Why will death be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places the Lord has driven them?
The remnant spoken of here are those who survive the Lord’s judgment and are taken into exile in all the places where (the Lord) has driven them.
But their memories of the judgment and their lives in exile would be so devastating that they would prefer to be dead.1
It is the Lord of hosts
who has the final word in this section. He is the Lord almighty who rules over everything he created, including the heavenly bodies that the people of Judah worshipped. In the end the Lord will have the final say over his people, not the false gods they turned to.
3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, declares the LORD of hosts.