John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 18:17

"I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity." — Jeremiah 18:17 (ASV)

Though no word of comparison is expressed, if we read ב, beth, and not כ, caph, yet the Prophet employs a comparison. For God did not drive away the Jews by an eastern wind; but since the force of that wind is violent in Judea, the eastern wind often means a storm or a whirlwind, as if he had said, "As by a whirlwind or a storm I will cast them out."

I will disperse or dissipate them, He says, before the face of the enemy. He means that enemies would come to exterminate the Jews from the land. He adds another thing: that these enemies would be full of terror, for God would give them the force of a whirlwind or a storm to disperse and scatter the Jews, because, being terrified by God, they would not dare to withstand.

Then follows a denunciation, that God would turn to them the neck, or the back, and not the face in the day of calamity. It sometimes happens that we are severely chastised by God; He thus often tries His faithful people when He subjects them to the will of the ungodly. But yet not all remedy is taken from them, as they find consolation in God’s mercy, for as He casts down so He raises up, as He puts to death so He gives life, according to what is said in 1 Samuel 2:6.

But God here denounces a punishment without any prospect of pardon or alleviation. I will scatter them, He says, as by an east wind before their enemies.

Then He adds, "In vain will they flee to Me and seek My mercy; though otherwise it is offered to all, yet then they will implore it in vain, for it is decreed not to pardon them. I will show them My back (or neck, for ערף, oreph, is the back of the head, but here it means the back); they will then find that I am turned away from them, so that they will not be set before My eyes."

For it is an invaluable consolation when God is pleased to look on our miseries, but He deprives the Jews of this hope, for He would turn His back to them in the day of slaughter. I cannot proceed further now.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that we may in due time anticipate Your wrath, and never so kindle it by our perversity as to preclude every remedy. And then also, when You for a time chastise us, do not wholly cast us away, but let this resort always remain to us: to seek You in the day of calamity and to find You accessible. So, being reunited to You, we may find that You remember mercy even in wrath, until we shall enjoy a full and real participation of Your favor and paternal love in Your celestial kingdom, which has been procured for us by the blood of Your only-begotten Son. — Amen.