Worthy.Bible » WEB » Jeremiah » Chapter 4 » Verse 20

Jeremiah 4:20 World English Bible (WEB)

20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, [and] my curtains in a moment.

Cross Reference

Psalms 42:7 WEB

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

Jeremiah 4:6 WEB

Set up a standard toward Zion: flee for safety, don't stay; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

2 Thessalonians 1:9 WEB

who will pay the penalty: eternal destruction from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

Matthew 10:28 WEB

Don't be afraid of those who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

Habakkuk 3:7 WEB

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled.

Joel 1:15 WEB

Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

Ezekiel 14:21 WEB

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: How much more when I send my four sore judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!

Ezekiel 7:25-26 WEB

Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none. Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; and they shall seek a vision of the prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

Lamentations 3:47 WEB

Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.

Lamentations 2:6-9 WEB

He has violently taken away his tent, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly: Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest. The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary; He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh, as in the day of a solemn assembly. Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together. Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.

Jeremiah 17:18 WEB

Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

Jeremiah 10:19-20 WEB

Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is [my] grief, and I must bear it. My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

Exodus 33:5 WEB

Yahweh said to Moses, "Tell the children of Israel, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go up into your midst for one moment, I would consume you. Therefore now take off your jewelry from you, that I may know what to do to you."

Isaiah 54:2 WEB

Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitations; don't spare: lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes.

Isaiah 47:9 WEB

but these two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood; in their full measure shall they come on you, in the multitude of your sorceries, and the great abundance of your enchantments.

Isaiah 33:20 WEB

Look on Zion, the city of our solemnities: your eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent that shall not be removed, the stakes of it shall never be plucked up, neither shall any of the cords of it be broken.

Isaiah 13:6 WEB

Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand; as destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Psalms 72:19 WEB

Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.

Numbers 16:45 WEB

Get away from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment. They fell on their faces.

Numbers 16:21 WEB

Separate yourselves from among this congregation, that I may consume them in a moment.

Leviticus 26:28 WEB

then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:24 WEB

then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.

Leviticus 26:21 WEB

"'If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.

Leviticus 26:18 WEB

"'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.

Commentary on Jeremiah 4 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 4

Jer 4:1-31. Continuation of Address to the Ten Tribes of Israel. (Jer 4:1, 2). The Prophet Turns Again to Judah, to Whom He Had Originally Been Sent (Jer 4:3-31).

1. return … return—play on words. "If thou wouldest return to thy land (thou must first), return (by conversion and repentance) to Me."

not remove—no longer be an unsettled wanderer in a strange land. So Cain (Ge 4:12, 14).

2. And thou—rather, "And if (carried on from Jer 4:1) thou shalt swear, 'Jehovah liveth,' in truth, &c.", that is, if thou shalt worship Him (for we swear by the God whom we worship; compare De 6:13; 10:20; Isa 19:18; Am 8:14) in sincerity, &c.

and the nations—Rather, this is apodosis to the "if"; then shall the nations bless themselves in (by) Him" (Isa 65:16). The conversion of the nations will be the consequence of Israel's conversion (Ps 102:13, 15; Ro 11:12, 15).

3. Transition to Judah. Supply mentally. All which (the foregoing declaration as to Israel) applies to Judah.

and Jerusalem—that is, and especially the men of Jerusalem, as being the most prominent in Judea.

Break … fallow ground—that is, Repent of your idolatry, and so be prepared to serve the Lord in truth (Ho 10:12; Mt 13:7). The unhumbled heart is like ground which may be improved, being let out to us for that purpose, but which is as yet fallow, overgrown with weeds, its natural product.

4. Remove your natural corruption of heart (De 10:16; 30:6; Ro 2:29; Col 2:11).

5. cry, gather together—rather, "cry fully" that is, loudly. The Jews are warned to take measures against the impending Chaldean invasion (compare Jer 8:14).

6. Zion—The standard toward Zion intimated that the people of the surrounding country were to fly to it, as being the strongest of their fortresses.

7. lion—Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans (Jer 2:15; 5:6; Da 7:14).

his thicket—lair; Babylon.

destroyer of the Gentiles—rather, "the nations" (Jer 25:9).

8. Nothing is left to the Jews but to bewail their desperate condition.

anger … not turned back—(Isa 9:12, 17, 21).

9. heart—The wisdom of the most leading men will be utterly at a loss to devise means of relief.

10. thou hast … deceived—God, having even the false prophets in His hands, is here said to do that which for inscrutable purposes He permits them to do (Ex 9:12; 2Th 2:11; compare Jer 8:15; which passage shows that the dupes of error were self-prepared for it, and that God's predestination did not destroy their moral freedom as voluntary agents). The false prophets foretold "peace," and the Jews believed them; God overruled this to His purposes (Jer 5:12; 14:13; Eze 14:9).

soul—rather, "reacheth to the life."

11. dry wind—the simoom, terrific and destructive, blowing from the southeast across the sandy deserts east of Palestine. Image of the invading Babylonian army (Ho 13:15). Babylon in its turn shall be visited by a similar "destroying wind" (Jer 51:1).

of … high places—that is, that sweeps over the high places.

daughter—that is, the children of my people.

not to fan—a very different wind from those ordinary winds employed for fanning the grain in the open air.

12. full … from those places—rather, "a wind fuller (that is, more impetuous) than those winds" (which fan the corn) (Jer 4:11) [Rosenmuller].

unto me—"for Me," as My instrument for executing My purpose.

sentence—judgments against them (Jer 1:16).

13. clouds—continuing the metaphor in Jer 4:11:12. Clouds of sand and dust accompany the simoom, and after rapid gyrations ascend like a pillar.

eagles—(De 28:49; Hab 1:8).

Woe unto us—The people are graphically presented before us, without it being formally so stated, bursting out in these exclamations.

14. Only one means of deliverance is left to the Jews—a thorough repentance.

vain thoughts—namely, projects for deliverance, such as enlisting the Egyptians on their side. Gesenius translates, "How long wilt thou harbor vain thoughts?"

15. For … from Dan—The connection is: There is danger in delay; for the voice of a messenger announces the approach of the Chaldean enemy from Dan, the northern frontier of Palestine (Jer 8:16; compare Jer 4:6; Jer 1:14).

Mount Ephraim—which borders closely on Judah; so that the foe is coming nearer and nearer. Dan and Beth-el in Ephraim were the two places where Jeroboam set up the idolatrous calves (1Ki 12:29); just retribution.

16. The neighboring foreign "nations" are summoned to witness Jehovah's judgments on His rebel people (Jer 6:18, 19).

watchers—that is, besiegers (compare 2Sa 11:16); observed or watched, that is, besieged.

their voice—the war shout.

17. keepers of a field—metaphor from those who watch a field, to frighten away the wild beasts.

18. (Jer 2:17, 19; Ps 107:17).

this is thy wickedness—that is, the fruit of thy wickedness.

19. The prophet suddenly assumes the language of the Jewish state personified, lamenting its affliction (Jer 10:19, 20; 9:1, 10; Isa 15:5; compare Lu 19:41).

at my very heart—Hebrew, "at the walls of my heart"; the muscles round the heart. There is a climax, the "bowels," the pericardium, the "heart" itself.

maketh … noise—moaneth [Henderson].

alarm—the battle shout.

20. Destruction … cried—Breach upon breach is announced (Ps 42:7; Eze 7:26). The war "trumpet" … the battle shout … the "destructions" … the havoc throughout "the whole land" … the spoiling of the shepherds' "tents" (Jer 10:20; or, "tents" means cities, which should be overthrown as easily as tents [Calvin]), form a gradation.

21. Judah in perplexity asks, How long is this state of things to continue?

22. Jehovah's reply; they cannot be otherwise than miserable, since they persevere in sin. The repetition of clauses gives greater force to the sentiment.

wise … evil … to do good … no knowledge—reversing the rule (Ro 16:19) "wise unto … good, simple concerning evil."

23. 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; 34:11).

without form and void—reduced to the primeval chaos (Ge 1:2).

24. mountains—(Isa 5:25).

moved lightly—shook vehemently.

25. no man … birds—No vestige of the human, or of the feathered creation, is to be seen (Eze 38:20; Zep 1:3).

26. fruitful place—Hebrew, Carmel.

a wilderness—Hebrew, "the wilderness," in contrast to "the fruitful place"; the great desert, where Carmel was, there is now the desert of Arabia [Maurer].

cities—in contrast to the fruitful place or field.

27. full end—utter destruction: I will leave some hope of restoration (Jer 5:10, 18; 30:11; 46:28; compare Le 26:44).

28. For this—on account of the desolations just described (Isa 5:30; Ho 4:3).

not repent—(Nu 23:19).

29. whole city—Jerusalem: to it the inhabitants of the country had fled for refuge; but when it, too, is likely to fall, they flee out of it to hide in the "thickets." Henderson translates, "every city."

noise—The mere noise of the hostile horsemen shall put you to flight.

30. when thou art spoiled—rather, "thou, O destroyed one" [Maurer].

rentest … face with painting—Oriental women paint their eyes with stibium, or antimony, to make them look full and sparkling, the black margin causing the white of the eyes to appear the brighter by contrast (2Ki 9:30). He uses the term "distendest" in derision of their effort to make their eyes look large [Maurer]; or else, "rentest," that is, dost lacerate by puncturing the eyelid in order to make the antimony adhere [Rosenmuller]. So the Jews use every artifice to secure the aid of Egypt against Babylon.

face—rather, thy eyes (Eze 23:40).

31. anguish—namely, occasioned by the attack of the enemy.

daughter of Zion—There is peculiar beauty in suppressing the name of the person in trouble, until that trouble had been fully described [Henderson].

bewaileth herself—rather, "draweth her breath short" [Horsley]; "panteth."

spreadeth … hands—(La 1:17).