Jeremiah 12 - Introduction

Jeremiah 11:1 to Jeremiah 12:6. The relation of the prophet to the (Deuteronomic) Covenant (Jeremiah 11:1); its subsequent abandonment, and the Divine punishment (Jeremiah 11:9); the plot at Anathoth (Jeremiah 11:18); the prophet's problem (Jeremiah 12:1). On the difficulties raised by this section, see Introduction, § 2; it seems likely that, as Duhm and Cornill have argued, Jeremiah 11:1 is an unhistorical inference as to what the prophet might be expected to do at the time of the Deuteronomic Reformation in 621. If its historicity be accepted, then Jeremiah's initial approval must subsequently have passed into disapproval, in view of the religious externalism and false confidence which followed upon the Reformation. (See on Jeremiah 7:1; Jeremiah 8:8.)