What Does Jeremiah 4:24 Mean?
I see the mountains, and there, they tremble; and all the hills are shaken loose.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.THE KEY
The Hebrew for “trembled” shares its root with the word for “earthquake,” so the mountains are part of the quake itself.
THE MEANING
You stand in a scene where the mountains tremble and the hills shift. The upheaval reaches what seems most fixed: the land itself is in motion.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that whatever feels foundational must be secure gives way here: even the mountains are shaking.
THE ROOT
רָעֲשׁוּ
raʿashu
GROWS FROM
רעש
r-ʿ-sh
To quake, shake, or rumble.
“tremble” in this verse is raʿashu. The root behind “trembled” also gives Hebrew its word for an earthquake. The mountains are not merely described as unsteady; their movement belongs to the same word-family as the quake itself.
ALSO GROWS
raʿash: Earthquake, shaking, or rumbling.
רַעַשׁ
This noun names the upheaval as an event, joining the mountains’ trembling to the earthquake itself.
hirʿish: To cause to quake or shake.
הִרְעִישׁ
In this causative form, the same root describes something making the world shake, expanding the image from motion to upheaval.
THE PATTERN
When the world’s order is overturned, even its most fixed landmarks move.
Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken loose from its place, in the heat of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of the burning of his anger.The mountains leapt like rams, and the hills like lambs.And the heaven parts like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island are moved from their places.THE THREAD
And he said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the face of the LORD." And behold, the LORD crossed over, and a great and strong breath split the mountains and shattered the rocks before the face of the LORD. But the LORD was not in the breath; and after the breath, a quaking; but the LORD was not in the quaking.The Hebrew noun translated “earthquake” is רַעַשׁ (raʿash), from the same root as Jeremiah’s “trembled.” Jeremiah gives the shaking to the mountains; Kings names the quake itself, revealing the shared word beneath both.
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