(5) There shall he be until I visit him . . .--The word for "visit" is ambiguous, being used elsewhere both for "punishing" and "delivering." Its use in Jeremiah 29:10 is in favour of the latter meaning here. The prophet looks forward to a general deliverance, or at least mitigation of suffering, for the exiles in Babylon, and, though he does not in distinct terms predict that Zedekiah will share in it, seems to cherish the hope that he will not be altogether excluded. Of his fate after he arrived in Babylon we know nothing, but the absence of his name when Jehoiachin was released from his imprisonment (Jer. Iii. 31) by Evil-merodach suggests the conclusion that he was then dead.

Verse 5. - Until I visit him; i.e. until I take notice of him. "To visit" is used in a good (Jeremiah 27:22; Jeremiah 29:10) as well as in a bad sense (Jeremiah 6:15; Jeremiah 49:8), so that no definite announcement is made respecting Zedekiah's future. There was no object to gain by extending the scope of the revelation beyond the immediate present, and Zedekiah's offences did not require such an anticipative punishment as the clear prediction of the details of his fate (Jeremiah 39:6, 7; Jeremiah 52:11).

32:1-15 Jeremiah, being in prison for his prophecy, purchased a piece of ground. This was to signify, that though Jerusalem was besieged, and the whole country likely to be laid waste, yet the time would come, when houses, and fields, and vineyards, should be again possessed. It concerns ministers to make it appear that they believe what they preach to others. And it is good to manage even our worldly affairs in faith; to do common business with reference to the providence and promise of God.And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon,.... As he did in chains, from Riblah, where he was brought unto him after he was taken, endeavouring to make his escape, Jeremiah 52:8;

and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord; in taking him away by death; for he continued in Babylon to the time of his death, which was not violent, but natural; and, considering his circumstances, his captivity, imprisonment, and loss of sight, might be reckoned a visitation in mercy: though some understand this of God's visiting the people at the return of them from their seventy years' captivity; if Zedekiah lived till then, he must be a very old man; but of this we have no account, nor is it probable:

though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper; though they should sally out upon them, in order to beat them out of their trenches, and drive them from the walls of the city, yet without success.