A dry wind - a fall wind - as clouds - as a whirlwind - All these expressions appear to refer to the pestilential winds, suffocating vapors, and clouds and pillars of sand collected by whirlwinds, which are so common and destructive in the east, (see on Isaiah 21:1; (note)); and these images are employed here to show the overwhelming effect of the invasion of the land by the Chaldeans.
At that time - See Jeremiah 4:7. Though the revelation of the certainty of Judah‘s ruin wrings from Jeremiah a cry of despair, yet it is but for a moment; he immediately returns to the delivery of God‘s message.
A dry wind - literally, A clear wind. The Samum is probably meant, a dry parching east wind blowing from the Arabian desert, before which vegetation withers, and human life becomes intolerable.
Not to fan - The Syrian farmers make great use of the wind for separating the chaff from the grain: but when the Samum blows labor becomes impossible. It is not for use, but for destruction.