THE "UN-CREATION" OF THE WORLD (JEREMIAH 4:23-28; ZEPHANIAH 1:2-3)

The “Un-creation” of the World (Jeremiah 4:23-28; Zephaniah 1:2-3)

Of all the Old Testament prophecies, these two stand out in terms of their referral back to the days of the Creation story in Genesis 1-2. Marteus says, “The undoing of the present order of creation is graphically depicted by Jeremiah...In this heavy pulsing poetry, all that exists apparently is annihilated before the Lord's fierce anger (Jer: 26). Similarly Zephaniah described a creation that has become undone through a cosmic cataclysm in which all life, with allusions to the Genesis creation account, has been swept away...” Thus, we have the following comments from scholars regarding this apocalyptic event:

Jeremiah 4:23-28

Cawley and Millard: “It is the blast of God, the reversal of creation to the shapeless meaninglessness of Gn. 1:2.”

“Jeremiah 4:23-28 portrays the 'un-creation' of the world that reverses the creation story of Genesis 1.” (Dictionary of Biblical Imagery)

Heiser states, “Scholars debate when these verses in Jeremiah were penned in relation to other passages securely assigned to the apocalyptic genre, but they agree that the language is consistent with an apocalyptic outlook. There could hardly be a more dramatic way to cast divine visitation.” But this raises the logical questions as to how literally the language should be understood and whether it truly refers to worldwide events, or just to those limited to Israel and its surroundings.

Thus we get the following comment from Peterson, who states that “in Jeremiah 4:22-29 the prophet pronounces judgment upon Judah using a de-creation process whereby the organized cosmos is presented as being 'formless and void' (tohu waboho), an obvious allusion to Genesis 1:2.” According to this figurative understanding, the language of Genesis is only being used as an exaggerated, poetic way to refer to specific judgment on the Holy Land.

Payne also recognizes the possible dual meaning to this passage and says, “Confessedly, this passage occurs in the center of predictions about the wars of 586 B.C.; but Jeremiah seems to see though, and beyond, the moment of Judah's destruction to a more distant scene...to the consummation.”

“It was as if the earth had been 'uncreated' and reverted to its erstwhile primeval chaos. Order seemed to return to confusion...Jeremiah's description here is one of the most dramatic of its kind in the entire OT.” (Thompson)

Bright says that “in this poem, which is one of the most powerful descriptions of the Day of Yahweh in all prophetic literature, one might say that the story of Genesis 1 has been reversed...It is, if one cares to put it so, a ruin of 'atomic' proportions.”

The next question concerns how strictly the author reverses the order of events in Genesis. D.R. Jones gives as his opinion, “The order of waste, light and heaven, earth (here in the process of being disturbed), man and birds is close enough to stir the listener to remember the well known day of creation, and to understand the oracle as pointing to the reversal of creation.” Thus, we have the following correspondence between the two passages proposed by Schnittjer with the addition of another parallel I see between v. 24 and Day 3 of creation.

                                                 Table 1: Jeremiah 4 and Genesis 1

Event                                         Jeremiah                                  Genesis

formless and empty                   v. 23a                                      before Day 1

heavens                                      v. 23b                                     Day 2

light                                           v. 23c                                      Day 1

mountains, trees                        v. 24                                        Day 3

humans                                      v. 25a                                      Day 6

birds                                          v. 25b                                      Day 5

land                                           vv. 26a-27                               Day 3

earth and heaven, light              v. 28                                       Day 1

Note how Jeremiah begins working in a reverse chronological order compared to the Genesis account, but then starting at v. 25a he starts to return again to Day 1 in an almost symmetrical manner. As Schnittjer says, “The oracle does not follow a strict sequence but generally moves backward through the creation days.”

Zephaniah 1:2-28

Allusions to the creation story are even stronger in this prophetic passage. Mobley states, “The scope of the destruction and the echoes of Genesis (cf. 1:2 with Gen 7:23; the sequence humans, animals, birds, fish reverses the order of Gen 1.20-26) suggesting the undoing of creation (cf. Jer 4.23-26).”

Becker: “God's control over all creation, to bless or to punish, is reflected in the deliberate description of those destined for destruction (1:2-3) in the words of the creation account (Gen. 1:20, 24-25, 26-28). In fact, their punishment could be seen as an 'uncreation', since the order of destruction in Zephaniah exactly reverses that of creation in Genesis. Since only he is creator and lord, Yahweh is jealous of his position as Israel's sole object of worship (1:4-6). In his battle for theocracy, the rule of God, he brooks no rivals.” With this comment we see again as in Jeremiah 4 that it is possible to interpret the images of global creation and destruction blending in with the pictured destruction of individuals and nations who oppose God's rule.

As to the order of events given in these two verses, Robertson overstates his case somewhat by stating, “The order in which items are listed for destruction is precisely the reverse of the order in which they appear in the creation narrative.”

In fact, Zephaniah 1 can be pictured as an ABA construction in which verses 2-3(or 2-5) and vv. 14-18 concerning universal events form a border around the intervening verses dealing more specifically and immediately with judgment on God's people. As J.T. Carson says regarding the King James translation of the key word in 1:18 as “land” rather than modern renderings as “earth,” there are regrettably “some who still think Zephaniah speaks only of Judah and Jerusalem. Some even suggest that v. 18b is not Zephaniah's phrase because of the universal destruction it visualizes. But...the near and the distant often merge as the prophets survey the horizon of events.” This is the same phenomenon noted earlier in the interpretations of Jeremiah 4:23-28.

R.L. Smith makes the identical point as to the dual nature of the Zephaniah oracle: “Poetry uses exalted and extravagant language and should not be pressed literally. The prophet is saying in vv 2-6 that God is about to bring judgment against the whole world, and that judgment will affect Judah and Jerusalem directly...A fuller description of the day of Yahweh is given in 1:14-18...It is the speed of Yahweh in which all the earth is included in the day of Yahweh (v 18). This universal element takes us back to the opening verse of the chapter where God is about to sweep away all flesh.”

Payne adds, “Zech 1:2-18...might suggest...earth's final destruction. But the immediate context moves in to the punishment of sinful Judah at the exile (v. 4) and concludes in v. 18 with the parallel words that therefore 'the whole land shall be devoured...He will make an end of all them that dwell in the land.' The phrase could also be rendered 'the whole earth'; and Keil...thus suggests that the prophecy 'here returns to its starting point,' meaning vv. 2-3, understood as the destruction of all the world.”

In terms of the precise order of events pictured in the more eschatological portions of Zechariah's prophecy, Schnittjer says the following, “Like his contemporary Jeremiah, Zephaniah uses terrifying reversal of creation imagery which echoes the creation tradition of Gen 1...The prophet's rhetoric situates divine wrath as a stylistic reversal of the creation days tradition...Zephaniah's oracle makes its prophecy relative to the later creation days in which water, heavens, and land are filled with light and life...Speaking against the rooftop worshipers of celestial lights in Zeph. 1:5 may suggest what he has in mind by the obscure phrase 'and that which causes the wicked to stumble' in 1:3, at the very place his audience expect day four – the celestial lights.”

Thus, if we plot the parallels between Zephaniah 1 and the Genesis creation story, the arrangement in Figure 2 below suggests itself. In it, the two bolded items act as bookends to the whole structure. Then in verses 3-5 the movement in Zephaniah is in reverse chronological order to that in creation, followed by Zephaniah 1:13-18 in which the recitation of judgments starts all over again but this time running in the same direction as in Genesis. Thus, neither in Zephaniah or Jeremiah can we see a strictly orderly arrangement, but both are highly suggestive of indicating an undoing the original creation in every aspect.

                                                Figure 2: Zephaniah 1 and Genesis 1-2

Event                                                         Zephaniah 1                      Genesis

nothing on the face of the earth             v. 2                                      1:1-2

humans                                                     v. 3a                                     1:26-28

animals                                                     v. 3b                                     1:24-25

birds                                                         v. 3c                                      1:21b

fish                                                           v. 3d                                      1:21a

host of heaven                                          v. 5                                        1: 14-19

vineyards and fruit                                   v. 13                                      1:11-13

darkness and gloom                                 v. 15                                      1:2-5

walk like the blind                                   v. 17a                                     1:2-5

blood poured out like dust                       v. 17b                                     2:7

gold and precious items                          v. 18a                                      2:11

earth consumed                                     v. 18b                                     1:1-2