1Righteous are You, O Jehovah, when I complain to You; yet let me speak with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those who deceive with treachery at ease? 2You have planted them; yea, they take root. They grow, yea, they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their heart. 3But You, O Jehovah, know me. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and consecrate them for the day of slaughter. 4How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither from the evil of those who dwell in it? The beasts and the birds have been swept away; because they said, He shall not see our last end. 5If you have run with footmen, and they wore you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if you feel secure in the land of peace, then how will you do in the swelling of the Jordan? 6For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. Yea, they have called out a multitude after you. Do not believe them, though they speak pleasant things to you. 7I have forsaken My house; I have left My inheritance. I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies. 8My inheritance is to Me as a lion in the forest; it cries out against Me; therefore I have hated it. 9My inheritance is like a speckled bird to Me; the birds all around are against her. Go, gather all the beasts of the field, bring them to devour. 10Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My portion under foot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. 11They have made it a desolation. Being desolate, it mourns to Me. The whole land is made desolate because no man lays it to heart. 12The plunderers have come upon all high places through the wilderness; for the sword of Jehovah shall devour from one end of the land even to the other end of the land. No flesh shall have peace. 13They have sown wheat, but reap thorns. They have tired themselves out, but to no profit. And they shall be ashamed of your harvests because of the fierce anger of Jehovah. 14Thus says Jehovah against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. 15And it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them, and will bring them back, each man to his inheritance and each man to his land. 16And it shall be, if they will carefully learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, As Jehovah lives (as they taught the people to swear by Baal), then they shall be established in the midst of My people. 17But if they will not obey, I will pull up, root out, and destroy that nation, says Jehovah.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 CONTINUATION OF THE SUBJECT AT THE CLOSE OF THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER. (Jer. 12:1-17)(
Ps 51:4).
let me talk, &c.--only let me reason the case with Thee: inquire of Thee the causes why such wicked men as these plotters against my life prosper (compare
Job 12:6;
Job 21:7;
Ps 37:1,
Ps 37:35;
Ps 73:3;
Mal 3:15). It is right, when hard thoughts of God's providence suggest themselves, to fortify our minds by justifying God beforehand (as did Jeremiah), even before we hear the reasons of His dealings.
2 grow--literally "go on," "progress." Thou givest them sure dwellings and increasing prosperity.
near in . . . mouth . . . far from . . . reins-- (
Isa 29:13;
Matt 15:8). Hypocrites.
3 knowest me-- (
Ps 139:1).
tried . . . heart-- (
Jer 11:20).
toward thee--rather, "with Thee," that is, entirely devoted to Thee; contrasted with the hypocrites (
Jer 12:2), "near in . . . mouth, and far from . . . reins." This being so, how is it that I fare so ill, they so well?
pull . . . out--containing the metaphor, from a "rooted tree" (
Jer 12:2).
prepare--literally, "separate," or "set apart as devoted."
day of slaughter-- (
Jas 5:5).
4 land mourn--personification (
Jer 14:2;
Jer 23:10).
for the wickedness-- (
Ps 107:34).
beasts-- (
Hos 4:3).
He shall not see our last end--Jehovah knows not what is about to happen to us (
Jer 5:12) [ROSENMULLER]. So the Septuagint. (
Ps 10:11;
Ezek 8:12;
Ezek 9:9). Rather, "The prophet (Jeremiah, to whom the whole context refers) shall not see our last end." We need not trouble ourselves about his boding predictions. We shall not be destroyed as he says (
Jer 5:12-
Jer 5:13).
5 Jehovah's reply to Jeremiah's complaint.
horses--that is, horsemen: the argument a fortiori. A proverbial phrase. The injuries done thee by the men of Anathoth ("the footmen") are small compared with those which the men of Jerusalem ("the horsemen") are about to inflict on thee. If the former weary thee out, how wilt thou contend with the king, the court, and the priests at Jerusalem?
wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee--English Version thus fills up the sentence with the italicized words, to answer to the parallel clause in the first sentence of the verse. The parallelism is, however, sufficiently retained with a less ellipsis: "If (it is only) in a land of peace thou art confident" [MAURER].
swelling of Jordan--In harvest-time and earlier (April and May) it overflows its banks (
Josh 3:15), and fills the valley called the Ghor. Or, "the pride of Jordan," namely, its wooded banks abounding in lions and other wild beasts (
Jer 49:19;
Jer 50:44;
Zech 11:3; compare
2Kgs 6:2). MAUNDRELL says that between the Sea of Tiberias and Lake Merom the banks are so wooded that the traveller cannot see the river at all without first passing through the woods. If in the campaign country (alone) thou art secure, how wilt thou do when thou fallest into the wooded haunts of wild beasts?
6 even thy brethren--as in Christ's case (
Ps 69:8;
John 1:11;
John 7:5; compare
Jer 9:4;
Jer 11:19,
Jer 11:21;
Matt 10:36). Godly faithfulness is sure to provoke the ungodly, even of one's own family.
called a multitude after thee-- (
Isa 31:4). JEROME translates, "cry after thee with a loud (literally, 'full') voice."
believe . . . not . . . though . . . speak fair-- (
Pro 26:25).
7 I have forsaken--Jehovah will forsake His temple and the people peculiarly His. The mention of God's close tie to them, as heretofore His, aggravates their ingratitude, and shows that their past spiritual privileges will not prevent God from punishing them.
beloved of my soul--image from a wife (
Jer 11:15;
Isa 54:5).
8 is unto me--is become unto Me: behaves towards Me as a lion which roars against a man, so that he withdraws from the place where he hears it: so I withdrew from My people, once beloved, but now an object of abhorrence because of their rebellious cries against Me.
9 speckled bird--Many translate, "a ravenous beast, the hyena"; the corresponding Arabic word means hyena; so the Septuagint. But the Hebrew always elsewhere means "a bird of prey." The Hebrew for "speckled" is from a root "to color"; answering to the Jewish blending together with paganism the altogether diverse Mosaic ritual. The neighboring nations, birds of prey like herself (for she had sinfully assimilated herself to them), were ready to pounce upon her.
assemble . . . beasts of . . . field--The Chaldeans are told to gather the surrounding heathen peoples as allies against Judah (
Isa 56:9;
Ezek 34:5).
10 pastors--the Babylonian leaders (compare
Jer 12:12;
Jer 6:3).
my vineyard-- (
Isa 5:1,
Isa 5:5).
trodden my portion-- (
Isa 63:18).
11 mourneth unto me--that is, before Me. EICHORN translates, "by reason of Me," because I have given it to desolation (
Jer 12:7).
because no man layeth it to heart--because none by repentance and prayer seek to deprecate God's wrath. Or, "yet none lays it to heart"; as in
Jer 5:3 [CALVIN].
12 high places--Before, He had threatened the plains; now, the hills.
wilderness--not an uninhabited desert, but high lands of pasturage, lying between Judea and Chaldea (
Jer 4:11).
13 Description in detail of the devastation of the land (
Mic 6:15).
they shall be ashamed of your--The change of persons, in passing from indirect to direct address, is frequent in the prophets. Equivalent to, "Ye shall be put to the shame of disappointment at the smallness of your produce."
14 Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.
touch-- (
Zech 2:8).
pluck them out . . . pluck out . . . Judah--(Compare end of
Jer 12:16). During the thirteen years that the Babylonians besieged Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, after subduing Cślo-Syria, brought Ammon, Moab, &c., and finally Egypt, into subjection [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 10:9.7]. On the restoration of these nations, they were to exchange places with the Jews. The latter were now in the midst of them, but on their restoration they were to be "in the midst of the Jews," that is, as proselytes to the true God (compare
Mic 5:7;
Zech 14:16). "Pluck them," namely, the Gentile nations: in a bad sense. "Pluck Judah": in a good sense; used to express the force which was needed to snatch Judah from the tyranny of those nations by whom they had been made captives, or to whom they had fled; otherwise they never would have let Judah go. Previously he had been forbidden to pray for the mass of the Jewish people. But here he speaks consolation to the elect remnant among them. Whatever the Jews might be, God keeps His covenant.
15 A promise, applying to Judah, as well as to the nations specified (
Amos 9:14). As to Moab, compare
Jer 48:47; as to Ammon,
Jer 49:6.
16 swear by my name-- (
Jer 4:2;
Isa 19:18;
Isa 65:16); that is, confess solemnly the true God.
built--be made spiritually and temporally prosperous: fixed in sure habitations (compare
Jer 24:6;
Jer 42:10;
Jer 45:4;
Ps 87:4-
Ps 87:5;
Eph 2:20-
Eph 2:21;
1Pet 2:5).
17 (
Isa 60:12).
Many of these figurative acts being either not possible, or not probable, or decorous, seem to have existed only in the mind of the prophet as part of his inward vision. [So CALVIN]. The world he moved in was not the sensible, but the spiritual, world. Inward acts were, however, when it was possible and proper, materialized by outward performance but not always, and necessarily so. The internal act made a naked statement more impressive and presented the subject when extending over long portions of space and time more concentrated. The interruption of Jeremiah's official duty by a journey of more than two hundred miles twice is not likely to have literally taken place.
