If all God’s punishments are remedial, why does Jeremiah 4:11 say “At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.”
Why “not to cleanse”?
Does that mean that those who perished when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem were meant to suffer only vindictive punishment (and are still suffering such punishment in hell)?
Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry took place just prior to and during the Babylonian exile in 586 B.C. Jeremiah 4:11 is simply a warning that Babylon is going to invade and destroy Jerusalem. Babylon is the “dry wind” that is coming. There were dry winds that came (sirocco winds) that had a benefit such as allowing the wheat to be separated from the chaff and to clean the dust off the grain (See NIV Study Bible text note on Jer. 4:12) but Jeremiah is saying the “wind” he’s talking about isn’t this kind of wind. It’s the judgment wind of God blowing in to punish Israel.
While this was not pleasant for the people, it was remedial in that the purpose of the exile was to change the people’s hearts and turn them back to God. This was all predicted in Lev. ch. 26. In this chapter, God spells out the agreement. In Lev 26:1-13, God tells the people the benefits they receive if they follow His laws. In Lev 26:14-39, God spells out the consequences of not following His laws. Notice that the punishments start out small and get worse if the people continue to reject God. But starting in Lev 26:40, God says what will happen if the people respond to his remedial punishments and turn back to Him. He sums it up nicely in 26:41-42: “…then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they pay for their sin, I will remember my covenant with Jacob and my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham, and I will remember the land.” So while the invasion by Babylon was not pleasant, it had as its purpose to change the people’s hearts back to God. Jer 4:11 is simply describing the unpleasant part. Remember that “remedial” doesn’t mean pleasant. Just because punishment is remedial doesn’t mean it won’t hurt, or that it will be pleasant. These punishments were not pleasant for the people of Israel (some resorted to cannibalism during the seige of Jerusalem). Punishment that is retributive is done solely for the purpose of inflicting pain or distress. But God tells us in Lev 26 that the purpose for His punishment is to bring about positive change and that i the very definition of ‘remedial’.
Great answer, Wendy! Thanks 
Great question. A pleasure to be here with so many thinking minds…
This is an example of the types of tensions that a primarily literal understanding of the Bible is incapable of overcoming. For example, take Zech 13:7-9: “‘Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And against the man, My Associate,’” Declares the LORD of hosts. ‘Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones. And it will come about in all the land,’ Declares the LORD, ‘That two parts in it will be cut off and perish; But the third will be left in it. And I will bring the third part through the fire, Refine them as silver is refined, And test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, And I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’’" Note what happens when the destruction and purification is finished: “'They will call on My name, and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are My people,’ And they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” Salvation.
A literal based understanding of passages like this apply to individuals, i.e., that those “in all the land” refers to individuals, when the underlying structure of Scripture is reductionist and allegorical, referencing instead elements within each individual.
There are hundreds of examples, all perfectly coherent, congruous and in unity throughout both Testaments. Obvious examples are the sheep and goats of Mat 25, wheat and tares of Mat 13, the cutting off of the wicked from the righteous in the beginning verses of Ezek 21, the destruction of the vine rows in Jer 5:10 (but notice, not a complete destruction), the casting off and burning of non-conforming branches in first few verses of Jn 15, etc. This mixture of literal and allegorical meaning resolves tensions the literal alone is unable to overcome, and what remains after they disappear is the mystery of the salvation of all via the death and destruction of offending portions of the soul (Ezek 18:24, 33:18, Heb 6:5-8, 1Cor 3:11-15, etc.) rather than of persons themselves.
The metaphor of “bringing forth of offspring” (Isa 43:5, 65:9) understood allegorically to mean bringing forth truth (life) in human essence after the destruction of the false, is in unity with the idea in Acts 7:5-6 where God promises of Abraham, the father of faith, "And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground; and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that HE WOULD GIVE IT TO HIM AS A POSSESSION, AND TO HIS OFFSPRING AFTER HIM. “But God spoke to this effect, that his OFFSPRING WOULD BE ALIENS IN A FOREIGN LAND, AND THAT THEY WOULD BE ENSLAVED AND MISTREATED FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.” Abraham and his physical offspring are, as a whole, a metaphor for what takes place within each individual–in the verse above, the promise of God to bring forth life (offspring) within the human soul.
Our Calvinist brethren have it right here, that the faith that saves is actually produced in the death and destruction and consequent rebirth of the human soul and precedes the will in time and space.
Once this reduction is allowed into doctrine via a marriage of literal and metaphor (the organized church has worked hard for centuries to control what Scripture is allowed to say by forcing the literal into the forefront, and we are all, to varying degrees, victims/participants of the system) both Arminian and Calvinist belief melt together into the higher truth of the salvation of all. Death and resurrection is part of savlation. Jesus did not die so some sinners can go to heaven while others get off scott free (Gal 6:7) as tradition teaches–a violation of the perfection of God’s justice–but so that in each death, the spirit of every human is reborn and offspring brought forth to new life. We’re offered the easy way of faith in time and space, or the hard way in the hell of God’s fiery, cleansing embrace of we choose to die in our sins, but in the end we are saved by the salting (temporal method) or lake (eternal method) of fire of purification…you, me, Hitler, Attila, Sadam and everyman.