Jeremiah 44:14

“So that none of the remnant of Judah, etc.] Which were left in the land of Judea after the captivity: which are gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or remain; escape either the sword, or the famine, or the pestilence, or remain in the land of Egypt, or in the land of the living; so general should be the destruction: that they should return into the land of Judah, to the which they have a desire to return there; or, “have lift up their soulsf795 to return there”: most earnestly desire it, and have raised hopes and expectations of it; for it seems that those Jews that went into Egypt did not go with a design to settle there for ever; but to return to their own land, when…”

“none . . . shall escape . . . that they should return, &c.--The Jews had gone to Egypt with the idea that a return to Judea, which they thought hopeless to their brethren in Babylon, would be an easy matter to themselves in Egypt: the exact reverse should happen in the case of each respectively. The Jews whom God sent to Babylon were there weaned from idolatry, and were restored; those who went to Egypt by their perverse will were hardened in idolatry, and perished there. have a desire--literally, "lift up (their) soul," that is, their hopes (compare Jer 22:27, Margin; Deu 24:15, Margin). none shall return but such as shall escape--namely, the "small number" (Jer 44:28) who were brought by…”

“Literally, “And there shall not be to the remnant of Judah, which are going to sojourn there in the land of Egypt, one that escapes or remains etc.” The word rendered “escapes” means one who slips away, saves himself by a stealthy flight Genesis 14:13; the word “remains,” one who survives when all the rest perish Job 18:19. Of all those now going down to Egypt none shall return to Judaea except a few miserable fugitives, who shall steal away as men who flee in battle 2 Samuel 19:3. For really years Jewish settlers had gone to Egypt in great numbers, and these old settlers would be treated in the same way as the Egyptians, but these fugitives, with no knowledge of the Egyptian language or…”

“For none - Only such shall escape, as have been forced into Egypt against their wills; and as did not fall in with the idolatry of the Egyptians. Jeremiah 44:15”

“So: It is evident from verse 28, that some Jews were to escape the general destruction in Egypt, and to return into their own country, though but a few; and the same thing is implied in the latter clause of this verse. But the former part excludes from the number of those who should escape every individual of those who are properly termed "the remnant of Judah;" those who had willingly and rebelliously "set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there," on a presumption that they knew better than God how to consult their own restoration. The few, then, who were destined to escape, were to be such as had come into the land of Egypt with Johanan by compulsion, or had previously fled…”