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Journey of a Passage

Jeremiah 4:23–26

"Without form, and void": creation undone

"I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void (tohu va-vohu); and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled… I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled." The poet sees the coming invasion as creation running backward: the words of Genesis 1:2, darkness, no humans, no birds, the fruitful land a desert. The library's Greek reads "there was nothing" and loses the echo of Genesis.

Stable text: no manuscript differences in meaning

The family tree

Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.

✓ contains this verse · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives

  • Same line, through lost copies
  • Translation
Hebrew
  1. The words as first spoken or writtenlate 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)
  2. Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
  3. Genesis 1:2 (Masoretic Text)AD 1008Descends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written
Greek
  1. Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872Translated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)
Latin
  1. Latin Vulgate (Clementine)Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592Translated from the Hebrew text Jerome used
English
  1. King James Bible1611Translated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

Every witness, in order

  1. late 7th–6th century BC (by section; debated)

    The words as first spoken or written

    – No copy survives

    No original survives, and Jeremiah circulated in at least two ancient Hebrew editions: a shorter one behind the Old Greek and the longer one preserved as the Masoretic Text. The oldest copies are six fragmentary Qumran manuscripts (2QJer, 4QJer-a to 4QJer-e), from about 200 BC to the 1st century AD.

  2. Jerome c. AD 400, from Hebrew; edition 1592

    Latin Vulgate (Clementine)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Hebrew text Jerome used

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).

    Aspexi terram, et ecce vacua erat et nihili; et cælos, et non erat lux in eis. Vidi montes, et ecce movebantur: et omnes colles conturbati sunt. Intuitus sum, et non erat homo: et omne volatile cæli recessit. Aspexi, et ecce Carmelus desertus, et omnes urbes ejus destructæ sunt a facie Domini, et a facie iræ furoris ejus.

    Latin numbering: Jeremiah 4:23–26. Jerome translated Jeremiah from Hebrew (c. AD 400).

  3. AD 1008

    Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ וְהִנֵּה־תֹ֖הוּ וָבֹ֑הוּ וְאֶל־הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם וְאֵ֥ין אוֹרָֽם׃ רָאִ֙יתִי֙ הֶֽהָרִ֔ים וְהִנֵּ֖ה רֹעֲשִׁ֑ים וְכָל־הַגְּבָע֖וֹת הִתְקַלְקָֽלוּ׃ רָאִ֕יתִי וְהִנֵּ֖ה אֵ֣ין הָאָדָ֑ם וְכָל־ע֥וֹף הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם נָדָֽדוּ׃ רָאִ֕יתִי וְהִנֵּ֥ה הַכַּרְמֶ֖ל הַמִּדְבָּ֑ר וְכָל־עָרָ֗יו נִתְּצוּ֙ מִפְּנֵ֣י יְהוָ֔ה מִפְּנֵ֖י חֲר֥וֹן אַפּֽוֹ׃

    I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; at the heavens, and their light was gone (v. 23)

    Hebrew numbering: Jeremiah 4:23–26.

  4. AD 1008

    Genesis 1:2 (Masoretic Text)

    ✓ Contains this passageDescends, through lost copies, from The words as first spoken or written

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.

    וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃

    And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep

    The phrase Jeremiah reverses.

  5. 1611

    King James Bible

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from printed Masoretic Hebrew

    How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).

    I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. 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.

  6. Greek translation c. 2nd century BC; French 1872

    Greek Jeremiah (library: Giguet's French)

    ✓ Contains this passageTranslated from the Old Greek Jeremiah (a shorter edition)

    How the site knows this: Known here only through a translation.

    J’ai regardé la terre, et voilà qu’il n’y avait plus rien; j’ai regardé le ciel, et ses astres n’étaient plus. J’ai vu les montagnes, et elles étaient tremblantes, toutes les collines pleines de troubles. J’ai regardé, et voilà qu’il n’y avait pas un homme, et tous les oiseaux du ciel étaient effarouchés. J’ai vu, et voilà que le Carmel était désert, et toutes les villes brûlées par le feu, devant la face du Seigneur; elles avaient toutes été effacées devant la face de sa colère.

    Greek (digital file) numbering: Jeremiah 4:23–26. Giguet's 1872 French of a printed Greek text (D check only), in the Greek book's own order and verse numbering; a C check needs Ziegler's Göttingen Jeremiah or Rahlfs–Hanhart.

What changed, and why

Classification: stable Hebrew text; an allusion to Genesis 1:2 that the Greek translation does not reproduce.

Tohu va-vohu occurs only here and in Genesis 1:2 (Isaiah 34:11 has the two words apart).

The vision belongs to the "foe from the north" poems of chapters 4–6.

What the evidence shows

  • What the text saysJeremiah 4:23 uses tohu va-vohu, the phrase of Genesis 1:2.
  • DisputedThe poem describes a literal cosmic collapse. Usually read as poetic hyperbole for invasion and devastation.

Sources

    Related lessons

    • Jeremiah 4: Without Form, and Void →"If thou wilt return, O Israel… return unto me"; "Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart" (4:1–4). "Blow ye the trumpet in the land… for I will bring evil from the north": the lion has come out of his thicket, the destroyer of nations (vv. 5–9). Jeremiah protests: "Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people, saying, Ye shall have peace" (v. 10). A hot wind; chariots like a whirlwind; "wash thine heart from wickedness" (vv. 11–18). "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart… because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet" (vv. 19–22). "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void" (vv. 23–28). Every city flees; Zion dresses in scarlet for lovers who want her life; "the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself… Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers" (vv. 29–31).