Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:26
I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers a prophetic vision of impending national judgment. The declaration occurs immediately after a report of total human evacuation and avian flight.
The words — The phrase הַ/כַּרְמֶ֖ל הַ/מִּדְבָּ֑ר (ha./kar.Mel ha./mid.Bar) literally renders "the garden-land [was] the wilderness." The verb נִתְּצוּ֙ (ni.te.Tzu) describes the cities as "pulled down" or "torn down."
The thread — The transformation of fertile territory into barren ground parallels the desolation noted in Psalms 107:34 and Deuteronomy 29:23. The emphasis on divine fury corresponds to the warning in Psalms 76:7.
Why it lands — The text states that human settlement and agricultural abundance are entirely subject to divine judgment. It requires the reader to acknowledge that cities and land fall when confronted by God's fierce anger.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the Lord, and by his fierce anger.
Cross-references
- Psalms 107:34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
- Deuteronomy 29:23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
- Psalms 76:7 You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Isaiah 5:9 I heard the LORD of Hosts declare: “Surely many houses will become desolate, great mansions left unoccupied.
- Isaiah 7:20 On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates—the king of Assyria—to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to remove your beard as well.
- Jeremiah 12:4 How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
- Jeremiah 14:2 “Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
- Micah 3:12 Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.