John Gill 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 whole city shall flee
Or, "every city"; for not Jerusalem only is meant, but every city, or the inhabitants of every city; and so the Targum paraphrases it, ``all the inhabitants of the land,'' who would be put into a panic, and flee:

"for" or at the noise of the horsemen and bowmen ;
of which the army of the enemy would greatly consist: it intimates that the inhabitants of Judea would not stand a battle; but at hearing the sound of the trampling of the horses, and the clattering of the bows and arrows, that the men upon them had, they would flee at once:

they shall go into the thickets, and climb upon the rocks ;
that is, either the horsemen and bowmen, who would pursue the inhabitants into those places: or rather the inhabitants themselves, who would flee thither to hide themselves from their enemies; namely, get into woods and forests, and among the thick trees, and cover themselves; and upon the highest mountains and rocks, and into the holes and caverns of them, and secure themselves from the enemy; see (Matthew 24:16) ,

the word for "thickets" signifies "clouds" ^F9 ; and Kimchi interprets it of places as high as the clouds, as the tops of some mountains are, so that going up to them is like entering into the clouds; and which are sometimes covered with thick trees, and look like clouds; but the Targum explains it of woods or forests:

every city shall be forsaken ;
of its inhabitants: and not a man dwell therein ;
as the prophet had seen in his vision, (Jeremiah 4:25) , this was to be when a full end was made, not by the Babylonians, but by the Romans.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (Mybeb) "in nubes", Munster, Tigurine version, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Schmidt.