Jeremiah 4:29 - Exposition

The whole city . The reading of which this is a version can hardly be the right one; for "the whole city" can only be Jerusalem, and in Jeremiah 4:6 the people outside are bidden to take refuge in the capital. Hence Ewald, Hitzig, and Payne Smith would slightly amend the word rendered "city," so as to translate "the whole land" (of Judah). Shall flee ; literally , fleeth . So afterwards render, "have gone … is forsaken," "dwelleth." It is a vivid dramatic representation of the effects of the invasion. Bowmen . It is singular that Herodotus should say nothing about the use of the bow by the Chaldeans. But the monuments give ample evidence that they were a people of archers. So of course were the Scythians, as Herodotus testifies. The rooks ; i . e . the limestone caverns which abound in Palestine, and which were frequently used as strongholds and hiding-places (see 6:2 ; 15:8 ; 1 Samuel 13:6 ; 1 Samuel 14:11 ; 1 Samuel 24:3 (especially); 1 Kings 18:13 ).