Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 4:29

"Every city fleeth for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they go into the thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwelleth therein." — Jeremiah 4:29 (ASV)

The horsemen and bowmen. — A specially characteristic picture, as we see from the Nineveh sculptures, of Assyrian and Chaldean armies.

Thickets ... rocks. — Both words are Aramaic in the original. The first, elsewhere translated as “clouds,” is used here for the dark shadowy hiding places in which men sought shelter; the second is the root of the name Cephas (= Peter). On the caves of Palestine as places of refuge in time of war, see Isaiah 2:19 and 1 Samuel 13:6.