Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

4:5-6 Judah and Jerusalem must prepare for war. The trumpet announces peril, so the people living in the unwalled and unprotected countryside should flee into the fortified cities for protection. The threat comes from the north (1:13-16).

4:7 lion. Many ancient nations likened themselves to lions, but here the text refers to Babylon, the chief destroyer of nations in Jeremiah's times. The land will be a waste . . . without inhabitant, so fleeing (as in vv. 5-6) will be fruitless.

4:8 Lamenting and wailing (both ancient funeral practices) are appropriate, for God will vent his fierce anger on the unjust and unloving people (v. 4).

4:9 In that day refers to the day of the Lord, the day God judges, whether in history or at the final judgment that ends history. (See note on Amos 5:18-20 and The Day of the Lord in the Prophets.) King and officials . . . priests lead the people astray (Jer. 2:8) and oppose Jeremiah (1:17-19), so they will be useless when judgment comes.

4:10 Jeremiah speaks out of his agony of soul. He claims that God has said all shall be well when in fact divine wrath is coming. Apparently he is quoting the false prophets at this point (6:14; 14:13; 23:16-17). He wonders why God has allowed these prophets to speak at all if they are so wrong. But elsewhere in Scripture, God sometimes sends deceiving spirits into the false prophets (see note on 1 Sam. 16:14). Though God himself never does evil, he sometimes sends evil agents to accomplish his purposes of judgment.

4:11-12 A scorching sirocco (hot wind) bringing sand and dust is compared to the effects of the enemy's army. Such a wind only destroys; it does not winnow or cleanse (cf. Ruth 3:2; Isa. 30:24; on the process of winnowing, see note on Ps. 1:4).

4:13 The army is described as coming up suddenly like clouds before a storm, riding as hard as a whirlwind, and moving as swiftly as eagles. Jeremiah realizes his people are ruined in the face of such a foe.

4:15-17 Watchmen from the territory of Dan, the northernmost part of the old Israel, warn that siege warfare is coming to Jerusalem and Judah's cities because of Judah's rebellion against God.

4:18 The defeat will be so bitter it will touch Israel's heart, the very place God has tried to touch with his love.

4:19 Jeremiah responds feelingly. He cries, "My anguish, my anguish," literally, "My entrails, my entrails," referring to internal digestive organs. Trouble in the entrails was a metaphor for extreme physical distress (Job 30:27; Lam. 1:20; 2:11). His heart (the center of his affections, will, and emotions) also trembles at the sound of the trumpet (Jer. 4:5).

4:21 Like many Bible characters, Jeremiah wonders how long (Ps. 79:5; 89:46; Isa. 6:11) he must see the battle standard and hear the battle trumpet (Jer. 4:5-6).

4:22 God responds by stating that his people lack saving knowledge and a proper understanding of his ways and words (3:15; Hos. 4:1-3). Their only wisdom is in doing evil. Thus, they are foolish and stupid children. This strong language seeks to shock the people into repentance and to inform Jeremiah that his sympathy may be misplaced.

4:23-25 Jeremiah portrays the coming judgment as a reversal of the creation process. The earth is once again without form and void (Gen. 1:2), the heavens have no light (Gen. 1:3), the mountains and hills quake (Gen. 1:9-11), and mankind (Gen. 1:26-31) and birds (Gen. 1:20-23) disappear.

4:26 The fruitfulness of the Promised Land will be reversed (cf. note on 4:5-31). The fruitful land (3:19) has become a desert in the wake of God's fierce anger (4:8).

4:27 Despite the seeming totality of the destruction, God will not make a full end of the whole land (or "whole earth"). The creation will endure because of God's mercy (Hos. 11:1-9) and eternal plan (Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Pet. 3:1-13).

4:28 Just as God once spoke and the world came into existence, so now he will speak and devastation will come to pass. He will not relent, or turn back, for he knows there will be no repentance.

4:30 Jerusalem will try to make herself beautiful to her lovers (her old allies) but the efforts will be in vain.

4:31 The daughter of Zion refers to Jerusalem and the temple area. Jerusalem will suffer like a woman . . . giving birth to her first child when she faces her murderers (Lam. 1:8-22).