Yeremia 4:26-28

4:26 I looked and saw that the fruitful land had become a desert

and that all of the cities had been laid in ruins.

The Lord had brought this all about

because of his blazing anger. ¹ 

4:27 All this will happen because the Lord said, ² 

“The whole land will be desolate;

however, I will not completely destroy it.

4:28 Because of this the land will mourn

and the sky above will grow black. ³ 

For I have made my purpose known ⁴ 

and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ⁵ 

[4:26]  ¹ tn Heb “because of the Lord, because of his blazing anger.”

[4:27]  ² tn Heb “For this is what the Lord said,”

[4:28]  ³ sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

[4:28]  ⁴ tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

[4:28]  ⁵ tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”