Jeremias 4:6

6 Gather up and flee to Sion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, and great destruction.

Jeremias 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.


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.

Jeremias 4:6 In-Context

4 Circumcise yourselves to your God, and circumcise your hardness of heart, ye men of Juda, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my wrath go forth as fire, and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your devices.
5 Declare ye in Juda, and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say ye, Sound the trumpet in the land; cry ye aloud: say ye, Gather yourselves together, and let us enter into the fortified cities.
6 Gather up and flee to Sion: hasten, stay not: for I will bring evils from the north, and great destruction.
7 The lion is gone up from his lair, he has roused to the destruction of the nations, and has gone forth out of his place, to make the land desolate; and the cities shall be destroyed, so as to be without inhabitant.
8 For these things gird yourselves with sackclothes, and lament, and howl: for the anger of the Lord is not turned away from you.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.