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Selected Verse: Jeremiah 4:23 - Young's Literal
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jer 4:23 |
Young's Literal |
I looked `to' the land, and lo, waste and void, And unto the heavens, and their light is not. |
| |
King James |
I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Graphic picture of the utter desolation about to visit Palestine. "I beheld, and lo!" four times solemnly repeated, heightens the awful effect of the scene (compare Isa 24:19; Isa 34:11).
without form and void--reduced to the primeval chaos (Gen 1:2). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
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 Pe2 3:10).
Jer 4:24
Moved lightly - "Reeled to and fro," from the violence of the earthquake.
Jer 4:26
The fruitful place - The Carmel Jer 2:7, where the population had been most dense, and the labors of the farmer most richly rewarded, has become the wilderness.
At the presence - i. e., because of, at the command of Yahweh, and because of His anger. |
| The Scofield Bible Commentary, by Cyrus Ingerson Scofield, [1917] |
without form and void
Compare (Gen 1:2).
"Without form and void" describes the condition of the earth as the result of judgment; (Jer 4:24-26); (Isa 24:1) which overthrew the primal order of (Gen 1:1). |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| 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 1:2. The heavens - He seems to proceed in his metaphor of the chaos. Every thing above and below seemed to be wrapped up in dismal blackness. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| 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. |
2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness `is' on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters,
11 And possess her do pelican and hedge-hog, And owl and raven dwell in her, And He hath stretched out over her A line of vacancy, and stones of emptiness.
19 Utterly broken down hath been the land, Utterly broken hath been the land, Utterly moved hath been the land.
7 Yea, I bring you in to a land of fruitful fields, To eat its fruit and its goodness, And ye come in and defile My land, And Mine inheritance have made an abomination.
26 I have looked, and lo, The fruitful place `is' a wilderness, And all its cities have been broken down, Because of Jehovah, Because of the fierceness of His anger.
24 I have looked `to' the mountains, And lo, they are trembling. And all the hills moved themselves lightly.
10 and it will come -- the day of the Lord -- as a thief in the night, in which the heavens with a rushing noise will pass away, and the elements with burning heat be dissolved, and earth and the works in it shall be burnt up.
2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness `is' on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters,
23 I looked `to' the land, and lo, waste and void, And unto the heavens, and their light is not.
1 In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth --
1 Lo, Jehovah is emptying the land, And is making it waste, And hath overturned `it on' its face, And hath scattered its inhabitants.
24 I have looked `to' the mountains, And lo, they are trembling. And all the hills moved themselves lightly.
25 I have looked, and lo, man is not, And all fowls of the heavens have fled.
26 I have looked, and lo, The fruitful place `is' a wilderness, And all its cities have been broken down, Because of Jehovah, Because of the fierceness of His anger.
2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness `is' on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters,
2 the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness `is' on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters,