypt, as Jeremiah and Baruch, and those who, in accordance with Jeremiah's advice, should flee from Egypt before the arrival of the Chaldeans (note, Jeremiah 42:17). Calvin, less probably, refers the words to the return of the exiles in Babylon, which the Jews in Egypt regarded as hopeless.