Jeremiah 18:17

17 Like the wind from the east, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.

Jeremiah 18:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 18:17

I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy,
&c.] As the east wind, which is generally strong and boisterous, drives the chaff and stubble, and anything that is light, before it, and scatters it here and there; so the Lord threatens to scatter the people of the Jews over the face of the earth, before their enemies, whom they should not be able to withstand. It denotes the power of the enemy God would make use of; the ease with which this should be done; and the utter dispersion of them; and is their present case: I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their
calamity;
that is, will not look upon them in a favourable way, nor with any pity and compassion for them, nor hear their cries; but turn his back upon them, and a deaf ear unto them, and give them no help and relief, or deliver them out of their calamities; but suffer them to continue upon them, and them to sink under them; see ( Proverbs 1:26-28 ) ; which refers to the same time of calamity as here.

Jeremiah 18:17 In-Context

15 But my people have forgotten me, they burn offerings to a delusion; they have stumbled in their ways, in the ancient roads, and have gone into bypaths, not the highway,
16 making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. All who pass by it are horrified and shake their heads.
17 Like the wind from the east, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity.
18 Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah—for instruction shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us bring charges against him, and let us not heed any of his words."
19 Give heed to me, O Lord, and listen to what my adversaries say!
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.