7 "I will abandon the House of Israel, walk away from my beloved people. I will turn over those I most love to those who are her enemies. 8 She's been, this one I held dear, like a snarling lion in the jungle, Growling and baring her teeth at me - and I can't take it anymore. 9 Has this one I hold dear become a preening peacock? But isn't she under attack by vultures? Then invite all the hungry animals at large, invite them in for a free meal! 10 Foreign, scavenging shepherds will loot and trample my fields, Turn my beautiful, well-cared-for fields into vacant lots of tin cans and thistles. 11 They leave them littered with junk - a ruined land, a land in lament. The whole countryside is a wasteland, and no one will really care. 12 "The barbarians will invade, swarm over hills and plains. The judgment sword of God will take its toll from one end of the land to the other. Nothing living will be safe. 13 They will plant wheat and reap weeds. Nothing they do will work out. They will look at their meager crops and wring their hands. All this the result of God's fierce anger!"
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 12:7-13
Commentary on Jeremiah 12:7-13
(Read Jeremiah 12:7-13)
God's people had been the dearly-beloved of his soul, precious in his sight, but they acted so, that he gave them up to their enemies. Many professing churches become like speckled birds, presenting a mixture of religion and the world, with its vain fashions, pursuits, and pollutions. God's people are as men wondered at, as a speckled bird; but this people had by their own folly made themselves so; and the beasts and birds are called to prey upon them. The whole land would be made desolate. But until the judgments were actually inflicted, none of the people would lay the warning to heart. When God's hand is lifted up, and men will not see, they shall be made to feel. Silver and gold shall not profit in the day of the Lord's anger. And the efforts of sinners to escape misery, without repentance and works answerable thereto, will end in confusion.