John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 4:6

"Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, stay not; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction." — Jeremiah 4:6 (ASV)

Set up the standard toward Zion
Not on the tower of Zion, as Kimchi interprets it; but on some high place, pointing to Zion, and directing the country people to flee thither for safety; for the setting up of the standard here is not for enlisting of soldiers in order to fight, but as a sign of danger, and a direction where to flee from it: retire ;
gather yourselves together in order to flee, as the word ^F16 is rendered in (Isaiah 10:31) , though some render it, "be you strengthened" {q}; take heart, and play the man; but this does not seem so agreeable to the context:

stay not ;
or, "stand not"; stand not in the place you are in, but move from it in all haste, because of present danger: for I will bring evil from the north ;
from Babylon, as Kimchi interprets it; which lay north to the land of Israel; and so designs the captivity Judah should be brought into there: and a great destruction
or, "breach" ^F18 ; which the Babylonians should make on the inhabitants of Judea and Jerusalem.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F16: (wzyeh) "congregate vos, [sub.] ad fugiendum", Vatablus; "confirmate vos [ad fugiendum]", Piscator.
• F18: (rbv) "contritionem", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "confractionem", Cocceius.