Yet a small number that shall escape the sword
The sword of the king of Babylon, and the other judgments, and
which would be but very few; "men of number" F11, as in
the Hebrew text, which might easily be numbered; Jeremiah the
prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah, and some few righteous
persons among them, as Kimchi and Abarbinel observe: shall
return out of the land of Egypt into the land of
Judah;
they shall make their escape out of the land of Egypt, whither
they did not go willingly; and, by one providence or another,
shall come back to their native country, the land of Judea, When
the rest will not; which must be a distinguishing your to them:
and all the remnant of Judah, that are gone into the land
of Egypt to
sojourn there, shall know what words shall stand, mine or
theirs;
those that are left of the sword, famine, and pestilence, shall
know experimentally, by facts laid down, whose words have their
effect and accomplishment, stand firm and sure; whether theirs,
that promised impunity and safety, peace and prosperity, in their
idolatrous practices; or the Lord's, which threatened with ruin
and destruction. The Lord is true, and every man a liar; whatever
devices are in a man's heart, the counsel of the Lord, that shall
stand.