Jeremiah 12:17

Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, etc., who helped forward Judah's calamity; their 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 Jeremiah 47:1; Jeremiah 48:1; Jeremiah 49:1. Verse 14. Thus saith the Lord against all mine evil neighbours that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit...

As he had shewn that there was a sure hope of salvation to his own people, when the Gentiles would embrace his mercy, so he now threatens the Gentiles with destruction in case they repented not; for he had promised to be merciful to the Gentiles conditionally, and said, — “If they _learn the ways of my people, _if they submit to my authority:” but now he says, _if they will not hear, _etc We hence see that God here threatens extreme vengeance to the Gentiles if they subjected not themselves to his yoke, so as to render obedience to him. His object, no doubt, was to terrify the Jews as well as the nations; for as the Gentiles could not with impunity despise God, though unknown to them, how inexcusable would the Jews be, who had from their infancy imbibed the true knowledge of the law, if, after the manner of the Gentiles, they were perverse and intractable? We in short see that God, on on...

14-17 The Lord would plead the cause of his people against their evil neighbours. Yet he would afterwards show mercy to those nations, when they should learn true religion. This seems to look forward to the times when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. Those who would have their lot with God's people, and a last end like theirs, must learn their ways, and walk in them....

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 Ephesians 2:13. 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_....

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_....

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 Zechariah 14:16. k ישמעו "audierint", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus; "audient", Cocceius....

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....

OBEY. hearken. SAITH THE LORD. [is] Jehovah's oracle. 7-13. The beloved People. Themselves. 14-17. The beloved People. Their enemies....

Jeremiah 12:7-17. Devastation of Judah to be wrought by hostile neighbours, who shall be punished by exile unless they submit to the God of Israel Jehovah in pathetic language deplores the necessity of permitting the devastation of His land. This section has no connexion with the preceding or subsequent context. It may safely be dated late in Jehoiakim's reign, as relating to the attack upon Judah on the part of Chaldaeans, Syrians, Moabites, and Ammonites (see 2 Kings 24:1 f.), under the figure of birds of prey attacking one whose plumage attracts their attention as unusual. Du. places Jeremiah 12:14 in the 2nd cent. b.c. He considers "the evil neighbours" of...