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Selected Verse: Jeremiah 4:23 - Douay Rheims
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jer 4:23 |
Douay Rheims |
I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them. |
| |
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 void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
11 The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a plummet, unto desolation.
19 With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved.
7 And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: ad when ye entered in, you defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination.
26 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.
24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.
10 But the day of the Lord shall come as a thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it, shall be burnt up.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
23 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.
1 In the beginning God created heaven, and earth.
1 BEHOLD the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.
24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.
25 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.
26 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.
2 And the earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved over the waters.