Jeremiah 4:20

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) Destruction upon destruction is cried.—Literally, Breaking upon breaking, or crash upon crash, is reported.

Suddenly are my tents spoiled.—The tent dwelling retained its position even amid the cities and villages of Israel (2Samuel 18:17; 1Kings 8:66). The “curtains” are, of course, those of the tent (Isaiah 54:2). Conspicuous among such survivals of the nomad form of life we find the Rechabites of Jeremiah 35

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:19-31 The prophet had no pleasure in delivering messages of wrath. He is shown in a vision the whole land in confusion. Compared with what it was, every thing is out of order; but the ruin of the Jewish nation would not be final. Every end of our comforts is not a full end. Though the Lord may correct his people very severely, yet he will not cast them off. Ornaments and false colouring would be of no avail. No outward privileges or profession, no contrivances would prevent destruction. How wretched the state of those who are like foolish children in the concerns of their souls! Whatever we are ignorant of, may the Lord make of good understanding in the ways of godliness. As sin will find out the sinner, so sorrow will, sooner or later, find out the secure.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Destruction ... - Or, breaking upon breaking Jeremiah 4:6. The news of one breaking, one violent calamity, follows close upon another.

My curtains - The curtains of the tent, put here for the tents themselves. tents were the ordinary habitations of the Israelites.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. Destruction … cried—Breach upon breach is announced (Ps 42:7; Eze 7:26). The war "trumpet" … the battle shout … the "destructions" … the havoc throughout "the whole land" … the spoiling of the shepherds' "tents" (Jer 10:20; or, "tents" means cities, which should be overthrown as easily as tents [Calvin]), form a gradation.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Destruction upon destruction; a further expression of his bitter lamentation, redoubling his complaint; the end of one, but the beginning of another; q.d. worse and worse, Deu 32:23 Ezekiel 7:26; good Josiah slain, and four of his successors carried away or slain, or both, 2 Chronicles 36.

The whole-land is spoiled: this is more particularly described Jeremiah 4:23-26.

Suddenly are my tents spoiled; the enemy makes no more of overthrowing my stately cities and magnificent palaces, sometimes described by tents, Isaiah 54:2, than if he were plundering of a camp, or overturning of tents made of curtains, Jeremiah 49:29; either alluding to their ancient way of living, Numbers 24:2,5, or their wilderness condition, when they abode in tents: q.d. We are reduced to as mean a condition as then, and that suddenly, ere we are aware, and it is done with as much ease as overturning a poor shepherd’s cottage, Lamentations 2:5,6. Jeremiah possibly personating a shepherd, speaks in the shepherd’s style, and may here signify the destruction of their whole country, even all those places and fields where shepherds were wont to pitch their tents.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Destruction upon destruction is cried;.... Or, "breach upon breach" (g); as soon as one affliction is over, another comes on; and upon the news of one calamity, tidings are brought of another, as in Job's case: it signifies, that distress and troubles would come thick and fast, and that there would be no end of them, until there was an utter destruction, as this phrase signifies, and the following words show. Kimchi interprets it of the destruction of the ten tribes which came first, and of the destruction of Judah that came now.

For the whole land is spoiled, or "wasted" (h); that is, the land of Judea:

suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment: meaning either the armies of his people, which dwelt in tents, and were destroyed at once; or the cities, towns, and habitations of his countrymen, which he compares to tents, as being easily beat down or overthrown; and so the Targum interprets it of cities; and the prophet seems to intimate that this destruction would reach to Anathoth, where his tent; cottage, and curtains were. So sudden destruction some times comes, when men are crying Peace, peace, 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

(g) "contritio super contritionem", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius. (h) "vastata", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.

Geneva Study Bible

Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my {r} tents ruined, and my curtains in a moment.

(r) Meaning, the cities which were as easily cast down as a tent.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. is cried] better, one destruction (lit. breach) meeteth (followeth upon) another. The Hebrew verb is ambiguous.

curtains] tent-hangings. Cp. Jeremiah 10:20; Ca. Jeremiah 1:5; Isaiah 54:2.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - My tents. Jeremiah uses a similar phrase in Jeremiah 30:18 (scrap. also 2 Samuel 20:1; 1 Kings 8:66; 1 Kings 12:16; Psalm 132:3; also Isaiah 29:1, "city where David encamped, i.e. dwelt"). The expression is evidently a "survival" of the nomadic, tent-dwelling age. (Comp. the parallel phrase, "my curtains," i.e. my tent-curtains; comp. Jeremiah 10:20; Isaiah 54:2; Song of Solomon 1:5.) Jeremiah 4:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

One destruction after another is heralded (on שׁבר, see Jeremiah 4:6). Ew. translates loosely: wound upon wound meet one another. For the word does not mean wound, but the fracture of a limb; and it seems inadmissible to follow the Chald. and Syr. in taking נקרא here in the sense of נקרה , since the sig. "meet" does not suit שׁבר. The thought is this: tidings are brought of one catastrophe after another, for the devastation extends itself over the whole land and comes suddenly upon the tents, i.e., dwellings of those who are lamenting. Covers, curtains of the tent, is used as synonymous with tents; cf. Jeremiah 10:20; Isaiah 54:2. How long shall I see the standard, etc.! is the cry of despair, seeing no prospect of the end to the horrors of the war. The standard and the sound of the trumpet are, as in Jeremiah 4:5, the alarm-signals on the approach of the enemy.

There is no prospect of an end to the horrors, for (Jeremiah 4:22) the people is so foolish that it understands only how to do the evil, but not the good; cf. for this Jeremiah 5:21; Isaiah 1:3; Micah 7:3. Jeremiah 4:21 gives God's answer to the woful query, how long the ravaging of the land by war is to last. The answer is: as long as the people persists in the folly of its rebellion against God, so long will chastising judgments continue. To bring this answer of God home to the people's heart, the prophet, in Jeremiah 4:23-26, tells what he has seen in the spirit. He has seen (ראיתי, perf. proph.) bursting over Judah a visitation which convulses the whole world. The earth seemed waste and void as at the beginning of creation, Genesis 1:2, before the separation of the elements and before the creation of organic and living beings. In heaven no light was to be seen, earth and heaven seemed to have been thrown back into a condition of chaos. The mountains and hills, these firm foundations of the earth, quivered and swayed (התקלקל, be put into a light motion, cf. Nahum 1:5); men had fled and hidden themselves from the wrath of God (cf. Isaiah 2:19, Isaiah 2:21), and all the birds had flown out of sight in terror at the dreadful tokens of the beginning catastrophe (Genesis 9:9). The fruitful field was the wilderness - not a wilderness, but "changed into the wilderness with all its attributes" (Hitz.). הכּרמל is not appell. as in Jeremiah 2:7, but nom. prop. of the lower slopes of Carmel, famed for their fruitfulness; these being taken as representatives of all the fruitful districts of the land. The cities of the Carmel, or of the fruitful-field, are manifestly not to be identified with the store cities of 1 Kings 9:19, as Hitz. supposes, but the cities in the most fertile districts of the country, which, by reason of their situation, were in a prosperous condition, but now are destroyed. "Before the heat of His anger," which is kindled against the foolish and godless race; cf. Nahum 1:6; Isaiah 13:13.