Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Jeremiah 12:7-17
YHWH Has Forsaken His House And Rejected His Heritage Because Of What It Has Become, And Their Evil Neighbours Will Also Be Punished, But Even For Them There Will Be Hope In The Future If They Turn To YHWH (Jeremiah 12:7).
In Jeremiah 11:15 YHWH had asked what right ‘His beloved' had in His house when she had done evil deeds. Now He declared that He had forsaken His house and had rejected His heritage, and had in effect given the beloved of his soul into the hands of their enemies. As a result Judah would be invaded by her neighbours and devastated. But then He warned that those very neighbours would also be brought into judgment and would themselves be exiled, only to be restored later and given the opportunity to become worshippers of YHWH. This prophecy would appear to reflect the time towards the end of Jehoiakim's reign when, after he had withheld tribute, Babylon urged all Judah's neighbours to begin to ravage Judah, along with local Babylonian contingents (2 Kings 24:2).
There is a reminder here that in all that YHWH did to His people, His final purpose was for them to be a witness to the nations, something later remarkably fulfilled at Pentecost and through the early Jewish church.
YHWH Has Forsaken His House And Rejected His Heritage.
‘I have forsaken my house,
I have cast off my heritage,
I have given the dearly beloved of my soul,
Into the hand of her enemies.'
It is an open question whether ‘I have forsaken My house' is speaking about the Temple, as suggested by Jeremiah 11:15, or whether it signifies the people of Judah in parallel with ‘My heritage'. In view of Jeremiah 11:15, which clearly refers to the Temple, and with that being also the only other place where Judah are called YHWH's beloved we would favour the former, but it makes little difference to the overall impact which is that Judah have been cast off and forsaken and will be handed over to their enemies. The idea of Judah being YHWH's heritage looks back to their deliverance from Egypt (see verses below). The idea of Judah as the ‘dearly beloved of YHWH's soul' indicates just how much Judah's desertion had cost Him, and how hard it was for Him to hand her over to her enemies. Because of His underlying compassion God's judgments are not easy for Him to carry out.
This was an assurance, in the face of the warning that He had given Jeremiah that he would be forsaken by his own household, that He too was a loser in the situation. He too was losing His House and His people Whom He loved.
For the idea of Israel/Judah as ‘My heritage' see Deuteronomy 4:20; Deuteronomy 9:29; Deu 32:9; 1 Samuel 10:1; 1 Kings 8:51; 1 Kings 8:53; Psalms 33:12; Psalms 78:62; Psalms 78:71; Psalms 94:5; Psalms 94:14; Psalms 106:5; Psalms 106:40; Isaiah 19:25; Isaiah 47:6; Isaiah 63:17; Joel 2:17; Joel 3:2; Micah 7:18. It will be noted that the idea is not found in the traditionally later prophets, perhaps because the people were no longer seen in that way, having been ‘cast off'.
‘My heritage is become to me,
Like a lion in the forest.
She has uttered her voice against me,
Therefore I have hated her (loved her less).'
In this startling image Judah are seen as standing like a belligerent lion, roaring at YHWH as though He was their enemy. His heritage had so turned against Him and were so lost to all that was good, that she defied Him to His face. This was why YHWH's love for her was waning (the word for ‘hated' regularly means ‘loved less', as Jacob loved Rachel and loved Leah less. He did not actually hate Leah - Genesis 29:30). His case was similar to Jeremiah's. God never calls on us to face what He has not faced Himself.
In Consequence His Heritage Is At His Behest Surrounded By Enemies Who Will One And All Press In On His Vineyard To Destroy It.
‘Is my heritage to me like a speckled bird of prey?
Are the birds of prey against her round about?
Go you, assemble all the beasts of the field,
Bring them to devour.
It is a well known natural phenomenon that when a strange bird which is different in some way from all the others comes among other birds they will pursue it with loud cries and even attack it. The distinction and strangeness of this particular bird is brought out here by describing it as ‘speckled'. In consequence the other unspeckled birds of prey (warrior nations) are seen as turning on speckled Judah. And to further her mortification the scavengers among the wild beasts (further war-like nations on the lookout for booty) are called in as well to assist in devouring her (compare Isaiah 56:9). Poor speckled Judah, she is to be the victim of them all.
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
They have trodden my portion under foot,
They have made my pleasant portion,
A desolate wilderness.
The picture now changes from birds of prey to shepherds, representing the kings of the nations, who often described themselves as the shepherds of their people (compare Isaiah 31:4; Isaiah 44:28; Micah 5:5; Nahum 3:18). Many ‘shepherds' will come in and tread YHWH's portion, His land, under foot. Indeed they will make His pleasant portion desolate because His people have brought it on themselves.
‘They have made it a desolation,
It mourns unto me, being desolate,
The whole land is made desolate,
Because no man lays it to heart.'
The total desolation of the land that is coming is brought out by the threefold repetition. It is made desolate, it mourns because it is desolate, the whole land is made desolate. And this happens because no one cares, no one comes to Judah's aid. All her alliances have collapsed in the face of her behaviour.
‘Destroyers are come on all the bare heights in the wilderness,
For the sword of YHWH devours,
From the one end of the land even to the other end of the land,
No flesh has peace.
