Jeremiah 12:7

Lexham English Bible

Contextual Overview

⁷ I have forsaken my house, I have abandoned my inheritance. I have given the beloved one of my heart into the hand of her enemies. ⁸ My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest. She has lifted up against me her voice; therefore I hate her. ⁹ The lair of the hyena is my inheritance to me, the birds of prey are all around her. Go, gather all of the animals of the field, bring them to come and devour. ¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled down my plot of land. They have made my pleasant field like the desert of desolation. ¹¹ They have made it a desolation. Desolate, it mourns to me. All the land is made desolate, but there is no person taking it to heart. ¹² Upon all the barren heights in the desert destroyers have come, for the sword of Yahweh devours, from one end of the land to the other end of the land, there is no peace for all flesh. ¹³ They have sown wheat and they have reaped thorns. They are exhausted, they do not profit. And they will be ashamed of your produce, because of the burning anger of Yahweh."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

have forsaken: Jeremiah 11:15, Jeremiah 51:5, Isaiah 2:6, Psalms 78:59, Psalms 78:60, Hosea 9:15, Joel 2:15, Joel 3:2

I have given: Jeremiah 7:14, Lamentations 2:1-22, Ezekiel 7:20, Ezekiel 7:21, Ezekiel 24:21, Luke 21:24

dearly beloved: Heb. love

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 9:9 - therefore 2 Kings 21:14 - And I will Isaiah 6:12 - a great Jeremiah 23:33 - I Jeremiah 50:7 - have devoured Jeremiah 51:19 - the rod Lamentations 1:5 - adversaries Zephaniah 2:1 - O nation

Cross-References

Genesis 8:20
And Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and he took from all the clean animals and from all the clean birds, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

Genesis 12:8
And he moved on from there to the hill country, east of Bethel. And he pitched his tent at Bethel on the west, and at Ai on the east. And he built an altar there to Yahweh. And he called on the name of Yahweh.

Genesis 12:9
And Abram kept moving on, toward the Negev.

Genesis 12:12
and it shall happen that, if the Egyptians see you, then they will say, ‘This is his wife,' then they will kill me but let you live.

Genesis 13:4
to the place where he had made an altar at the beginning. And Abram called on the name of Yahweh there.

Genesis 13:15
for all the land which you see I will give to you, and to your descendants, forever.

Genesis 13:18
So Abram pitched his tent, and he came and settled at the oaks of Mamre, which were at Hebron. And there he built an altar to Yahweh.

Genesis 15:18
On that day Yahweh made a covenant with Abram saying, "To your offspring I will give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates river,

Genesis 17:1
When Abram was ninety-nine years old Yahweh appeared to Abram. And he said to him, "I am El-Shaddai; walk before me and be blameless

Genesis 17:3
Then Abram fell upon his face and God spoke with him, saying,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

I have forsaken my house,.... The temple, where the Lord took up his residence, and vouchsafed his presence to his people; this was fulfilled in the first temple, when it was destroyed by the Chaldeans; and more fully in the second, when Christ took his leave of it, Matthew 23:38 and when that voice was heard in it, a little before the destruction of Jerusalem, as Josephus a relates,

"let us go hence.''

So the Targum,

"I have forsaken the house of my sanctuary.''

I have left mine heritage: the people whom he had chosen for his inheritance, whom he prized and valued, took care of, and protected as such; see Deuteronomy 32:9.

I have given the dearly beloved of my soul; whom he heartily loved and delighted in, and who were as dear to him as the apple of his eye:

into the hands of her enemies; the Chaldeans. This prophecy represents the thing as if it was already done, because of the certainty of it, and to awaken the Jews out of their lethargy and stupidity; and by the characters which the Lord gives of them it appears what ingratitude they had been guilty of, and that their ruin was owing to themselves and their sins.

a De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 5. sect. 3.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Yahweh shows that the downfall of the nation was occasioned by no want of love on His part, but by the nation’s conduct.

Left - More correctly, cast away.

Jeremiah 12:8

Judah has not merely refused obedience, but become intractable and fierce, like an untamed lion. It has roared against God with open blasphemy. As His favor is life, so is His hatred death, i. e., Jerusalem’s punishment shall be as if inflicted by one that hated her.

Jeremiah 12:9

Rather, “Is My heritage unto Me as a speckled bird? Are the birds upon her round about? Come, assemble all the wild beasts: bring them to devour her.” By “a speckled” or parti-colored “bird” is probably meant some kind of vulture.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Jeremiah 12:7. I have forsaken mine house — I have abandoned my temple.

I have given the dearly beloved of my soul — The people once in covenant with me, and inexpressibly dear to me while faithful.

Into the hand of her enemies. — This was a condition in the covenant I made with them; If they forsook me, they were to be abandoned to their enemies, and cast out of the good land I gave to their fathers.