Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will set my face upon you for evil: and I will destroy all Juda.

'Therefore, thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am setting my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah,

So this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said: See, my face will be turned against you for evil, for the cutting off of all Judah;

For this reason, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil. And I will disperse all of Judah.

Propterea sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Deus Israel, Ecce ego pono faciem meam contra vos in malum et ad excidendum totum Jehudah;

He again denounces punishment on the obstinate; nor is it a wonder that these threatenings were so often repeated, since he had to do with men so ferocious and refractory. The reason then why he denounced on them God's judgment, was because they boldly derided him; and it will become more evident from what follows how necessary was such vehemence. And first, indeed, the Prophet briefly shews that all those would perish who had yet falsely imagined that they could not otherwise be safe than by fleeing into Egypt. Then Jeremiah here reproves and condemns their false and vain confidence. And then he explains the manner when he says, I will take away all the remnant of Judah, who have set their face to come to Egypt, etc. By these words and the following, God intimates that the Jews had in vain sought hiding-places in Egypt, because there he would inflict on them the punishment which they had deserved. He names the sword and the famine; the third kind he omits here, but he will mention it presently. Then he says that they were to perish, partly by the sword and partly by famine, and in order to speak more emphatically, he uses different words, They shall be consumed by famine, they shall fall by the sword, they shall all be consumed, and then he says, from the least to the greatest. At length he adds, And they shall be a curse. We have said elsewhere that the word 'lh, ale, sometimes means a curse, though it properly signifies an oath; and the reason is, because men in swearing often introduce a curse, "Let God curse me," -- "Let me perish." Then he says, that the Jews would become an example of a curse; for in making an oath this would be the common form, "Let God destroy me as he destroyed the Jews." He afterwards adds, an astonishment, because all would be horrified at the very sight of their calamity. It follows in the last place, a curse and a reproach, of which we have spoken before. Let us now proceed, --

All Judah - i. e., all Judah in Egypt, yet even there with exceptions (see Jeremiah 44:14, Jeremiah 44:28), while Judah in Babylon was entirely exempt from this denunciation.

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Because of these sins of idolatry, impenitence, and disobedience:
I will set my face against you for evil; to bring the evil of punishment upon them, for the evil of sin committed by them: this the Lord determined with himself, and resolved to do; which the phrase, "setting his face against them", is expressive of, by way of retaliation for their setting their faces to go down to Egypt, as well as of his wrath and indignation against them:
and to cut off all Judah; not the whole tribe of Judah; not those that were in Babylon, which were by far the greatest number of that tribe; but those that were in Egypt.

Behold, I will set my face against you for evil--(See on Leviticus 17:10).
and to cut off all Judah--that is, all the idolaters; Jeremiah 44:28 shows that some returned to Judea (compare Jeremiah 42:17).