Add parallel Print Page Options

23 I looked at the land and saw[a] that it was an empty wasteland.[b]

I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.
24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking.
All the hills were swaying back and forth!
25 I looked and saw that there were no more people[c]
and that all the birds in the sky had flown away.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 4:23 tn Heb “I looked at the land and behold…” This indicates the visionary character of Jeremiah’s description of the future condition of the land of Israel.
  2. Jeremiah 4:23 tn Heb “formless and empty.” This is a case of hendiadys (two nouns joined by “and” both describe the same thing): one noun retains its full nominal force; the other functions as an adjective. The words תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) allude to Gen 1:2, hyperbolically picturing a reversal of creation and return to the original precreation chaos.
  3. Jeremiah 4:25 tn Heb “there was no man/human being.”

23 I looked at the earth,
    and it was formless and empty;(A)
and at the heavens,
    and their light(B) was gone.
24 I looked at the mountains,
    and they were quaking;(C)
    all the hills were swaying.
25 I looked, and there were no people;
    every bird in the sky had flown away.(D)

Read full chapter