Jeremiahchapter 12
17 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah spoke this chapter in the early years of King Jehoiakim, when men who cheated and lied were doing well in Judah. It opens with the prophet bringing his own complaint to God in the language of a court case. Its first hearers lived by farming and knew fields, vineyards and the thick brush along the Jordan where lions lived. Listen for the question he asks, and for an answer that gives him a harder road in place of a reason. Near the end the chapter turns to the nations around Judah. It keeps a place for them too.
Context
- Who
- Faithful people watching the corrupt do well and wondering out loud why
- What
- A complaint by Jeremiah about the success of the wicked, God's answer, and a lament over the ruined land and its neighbours.
- Where
- Judah's fields and vineyards, with the thickets of the Jordan valley in view.
- When
- The reign of Jehoiakim, about 609 to 605 BC, an estimate, since the chapter carries no date.
- Why
- To keep the honest question of a faithful man in Scripture and to prepare him for harder days ahead.
Historical context
The chapter opens as a lawsuit filed in the other direction. Jeremiah says he will state his case to God and then asks the oldest question there is: why does the way of the wicked prosper. He gets no explanation. He gets a harder assignment.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
God's answer uses two pictures from ordinary life. Foot-racing was how messages moved; a royal runner covered long distances at speed, and horses were another category entirely. If you are winded by men on foot, how will you keep up with cavalry. And if you only feel safe in a peaceful country, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan, the dense tangle of tamarisk and reed along the river where lions actually denned. Both are ways of saying: this was the easy part.
The land itself is described the way a farmer would describe a ruined season. Wheat sown and thorns reaped, a pleasant portion trodden into a desert, shepherds trampling the vineyard, and nobody bothering to mourn it.
At the end the neighbouring nations appear, evil neighbours who have grabbed at Israel's land. They are told that they too will be uprooted, and then, surprisingly, that if they will learn the ways of God's people they will be built up among them.
Significance
For first hearers the value of this chapter is that the question is in the Bible at all. A prophet asks God straight out why the crooked are comfortable, and it is preserved rather than edited away.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The answer they got was not a solution to the problem of evil. It was a warning that the ground was about to get rougher and a promise that the God who uproots also plants, including, one day, the neighbours doing the looting.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
No part of this chapter is read in the synagogue. Probed for this lane, the site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot 0 and haftarah uses 0 for Jeremiah 12, and no festival reading for the book. Across chapters 1 to 26 of Jeremiah the same probe found a Haftarah only in chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 16 and 17.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi reads the prophet's complaint as an argument he knows he will lose: "I wish to argue with You so that You will let me know Your way" (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:1:1). Why the wicked prosper he reads two ways. It is the rise of Nebuchadnezzar, who destroyed the Temple, or it is the men of Anathoth (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:1:2).
On running with footmen and with horses Rashi gives the plain sense first. If the priests of his own town seek his life, the princes of Judah will do more (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:5:1 and 12:5:2). He then reports the reading of the rabbis in Sanhedrin 96a, which turns the verse to the reward of three steps Nebuchadnezzar once ran in God's honour. The righteous who ran like horses will be paid far more (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:5:2).
He names the wicked neighbours as Egypt, Ammon, Moab, Tyre and Sidon (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:14:1). The promise of return he reads as the word spoken over each of them in this book (Rashi on Jeremiah 12:15:1).
The corpus carries six further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Metzudat David on Jeremiah 12:2:1. The same holds for Radak on Jeremiah 12:2:1, 12:6:1, 12:7:1, 12:12:1 and 12:17:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 5 in the Talmud and 35 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Devarim Rabbah 1:17, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:37, Midrash Tehillim 90:1 and Sanhedrin 96a:7. On verse 3 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Numbers 11:18:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 11:18:1, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 45:12, Shemot Rabbah 24:3, Sifrei Bamidbar 94:1, Sifrei Zuta 11:18:1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 736:8. On verse 4 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:12.
On verse 5 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 92:7, Midrash Lekach Tov, Genesis 44:8:1, Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of The 32 Midot of Aggadah 1:9 and Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 9:1. On verse 7 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 43:20, Ein Yaakov, Menakhot 5:1, Menachot 53b:2, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 31:17:1, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 33:12:1 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 4:12:1. It also holds Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:15:18 there.
On verse 8 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 49:4, Aggadat Bereshit 68:2, Bamidbar Rabbah 16:20, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 12, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Zevachim 14:4, Ein Yaakov, Taanit 2:5 and Ein Yaakov, Zevakhim 14:9. On verse 9 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Genesis 15:11:11, Pirkei DeRabbi Eliezer 28:6 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 76:7. On verse 10 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 12:2:19 and Midrash Sekhel Tov, Shemot 12:20:10. On verse 11 it holds Tractate Kallah Rabbati 6:9.
On verse 14 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 9:18, Berakhot 8a:5 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Berakhot 1:41. On verse 16 it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 29:2.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 12:1:1 to 12:16:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Jeremiah 12:2:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 12:2:1, 12:6:1, 12:7:1, 12:12:1 and 12:17:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/12.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 12: parashot 0, haftarah uses 0, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Why Does the Way of the Wicked Prosper?
Jeremiah 12:1-4
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?: Jeremiah’s complaint continues with “Why does the way of the wicked prosper”, while the men of Anathoth who seek his life seem to thrive. Verse 2 says of them, “You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts”. Verses 3 and 4 repeat the plea of chapter 11.
Jeremiah 12:1
“Though sometimes clouds and darkness are round about him, yet justice and judgment are always the habitation of his throne, Ps. xcvii. When we find it hard to understand particular providences we must have recourse to general truths as our first principles, and abide by them; however dark the providence may be, the Lord is righteous; see Ps. lxxiii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Jeremiah 12:1
“Yet let me talk ... - Rather, yet will I speak with thee on a matter of right. This sense is well given in the margin. The prophet acknowledges the general righteousness of God’s dealings, but cannot reconcile with it the properity of the conspirators of Anathoth This difficulty was often present to the minds of the saints of the Old Testament, see Job 21:7 ff; Ps. 37; Ps. 73. Happy - Rather, secure, tranquil.”
Jeremiah 12:1
“Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I plead with thee,.... The six first verses of this chapter properly belong to the preceding, being of the same argument, and in strict connection with the latter part of it.”
You planted them, and they have taken root: The LORD planted the wicked, and they took root and bore fruit, so the question of verse 1 grows sharper. Adam Clarke reads their faith as all lips and no heart, the form without the power. Barnes notes the Hebrew says kidneys, the seat of feeling.
Jeremiah 12:2
“Thou art near in their mouth - They have no sincerity: they have something of the form of religion, but nothing of its power.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:2
“This was no uncharitable censure, for he spoke by the Spirit of prophecy, without which it is not safe to charge men with hypocrisy whose appearances are plausible. Observe, (1.) Thought they cared not for thinking of God, nor had any sincere affection to him, yet they could easily persuade themselves to speak of him frequently and with an air of seriousness.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
But You know me, O LORD: The LORD knows and can test Jeremiah's heart. Matthew Henry reads this as his comfort while others called him a false prophet. Albert Barnes notes that the verb for drag away is used of tent cords torn up at 10:20.
Jeremiah 12:3
“Thou hast seen me ... - Rather, “Thou seest me and triest mine heart” at all times, and knowest the sincerity of its devotion” toward Thee.” Pull them out - The original is used Jer 10:20 of the rending asunder of the cords of the tent, and Eze 17:9 of the tearing up of roots. Jeremiah does not doubt God’s justice, or the ultimate punishment of the wicked, but he wants it administered in a summary way. Prepare - literally, “sanctify,” i. e., devote.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:3
“But thou, O Lord, knowest me,.... The Lord knew him before he was born, Jer 1:5, he knew what he designed him for, and what use he would make of him; and he knew him now, and loved him, and cared for him, as his prophet; he knew his sincerity and faithfulness, and took notice of it, with what integrity he performed his office, and discharged his duty; and he knew that all his enemies said of him were scandal and reproach, lies and calumnies.”
How long will the land mourn: The people's taunt at the end has two readings. Rosenmüller, cited by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, takes He as the LORD, who cannot see their end. Those commentators and Albert Barnes take He as Jeremiah, and the people boast that they will outlive him and his warnings of evil.
Jeremiah 12:4
“How long shall the land mourn - These hypocrites and open sinners are a curse to the country; pull them out, Lord, that the land may be delivered of that which is the cause of its desolation.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 12:5-6
The LORD answers, “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses”. The thickets of the Jordan are worse ground still to come. Verse 6 names the betrayal inside his own family, “your own father’s household”.
Jeremiah 12:5
“Yahweh rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, showing him by two proverbial sayings, that there were still greater trials of faith in store for him. Prosperous wickedness is after all a mere ordinary trial, a mere “running with the footmen;” he will have to exert far greater powers of endurance. And if in the land ... - Rather, “and in a land of peace thou art secure; but how wilt thou do amid the pride of Jordan?” if thou canst feel safe only where things are tranquil, what wilt thou do in the hour of danger?”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:5
“Jehovah's reply to Jeremiah's complaint. horses--that is, horsemen: the argument a fortiori. 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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah's own brothers and his father's household have betrayed him. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown compare the case of Christ in Psalm 69:8. Kind words from such men are a trap, as Proverbs 26:25 also warns.
