Verse 19. My bowels] From this to the twenty-ninth verse the prophet describes the ruin of Jerusalem and the desolation of Judea by the Chaldeans in language and imagery scarcely paralleled in the whole Bible.[emphasis mine]
Please read those verses yourself to determine the meaning. The writer doesn't know about or understand that there was an age before this one. He is reading the top layer of those verses but they are much deeper.
In Jer.4:23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was (became) without form, and void; and the heavens and they had no light. That is not about Judea only.
I can see how one might interpret it in the way you have if read out of context, or if presented to someone else out of context, but considering that the it does literally reference Jerusalem, specifically, in verse 14, I have to disagree with your argument.
I don't believe I am reading it out of context. In vs. 14 Jeremiah was warning his people, those of Jerusalem, about the king of Babylon coming, he is warning us of the king of end times, anti-christ coming.
Jeremiah 4:14
14 O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?
Sorry, I just don't see it....
The hebrew word used for earth in the 23rd verse of Jeremiah 4, is the same word used for earth in 2nd verse of Genesis 1:
776 'erets eh'-rets
from an unused root probably meaning to be firm; the earth (at large, or partitively a land):--X common, country, earth, field, ground, land, X natins, way, + wilderness, world.
Remember though, that words with multiple meanings are contingent upon context, so in this case, earth simply means land, and not the earth as as a whole. Even in our language we often refer to such vast open areas of land as earth, without signifying the planet as a whole.
Additionally, such descriptive language as is seen in verse 23, in my mind, corresponds quite well with a catastrophic war zone. You may disagree however.
I'm not saying that you're definitely wrong....all I'm saying is that I just don't see your interpretation when taken in context.