John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 14:18

"If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, they that are sick with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge." — Jeremiah 14:18 (ASV)

He confirms the same thing in other words, not because what he had said was obscure, but because he knew that he was speaking to the deaf, or that their sloth was such that they needed many goads. He says, in short, that there would be no defense in the city for the people to shield them from the punishment that was at hand, and that if they went into the fields the whole land would be covered with enemies, who would destroy them. This is the sum of it all.

But he speaks as if he saw the event with his own eyes: If I go out into the field, he says, their carcasses meet me, for the enemy destroys with his drawn sword all who venture to go out. Then he says, If I go into the city, there famine kills those whom the enemy has not reached. As he had said before, Behold, all were cast forth in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. But what he had said of the streets of Jerusalem he now extends to the fields, as if he had said that there would be no place of rest for the Jews. For if they attempted to flee, they would meet the swords of enemies, and if they sought hiding places, the famine would meet them, so that they would perish without being destroyed by any enemy.

The prophet, he says, as well as the priest will wander, will go around to the land and know not. Some explain the last part of the verse as if the Prophet had said that when both the prophets and the priests are driven into exile, after many wanderings, they will not understand that exile is a punishment due for their sins.

They therefore take the words ולא ידעו vela idou, and they will not know, in a general sense, as if the Prophet here condemned that brutal blindness which possessed the minds of the people, indeed, even of the priests, who did not consider that God punished them for their sins.

Others explain the words more simply: that they would go around to the land, that is, that they would come to Chaldea by various winding paths and by long detours, and would come to a land they did not know, that is, which was previously unknown to them. But I do not know if this was the Prophet's meaning.

Certainly, a third view seems more suitable to me, though it has no supporters: that is, that the priests and prophets would go around to seek subterfuges, as they would be destitute of all means of escape, not knowing what to do. And they will not know, that is, they will find that a sound mind has been taken from them by God, because they had driven others to folly.

Therefore, I do not doubt that the Prophet had especially denounced this punishment against the wicked priests and the false prophets, because they thought they would have some way of escape; but they would be mistaken, for their own conceit would ultimately disappoint them. And when they schemed this way and that, God would bring their crafty ways to nothing.

And they were deserving of such a punishment, because they had ensnared the wretched people with their lies; and we also know that they were proud of their own cunning and deceptions. The Prophet therefore derides this false confidence and says, They will go around through the land and will not understand, that is, all their counsels and plans will be without any fruit or benefit, though they may spend a long time forming them.