Text -- Jeremiah 4:21-31 (NET)

4:21 “How long must I see the enemy’s battle flags and hear the military signals of their bugles?” 4:22 The Lord answered, “This will happen because my people are foolish. They do not know me. They are like children who have no sense. They have no understanding. They are skilled at doing evil. They do not know how to do good.” 4:23 “I looked at the land and saw that it was an empty wasteland. I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished. 4:24 I looked at the mountains and saw that they were shaking. All the hills were swaying back and forth! 4:25 I looked and saw that there were no more people, and that all the birds in the sky had flown away. 4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins. The Lord had brought this all about because of his blazing anger. 4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, “The whole land will be desolate; however, I will not completely destroy it. 4:28 Because of this the land will mourn and the sky above will grow black. For I have made my purpose known and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” 4:29 At the sound of the approaching horsemen and archers the people of every town will flee. Some of them will hide in the thickets. Others will climb up among the rocks. All the cities will be deserted. No one will remain in them. 4:30 And you, Zion, city doomed to destruction, you accomplish nothing by wearing a beautiful dress, decking yourself out in jewels of gold, and putting on eye shadow! You are making yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers spurn you. They want to kill you. 4:31 In fact, I hear a cry like that of a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like that of a woman giving birth to her first baby. It is the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath, reaching out for help, saying, “I am done in! My life is ebbing away before these murderers!”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jer 4:21

¹ tn Heb “the sound of ram’s horns,” but the modern equivalent is “bugles” and is more readily understandable.

NET Notes: Jer 4:22

¹ tn These words are not in the text but are supplied in the translation to show clearly the shift in speaker. Jeremiah has been speaking; now the Lord answers, giving the reason for the devastation Jeremiah foresees.

² tn Heb “For….” This gives the explanation for the destruction envisaged in 4:20 to which Jeremiah responds in 4:19, 21.

³ tn Heb “They are senseless children.”

NET Notes: Jer 4:23

¹ tn Heb “I looked at the land and behold...” This indicates the visionary character of Jeremiah’s description of the future condition of the land of Israel.

² tn Heb “formless and empty.” This is a case of hendiadys (two nouns joined by “and” both describe the same thing): one noun retains its full nominal force, the other functions as an adjective. The words תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) allude to Gen 1:2, hyperbolically picturing a reversal of creation and return to the original precreation chaos.

NET Notes: Jer 4:25

¹ tn Heb “there was no man/human being.”

NET Notes: Jer 4:26

¹ tn Heb “because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger.”

NET Notes: Jer 4:27

¹ tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

NET Notes: Jer 4:28

¹ sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

² tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

³ tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”

NET Notes: Jer 4:30

¹ tn Heb “And you that are doomed to destruction.” The referent is supplied from the following context and the fact that Zion/Jerusalem represents the leadership which was continually making overtures to foreign nations for help.

² tn Heb “What are you accomplishing…?” The rhetorical question assumes a negative answer, made clear by the translation in the indicative.

³ tn Heb “clothing yourself in scarlet.”

⁴ tn Heb “enlarging your eyes with antimony.” Antimony was a black powder used by women as eyeliner to make their eyes look larger.

⁵ tn Heb “they seek your life.”

NET Notes: Jer 4:31

¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) is more likely asseverative here than causal.

² sn Jerusalem is personified as a helpless maiden.

³ tn Heb “spreading out her hands.” The idea of asking or pleading for help is implicit in the figure.

⁴ tn Heb “Woe, now to me!” See the translator’s note on 4:13 for the usage of “Woe to…”