Jeremiah 4:23-26 BSB

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 4:19-31

The prophet is here in an agony, and cries out like one upon the rack of pain with some acute distemper, or as a woman in travail. The expressions are very pathetic and moving, enough to melt a heart of stone into compassion: My bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; and yet well, and in health himself, and nothing ails him. Note, A good man, in such a bad world as this is, cannot but be a man of sorrows. My heart makes a noise in me, through the tumult of my spirits, and I cannot... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:23

I beheld the earth ,.... The land of Judea, not the whole world; and this the prophet says, either in spirit, as Jerom; or in prophecy, as Kimchi; or in a visionary way; for these are not the words of God continued, as Cocceius, but of the prophet; who, by a prophetic spirit, describes the dreadful destruction of the Jewish nation, as follows: and, lo, it was without form, and void ; as the first earth or chaos was, before it was brought into form and order; the same words, "tohu" and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:24

I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled ,.... At the presence of God, at the tokens of his displeasure, and at his awful vengeance in the destruction of the Jews, as they are sometimes said to do, Psalm 68:8 , and all the hills moved lightly ; so Kimchi's father says the word used has the signification of lightness; though Jarchi, from Menachem, explains it, they were plucked up, and thrown out of their place; and some render it, were pulled down and destroyed, so the Targum.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:25

And I beheld, and, lo, there was no man ,.... No people dwelling in it, as the Targum; the land was without inhabitants, they were either killed with the sword, or taken and carried captive into Babylon, or fled into Egypt and other countries: and all the birds of the heavens were fled ; at the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war; at the blackness of the heavens, filled with smoke; at the barrenness of the earth, there being no seed sown; and the earth, as at the first creation,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:26

I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness ,.... Or, "I beheld, and, lo, Carmel was a wilderness"; which was a particular part of the land of Israel, and was very fertile, and abounded in pastures and fruit trees, and yet this, as the rest, became desolate as a wilderness; see Isaiah 32:15 though it may be put for the whole land, which was very fruitful; and so the Targum, "I saw, and, lo, the land of Israel, which was planted as Carmel, was turned to be as a wilderness:' ... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:23

I beheld the earth, (the land), and lo it was without form and void - ובהו תהו tohu vabohu ; the very words used in Genesis to denote the formless state of the chaotic mass before God had brought it into order. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:24

The mountains - hills - Princes, rulers, etc., were astonished and fled. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:25

The birds of the heavens were fled - The land was so desolated that even the fowls of heaven could not find meat, and therefore fled away to another region. How powerfully energetic is this description! See Zephaniah 1:3 . read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:23

Verse 23 The Prophet in this passage enlarges in a language highly metaphorical on the terror of God’s vengeance, that he might rouse the Jews, who were stupid and careless: nor is the repetition in vain, when he says four times, that he looked. He might have spoken of the earth, heaven, men, and fertile places in one sentence: but it is the same as though he had turned his eyes to four different quarters, and said, that wherever he looked, there appeared to him dreadful tokens of God’s wrath,... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:24

Verse 24 Jeremiah descends afterwards from heaven to mountains, and says that they trembled, and that all the hills moved or shook; some say, destroyed, but I know not for what reason, for the Prophet no doubt confirms the same thing by another phrase: and as he had said, that mountains trembled, so he also adds, that hills shook; and this is the proper meaning of the verb. Now the reason why he speaks of mountains and hills is evident; for a greater stability seems to belong to them than to... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 4:19-31

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:23

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:24

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:25

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 4:26

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:23

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:24

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:25

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:23

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 4:24

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