Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 16:19

"O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, [even] vanity and things wherein there is no profit." — Jeremiah 16:19 (ASV)

O Lord, my strength, and my fortress. —The words speak of a returning confidence in the prophet’s mind, and find utterance in what is practically (though the Hebrew words are not the same) an echo of Psalms 18:2, or more closely of Psalms 28:1; Psalms 28:8; Psalms 59:17; 2 Samuel 22:3.

The Gentiles shall come unto you. —The sin and folly of Israel are painted in contrast with the prophet’s vision of the future. Then, in that far-off time of which other prophets had spoken (Micah 4:1; Isaiah 2:2), the Gentiles should come to Jerusalem, turning from the “vanities” they had inherited; and yet Israel, who had inherited a truer faith, was now abasing herself even to their level or below it. Israel had answered in the affirmative the question which seemed to admit only of an answer in the negative: Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?