A wind more vehement than that shall come from me now will I also pronounce judgments against them.
The chapter opens with God pleading for a real return. Then it says what comes if Judah refuses: a wind off the bare heights, sweeping toward Jerusalem. Two questions follow. Why send a wind too strong to winnow with? And who speaks the sentence at the end of the verse?
The wind here belongs to the threshing floor. A farming tool lies behind the picture.
The fan was a small shovel, used to throw a portion of wheat up into the air so that the wind might carry away the chaff. Isaiah 30:24; Jeremiah 4:11. It is also used as a symbol of the judgments of God, Isaiah 41:16; Jeremiah 15:7; Jeremiah 51:2; and of the discriminating power of the testimony of the Lord Jesus. Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17.
Winnowing separates and saves the grain. This wind is too strong for that careful work. And it is no random force.
God uses the wind, as He uses everything else, to work out His purposes with man. Exodus 10:13; Psalm 135:7; Ezekiel 13:13.
The storm blowing toward Judah is not weather. Commentators give it a name.
Verses 5-13. This is the first definite announcement of the coming judgment from the north. Jeremiah had already seen it in the vision of the boiling pot facing north (chapter 1). The lion who comes, the destroyer of the nations, who makes the land desolate, is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. It is a very vivid description of the approaching judgment.
One cause lies under the whole collapse.
"A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out." That refers to Nebuchadnezzar. "He has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant." … No power will be found anywhere because God was forsaken.
The verse does not end with an army. It ends with God Himself pronouncing sentence. Wind, cloud and fire in the prophets mark more than a military threat.
The vision comes from the north, for a storm cloud of divine indignation from the north (Babylon) was to burst over the house of Judah. The whirlwind, the cloud, and the fire that the prophet Ezekiel saw are symbols of glory, the divine presence and judgment. (See Psalm 18:8-13; Habakkuk 3; Jeremiah 4:12-13.)
The judgment announced here is not sudden temper. It comes at the end of a long appeal.
Jeremiah 4 takes up again the subject of chapters 2 and 3. Applying it to the people of that day, it tells them that if they return, it must be to the Lord Himself. Neither forms nor half-measures would be of any use. After verse 4 the prophet announces the certain judgment of God. It would come from the north and fall upon Jerusalem in destruction.
Another road stood open the whole time. It was personal, not ceremonial.
The pathway of restoration is a return to Himself, not to outward observances, and nothing short of that. "If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return" (Jeremiah 4). As for His people — blessed be His name — nothing less than their heart satisfies our God.
Jeremiah aimed at the heart of a people sure of their religious standing. The same test stands now.
With pleadings and warnings he works to reach them. It is the same today. God must reach us in the heart and in the spirit, in the very centre of our being. Without that we are strangers to the living God, even though, like these Jews, we call ourselves "the people of God" and have priests and a form of religion. … But, as at all times, God reserves a remnant. These truly turn to the Lord Himself and are true in heart to Him (Jeremiah 4:27 and 5:18). So He will not make a full end of the nation.
- Wind after refusal. God asked for a return to Himself, not forms or half-measures. This wind is what follows when a people refuse that call.
- Wind too strong. A fan lifts grain so the breeze can carry off the husks. This blast is past sifting. Scripture uses the fan as a figure of God's judgments.
- Wind named. The storm from the north is Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer already seen in Jeremiah's vision of the boiling pot.
- Wind divine. Whirlwind, cloud and fire are not just weather or war — they mark God's own presence and indignation against His people.
- Wind limited. No defence stands where God is forsaken, yet He keeps a remnant true in heart and will not make a full end.
Behold, he cometh up as clouds, and his chariots are as a whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are destroyed.
Jeremiah 4 has been calling Judah back to God, and now the warning gets specific. An army is coming with the speed of a storm — but who sends it, and could anything have stopped it?
The chapter does not leave the threat vague. It calls the people home, sounds the alarm, and names the invader.
Jeremiah 4 summons the people to return to the Lord, and this in truth of heart, in case His fury breaks out and burns like fire. Let the trumpet gather them to the fortified cities, for destruction comes from the north. It is Nebuchadnezzar… The prophet next tells Jerusalem plainly that these bitter things fall on her because of her sins.
The warning was not new. Jeremiah had already seen it in a picture at the start of the book.
Verses 5-13. This is the first definite announcement of the coming judgment from the north. Jeremiah had seen it in the vision of the boiling pot facing north (chapter 1). The lion who comes, the destroyer of the Gentiles, who makes the land desolate, is Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.
Clouds, whirlwind and eagles all say one thing: speed. Habakkuk describes the Chaldean army in almost the same words, and one writer sets the two side by side.
Then follows the vivid and terrible description of the Chaldean power: "Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on. Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour" (Hab. 1:8). More than once Jeremiah uses the same expressions (Jer. 4:13; 5:6; etc.)… The swiftness and agility of the Chaldeans were like a pack of hungry wolves rushing on silently. With gleaming eyes glowing in the dark, they were sure to reach their prey. Just at the right moment the horsemen came storming on, swift as eagles.
Horses stand for the same handful of qualities all through the Bible, and this verse is one of the examples.
So they represent strength (Job 39:19; Ps. 147:10), swiftness (Jer. 4:13; Hab. 1:8), fearlessness (Job 39:18; Jer. 8:6), majesty (Esther 6:8), and strength in the battle.
The chariots race, but they are not the real power in the scene. One writer places Nebuchadnezzar in a line of rulers God used to discipline others, and then judged in turn.
God might use Jeroboam to discipline Solomon and his house. He might use the kings of Assyria to discipline Jeroboam's subjects. He might use Nebuchadnezzar to discipline Judah and its kings. But all these in their turn God has had to judge. These rods of His anger (Isa. 10:5) were no more faithful to God than the people He used them against.
The cry "Woe to us!" has a history behind it. Verse 10 raises a hard question: had God Himself misled the people with a promise of peace?
Verse 10 does not mean that Jeremiah is blaming the Lord for deceiving the people. Jeremiah did not preach peace, but the false prophets did. They came and spoke in the name of Jehovah, saying that there would be peace. And Jehovah permitted these prophets, and their message, as a judgment. And so they were deceived.
Scripture treats that pattern as permanent, not local to Judah.
"While people are saying, 'There is peace and security,' then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape"… Sudden destruction indeed hangs over those who trust themselves and their own thoughts, rejecting the testimony of God.
The chapter had already named the way out, and it set the pattern for every later return.
A return must be a return to Him, Jehovah; anything less is not enough. Their abominations must be judged and put away. Everyone who has drifted away must return in the same way — a true return to the Lord with confession of sin, self-judgment, and turning from evil.
- Named. The one coming up like clouds is Nebuchadnezzar, the destroyer from the north. Jeremiah had already seen him in the vision of the boiling pot.
- Swift. Chariots like a whirlwind and horses faster than eagles stand for speed. Like wolves after prey, this army was sure to reach its target.
- Sent. He is only a rod in God's hand to discipline Judah. God judged such rods in turn, since they were no more faithful than the people they struck.
- Deceived. The cry of ruin is bitter because false prophets had promised peace in God's name. God let that message run on as part of the judgment.
- Return. The one road out was a real return to the Lord: confession of sin, self-judgment, and evil put away.