Jeremiah 12:10

Jer 12:10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

Ver. 10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard.] Those who before were called beasts, {Jer 12:9} are here called pastors - viz., Nebuchadnezzar’s captains. See Jer 6:3.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 12:10-11. Many pastures have destroyed my vineyard — Many eaters, or devourers, as Dr. Waterland translates רעים רבים, by which the Chaldee Paraphrast understands the generals of the Chaldean army, an interpretation which seems to be justified by the two following verses: though some explain it of the rulers of the Jews, who, by their wicked government, and equally wicked example, had ruined their country. God calls Judea his vineyard and pleasant portion, because of the care he took to cultivate and improve it, and of the fruit he might justly have expected from it: see note on Jer 11:16. Being desolate, it mourneth unto me — Unto God; that is, lying in a neglected and doleful condition, it becomes a sad spectacle to me, and makes a sort of silent complaint, begging to be restored to its former prosperity. Because no man layeth it to heart — The principal cause of this great judgment is, that the people do not see and acknowledge my hand in the calamities they feel, nor humble themselves under them, but remain in general unaffected, stupid, and obstinate.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

12:10-13 The corrupt rulers of Judah had already desolated the land by leading the people into sin (e.g., 2 Kgs 16:8-19; 21:16; 23:33-35); the invading army would simply complete the task.

12:10 A vineyard is a frequent metaphor for God’s people (e.g., Isa 5:1-10; Matt 21:33-45; John 15:1-8).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He prophecieth of the destruction of Jerusalem, by the captains of Nebuchadnezzar, whom he calleth pastors.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

pastors--the Babylonian leaders (compare Jer 12:12; Jer 6:3).

my vineyard-- (Isa 5:1, Isa 5:5).

trodden my portion-- (Isa 63:18).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard] My people have had many kinds of enemies which have fed upon their richest pastures; the Philistines, the Moabites, Ammonites, Assyrians, Egyptians. and now the Chaldeans.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He explains by another comparison what we have just observed; he calls those pastors or shepherds whom he had before compared to wild beasts; for by saying, “Come ye, all the wild beasts of the wood,” he doubtless meant the same as those of whom he now speaks; and yet he calls them pastors. But he touched the Jews to the quick, for they could not bear him to discharge the office of a pastor towards them. God ought to have been the pastor of his chosen people; but they were wild beasts. “Forsaken them have I,” he says, “for they were wholly unworthy. What now then? Other pastors shall come, but those of a very different character, being fiercer and more cruel than wolves or any savage wild beasts.” Though then the Prophet blends various comparisons, we yet see that he handles the same subject; we also see why he thus changes his expressions, for there is a meaning in every word he uses. It is indeed certain that those also are called pastors who would come as leaders or chiefs from Assyria and Chaldea; but there is no doubt here an implied antithesis, such as I have referred to, as though he had said, “I have hitherto been a shepherd to you, and was wining to continue to be so perpetually; but as ye can no longer bear me, other shepherds shall come, who will treat you according to their own will and disposition.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard.—The use of the word “pastors,” with all its modern spiritual associations, instead of “shepherds” (Jeremiah is the only book in the Old Testament, it may be noted, in which the word occurs), is peculiarly unhappy in this passage, where the “pastors” are reckless and destructive. Here the image (as in Jer_6:3) is that of the shepherds of a wild, nomadic tribe (who represent the Chaldean and other invaders), breaking down the fence of the vineyard, and taking in their flocks to browse upon the tender shoots of the vine. The thought is the same as that of the “boar out of the wood” of Psa_80:13, but the “shepherds” are introduced to bring in the thought of the organisation and systematic plan of destruction.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. shepherds] See on Jer_6:3.

vineyard] For this figure cp. Isa_5:1 ff.

have trodden my portion under foot] The figure is that of the destruction of vineyards by wandering hordes and their flocks.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard,.... This is a metaphor which is often used of the people of Israel and Judah; see Psa 80:8, the pastors that destroyed them are not their own governors, civil or religious, but Heathen princes, Nebuchadnezzar and his generals. So the Targum paraphrases it,

"many kings slay my people;''

so Kimchi and Ben Melech.

They have trodden my portion under foot; the people of the Jews, that were his portion, and before called his heritage; whom the Chaldeans subdued, and reduced to extreme servitude and bondage; and were as the dirt under their feet, greatly oppressed and despised.

