Jeremiah 4:6

6 Set up the standard toward Zion. Retire, stay not! For I will bring 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 the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

5 "Declare ye in Judah and publish in Jerusalem, and say, `Blow ye the trumpet in the land!' Cry, gather together and say, `Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities!'

6 Set up the standard toward Zion. Retire, stay not! For I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction."

7 The lion has come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way. He has gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

8 For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl; for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.