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Selected Verse: Jeremiah 4:23 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jer 4:23 |
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 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
11 But the cormorant and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.