Jeremiah 12:7

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

I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.

God by his house here understandeth the temple, which God is said here to have forsaken with respect to his gracious manifestations in it to the people that came thither to worship him. By his heritage he means the whole body of the Israelites, called God’ s heritage not in this chapter only, but : whom God threateneth to leave with respect to his special providence, by which he had taken care of them; upon which account Canaan is called the land which God cared for, ; that is, so cared for, as in comparison with them he might seem to neglect all other countries. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies; that is, he had given that nation which was once his dearly beloved into the hands or power of their enemies.

Jeremiah 12:7 I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies.Ver. 7. I have forsaken my house.] A man’ s house is dear to him, dearer his heritage, dearest his well beloved wife. Jerusalem had been all this to God, but now for sin abandoned by him. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul.] Or, My dearly beloved, my soul - i.e., Myself, my second self. Heb., The love of my soul. Gr. and Vulgate, My beloved soul. "God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth."

(7) I have forsaken mine house.—The speaker is clearly Jehovah, but the connection with what precedes is not clear. Possibly we have, in this chapter, what in the writings of a poet would be called fragmentary pieces, written at intervals, and representing different phases of thought, and afterwards arranged without the devices of headings and titles and spaces with which modern bookmaking has made us familiar. So far as a sequence of thought is traceable, it is this, “Thou complainest of thine own sufferings, but there are worse things yet in store for thee; and what after all are thine, as compared with those that I, Jehovah, have brought upon mine heritage, dear as it is to me?” I have left.—Better, I have cast away.Into the hand.—Literally, the palm, as given over utterly, unable to resist, and not needing the “grasp” of the whole hand.

Verse 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.

Ch. 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 12:14-17 in the 2nd cent. b.c. He considers “the evil neighbours” of Jeremiah 12:14 to mean the persons of various nationalities who were living in the land in the time of John Hyrcanus and his son. He compares Zechariah 14:16 ff.; Isaiah 19:16 ff. as having a similar reference. But, as Pe. says, we do not in those passages, as here, read of exile followed by restoration, nor would a writer of the 2nd cent. b.c. have put into the mouth of Jeremiah a prediction which in fact was not realised. The section may be subdivided thus. (i) Jeremiah 12:7-13. Jehovah’s heritage has turned as a savage beast against Him. Therefore He has given her over to be the prey of neighbouring nations. She is like a speckled bird attacked by her own kind. The country is laid waste, because its inhabitants took no serious thought. The culture of the land brings no produce, because of the wrath of Jehovah. (ii) Jeremiah 12:14-17. Judah’s foes shall themselves be driven into exile—permanent, if they refuse to hear Jehovah; but, if they turn to Him, they shall be restored to their lands.

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.

ISRAEL’S , Jeremiah 12:7-13. 7. The whole passage (Jeremiah 12:7-17) is characterized by an obvious unity, and is throughout the language of Jehovah. Its connexion with what precedes is general rather than particular.