Jeremiah 12:10

Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. PASTORS - the Babylonian leaders (cf. , "the spoilers;" ). DESTROYED MY VINEYARD - (; ). TRODDEN MY PORTION - (, "Our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary")....

He explains by another comparison what we have just observed; he calls those pastors or shepherds whom he had before compared to wild beasts; for by saying, “Come ye, all the wild beasts of the wood,” he doubtless meant the same as those of whom he now speaks; and yet he calls them pastors. But he touched the Jews to the quick, for they could not bear him to discharge the office of a pastor towards them. God ought to have been the pastor of his chosen people; but they were wild beasts. “Forsaken them have I,” he says, “for they were wholly unworthy. What now then? Other pastors shall come, but those of a very different character, being fiercer and more cruel than wolves or any savage wild beasts.” Though then the Prophet blends various comparisons, we yet see that he handles the same subject; we also see why he thus changes his expressions, for there is a meaning in every word he uses. I...

7-13 God's people had been the dearly-beloved of his soul, precious in his sight, but they acted so, that he gave them up to their enemies. Many professing churches become like speckled birds, presenting a mixture of religion and the world, with its vain fashions, pursuits, and pollutions. God's people are as men wondered at, as a speckled bird; but this people had by their own folly made themselves so; and the beasts and birds are called to prey upon them. The whole land would be made desolate. But until the judgments were actually inflicted, none of the people would lay the warning to heart. When God's hand is lifted up, and men will not see, they shall be made to feel. Silver and gold shall not profit in the day of the Lord's anger. And the efforts of sinners to escape misery, without repentance and works answerable thereto, will end in confusion....

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_....

Nebuchadnezzar and his confederate kings trampled Judah under foot, as heedless of the ruin they were inflicting as the shepherds would be who led their flocks to browse in spring upon the tender shoots of the vine....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 12:1 Painfully exercised by the mysteries of the Divine government, the prophet opens his grief to Jehovah. Righteous art thou, etc.; rather, _Righteous wouldest thou be_,_ O Jehovah_,_ if I should plead with thee_;_ i.e._ if I were to bring a charge against thee, I should be unable to convict thee of injustice (comp. Psalms 51:4; Job 9:2). The prophet, however, cannot refrain from laying before Jehovah a point which seems to him irreconcilable with the Divine righteousness. The rendering, indeed, must be modified. LET ME TALK WITH THEE OF THY JUDGMENTS should rather be, _yet will I debate questions of right with thee_....

MANY PASTORS HAVE DESTROYED MY VINEYARD,.... This is a metaphor which is often used of the people of Israel and Judah; see Psalms 80:8, the pastors that destroyed them are not their own governors, civil or religious, but Heathen princes, Nebuchadnezzar and his generals. So the Targum paraphrases it, "many kings slay my people;'' so Kimchi and Ben Melech. THEY HAVE TRODDEN MY PORTION UNDER FOOT; the people of the Jews, that were his portion, and before called his heritage; whom the Chaldeans subdued, and reduced to extreme servitude and bondage; and were as the dirt under their feet, greatly oppressed and despised. THEY HAVE MADE MY PLEASANT PORTION A DESOLATE WILDERNESS; by pulling down stately edifices, unwalling of towers, and destroying men; so that there were none to manure the fields, to dress the vineyards, and

CHAPTER 12 The Prophet's Prayer and the House Forsaken, Yet Compassion _ 1. The prophet's prayer (Jeremiah 12:1) 2. The house forsaken, yet compassion (Jeremiah 12:7) _ Jeremiah 12:1. In his outburst of grief and in great mental perplexity Jeremiah states the old question, why does the righteous man suffer, why does the wicked prosper? And then the prayer for His intervention. Such will be again the case with the godly remnant in the end of this present age. They will suffer and be persecuted as godly Jeremiah was and pray as Jeremiah prayed: “Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.” The imprecatory psalms are of the same prophetic meaning. Jeh

THE DESOLATION OF JUDAH BY HER NEIGHBOURS, AND THEIR FUTURE. This isolated prophecy is most naturally referred to the events of 2 Kings 24:1 f., when Jehoiakim had revolted against Nebuchadrezzar (_c._ 598). Yahweh laments His enforced abandonment of His house (a term here denoting the land rather than the Temple; _cf._ Hosea 8:1; Hosea 9:15), because Judah has challenged Him; now He sees her a speckled bird marked out for the attack of her neighbours. Nomad invaders (the shepherds of Jeremiah 12:10) have laid her waste, so that Yahweh Himself grieves; none has learnt the lesson in time....

PASTORS. Used of rulers. See note on Jeremiah 1:80; Jeremiah 3:15. MY PORTION. One Codex (Dr. Ginsburg's "G. 1") reads "My possession". PLEASANT PORTION. Hebrew portion of desire. my desired portion....