diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 0441d4a..592ceb9 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -1,8 +1,3 @@
-m4_define([jq_version],
-          m4_esyscmd_s([(git rev-parse --verify -q jq-1.0 > /dev/null &&
-                        (git describe --tags --dirty --match 'jq-*'|sed 's/^jq-//')) ||
-                        echo `git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD`-`git describe --always --dirty`])))
-
 AC_INIT([jq], [jq_version], [https://github.com/stedolan/jq/issues],
              [jq], [https://stedolan.github.io/jq])