Jeremiah 4:23
in Jeremiah 4I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
KJV
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
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This verse in Jeremiah 4
Commentary
8 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
In four verses each beginning with “I beheld,” the prophet sees in vision the desolate condition of Judaea during the Babylonian captivity. Jer 4:23 Without form, and void - Desolate and void (see Gen 1:2 note). The land has returned to a state of chaos (marginal reference note). And the heavens - And upward to the heavens. The imagery is that of the last day of judgment. To Jeremiah’s vision all was as though the day of the Lord had come, and earth returned to the state in which it was before the first creative word (see 2Pe 3:10).
This site's exposition
it was formless and void
on Jeremiah 4:23-26
The vision borrows the Hebrew of the creation account, “formless and void”, the phrase Genesis uses for the earth before the first day. The heavens have no light, the mountains quake, no man is left, the birds have fled and the fruitful land is a desert.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 23 and following) I looked at the earth, and behold, it was empty and void; and the heavens, and there was no light in them. I saw the mountains, and behold, they were moving; and all the hills were shaken. I looked, and there was no man, and every bird of the sky had fled. I looked, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were destroyed before the Lord's face, and before the fierceness of his anger.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
It is Tohu and Bohu, the words there used, as far as the land of Judea goes. It is confusion and emptiness, stripped of all its beauty, void of all its wealth, and, compared with what it was, every thing out of place and out of shape.
I beheld - I Jeremiah saw this in a vision. It - The land was squalid, and ruined, like the first chaos, for which reason possibly he calls Judah the earth, in allusion to Gen. i, 2.
I beheld the earth,....
"Thou must utterly abandon all sin, and not retain any of the relics of idolatry: Put away thy abominations out of my sight, " that is, out of all places (for every place is under the eye of God), especially out of the temple, the house which he had in a particular manner his eye upon, to see that it was kept clean.
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
I beheld the earth, (the land), and lo it was without form and void - תהו ובהו tohu vabohu; the very words used in Genesis to denote the formless state of the chaotic mass before God had brought it into order.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| רָאִ֙יתִי֙ | raiti | I looked at | H7200 → | 1300 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָאָ֔רֶץ | haaretz | the earth | H776 → | 2504 times |
| וְהִנֵּה־ | vehineh- | and there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| תֹ֖הוּ | tohu | [it was] formlessness | H8414 → | |
| וָבֹ֑הוּ | vavohu | and emptiness | H922 → | |
| וְאֶל־ | veel- | and to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם | hashamayim | the heavens | H8064 → | 421 times |
| וְאֵ֥ין | veein | and there not | H369 → | 789 times |
| אוֹרָֽם׃ | ʾoram | [was] light their | H216 → | 121 times |
רָאִ֙יתִי֙I looked at
raitiH7200 →1300 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָאָ֔רֶץthe earth
haaretzH776 →2504 times
וְהִנֵּה־and there!
vehineh-H2009 →843 times
תֹ֖הוּ[it was] formlessness
tohuH8414 →
וָבֹ֑הוּand emptiness
vavohuH922 →
וְאֶל־and to
veel-H413 →5510 times
הַשָּׁמַ֖יִםthe heavens
hashamayimH8064 →421 times
וְאֵ֥יןand there not
veeinH369 →789 times
אוֹרָֽם׃[was] light their
ʾoramH216 →121 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Genesis 1:2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
it leads to
- Psalms 104:30
When You send Your Spirit, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.
- Isaiah 45:18
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens—He is God; He formed the earth and fashioned it; He established it; He did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be…
- Psalms 33:6
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all the stars by the breath of His mouth.
- Job 26:7
He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.
- Isaiah 40:12–14
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or…
- Psalms 104:30
Through
Matthew 24:29Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will…
it leads to
- Isaiah 24:23
The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Amos 8:9
And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
- Joel 3:15
The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.
- Isaiah 24:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies2
On this verse
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About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.