John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 32:22

"and gavest them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey;" — Jeremiah 32:22 (ASV)

Here the fruitfulness of the land is highlighted, so that the ingratitude of the people for their redemption might appear less excusable. God had already bound them, as it were, more than enough to Himself. But when the wealth and fruitfulness of the land were added, God's bounty was doubled, which, by a stronger and more sacred chain, bound the people to obedience. However, when they buried, as it were, both these benefits, their impiety was extreme, and their ingratitude was all the more contemptible. Therefore, we see why the Prophet said that the land was given to the people.

At the same time, he mentions the reason: specifically, because it had been promised to their fathers. However, it is not right to suppose that the fathers had any merits, as Jerome says, who ignorantly misinterprets this passage. For Jerome says that nothing was due to the people based on merit, but that the fathers were nevertheless worthy because of their great virtues.

But we know that God’s covenant was gratuitous from the beginning. The Prophet, therefore, means here that the land was not given as a reward for the people's works, but it was given to them because it had been gratuitously promised. And he mentions the oath because God, considering the weakness of Abraham and the fathers, confirmed His own promise with an oath.

But as I have spoken elsewhere at greater length on this subject, I will only touch on it briefly now. However, whenever an oath is mentioned, let us understand that a reproof is indirectly given to the inconsistency of humans, who always waver and can never fully rest on God’s promise unless they are helped by this confirmation.

Regardless, the Prophet here reminds us that God confirmed the pledge He had given to the fathers when the people entered the land, because they could not have obtained it by their own valor or by any other means.

In short, Jeremiah directs the people's attention to God’s gratuitous covenant, so that they might understand that they became possessors of the land by no other right than this: that God, of His own free will, had promised Abraham and his descendants that He would give them that land.

He speaks, as I have just said, of the fruitfulness of the land, because it was God’s design to draw the people in every way, so that they might continue in His service.

And when the people, treated so bountifully, did not acknowledge God’s favor, their extreme and contemptible foolishness was fully revealed.

Therefore, what the Prophet means is that the land was most fruitful, where the people had every abundance, and yet they despised God, the giver of so much bounty, as the next passage will show.