And say unto them
The men of Judah, now in Egypt: thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
(See Gill on Jeremiah 42:15); behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my
servant;
as all men are by creation, and as he was in a very eminent sense, being an instrument in his hand of executing his designs, both on the Jews and other nations; him he would send for, and take to perform his counsel; secretly work upon and dispose his mind to such an undertaking, and lay a train of providences, and, by a concourse of them, bring him to Egypt to do his will: and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid;
which he had ordered the prophet to hide, and which he did by him; signifying, that the king at Babylon should come with his army against this city, and should take it, and set up his throne, and keep his court here: and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them;
his tent; he shall place here his beautiful one, as the word F9 signifies; this should be set up where these stones were laid, as if they were designed for the foundation of it, though they were only a symbol of it; and would be a token to the Jews, when accomplished, of the certainty of the divine prescience, and of prophecy, with respect to future events, even those the most minute and contingent.