Verse-by-Verse Bible CommentaryJeremiah 12:11
"It has been made a desolation, Desolate, it mourns before Me; The whole land has been made desolate, Because no man lays it to heart. Jump to: Clarke Commentary • Barne's Notes • Gill's Exposition • Geneva Study Bible • Commentary Critical and Explanatory • Wesley's Notes • Calvin's Commentary • Trapp's Commentary • Coke's Commentary • Poole's Annotations • Whedon's Commentary • Haydock's Catholic Commentary • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes • Commentary Critical and Explanatory - Unabridged • Ellicott's Commentary • Treasury of Knowledge Other Authors
Adam Clarke CommentaryNo man layeth it to heart - Notwithstanding all these desolations, from which the land every where mourns, and which are so plainly the consequences of the people's crimes, no man layeth it to heart, or considereth that these are God's judgments; and that the only way to have them removed is to repent of their sins, and turn to God with all their hearts. Copyright Statement Bibliography Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole BibleDesolate - The force of the protest lies in this word. Thrice the prophet uses it. Layeth it to heart - Rather, laid it “to heart.” The desolate land must put up its silent cry to God, because the people had refused to see the signs of the coming retribution. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Gill's Exposition of the Whole BibleThey have made it desolate,.... Which is repeated to denote the certainty of it; astonishment at it, and that it might be observed: and being desolate it mourneth unto me; not the inhabitants of it for their sins, the cause of this desolation; but the land itself, because of the calamities upon it; it crying to God, in its way, for a restoration to its former beauty and glory. The whole land is made desolate; it was not only the case of Jerusalem, and the parts adjacent, but even of the whole land of Judea: because no man layeth it to heart, took any notice of the judgment threatened, foretold by the prophets; nor repented of their sins, for which they were threatened with such a desolation; nor even were properly affected with the destruction itself; the earth seemed more sensible of it than they were; this expresses the great stupidity of this people. Copyright Statement Bibliography Geneva Study BibleThey have made it desolate, [and being] desolate it mourneth to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth l [it] to heart.(l) Because no man regards my word, or the plagues that I have sent on the land. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Biblemourneth unto me — that is, before Me. Eichorn translates, “by reason of Me,” because I have given it to desolation (Jeremiah 12:7). because no man layeth it to heart — because none by repentance and prayer seek to deprecate God‘s wrath. Or, “yet none lays it to heart”; as in Jeremiah 5:3 [Calvin]. Copyright Statement Bibliography Wesley's Explanatory NotesThey have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. They — Heb. He hath made it desolate: but it cannot be meant of God, for it is God that speaketh, and God is he mentioned in the next words; it must therefore either be understood of Nebuchadnezzar, the instrumental cause; or (one number being put for another) of the people or the rulers as the meritorious cause, and in that rueful state into which their sins had brought it, it cried onto God. Because — And one great cause of this sore judgment was, the peoples not seriously considering what God had done or was doing against it. Copyright Statement Bibliography Calvin's Commentary on the BibleThere is a change of number in the verb שם shem; but there is no obscurity: for the Prophet means, that the Jews would be exposed to the outrage of all, so that every one would plunder and lay waste the land. He does not then speak only of all their enemies or of the whole army; but he also declares that every one would be their master, so as to vex, scatter, devour, and wholly to destroy them at his pleasure: in short, he sets forth the atrocity of their punishment, — that the whole land would not only be spoiled by the united army, but also by every individual in it. (64) He then adds that the land was in mourning before him. The Prophet seems to me to touch here the torpor of his own nation, because there was no one who had any regard for God; nay, they laughed at the judgments which were nigh at hand, and of which he had often spoken. Hence God says, that they would at length come to him when calamities oppressed them and caused them to mourn. “As then in peaceable times,” he says, “they are unwining to come to me, but are so refractory and untameable, that I can effect nothing by so many warnings, they shall come,” he says, “but in another state of mind, even in extreme mourning.” He afterwards adds, No one lays on the heart What this means we have elsewhere explained. But the particle כי, ki, which is properly a causative, may be here rendered as an adversative. If we take it in its first and most proper sense, then a reason is here given why the Jews would be brought to a most grievous mourning, even because they had despised all the prophets, and wholly disregarded as a fable what they had so often heard from God’s mouth: and this is the view taken by most interpreters. But it may be also taken as an adversative, as in many other places, — “Though no one lays on the heart;” and thus it will be a complaint as to their perverse stupor, inasmuch as, when smitten by God’s hand, they did not perceive that they were punished for their sins, not that they were wholly insensible as to their evils. But what avails it to cry and to howl, as God’s Spirit speaks elsewhere, except, the hand of the smiter