Yesaya 45:18

45:18 For this is what the Lord says,

the one who created the sky –

he is the true God, ¹ 

the one who formed the earth and made it;

he established it,

he did not create it without order, ² 

he formed it to be inhabited –

“I am the Lord, I have no peer.

Yeremia 4:23

4:23 “I looked at the land and saw ³  that it was an empty wasteland. ⁴ 

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

[45:18]  ¹ tn Heb “he [is] the God.” The article here indicates uniqueness.

[45:18]  ² tn Or “unformed.” Gen 1:2 describes the world as “unformed” (תֹהוּ, tohu) prior to God’s creative work, but God then formed the world and made it fit for habitation.

[4:23]  ³ 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.

[4:23]  ⁴ 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.