Jeremiah 4:6

6 Lift up a signal toward Zion, bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing, for I [am] bringing evil from [the] north, and a great destruction.

Jeremiah 4:6 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 4:6

Set up the standard toward Zion
Not on the tower of Zion, as Kimchi interprets it; but on some high place, pointing to Zion, and directing the country people to flee thither for safety; for the setting up of the standard here is not for enlisting of soldiers in order to fight, but as a sign of danger, and a direction where to flee from it: retire;
gather yourselves together in order to flee, as the word ^F16 is rendered in ( Isaiah 10:31 ) , though some render it, "be ye strengthened" {q}; take heart, and play the man; but this does not seem so agreeable to the context: stay not;
or, "stand not"; stand not in the place ye are in, but move from it in all haste, because of present danger: for I will bring evil from the north;
from Babylon, as Kimchi interprets it; which lay north to the land of Israel; and so designs the captivity Judah should be brought into there: and a great destruction
or, "breach" ^F18; which the Babylonians should make on the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 (wzyeh) "congregate vos, [sub.] ad fugiendum", Vatablus; "confirmate vos [ad fugiendum]", Piscator.
F17 "Confortamini", V. L. "corroboramiui", Castalio; "agite viriliter", Munster.
F18 (rbv) "contritionem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "confractionem", Cocceius.

Jeremiah 4:6 In-Context

4 Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns, and there is no [one who] extinguishes [it], because of the evil of your deeds."

5 Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say, "Blow a horn through the land, {call with a loud voice} and say, 'Be gathered and let us go into the fortified cities.'

6 Lift up a signal toward Zion, bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing, for I [am] bringing evil from [the] north, and a great destruction.

7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror, your cities will go to ruin {without} inhabitant.

8 Because of this gird yourselves [with] sackcloth, lament and wail, for {the burning anger} of Yahweh has not turned back from us.