Jeremiah 4:29 Meaning and Explanation

The noise of horses and archers triggers mass flight. People run to the thickets, scramble up rocks--any place they think might offer safety. They abandon their cities, their homes, their possessions. The picture is one of complete panic, desperation, chaos. 'Not a man dwell therein'--the cities become ghost-towns, monuments to a people dispersed and broken. This is what happens when judgment comes and there is nowhere to hide.

Yet even this flight is within God's providence. In the exile, the people will be preserved, sustained by God's hand even in foreign lands. The emptying of the cities is tragic, but it is the prelude to new gathering. The Psalms will sustain them in exile; the remnant will hold to God's word; and eventually, rebuilding will begin.