The invasion will be so massive that every square centimetre of land will be covered, even the bare heights of the wilderness which, with their idol sanctuaries, have had their part to play in Judah's sins. And there the sword of YHWH, wielded by their enemies, will devour the people from one end of the land to the other. No one will have peace and wellbeing. All will be targets.
‘They have sown wheat, and have reaped thorns,
They have put themselves to pain, and profit nothing,
And you will be ashamed of your fruits,
Because of the fierce anger of YHWH.'
In Jeremiah 4:3 they had been warned not to sow among thorns. But they had not listened and had sown their wheat among the thorns. Now therefore when they went to reap they found themselves reaping thorns. The idea is of course parabolic. Because they had failed to purify their lives, they are reaping what is both useless and painful. Thus all the efforts that they had put into profiting their lives are now revealed to have produced nothing. All is despoiled. And what is more they will be ashamed of the fruits of their lives, their sin and idolatry, because they are aware that as a result the fierce anger of YHWH is directed against them.
However, it would be just as true physically. Shut up in their besieged cities their fields would become beset by thorns which would choke out the carefully sown grain. All their labours would be in vain, and there would only be shame when the harvest was considered, except that in the end there would be no harvest. For those who survived would be carried away captive when their cities were taken. What happens to us spiritually very often affects our physical lives in the same way.
But Those Invaders Will Themselves Also Be Called To Account And Will Be Exiled.
From this point on it is YHWH Who is speaking. It will be noticeable how often His words mingle with the words of Jeremiah. For the truth is that the two are one, because when Jeremiah speaks he speaks ‘the word of YHWH'.
The stress here is on the fact that it has to be remembered what these invaders have done. They have committed sacrilege. They have attacked YHWH's heritage (Jeremiah 12:7)! They have taken possession of His firstfruits (Jeremiah 2:3)! They have thus given evidence that although physically circumcised they are not circumcised in heart (Jeremiah 9:25). And as a result they have dared to ‘touch' something sacred, the land which YHWH not only gave to Israel/Judah as an inheritance, but ‘caused them to inherit'. It had been YHWH's will that Israel/Judah should inherit it. It will therefore be necessary for the invaders also to be punished because they have opposed YHWH.
“Thus says YHWH against all my evil neighbours,
Who touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit,
Behold, I will pluck them up from off their land,
And will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.”
Because they have done the things described above, the invading neighbours also will be plucked from their land and carried away into exile, just as Judah is to be plucked up. All will be treated in the same way, Judah because she had destroyed the covenant, the remainder because they had without compunction touched what was sacred, YHWH's people. It is not said that they would all be exiled to Babylon, only that they would be turned out of their own lands, and there can be little doubt from their histories that this was literally fulfilled.
Some see ‘I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them' as referring to Judah/Israel's later deliverance from exile with the idea that the neighbouring nations will languish while the people of Judah are delivered. However, as in Jeremiah 12:15 all are to be restored to their lands it appears to us more likely that it is the coming exile of the house of Judah that is in mind.
Afterwards, However, YHWH Will Have Compassion On Them And Restore Them To Their Lands.
But as happens so often in the prophets, after the judgment comes mercy. Some time in the future YHWH will have compassion on these neighbouring nations, and on Judah, and will restore them to their lands.
“And it will come about after I have plucked them up,
That I will return and have compassion on them,
And I will bring them again, every man to his heritage,
And every man to his land.”
YHWH's compassion is not only for His people, it is for all peoples. Thus after these peoples have been plucked up, they will be returned again to the place of their inheritance and to their land. The decrees of Cyrus that allowed the Jews to return to Jerusalem and its surrounding areas also allowed for the return of other peoples to their own lands. And there would be an even greater fulfilment for those who respond to the call of Christ when they inherit their portion in the new Heaven and the new earth and are at peace with God.
Then If They Listen To His People And Turn To YHWH They Will Be Built Up Among Them, But If They Refuse To Listen They Will Be Plucked Up And Destroyed.
‘And it will come about, if they will diligently learn the ways of my people,
To swear by my name, ‘As YHWH lives',
Even as they taught my people to swear by Baal,
Then will they be built up in the midst of my people.
But if they will not hear, then will I pluck up that nation,
Plucking up and destroying it, the word of YHWH.”
And once the people have returned to their own land they will once more have before their eyes the witness and testimony of Israel. Then if they will respond to that teaching, and will learn to swear by the living God (nations always swore in court by the god whom they saw as most important), in the same way as they had taught Israel to swear by Baal, then they would be built up in the midst of His people. This was initially allowing for the many proselytes who would later become Jews in the inter-testamental period, including both Edomites who had fled to southern Judah and had been forced to become Jews under John Hyrcanus, and Gentiles in and around Galilee who were similarly ‘persuaded' to become Jews in the days of the Maccabees. It would also find fulfilment in the witness of the early Jewish church through which large numbers of the peoples responded voluntarily to YHWH, and to Jesus Christ, the son of David. The new Israel of God became the foundation on which they were built and the household of which they became a part.
Such response would depend on the faith of the hearers, and thus those who did not respond would again be plucked up and destroyed. And this was the word of YHWH. It will be noted how what is spoken of here lays the foundation for the preaching of the Gospel, when salvation will depend on responsive faith, and rejection of salvation will ensure judgment. It is promising a fulfilment of all YHWH's promises of salvation for the Gentiles (see Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 49:6).