John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 24:10

"And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers." — Jeremiah 24:10 (ASV)

He confirms the former verse—that God would then punish them with extreme rigor, by allowing the city and the inhabitants who remained to be given up to the will of their enemies. And Jeremiah still speaks as from the mouth of Moses, so that his prophecy might be more weighty, and that he might frighten those men who were so rebellious. There are here three kinds of punishments which we often encounter, under which all other punishments are included. But as God for the most part punishes the sins of men by pestilence, or by famine, or by war, He connects these three together when His purpose is to include all kinds of punishment.

He adds, Until they be consumed from the face of the land; he does not say “until they be consumed in the land,” but from the face of it, מעל , mol, from upon it. For the Jews were not consumed in their own country; but He consumed them by degrees elsewhere, so that they gradually pined away. They were driven into exile, and that was their final destruction. I have explained what this clause means in another place.

The Prophet adds, which I gave to them and to their fathers. His object here was to shake off from the Jews that foolish confidence with which they were inebriated. For as they had heard of the land in which they lived, that it was the rest of God, and as they knew that it had been given to them by an hereditary right, according to what had been promised to their fathers, they thought that it could never be taken away from them. They therefore became complacent in their sins, as though God was bound to them. The Prophet ridicules this folly by saying that the promise and favor of God would not prevent Him from depriving them of the land and its possession, and from rejecting them as though they were aliens, even though He had formerly adopted them as His children.

We now see the meaning of both parts of this vision. For the Prophet wished to alleviate the sorrow of the exiles when he said that their state would eventually be better; and so he promised that God would be reconciled to them after having chastised them for a time.

Thus it is no small comfort to us when we regard the end. For as the Apostle says to the Hebrews, when we feel the scourges of God, sorrow is a hindrance to patient suffering, as chastisement is for the present grievous, bitter, and difficult to be endured (Hebrews 12:11). It is therefore necessary, if we are to patiently submit to God, to consider the outcome. For until the sinner begins to taste of God’s grace and mercy, he will fret and murmur, or he will be dull and hardened; and certainly he will receive no comfort.

Afterwards the Prophet shows, on the other hand, that though God may spare us for a time, there is still no reason for us to indulge ourselves, for He will eventually make up for the delay by the heaviness of His punishment. The more indulgently He deals with us, the more grievous and dreadful will be His vengeance, when He sees that we have abused His forbearance.