Jeremiah 4:6

6 Set up a banner toward Zion; take to flight, stay not! 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 for Jehovah, 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, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

5 Declare ye in Judah, and cause it to be heard in Jerusalem, and say, ... and blow the trumpet in the land, cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced cities.

6 Set up a banner toward Zion; take to flight, stay not! For I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction.

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

8 For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl! for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned away from us.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit. 'breaking;' and so ver. 20.