be perceived? The Jews then ought, had a spark of wisdom been in them, to have considered their sins, to have prayed for forgiveness, and to have repented, and also to have embraced the favor promised to them. But when they perversely added sins to sins, God justly expostulated with them, because they did not attend to the signs of his wrath, by which they ought not only to have been taught, but also subdued. It follows — 11.Set it is an utter desolation; It has mourned before me (or, to me) being utterly desolate: Desolate has been the whole land, Though no man lays it to heart. “Utter desolation” is the meaning, for it is a reduplicate noun. Both the Vulgate and the Targum connect “being utterly desolate” with the next line, though not rightly: but both, as well as the Syriac, render the first verb, as though it were שמוה “They have set it.” Venema and Houbigant render עלי, in the second line, a preposition, and render the line thus, — It has mourned on account of desolation. — Ed. Copyright Statement Bibliography John Trapp Complete CommentaryJeremiah 12:11 They have made it desolate, [and being] desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth [it] to heart. Ver. 11. Because no man layeth it to heart.] Heb., There is not a man putting it upon heart, that is, duly and deeply affected with my menaces, so as to take a timely course for prevention, and their own preservation. Copyright Statement Bibliography Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy BibleJeremiah 12:11. Being desolate, it mourneth unto me— Lo! it mourneth because it is made desolate. An elegant figure, whereby the prophet expresses the lamentable condition of the land. No man layeth it to heart. "No man acknowledgeth the hand of the Almighty in the calamities that he feels, or humbles himself under them." This desolation of Judaea, says Bishop Newton, is expressed or implied in several other places in Scripture, and the state of Judaea now for many ages hath been exactly answerable to this description. That a country should be depopulated by the incursions of foreign armies is nothing wonderful; but that it should lie so many ages in this miserable condition, is more than man could foresee, and could be revealed only by God. A celebrated French writer [Voltaire], in his history of the Croisades, pretends to exhibit a true picture of Palestine; and he says, that then "it was just what it is at present, the worst of all the inhabited countries of Asia. It is almost wholly covered with parched rocks, on which there is not one line of soil; if this small territory were cultivated, it might not improperly be compared to Switzerland." But there is no need to cite authorities in proof that the land is forsaken of its inhabitants, is uncultivated, unfruitful, and desolate; for the enemies of our religion make this very thing an objection to the truth of religion. They say, that so barren and wretched a country could never have been a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have supplied and maintained such multitudes, as it is in Scripture represented to have done. But they do not see and consider, that hereby the prophesies are fulfilled; so that it is rather an evidence for the truth of religion than an argument against it. See his Dissertations on Prophesy, p. 222. Copyright Statement Bibliography Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy BibleThey have made it desolate, Heb. He hath made it desolate; but it cannot be meant of God, for it is God that speaketh, and God is he mentioned in the next words: it must therefore either be understood of Nebuchadnezzar, the instrumental cause; or (one number being put for another) of the people or the rulers as the meritorious cause; and in that rueful state into which their sins had brought it it cried unto God. And one great cause of this sore judgment upon the land; as the people’s not laying to heart, not seriously considering, what God had done or was doing against it. Copyright Statement Bibliography Whedon's Commentary on the Bible11. The rhetorical effect of the previous verse is heightened and intensified in this. They have made it desolate… desolate it mourneth unto me… desolate is the whole land, for no one layeth it to heart. Copyright Statement Bibliography George Haydock's Catholic Bible CommentaryHeart, to seek God and the cause of their misfortunes. Copyright Statement Bibliography E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notesman. Hebrew. "ish. App-14. Copyright Statement Bibliography Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - UnabridgedThey have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart. Mourneth unto me - i:e., before me. Eichorn translates, 'by reason of me,' because I have given it to desolation (Jeremiah 12:7). Because no man layeth it to heart - because none by repentance and prayer seek to deprecate God's wrath. Or, 'yet none lays it to heart;' as Jeremiah 5:3, "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved" (Calvin). Copyright Statement Bibliography Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(11) They have made it desolate.—The Hebrew is impersonal. “One has made it . . . ,” i.e., it is made desolate. As in other poetry of strong emotion, the prophet dwells with a strange solemn iteration on the same sound—“desolate,” “desolate,” “desolate”—thrice in the same breath. The Hebrew word shemâma, so uttered, must have sounded like a wail of lamentation. Because no man layeth it to heart.—Better, no man laid it . . . The neglect of the past was bearing fruit in the misery of the present. Copyright Statement Bibliography Treasury of Scripture KnowledgeThey have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
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