I beheld the earth, &c.— The images, under which the prophet represents the approaching desolation as foreseen by him, are such as are familiar to the Hebrew poets on the like occasions. (See Lowth De Sac. Poesi Heb. Prael. 9: and his note on Isaiah, ch. Jeremiah 13:10.) But the assemblage is finely made, so as to delineate all together a most striking and interesting picture of a ruined country, and to show the author's happy talent for pathetic description. The earth is brought back, as it were, to its primitive state of chaos and confusion; the chearful light of the heavens is withdrawn, and succeeded by a dismal gloom; the mountains tremble and the hills shake, under dreadful apprehensions of the Almighty's displeasure; a frightful solitude reigns around; not a vestige is to be seen of any of the human race; even the birds themselves have deserted the fields, unable to find any longer in them their usual food. The face of the country in the once most fertile parts of it, now overgrown with briars and thorns, assumes the dreary wildness of the desart. The cities and villages are either thrown down and demolished by the hand of the enemy, or crumble into ruins of their own accord for want of being inhabited.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 4:23
Jeremiah 4:23-26
23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.
25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.
26 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.