Jeremiah 4:23

4:23 “I looked at the land and saw 1  that it was an empty wasteland. 2 

I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

Jeremiah 25:11

25:11 This whole area 3  will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’ 4 

Jeremiah 49:33

49:33 “Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,

a place where only jackals live. 5 

No one will live there.

No human being will settle in it.” 6 

1 tn Heb “I looked at the land and behold...” This indicates the visionary character of Jeremiah’s description of the future condition of the land of Israel.

2 tn Heb “formless and empty.” This is a case of hendiadys (two nouns joined by “and” both describe the same thing): one noun retains its full nominal force, the other functions as an adjective. The words תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) allude to Gen 1:2, hyperbolically picturing a reversal of creation and return to the original precreation chaos.

3 tn Heb “All this land.”

4 sn It should be noted that the text says that the nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years, not that they will lie desolate for seventy years. Though several proposals have been made for dating this period, many ignore this fact. This most likely refers to the period beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s defeat of Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish in 605 b.c. and the beginning of his rule over Babylon. At this time Babylon became the dominant force in the area and continued to be so until the fall of Babylon in 538 b.c. More particularly Judah became a vassal state (cf. Jer 46:2; 2 Kgs 24:1) in 605 b.c. and was allowed to return to her homeland in 538 when Cyrus issued his edict allowing all the nations exiled by Babylon to return to their homelands. (See 2 Chr 36:21 and Ezra 1:2-4; the application there is made to Judah but the decree of Cyrus was broader.)

5 sn Compare Jer 9:11.

6 sn Compare Jer 49:18 and 50:40 where the same thing is said about Edom and Babylon.