The east wind (most probably the sirocco, the scorching wind from the desert) was felt to be particularly severe. One way to render the first two lines is “As if I were a strong wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies.”

I will show them my back, not my face: This means “I will turn my back on them and refuse to help them.” Compare 2.27.

The expression in the day of their calamity does not refer to a particular day, of course, but to the time when disaster strikes, as in Good News Translation “when the disaster comes.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .