I looked at the earth, and it was formless and void; I looked to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking; all the hills were swaying. I looked, and no man was left; all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger. For this is what the LORD says: "The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction. 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."
And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light "day," and the darkness He called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. And God said, "Let there be an expanse between the waters, to separate the waters from the waters." So God made the expanse and separated the waters beneath it from the waters above. And it was so. God called the expanse "sky." And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered into one place, so that the dry land may appear." And it was so. God called the dry land "earth," and the gathering of waters He called "seas." And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees, each bearing fruit with seed according to its kind." And it was so. The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years. And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth." And it was so. God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And He made the stars as well. God set these lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth, to preside over the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day. And God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky." So God created the great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters teemed according to their kinds, and every bird of flight after its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, land crawlers, and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so. God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that crawls upon the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Significance
Jeremiah 4:23-28 presents the most sustained creation-reversal passage in the prophetic literature, systematically undoing the work of Genesis 1:3-25 in reverse order. The earth is תֹּהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu, Gen 1:2); the heavens have "no light" (reversing Gen 1:3-5); the mountains are "quaking" (reversing the stable land of Gen 1:9-10); "no man was left" and "all the birds of the air had fled" (reversing Gen 1:20-28); "the fruitful land was a desert" (reversing Gen 1:11-12). This point-by-point undoing of creation's work portrays divine judgment as de-creation — God is unmaking the ordered cosmos because of Judah's sin. The allusion is sustained across six verses, demonstrating that the prophets understood covenant violation as having cosmic, not merely political, consequences. The fourfold repetition of "I looked" (רָאִיתִי, ra'ithi) further inverts God's repeated "seeing" that creation was "good" (טוֹב, tov) in Genesis 1, and the shared phrase תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vavohu) occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Contrast + Longitudinal Theme — the vision's sustained point-by-point inversion of Genesis 1 (tohu vavohu returned, light extinguished, life absent) is deliberate Contrast portraying judgment as de-creation, and it sits on the creation → de-creation → new-creation trajectory that the canon carries to the new heavens and earth (Longitudinal Theme).
