John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 13:24

"Therefore will I scatter them, as the stubble that passeth away, by the wind of the wilderness." — Jeremiah 13:24 (ASV)

This is an inference which Jeremiah draws from the last verse. As long as there is any hope of repentance, there is also room for mercy; God often declares that he is long-suffering. Then the most wicked might object and say that God is too rigid because he does not wait until they return to a sound mind. Now the Prophet had said that it was all over with the people. Here, therefore, he meets the objection and shows that extreme calamity was justly brought upon them by God, because the Jews had obstinately hardened themselves in their vices and wickedness.

Therefore, after showing that corruption was inherent in them, like blackness in the skin of an Ethiopian and spots in panthers, he now comes to this conclusion: I will scatter them as stubble which passes away by the wind of the desert. This scattering denotes their exile; as though he had said, “I will banish them, so that they may know that they are deprived of the inheritance in which they place their safety and their happiness.”

For the Jews gloried only in this: that they were God’s people, because the Temple was built among them and because they lived in the land promised to them. They then thought that God was, in a way, tied to them while they possessed that inheritance. Hence Jeremiah declares that they would become like stubble carried away by the wind.

He mentions the wind of the desert, that is, the wind of the south, which was the most violent in that country. The south wind, as we know, was also pestilential; the air also was more disturbed by the south wind than by any other, for it raised storms and tempests. Therefore, Scripture, in describing any turbulent movement, often adopts this comparison. Some think that Jeremiah alludes to the Egyptians, but I see no reason to seek out any refined explanation when this way of speaking is common.

Then by this comparison to the south wind, God indicates the great power of his vengeance, as though he had said, “Even if the Jews think that they have a firm standing in the promised land, they are wholly deceived, for God will with irresistible force expel them.” And he compares them to stubble, even though they boasted that they were like trees planted in that land; and we have previously seen that they had been planted, as if by the hand of God. But they lacked the living root of piety; they were therefore to be driven far away like stubble.

Let us then learn from this passage not to abuse the patience of God. For though he may suspend for a time the punishment we deserve, yet when he sees that we continue in our wickedness, he will resort to extreme measures and will deal with us without mercy as those who are past remedy.