Jeremiah 12:6
“For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father - Thou hast none to depend on but God: even thy brethren will betray thee when they have it in their power. Believe them not - Do not trust to them, do not commit thyself to them; they are in heart thy enemies, and will betray thee.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
My Heritage Become as a Speckled Bird of Prey
Jeremiah 12:7-9
I have forsaken My house: The LORD speaks his own grief, “I have forsaken My house; I have abandoned My inheritance”, and calls Judah “the love of My life”. The inheritance turns on its owner, a lion that has roared against him. Judah is set upon because she is marked out from the rest.
Jeremiah 12:7
“Yahweh shows that the downfall of the nation was occasioned by no want of love on His part, but by the nation’s conduct. Left - More correctly, cast away. Jer 12:8 Judah has not merely refused obedience, but become intractable and fierce, like an untamed lion. It has roared against God with open blasphemy. As His favor is life, so is His hatred death, i. e., Jerusalem’s punishment shall be as if inflicted by one that hated her. Jer 12:9 Rather, “Is My heritage unto Me as a speckled bird? Are the birds upon her round about?”
My inheritance has become to Me: The inheritance roars at its owner. Matthew Henry hears the roar in the threats Judah breathed against the prophets, which God takes as spoken against himself. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read therefore I hate her as God drawing back, the way a man leaves a place where a lion roars.
Jeremiah 12:8
“Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest,.... Which roars, and terrifies passengers from going that way; and which rends and tears in pieces all it meets with. This expresses the clamours of these people against God and his providences, and their rage, fierceness, and cruelty, against his prophets, sent in his name.”
Is not My inheritance to Me: The Septuagint reads a hyena's den for the speckled bird, and Origen and Jerome preach on that text. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown keep the bird of prey and read its colors as Judah's worship of the LORD mixed with pagan rites. Her neighbors gather to devour her.
Jeremiah 12:9
“Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird,.... Or, "is not mine heritage unto me as a speckled bird?" (b) as a bird of various colours, delightful to look at, as the peacock, so Jerom interprets it here; it was so formerly, but not so now; or as a bird of various colours, and unusual, which other birds get about, look on, hate, and peck at.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:9
“Is unto me as a speckled bird - A bird of divers colors. This is a people who have corrupted the worship of the true God with heathenish rites and ceremonies; therefore, the different nations, (see Jer 12:10; whose gods and forms of worship they have adopted shall come and spoil them. As far as you have followed the surrounding nations in their worship, so far shall they prevail over your state.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 12:10-13
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard: The shepherds of 10:21 return here as foreign kings, who have “trampled My plot of ground” and turned the pleasant field into a wasteland. Verse 11 names its deepest cause, “no man takes it to heart”. Verse 13 states the futility plainly, “They have sown wheat but harvested thorns”.
Jeremiah 12:10
“Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard,.... This is a metaphor which is often used of the people of Israel and Judah; see Psa 80:8, the pastors that destroyed them are not their own governors, civil or religious, but Heathen princes, Nebuchadnezzar and his generals.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:10
“Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard - My people have had many kinds of enemies which have fed upon their richest pastures; the Philistines, the Moabites, Ammonites, Assyrians, Egyptians. and now the Chaldeans.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
They have made it a desolation: Albert Barnes notes that the word desolate comes three times, and the force of the protest rests on it. Wesley names two makers of the ruin: Nebuchadnezzar as the instrument, and the people and rulers whose sins earned it. The land mourns for them.
Jeremiah 12:11
“Desolate - The force of the protest lies in this word. Thrice the prophet uses it. Layeth it to heart - Rather, laid it “to heart.” The desolate land must put up its silent cry to God, because the people had refused to see the signs of the coming retribution.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:11
“He hath made it desolate: but it cannot be meant of God, for it is God that speaketh, and God is he mentioned in the next words; it must therefore either be understood of Nebuchadnezzar, the instrumental cause; or (one number being put for another) of the people or the rulers as the meritorious cause, and in that rueful state into which their sins had brought it, it cried onto God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Over all the barren heights in the wilderness: The barren heights were old sites of idol worship, and Albert Barnes notes that even these remote places were overrun. Matthew Henry observes that the invader's sword becomes the sword of the LORD once God's people have left him. Barnes adds that peace here means welfare of every kind.
