Jeremiah 5:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Our seers were caught in the breezes of their own desires. In sharing messages of their choosing, they failed to inspire genuine improvement. They harbor no expectations of adversity, and many assert that these seers spoke without purpose, ultimately perishing without disclosing God's will concerning us. Thus, their fate shall mirror that of those who deem themselves prophets. Just as it was in the past, when they foretold events while the nation faced no trials, it remains true today that there will be no such trials.

They rejected the Lord, declaring, "There is no presence of Him, and calamity will not overtake us; we will neither face sword nor famine." The prophets spoke to the winds, yet received no reply. This will be their fate. Because they have turned away from the Lord and have deceived Him, claiming His judgment is absent and that all occurrences are merely happenstance, they believe the warnings of the prophets will not come to fruition. They insist that they will not experience the sword or be afflicted by famine during the siege; they consider the prophets’ messages mere echoes, devoid of substance or divine revelation. For this reason, they will endure the consequences described in the subsequent words. Let the indifferent church that denies God’s Sovereignty take heed: it will encounter both sword and famine if it fails to believe the foretold events that are to come.

The prophets you mentioned were mere echoes, devoid of the word of the Lord. To be 'in the wind' indicates the emptiness and deception in the messages of these false prophets, as they lacked the Spirit of God. Thus, the Lord instructed the prophet, 'The message I put in your mouth will act like fire to consume them.' He also reveals the nature of their punishment: