Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 4:23-31
Jeremiah's Vision Of The Aftermath Of The Invasion (Jeremiah 4:23).
In chilling tones Jeremiah now pictures the land after its destruction, as he, as it were, looks around and sees all the devastation wrought by it. It would be as though the whole of the heavens and earth were affected, the earth waste and void (tohu wa bohu) as it had been before God worked on it after the initial creation (Genesis 1:2), the heavens devoid of light. It would be as though God's fashioning of the world after creation had never happened. The mountains and hills would be unstable, the land would be devoid of human life, and even the birds would sing there no more. There would just be empty silence. What had once been fruitful land would now be a desert, and all the cities would be ghost towns, crumbling, empty reminders of what had been. And all this ‘at the presence of YHWH and before His fierce anger'.
And it would be YHWH Who would have done it because of His antipathy to their sin. Nevertheless it was not really to be the end of all things, for it was not YHWH's intention to make a full end. The indication is that one day the land would rise again. But before that happened the invasion must take place and there would be the blackness of deep mourning, experienced even by the earth and the heavens themselves. Before the advancing armies the people would flee, hiding in thickets and in the mountains and deserting their cities, and there would be no avoiding it. All attempts to tart themselves up and make themselves presentable once this had happened would fail. Their anguish would be like that of a woman bearing her first child who, gasping for breath, discovers that she has to endure unbelievable pain. And as they endured they would cry, ‘Woe is me now, for my soul faints before the murderers.' They would be looking death in the eyes.
In order to gain the full impact, before commenting on the detail we present the poem as a whole:
‘I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void,
And the heavens, and they had no light.'
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled,
And all the hills moved to and fro.
I beheld, and, lo, there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens were fled.
I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness,
And all its cities thereof were ruins,
At the presence of YHWH,
And before his fierce anger.
‘I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was waste and void,
And the heavens, and they had no light.'
The picture is of creation in Genesis 1:2 before God had brought it into shape. There ‘waste and void' (tohu wa bohu) had indicated total formlessness and emptiness, and it would be the same again. And just as then there had been no light, so it would be again. It is not, of course, to be taken literally, but as indicating how the land would have been emptied of all that gave it shape, remaining like an empty mass bathed in total darkness with no light at all penetrating through.
‘I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled,
And all the hills moved to and fro.'
The thought here is that even the mountains and hills, those permanent reminders of the solidity of the earth, would instead of being solid, be shaking and moving. An earthquake may be partly in mind, but the idea is more basic than that. It is an indication that the very foundations of creation would be being shaken.
‘I beheld, and, lo, there was no man,
And all the birds of the heavens were fled.
The land is pictured as devoid of all life, as it had indeed been at the beginning before the birds were created and man had come on the scene. Now also the landscape would be deserted, harbouring neither man nor bird. There would be the unearthly stillness of total lifelessness.
‘I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness,
And all its cities were broken down (were empty ruins),'
What had once been a fruitful land which had delighted the eye of man, would now be an empty desert, devoid of cultivation. And what had once been proud cities filled with life, would have become empty ruins, their crumbling stones testifying both to what had been, and to what was now because of man's sinfulness.
‘At the presence of YHWH, and before his fierce anger.'
And all this would be because the One Whom they had despised and forsaken would have come there and demonstrated His presence, and His antipathy against sin. Speaking of God's ‘fierce anger' is, of course anthropomorphic language. It is seeing God in man's terms. What is really in mind is His antipathy against sin, the fact that He, as it were, recoils in horror before it because He knows it for what it really is, and will necessarily deal with it accordingly. It is only we who treat sin lightly. But when we do we would do well to consider the picture just described which brings out the consequences of sin and the reality of God's hatred of it.
‘For thus says YHWH, “The whole land will be a desolation, yet will I not make a full end.”
Yet even in the midst of the picture of desolation YHWH offers hope. He promises that He will not make a full end. Out of the devastation and the ruins Israel would rise again, and, even though Jeremiah did not at the time know it, one day on that very ground would walk the Son of God Himself bringing salvation to all who trust in Him.
This promise that He would not make a full end will be repeated again in one way or another (e.g. Jeremiah 5:1; Jeremiah 5:18; Jeremiah 30:11; Jeremiah 46:28; compare Leviticus 26:44; Amos 9:8; Isaiah 6:13; Isaiah 10:21), and it firmly emphasises hope for the future once the severe chastisement is over in accordance with Leviticus 26:44; Deuteronomy 30:1. It is an assurance that while His judgment will be severe it will not be terminal.
“For this will the earth mourn,
And the heavens above be black,
Because I have spoken it,
I have purposed it,
And I have not repented,
Neither will I turn back from it.
But let them not therefore be in doubt of God's intentions, or think that He would be slack concerning them. All that He had warned of would come about, so that even the earth and the heavens themselves would be steeped in mourning. The earth would mourn at what was to happen, and the heavens would be black, like the black worn by mourners, because YHWH had declared that it would happen, and because He had purposed it. Thus it was sure and certain. Nor would He change His mind or turn back from it. It is a reminder that the purposes of God, both good and bad, are sure, so that nothing will prevent their occurrence, and that while there are times when men wish it were otherwise, in the end it is for the good of His people.
The blackness of the heavens may have in mind its being covered with a shroud of clouds in the midst of a severe storm, compare 1 Kings 19:45, thus making the earth dark even while it was still day, but the main thought behind these words is of the deep mourning of the earth and the heavens at the awfulness of what was to happen.
‘Every city flees,
For the noise of the horsemen and bowmen,
They go into the thickets,
And clamber up on the rocks,
Every city is forsaken,
And not a man dwells in them.'
Jeremiah now takes over the commentary, declaring what will happen in more prosaic terms. At the sound of the approaching horsemen and bowmen the people in the cities will flee (such horsemen and bowmen were regularly depicted on inscriptions). They will seek to hide in the thickets, they will clamber desperately up the rocks seeking for hiding places (compare 1 Samuel 13:6, ‘the people hid themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in holds, and in pits'). Every city will be forsaken. Not a man will dwell in them. This will not be just an invasion by an invading army seeking tribute. It has in mind a full end for the time being because of Judah's treachery (even though God will not finally allow it to be so).
‘And you, when you are made desolate,
What will you do?
Though you clothe yourself with scarlet,
Though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,
Though you enlarge your eyes with antimony,
In vain do you make yourself fair,
Your lovers despise you,
They seek your life.'
He then asks them to consider the true position. He pictures Judah and Jerusalem as seeking to make themselves acceptable to their ‘lovers', those whom they had ‘courted' among the nations. In the wreck of what has happened to them they are seen as seeking desperately to beautify themselves with gorgeous clothing (possibly to be seen as that of expensive prostitutes, but compare 2 Samuel 1:24), and covering themselves with their cosmetics and jewellery and make up, in a fervent attempt to make themselves ‘loved', but it is an attempt which will fail because their lovers no longer want them, they only seek their lives. All their political manoeuvrings will have proved to have been in vain. All attempts to ingratiate themselves will have failed.
Even today the world will go to all kinds of desperate measures in order to make themselves acceptable, but in the end it is all a sham and in vain. They need to recognise that there is only one love that is worth seeking, and can be relied on, and that is the sure and certain love of God, and that there is only one way to come to Him, and that is with total openness of heart, trusting in the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ for our salvation.
The blackening or enlarging of the eyes with antimony has been a feature of many centuries and is still practised in the Middle East today.
‘For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labour,
The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child,
The voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath,
Who spreads her hands, saying, Woe is me now!
For my soul faints before the murderers.
Jeremiah closes this description of God's judgment by picturing Jerusalem (the daughter of Zion) as being like a woman in labour who is producing her first child, with the knowledge that it will be murdered as soon as it is born. The emphasis is thus not on the gladness of the event, but on the suffering that she has to endure (only ever appreciated by women who have endured it), and her desperation in view of the situation lying ahead. She is seen as gasping for breath, and desperately stretching out her hands in a plea for help while crying ‘woe is me', because in spite of all that she has had to endure she knows that it has all been in vain. And her soul is fainting within her because her murderers, and the murderers of her child, are approaching whilst she herself, though wracked with pain, spreads out her hands in despair but can do nothing about it. It is a picture of Jerusalem's hopelessness and suffering in the face of what is to come.