I looked, and the fertile fields had become a wilderness. The towns lay in ruins, crushed by the Lord’s fierce anger.
Parallel translations
- WEB I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger.
- KJV 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.
- BSB I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
- NKJV I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were broken down At the presence of the Lord, By His fierce anger.
- NASB I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The fruitful land becomes wilderness and its cities lie broken before the Lord's fierce anger. It matters because it names God's anger as the cause of the devastation seen.
Overview
What was a productive field is now a wasteland, its cities ruined 'at the presence of Yahweh, before his fierce anger.' The vision's source is the Lord's righteous wrath against sin. This sober truth that God's anger is real should drive sinners to the refuge He provides, for Christ bore that wrath for His people (Nahum 1:6; Romans 5:9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 107:34and a fruitful land into a salt waste, for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
- Isa 5:9–10In my ears, Yahweh of Armies says: “Surely many houses will be desolate, even great and beautiful, unoccupied.
- Ps 76:7You, even you, are to be feared. Who can stand in your sight when you are angry?
- Isa 7:20–25In that day the Lord will shave with a razor that is hired in the parts beyond the River, even with the king of Assyria, the head and the hair of the feet; and it shall also consume the beard.
- Jer 12:4How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole country wither? For the wickedness of those who dwell therein, the animals are consumed, and the birds; because they said, “He shall not see our latter end.”
- Jer 14:2–6“Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
- Mic 3:12Therefore Zion for your sake will be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem will become heaps of rubble, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of a forest.
- Deut 29:23–28and that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath;
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 4:26 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.