4:23 “I looked at the land and saw 1 that it was an empty wasteland. 2
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, 3
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
4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, 5
“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. 6
For I have made my purpose known 7
and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” 8
3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, 17
“Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! 18
3:10 “Therefore, I became provoked at that generation and said, ‘Their hearts are always wandering 19 and they have not known my ways.’
3:11 “As I swore in my anger, ‘They will never enter my rest!’” 20
3:12 See to it, 21 brothers and sisters, 22 that none of you has 23 an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes 24 the living God. 25
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.
3 tn Heb “there was no man/human being.”
4 tn Heb “because of the
5 tn Heb “For this is what the
6 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.
7 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.
8 tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”
9 tn Cf. BDAG 407 s.v. εὐλαβέομαι 2, “out of reverent regard (for God’s command).”
10 tn Or “the elders,” “the ancients.”
11 tn Grk “were attested,” “received commendation”; and Heb 11:4-6 shows this to be from God.
12 sn The Greek makes the contrast between v. 5 and v. 6a more emphatic and explicit than is easily done in English.
13 tn Grk “his”; in the translation the referent (God) has been specified for clarity.
14 tn Grk “whose house we are,” continuing the previous sentence.
15 tc The reading adopted by the translation is found in Ì13,46 B sa, while the vast majority of
16 tn Grk “the pride of our hope.”
17 sn The following quotation is from Ps 95:7b-11.
18 tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”
19 tn Grk “they are wandering in the heart.”
20 tn Grk “if they shall enter my rest,” a Hebrew idiom expressing an oath that something will certainly not happen.
21 tn Or “take care.”
22 tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.
23 tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”
24 tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”
25 tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”