Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 12:7 - 12:13

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Jeremiah 12:7 - 12:13


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Israel Spoiled by the Enemies

v. 7. I have forsaken Mine house,
so the Lord tells His prophet, I have left Mine heritage, repudiating His chosen people, in the midst of whom He had established, and hoped to maintain, His Church; I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies, this being said of the exile with which He intended to punish His disobedient people.

v. 8. Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion in the forest,
presuming to rise up against Him like a beast of prey; it crieth out against Me, roaring with hatred and rage, therefore have I hated it, His former love having departed from it on account of its obstinate opposition to His will.

v. 9. Mine heritage is unto Me as a speckled bird,
a bird of prey with its plumage striped brown and gray, or an albino; the birds round about are against her, pouncing upon such a bird in either case with the greatest rage. Come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field; come to devour! The whole sentence may also be rendered in the form of a question stating the situation as it actually was found when the heathen nations began their attacks upon Judah.

v. 10. Many pastors,
the very ones who were expected to give the Church the proper spiritual care, have destroyed My vineyard; they, together with the heathen kings and their hordes, have trodden My portion, His particular property, under foot; they have made My pleasant portion, the land and the people of His desire, a desolate wilderness. Cf. Jer_3:19.

v. 11. They have made it desolate,
practically an uninhabited desert, and being desolate, it moumeth unto Me, making a lament of sadness over the punishment which had come upon it. The whole land is made desolate because no man layeth it to heart, there had been none to turn to the Lord in true repentance.

v. 12. The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness,
appearing on the heights of the steppes throughout the land; for the sword of the Lord, the war which the Lord would send upon Judah as a just punishment, shall devour from the one end of the land even to the other end of the land; no flesh, in this case the entire sinful population of Judah, shall have peace, no section of the country would be excepted in the general affliction.

v. 13. They,
the people of Judah, have sown wheat, they have undertaken many things in the pride of their hearts, but shall reap thorns, the very opposite of what they expected; they have put themselves to pain, exhausting their strength and almost tormenting themselves in the endeavor to gain their proud ends, but shall not profit, not getting the results which they had anticipated; and they shall be ashamed of your revenues, in the small amounts which they actually produced, because of the fierce anger of the Lord, who would not permit their proud plans to mature. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.