Jeremiah 18:17

17 As an east wind I scatter them before an enemy, The neck, and not the face, I shew them, 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, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways -- paths of old, To walk in paths -- a way not raised up,

16 To make their land become a desolation, A hissing age-during, Every passer by it is astonished, And bemoaneth with his head.

17 As an east wind I scatter them before an enemy, The neck, and not the face, I shew them, In the day of their calamity.'

18 And they say, Come, And we devise against Jeremiah devices, For law doth not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, Nor the word from the prophet, Come, and we smite him with the tongue, And we do not attend to any of his words.

19 Give attention, O Jehovah, unto me, And hearken to the voice of those contending with me.