The words, Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel
in Jeremiah 32:36 indicate that the Lord’s response to Jeremiah’s prayer moves from judgment to salvation. The Lord says concerning this city of which you say, It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence: Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety.
Jeremiah has proclaimed the handing over of Jerusalem to the Babylonians (see Jeremiah 32:3, Jeremiah 32:24; Jeremiah 34:2;Jeremiah 38:18) and the Lord has repeated this message himself (Jeremiah 32:28). But with the words you say
in Jeremiah 32:36, the Lord turns these words concerning Jerusalem into a disputation between what Jeremiah and the people (you say
is plural) are saying versus what the Lord is now saying1. This immediately raises the question in the readers mind as to how this sudden change from judgment to salvation has taken place.
This promise of salvation is for them
whom the Lord drove to different countries. It is not just for the people of Judah who are listening to these words, but it is for all the people of northern Israel and Judah who find themselves in exile after 587 BC (see Jeremiah 32:30)2.
3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it;