Abstract
Jeremiah 4:23—28 depicts one of the most stunning visions and imagery in the Hebrew Bible. The language and metaphors portray large scale devastation, an un-creation, of the entire world. Paying attention to the hermeneutical features of the metaphor and intertextuality, this study explores the ways in which this text is intended to be read and interpreted in dialogue with other interrelated texts, such as the creation accounts and flood narrative in Genesis. The intertextual correlations of key metaphors intensify the impact of threat and warning as well as their rhetorical functions both within the larger unit of Jeremiah 2—6 and within the entire book of Jeremiah. These devices signify that just as the text needs to be read from various intertextual dimensions, these visions as metaphors should be interpreted from various hermeneutical angles toward the implications in the aftermath of the recent natural tragedies in today's world.
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