This prayer, like the one in verse 21, is not revengeful. Jerusalem leaves the judgment to God and does not want to take it into her own hands (see Romans 12:19) This attitude is very different from the pride of the Judeans, who remained in Judea and tried to take the fight into their own hands (Jeremiah 40:7 – 44:30).
Although Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were used by God, they were also God’s enemies and were fully responsible for all the cruelty they committed Jeremiah 51:33–37). God answers his people when they pray that he will punish his enemies—even today (Galatians 1:9; Revelation 6:9). God answered this prayer of Jerusalem in 539 BC, when Babylon itself was taken over by the Medes and Persians.
This prayer is inspired not by anger but by deep grief.
22 “Let all their evildoing come before you, and deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my transgressions; for my groans are many, and my heart is faint.”