Jeremiah · 31 verses
Jeremiah 4
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
The people have become oddly accomplished at evil while remaining quite unable to do good, and the world around them begins to come apart: earth without shape, heaven without light, birds gone, cities emptied. It is a dreadful scene, with one almost comic detail—the ruined woman still dressing for admirers who mean to murder her.
Return, or the fire beginsvv. 1–4
Israel is invited to return, though the invitation comes with a small household clearance: the detestable idols must be removed and the wavering must stop. A truthful oath in the LORD’s name could make the nations blessed, but Judah and Jerusalem are given ploughing and gardening language for the heart—break the hard ground, do not sow among thorns, and remove what has grown over it. Otherwise the LORD’s wrath will burn like a fire with no one about to put it out.
The alarm from the northvv. 5–18
The ram’s horn sounds, the signal rises toward Zion, and the fortified cities become the suggested destination. A lion has left its thicket, a destroyer of nations has left his lair, and a wind from the barren heights comes not to separate grain but to pronounce judgment—a wind with no interest in agricultural niceties. King, officials, priests, and prophets all lose their composure. Jeremiah objects that peace was announced while a sword was already at the throat; then the voice from Dan and the hills of Ephraim confirms the approaching siege. Jerusalem is surrounded like a field under guard, and the bitter explanation is kept plain: the ways and deeds brought it there.
The world unmadevv. 19–31
Jeremiah hears the horn and feels the battle in his chest; disaster arrives in repeated instalments, leaving tents and curtains gone in moments. Then the vision widens until creation itself appears to have been put back before the beginning: the earth is formless, the heavens have no light, mountains quake, hills sway, people vanish, birds flee, and fruitful land becomes desert. The LORD says the whole land will be desolate, though not utterly finished, which is a remarkably narrow ledge on which to place a landscape. Every city is abandoned. At the end, the devastated woman dresses in scarlet, gold, and eye paint for lovers who despise her and seek her life; her final cry is the cry of the Daughter of Zion, gasping before murderers.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Jer 4:1“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
Jer 4:2and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.”
Jer 4:3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns.
Jer 4:4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.”
Jer 4:5Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’
Jer 4:6Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction.
Jer 4:7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.
Jer 4:8So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”
Jer 4:9“In that day,” declares the LORD, “the king and officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be astounded.”
Jer 4:10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.”
Jer 4:11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift;
Jer 4:12a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.”
Jer 4:13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
Jer 4:14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
Jer 4:15For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim.
Jer 4:16Warn the nations now! Proclaim to Jerusalem: “A besieging army comes from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah.
Jer 4:17They surround her like men guarding a field, because she has rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD.
Jer 4:18“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”
Jer 4:19My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh, the pain in my chest! My heart pounds within me; I cannot be silent. For I have heard the sound of the horn, the alarm of battle.
Jer 4:20Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
Jer 4:21How long must I see the signal flag and hear the sound of the horn?
Jer 4:22“For My people are fools; they have not known Me. They are foolish children, without understanding. They are skilled in doing evil, but they know not how to do good.”
Jer 4:23I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer 4:24I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying.
Jer 4:25I looked, and no man was left; all the birds of the air had fled.
Jer 4:26I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
Jer 4:27For this is what the LORD says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.
Jer 4:28Therefore 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.”
Jer 4:29Every city flees at the sound of the horseman and archer. They enter the thickets and climb among the rocks. Every city is abandoned; no inhabitant is left.
Jer 4:30And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain; your lovers despise you; they want to take your life.
Jer 4:31For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”
01 — Also here
Who else the chapter reaches
Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.
Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.
Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 536 passages were voted onto 31 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 23Matthew 24:29Immediately after the tribulation of those days: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.’
- 23Mark 13:24–25But in those days, after that tribulation: ‘The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light;
- 23Joel 3:15–16The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.
- 23Isaiah 13:10For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.
- 3Hosea 10:12Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- 23Genesis 1:2Now the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
- 23Luke 21:25–26There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among the nations, bewildered by the roaring of the sea and the surging of the waves.
- 23Ezekiel 32:7–8When I extinguish you, I will cover the heavens and darken their stars. I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon will not give its light.
- 4Deuteronomy 10:16Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more.
- 23Amos 8:9And in that day, declares the Lord GOD, I will make the sun go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the daytime.
- 23Joel 2:10Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.
- 221 Corinthians 14:20Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- 23Acts 2:19–20I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.
- 23Isaiah 5:30In 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.
- 4Colossians 2:11In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.
- 4Romans 2:28–29A man is not a Jew because he is one outwardly, nor is circumcision only outward and physical.
Onward