Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 4:26

"I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of Jehovah, [and] before his fierce anger." — Jeremiah 4:26 (ASV)

The fruitful place. —The Carmel, or vine-land, became as “the wilderness.” The Hebrew article points probably to the well-known desert of the wanderings.

At the presence of the Lord. —Literally, from before Jehovah, from before the heat of his anger. The original has the emphasis of repeating the preposition.