Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:28
Therefore the earth will mourn and the heavens above will grow dark. I have spoken, I have planned, and I will not relent or turn back.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — YHWH addresses Judah during a prophetic vision of national collapse, declaring the immediate aftermath of divine judgment. The statement follows the announcement of desolation in verse 27 and precedes the description of mass urban flight in verse 29.
The words — תֶּאֱבַל (te'evāl) means "it will mourn," describing the earth's response to judgment, while קָדְרוּ (qadrû) means "they will be dark," depicting the heavens' physical darkening.
The thread — The motif of darkened heavens appears in Isaiah 50:3, where God cloths the sky in black. The declaration of unchanging resolve parallels Numbers 23:19, which states God does not change His mind after speaking. The earth's mourning echoes Jeremiah 12:4, where the land withers due to the evil of its inhabitants.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that divine speech initiates irreversible historical action. It requires the reader to accept that judgment proceeds without divine reversal, regardless of the resulting desolation.
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
For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.
Cross-references
- Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Isaiah 50:3 I clothe the heavens in black and make sackcloth their covering.”
- 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.”
- Hosea 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.
- Isaiah 5:30 In that day they will roar over it, like the roaring of the sea. If one looks over the land, he will see darkness and distress; even the light will be obscured by clouds.
- Joel 2:30 I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
- 1 Samuel 15:29 Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.”
- Isaiah 14:24 The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand.
- Isaiah 24:4 The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away.
- Isaiah 33:8 The highways are deserted; travel has ceased. The treaty has been broken, the witnesses are despised, and human life is disregarded.