Jeremiah 4:24

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

I saw the mountains, and, behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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רֹעֲשִׁ֑ים

râʻash

H7493

“shaking”

Verb, Qal, Participle Active, Masculine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 30× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Judges 5:4

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root

TWOT: 2195

to quake, shake - (Qal) to quake, shake - (Niphal) to be made to quake - (Hiphil) - to cause to quake - to cause to spring or leap (of horse)

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

רֹעֲשִׁ֑ים to shake H7493 occurs in 30 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
3 nouns
1 particle

Verb forms

רָאִ֨יתִי֙ Qal · Perfect
רֹעֲשִׁ֑ים Qal · Participle Active
הִתְקַלְקָֽלוּ Hithpalpel · Perfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 11 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Jeremiah 4:24 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Ezekiel 38:20 so that the fish of the sea, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the field, and all creeping things who creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
Isaiah 5:25 Therefore Yahweh's anger burns against his people, And he has stretched out his hand against them, and has struck them. The mountains tremble, And their dead bodies are as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, But his hand is still stretched out.
Jeremiah 10:10 But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to abide his indignation.
Nahum 1:5–6 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
Judges 5:4–5 Yahweh, when you went forth out of Seir, When you marched out of the field of Edom, The earth trembled, the sky also dropped, Yes, the clouds dropped water.
1 Kings 19:11 He said, Go forth, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh. Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake:
Psalms 18:7 Then the earth shook and trembled. The foundations also of the mountains quaked and were shaken, Because he was angry.
Psalms 97:4 His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles.

Psalms 114:4–7 The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs.
Micah 1:4 The mountains melt under him, And the valleys split apart, Like wax before the fire, Like waters that are poured down a steep place.
Psalms 77:18 The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook.
Jeremiah 8:16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and those who dwell therein.
Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
Habakkuk 3:10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The tempest of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Jeremiah 4:24 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

רָאִ֨יתִי֙ הֶֽהָרִ֔ים וְהִנֵּ֖ה רֹעֲשִׁ֑ים וְכָל הַגְּבָע֖וֹת הִתְקַלְקָֽלוּ

I saw the mountains, and, behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Structure differs

In the Septuagint, Jeremiah is about an eighth shorter than the Hebrew and arranges its material differently — the Oracles Against the Nations (Hebrew chapters 46–51) appear in the middle of the Greek book, after 25:13. Because the chapter and verse boundaries do not line up, a verse-for-verse comparison with the Hebrew is not shown.

A verse-for-verse comparison isn’t shown here because the chapters and verses don’t line up. Switch to the LXX edition with the MT / LXX toggle above to read the Greek directly.

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from a public-domain English Septuagint. How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

חֲזֵיתִי טוּרַיָא וְהָא זָיְעִין וְכָל רָמָתָא אִתְפְרָקָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Jeremiah 4:24 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jer 4:24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

Ver. 24. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled.] War is a woe that no words, how wide soever, can sufficiently utter.

And all the hills moved lightly.] As being lightened of their burden, saith a Rabbi, trees and houses.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

mountains-- (Isa 5:25).

moved lightly--shook vehemently.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 24. The mountains - hills] Princes, rulers, &c., were astonished and fled.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Calvin's Commentaries

Jeremiah descends afterwards from heaven to mountains, and says that they trembled, and that all the hills moved or shook; some say, destroyed, but I know not for what reason, for the Prophet no doubt confirms the same thing by another phrase: and as he had said, that mountains trembled, so he also adds, that hills shook; and this is the proper meaning of the verb. Now the reason why he speaks of mountains and hills is evident; for a greater stability seems to belong to them than to level grounds, inasmuch as mountains are for the most part stony, and have their roots most firmly fixed in rocks. Were indeed the whole world to be thrown into confusion, the mountains seem to be so firmly based that no commotion could affect them: but the Prophet says, that they trembled, and that the hills shook

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) The mountains, and, lo, they trembled.—The great earthquake in the days of Uzziah (Amo_1:1), of which we find traces in Isaiah (Isa_24:19-20), had probably made imagery of this kind familiar.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne

24. moved to and fro] mg. moved lightly.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled,.... At the presence of God, at the tokens of his displeasure, and at his awful vengeance in the destruction of the Jews, as they are sometimes said to do, Psa 68:8,

and all the hills moved lightly; so Kimchi's father says the word used has the signification of lightness; though Jarchi, from Menachem, explains it, they were plucked up, and thrown out of their place; and some render it, were pulled down and destroyed, so the Targum. Mountains and hills are most stable, and not easily moved, wherefore this is said, to aggravate the desolation and destruction.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

He proceeds in his figurative elegancies: q.d. Behold how the mountains of Judea tremble! a like expression Psa 18:7,8; Isa 5:25; as if the very senseless creatures were astonished at the greatness of God’s anger; and he mentions these as being the most stable part of the earth, yet shake before him.

All the hills moved lightly; as easily as if they were some very light matter, or as dust or feathers in a whirlwind. See Psa 114:4,6. Or these may be said hyperbolically to tremble and move by reason of the multitudes of trampling and prancing horses and chariots furiously passing over them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

Moved lightly; rather, moved to and fro.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Trembled - He proceeds in his figurative expressions. Behold how the very mountains of Judea tremble! Moved - As easily as dust, or feathers in a whirl-wind.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Rashi

Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)

moved to and fro Heb. התקלקלו, they were uprooted and cast out of their place. Menahem associates it with: “He shakes the arrows to and fro (קלקל)” (Ezek. 21:26).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Jeremiah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is râʻash (“to shake”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “to shake” (râʻash) shape what this verse is saying?
How does Judges 5:4, which shares the word «to shake», read alongside this verse?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
«רָאִ֨יתִי֙» is a Qal Perfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 11 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 12 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.