I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and {f} not the face, in the day of their calamity.

(f) I will show my anger and not my favour toward them.

Wesley's Notes

18:17 East wind - The east wind was in those parts the fiercest wind. As the east - wind scatters the chaff, so saith God, I will scatter them. In their calamity - And when they shall be in great calamity, I will turn my back upon them, I will not regard their prayers.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

17. as with an east wind-literally, "I will scatter them, as an east wind (scatters all before it)": a most violent wind (Job 27:21; Ps 48:7; Isa 27:8). Thirty-two manuscripts read (without as), "with an east wind."

I will show them the back . not . face-just retribution: as "they turned their back unto Me . not their face" (Jer 2:27).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:11-17 Sinners call it liberty to live at large; whereas for a man to be a slave to his lusts, is the very worst slavery. They forsook God for idols. When men are parched with heat, and meet with cooling, refreshing streams, they use them. In these things men will not leave a certainty for an uncertainty; but Israel left the ancient paths appointed by the Divine law. They walked not in the highway, in which they might travel safely, but in a way in which they must stumble: such was the way of idolatry, and such is the way of iniquity. This made their land desolate, and themselves miserable. Calamities may be borne, if God smile upon us when under them; but if he is displeased, and refuses his help, we are undone. Multitudes forget the Lord and his Christ, and wander from the ancient paths, to walk in ways of their own devising. But what will they do in the day of judgment!