Jeremiah 12:11
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They have made it a desolation; desolate before Me, it mourns. All the land is laid waste, but no man takes it to heart.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
In this chapter we have, I. The prophet's humble complaint to God of the success that wicked people had in their wicked practices (Jer 12:1, Jer 12:2) and his appeal to God concerning his own integrity (Jer 12:3), with a prayer that God would, for the sake of the public, bring the wickedness of the wicked to an end (Jer 12:3, Jer 12:4). II. God's rebuke to the prophet for his uneasiness at his present troubles, bidding him prepare for greater (Jer 12:5, Jer 12:6). III. A sad lamentation of the present deplorable state of the Israel of God (Jer 12:7-13). IV. An intimation of mercy to God's people, in a denunciation of wrath against their neighbours that helped forward their affliction, that they should be plucked out; but with a promise that if they would at last join themselves with the people of God they should come in sharers with them in their privileges (Jer 12:14-17).
Open source ↗12:11 Sorrow gripped the Lord as he saw the empty wasteland. He had ordered the invasion according to the terms of the Sinai covenant, but the act gave him no satisfaction. Sadly, no one other than God even cared.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
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So He poured out on them His furious anger and the fierceness of battle. It enveloped them in flames, but they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.
For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused.
“Judah mourns and her gates languish. Her people wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
Listen! The sound of a report is coming— a great commotion from the land to the north. The cities of Judah will be made a desolation, a haunt for jackals.
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.
If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart.
Be forewarned, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you; I will make you a desolation, a land without inhabitant.”
“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for these seventy years, was it really for Me that you fasted?
It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart.