Lift up your eyes, and behold them that come from the north: where is the {i} flock that was given thee, thy beautiful flock?

(i) He asks the king, where his people is become.

Wesley's Notes

13:20 Where - The prophet speaks to the king, or to the rulers. In the multitude of the people is the king's honour.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. from . north-Nebuchadnezzar and his hostile army (Jer 1:14; 6:22).

flock . given thee-Jeremiah, amazed at the depopulation caused by Nebuchadnezzar's forces, addresses Jerusalem (a noun of multitude, which accounts for the blending of plural and singular, Your eyes . thee . thy flock), and asks where is the population (Jer 13:17, "flock") which God had given her?

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

13:18-27 Here is a message sent to king Jehoiakim, and his queen. Their sorrows would be great indeed. Do they ask, Wherefore come these things upon us? Let them know, it is for their obstinacy in sin. We cannot alter the natural colour of the skin; and so is it morally impossible to reclaim and reform these people. Sin is the blackness of the soul; it is the discolouring of it; we were shapen in it, so that we cannot get clear of it by any power of our own. But Almighty grace is able to change the Ethiopian's skin. Neither natural depravity, nor strong habits of sin, form an obstacle to the working of God, the new-creating Spirit. The Lord asks of Jerusalem, whether she is determined not be made clean. If any poor slave of sin feels that he could as soon change his nature as master his headstrong lusts, let him not despair; for things impossible to men are possible with God. Let us then seek help from Him who is mighty to save.