Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 13:20

"Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?" — Jeremiah 13:20 (ASV)

Lift up your eyes. —The Hebrew verb is feminine and singular, the possessive pronoun masculine and plural. Assuming the reading to be correct, the irregularity may have been intended to combine the ideal personification of Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, as the natural protectress of the other cities, with the concrete multitude of her inhabitants. The beautiful flock of those cities had been committed to her care, and she is now called to give an account of her stewardship.

Them that come from the north. —These are, of course, as in Jeremiah 1:14 and elsewhere, the invading army of the Chaldeans, and probably also their Scythian allies.