But if they will not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the LORD.

But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.

And if they do not hearken, Then I have plucked up that nation, Plucking up and destroying, An affirmation of Jehovah!'

But if they will not give ear, then I will have that nation uprooted, and given to destruction, says the Lord.

But if they will not hearken, then will I pluck up that nation, plucking up and destroying it, saith the LORD.

But if they will not listen, I will uproot that nation unto utter destruction and perdition, says the Lord."

Quod si non audierint, tunc evellam (copula etiam hic accipitur pro adverbio temporis) gentem illam, evellendo et perdendo, dicit Jehova.

As he had shewn that there was a sure hope of salvation to his own people, when the Gentiles would embrace his mercy, so he now threatens the Gentiles with destruction in case they repented not; for he had promised to be merciful to the Gentiles conditionally, and said, -- "If they learn the ways of my people, if they submit to my authority:" but now he says, if they will not hear, etc We hence see that God here threatens extreme vengeance to the Gentiles if they subjected not themselves to his yoke, so as to render obedience to him. His object, no doubt, was to terrify the Jews as well as the nations; for as the Gentiles could not with impunity despise God, though unknown to them, how inexcusable would the Jews be, who had from their infancy imbibed the true knowledge of the law, if, after the manner of the Gentiles, they were perverse and intractable? We in short see that God, on one side, sweetly allured the Jews to render a wining obedience to his law, and, on the other, he threatened them; for as he could by no means bear with the perverseness of the Gentiles, much less could the Jews hope to escape punishment. This is the import of the passage. Now follows another prophecy --

I will - destroy that nation - Several of them did not obey, and are destroyed. Of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Chaldeans, not one vestige remains. The sixteenth verse is supposed to be a promise of the conversion of the Gentiles. See Ephesians 2:13-22.
From the thirteenth verse to the end is a different discourse, and Dahler supposes it to have been delivered in the seventh or eighth year of the reign of Jehoiakim.

But if they will not obey,.... Or "hear" (k); the word of the Lord, and hearken to the ministers of the Gospel, and be subject to the ordinances of it; or as the Targum,
"will not receive instruction:''
I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord: root it up from being a nation, strip it of all its privileges and enjoyments, and destroy it with an everlasting destruction; see Zac 14:16.
(k) "audierint", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "audient", Cocceius.

(Isaiah 60:12).
Many of these figurative acts being either not possible, or not probable, or decorous, seem to have existed only in the mind of the prophet as part of his inward vision. [So CALVIN]. The world he moved in was not the sensible, but the spiritual, world. Inward acts were, however, when it was possible and proper, materialized by outward performance but not always, and necessarily so. The internal act made a naked statement more impressive and presented the subject when extending over long portions of space and time more concentrated. The interruption of Jeremiah's official duty by a journey of more than two hundred miles twice is not likely to have literally taken place.

But they who hearken not, namely, to the invitation to take Jahveh as the true God, these shall be utterly destroyed. נתושׁ ואבּד, so to pluck them out that they may perish. The promise is Messianic, cf. Jeremiah 16:19; Isaiah 56:6., Micah 4:1-4, etc., inasmuch as it points to the end of God's way with all nations.