Skip to main content
Psalmlog Logo

Jeremiah 4

Jeremiah calls for repentance of the heart while portraying Judah's coming devastation as God's judgment on its rebellion.

YHWH calls Israel to return to him, then addresses Judah and Jerusalem with demands for a changed heart. Trumpets warn of an approaching destroyer from the north, whose identity is left unnamed here. Jeremiah protests the clash between promised peace and the coming sword, and voices anguish over the ruin. A vision shows the land emptied of life under God's judgment. The chapter ends with Zion gasping like a woman in childbirth, surrounded by killers.

guilt and confessionfear for the futuresermon or Bible study notes
Read
1“If you will return, Israel,” says the LORD, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you will not be removed;
2and you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations will bless themselves in him, and they will glory in him.”
3For the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground, and don’t sow among thorns.
4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
5Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, ‘Blow the trumpet in the land!’ Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves! Let’s go into the fortified cities!’
6Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Don’t wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.”
7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations. He is on his way. He has gone out from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.
8For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the LORD hasn’t turned back from us.
9“It will happen at that day,” says the LORD, “that the heart of the king will perish, along with the heart of the princes. The priests will be astonished, and the prophets will wonder.”
10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace;’ whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”
11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind blows from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse.
12A full wind from these will come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them.”
13Behold, he will come up as clouds, and his chariots will be as the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.
14Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
15For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:
16“Tell the nations, behold, publish against Jerusalem, ‘Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.
17As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,’” says the LORD.
18“Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.”
19My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart! My heart trembles within me. I can’t hold my peace, because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
20Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.
21How long will I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?
22“For my people are foolish. They don’t know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but they don’t know how to do good.”
23I saw the earth and, behold, it was waste and void, and the heavens, and they had no light.
24I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.
25I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.
26I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the LORD, before his fierce anger.
27For the LORD says, “The whole land will be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
29Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers. They go into the thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.
30You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with makeup, you make yourself beautiful in vain. Your lovers despise you. They seek your life.
31For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who gives birth to her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, “Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 4:14The call to wash Jerusalem's heart locates the need for repentance within, even as enemy forces approach.
Jeremiah 4:22God names his people's failure to know him, exposing their practiced evil and lack of understanding.
Jeremiah 4:23The vision's empty earth and dark heavens portray Judah's devastation as a terrifying reversal of creation's order.
Where this chapter reaches

Genesis shares the imagery of an unformed earth and darkness, which Jeremiah uses to portray the land's devastation under judgment. Hosea shares the call to break up fallow ground, while Romans shares the language of circumcision applied to the heart.

Jeremiah 4's chapter linksAll strongest linksHover or tap a book
Notice

After reading the whole chapter

What does the repeated language about the heart reveal about the return God seeks?

Write on this

How does Jeremiah's anguish shape your response to the judgment he announces?

Write on this

Questions people ask about Jeremiah 4

What does circumcision of the heart mean in Jeremiah 4?

Verse 4 uses circumcision as an image for inward repentance and devotion to YHWH. The surrounding commands explain its force: remove abominations, break up fallow ground, and wash the heart from wickedness. Judah's evil conduct and thoughts must change; the warning concerns a people's response to God.

Is Jeremiah 4:23 describing the earth before Genesis 1?

The surrounding verses place this vision within the warning of Judah's destruction. Jeremiah sees trembling mountains, vanished people and birds, and ruined cities under God's anger. The language recalls Genesis and portrays creation's order coming undone. It offers no account of a separate world destroyed before the creation described in Genesis.

Why does Jeremiah 4:10 say God deceived the people?

The verse records the prophet's anguished address to God as promised peace collides with the coming sword. It does not identify who had announced that peace or explain how Jeremiah understood God's role in those assurances. The surrounding warnings make clear that Jerusalem faces judgment for its own rebellion.

Read it. Now write it.

Start an entry on Jeremiah 4. Your words go beside the text, and you get one next step for the week.

Jeremiah · 52 chapters
12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031323334353637383940414243444546474849505152
What the Bible says about guilt →What the Bible says about fear →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).