John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 34:22

"Behold, I will command, saith Jehovah, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant." — Jeremiah 34:22 (ASV)

He shows the same thing in other words, but the repetition was not in vain, for what we read here seemed incredible to the Jews. For they raised up their horns when they saw King Nebuchadnezzar departing from the city. Lest this vain confidence should deceive them, he again declared to them that God conducted the war, as if he had said that the Chaldeans had not thoughtlessly taken up arms, but as God had determined, and as he had commanded them.

He does not indeed speak of an open command, for it was not the purpose of the Chaldeans to obey God or to render service to him; but he speaks of his hidden providence. God is said to command when the ungodly are guided by his secret impulse, for he can turn them as he pleases, according to what is said in other places, “I will hiss for the Egyptians,” or for the Assyrians, or for the Chaldeans.

The same is the meaning here, when he says, Behold, I will command, etc. In short, God commands the wicked, he commands diseases, he commands the sword, he commands the famine and the pestilence; and yet there is no reason or understanding in the sword, in the pestilence, or in the famine. But Scripture thus teaches us that all things are under his control, so that nothing can touch us, except as far as God intends by these to chastise or humble us.

And for the same purpose are these words, Behold, I, הנני, enni, etc. God shows that he was present, though the Chaldeans were not now seen in the land of Judah. The manner of his presence he sets forth by saying, I will bring them back to this city, and they shall attack it, and take it, and burn it with fire. These things have been elsewhere explained, so I will therefore now pass them by.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we do not cease continually to provoke your wrath against us—O grant that we, being terrified by your warnings, may obey your wise counsels. And that, by thus anticipating your vengeance which would otherwise remain on us, we may labor to be so reconciled to you that we may truly find you to be our Father and the guardian of our salvation, until at length, having finished our course here, we come to that blessed rest which you have prepared for us in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We saw in the last Lecture what the Prophet denounced on the Jews—that as they had acted treacherously towards their servants, God would punish them by making them servants perpetually. When Nebuchadnezzar went out to meet the Egyptians, there was some appearance of freedom being granted, for the Jews thought that they were afterwards to be free. But as they had deceived their servants, so the Prophet says that they were greatly mistaken in thinking that they were to be perpetually free, because Nebuchadnezzar would soon return. So he declares that they were doomed to servitude, so that the liberty in which they gloried would prove illusory.