Jeremiah 12:12
“The sword of the Lord shall devour - It is the sword of the Lord that has devoured, and will devour: this is what no man layeth to heart. They think these things come in the course of events.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 12:12
“While God's people keep close to him the sword of their protectors and deliverers is the sword of the Lord, witness that of Gideon; but when they have forsaken him, so that he has become their enemy and fights against them, then the sword of their invaders and destroyers becomes the sword of the Lord; witness this of the Chaldeans.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 12:12
“The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness,.... Of Judea; or which lay between Chaldea and Judea, through which the Chaldean army came; called here the "spoilers", because they spoiled and plundered all places where they came; nor could the high, strong, and fortified places withstand them, or escape their ravage and fury. De Dieu renders it, "upon all the plains in the wilderness"; where was pasture, land for cattle, as Kimchi serves; which were trodden down and spoiled by the soldiers, and made forage of.”
They have sown wheat but harvested thorns: Albert Barnes reads the verbs as past: they have sown wheat and reaped thorns, and their labor is spent for nothing. Matthew Henry applies the wheat to the pains Judah took for its own safety. The fierce anger of the LORD turned the harvest to shame.
Jeremiah 12:13
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."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Plucking Up and Planting Again the Evil Neighbours
Jeremiah 12:14-17
Judgment turns to the neighbors who attack the inheritance, and the LORD will “uproot them from their land”. Verse 15 promises them compassion and a return “each one to his inheritance and to his land”. Verse 16 sets the condition, “if they will diligently learn the ways of My people”.
Jeremiah 12:14
“Thus saith the Lord against all mine evil neighbours,.... Or, "concerning" (h) them; the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Tyre, and Sidon; whom the Lord calls his "neighbours", because they were near the land of Canaan, where his people dwelt, to whom he vouchsafed his presence, and where the temple was in which he took up his residence; and his "evil" neighbours, because they often distressed and afflicted his people.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 12:14
“Against all mine evil neighbors - All the neighboring nations who have united in desolating Judea shall be desolated in their turn: they also are wicked, and they shall be punished. If I make them executors of my justice, it is to them no proof of my approbation. God often uses one wicked nation to scourge another; and afterwards scourges the scourger by some other scourge.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Jeremiah 12:14
“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-- (Zec 2:8). pluck them out . . . pluck out . . .”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
But after I have uprooted them: The uprooting of verse 14 falls on Judah and her evil neighbors alike, and the compassion of the LORD follows it. Theodoret reads the return as the one under Cyrus and Darius. Adam Clarke sees a hint of neighbors who would turn to the LORD with Judah.
Jeremiah 12:15
“I will return, and have compassion on them - This is a promise of restoration from the captivity, and an intimation also that some of their enemies would turn to the true God with them; learn the ways of his people; that is, would abjure idols, and take Jehovah for their God; and be built in the midst of his people, that is, Jew and Gentile forming one Church of the Most High.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:15
“Having foretold through these words [v. 15] of the return that would take place under Cyrus and Darius, he also teaches them in advance of the things that would take place after these things.”
Theodoret of Cyrus · written before 458 · On Jeremiah 3:12patristic
And if they will diligently learn the ways: Swearing by the name of the LORD meant confessing him as the true God in a solemn oath, as Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain. The nations that once taught Judah to swear by Baal must now learn from her. Wesley sees the promise fulfilled in the conversion of the Gentiles.
Jeremiah 12:16
“If - If they will leave their idolatries, and learn to worship me, and swear by my name the Lord liveth, that is, pay that homage which they owe to the Divine being to me, the living and true God. Then - They shall have a portion among my people, which was eminently fulfilled in the conversion of the Gentiles.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
But if they will not obey: A nation that learns the ways of the LORD's people is established, and one that refuses to obey is uprooted. Matthew Henry reads the threat down to a single family or person. Adam Clarke notes that no trace remains of Moab, Ammon or the Chaldeans.
Jeremiah 12:17
“But if they will not obey,.... Or "hear" (k); the word of the Lord, and hearken to the ministers of the Gospel, and be subject to the ordinances of it; or as the Targum, "will not receive instruction:'' I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, saith the Lord: root it up from being a nation, strip it of all its privileges and enjoyments, and destroy it with an everlasting destruction; see Zec 14:16. (k) ישמעו "audierint", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "audient", Cocceius.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 12:17
“I will - destroy that nation - Several of them did not obey, and are destroyed. Of the Moabites, Ammonites, and Chaldeans, not one vestige remains. The sixteenth verse is supposed to be a promise of the conversion of the Gentiles. See Eph 2:13-22. From the thirteenth verse to the end is a different discourse, and Dahler supposes it to have been delivered in the seventh or eighth year of the reign of Jehoiakim.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Keep studying
Studies2
People and groups1
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, HOMILIES ON MARK 83:11.15-17; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 10 and Theodoret of Cyrus, ON JEREMIAH 3:12.