They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness; by pulling down stately edifices, unwalling of towers, and destroying men; so that there were none to manure the fields, to dress the vineyards, and keep gardens and orchards in good case; but all were come to ruin and what before was a delightful paradise was now like an heath or desert.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Nebuchadnezzar and his confederate kings trampled Judah under foot, as heedless of the ruin they were inflicting as the shepherds would be who led their flocks to browse in spring upon the tender shoots of the vine.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Pastors; princes of my people, as well (Haydock) as of the Chaldeans, chap. vi. 3.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

By

pastors most here think civil persons, not ecclesiastical officers, are meant; but they are divided, some interpreting it of the rulers and princes of Nebuchadnezzar’s army, who took Jerusalem, and destroyed Judah, called God’s vineyard, Isa 5:1,2; others understanding it of the rulers of the Jews, who by their wicked government, and as wicked example, had ruined their country, and caused God to turn the country which he had chosen for his portion, and declared such a pleasure in, into a wilderness, and such a wilderness as was not. only thinly inhabited, but wholly desolate.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Many pastors — Rather, shepherds. Pastor, in the sense of shepherd, is never found in any book of the Old Testament except Jeremiah. The enclosure of the vineyard is broken down, letting in the shepherds with their flocks to browse upon the tender vines.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Another simpler and more natural image, expressing the same idea, as these in Ver. 9. The favorite way of representing Jehovah"s relation to his people is that of a vine-proprietor to his vineyard. (see on Jer_2:21) How would a vineyard be ruined if a band of shepherds were to drive their flocks among the tender vine-shoots! The many pastors (or, shepherds) are clearly Nebuchadnezzar and his generals. (Jer_6:3) My pleasant portion. Jehovah is the "portion" of his people; his people and its land are the "portion" of Jehovah. (see on Jer_10:16) The epithet "pleasant" expresses the emotion of the surprised speaker.

Shepherds where they ought not to be.

The words of this verse suggest a degradation of the vineyard, which may have been accomplished in one of two ways. The prophet may have been indicating the miseries of his country by a scene from real life, a literal spoiling of a vineyard by the literal flocks of careless or unscrupulous shepherds. Either a vineyard becomes neglected by its owner, and so lays itself open to the inroads of a roaming flock, or the shepherd comes, and, regardless of all right, breaks his way in by sheer force. In a land where there were both vineyards and flocks, nothing was more likely than that the oppression of the weak by the strong should be illustrated in some such way. And when we pass to the figure, recollecting that Israel was reckoned as a flock and its rulers as shepherds, then we begin to discern how these rulers are once more to be blamed. Neglect is the least thing to be laid at their door; they are chargeable with even more than neglect, even with high-handedness and utter lack of regard for neighborly rights. These rulers are charged in other places for their want of fidelity in making due provision for the flock; here, while they make a sort of provision, they do it in a way which indicates how little they think of the real interests of their sheep.

1. There is presented to us here a picture of two occupations, two possessions, both right in themselves. It is not the robber who desolates this vineyard, the man to whom violence is an ordinary element. It is the shepherd, the marl whose work is every whir as useful and commendable in its way as that of the vinedresser. God made the surface of his earth for his creatures, animate and inanimate, and there is an appointed and sufficient place for all. There are pasture-grounds where the sheep may grow and by its wool provide clothing for men, and there are the tillage-grounds whence come the corn, the oil, the wine, which are equally for the sustenance and pleasure of men.

2. The mischief which may be done by a selfish occupation with ones own interests. In one sense the shepherd could not be too careful about his own interest. He had food to search for, his flock to keep together, wanderers to restore, wild beasts to drive away. This was all very difficult, but the difficulty should have taught him to look sympathetically at the interests of others. The vine-dresser would have in his own way as hard and anxious a life as the shepherd. There are difficulties enough in human existence from things which cannot be helped. Why should they be added to by the thoughtlessness of those who can be thoughtful if only they care to be, unselfish if only they care to be? A shepherd with the heart of a brother in him would be doubly careful when he came near a vineyard. It was easy for his heedless sheep to do a damage which, once done, no amount of regret could undo.

3. Heedlessness of the interests of others works to our own serious damage in the end. The position of these kings of Israel and Judah had to be set forth by more than one image. Their people had to be looked at in the aspect of a flock and of a vineyard, and so indeed each one of us has to look at his own life in more aspects than one. A narrow, one-sided view is ruinous; it may have temporary advantages, but they are soon gone, and then the full folly of short-sightedness will appear. These kings lived a self-indulgent life, and gathered round them a favored few, whom they enriched and pampered in like manner. Meanwhile the land was suffering from oppression and injustice, and these great ones advancing to an overthrow, the completeness of which would be intensified by the remembrance of past follies. That is the truly prudent man who is always looking beneath the surface and beyond the present. To find an easy, ready-to-hand way out of present difficulties may be the surest way of making future difficulties altogether unmanageable. Y.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A wilderness - They have caused God to turn the country which he had chosen for his portion, into a wilderness.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard

Here Yahweh speaks of his land and his people being destroyed by armies as if they were a vineyard that shepherds had destroyed. AT: "My people and my land are like a vineyard that many shepherds have destroyed" (See: Metaphor)

Many shepherds have destroyed

Here the word "shepherds" refers to their sheep. AT: "Many shepherds have allowed their sheep to destroy" (See: Metonymy)

They have stomped all over

"They have crushed under their feet"

my portion of land

"the ground I planted" or "my field"

All the land has been made desolate

This can be stated in active form. AT: "All the land is desolate" (See: Active or Passive)

takes it to heart

This is an idiom. AT: "cares" or "pays any attention" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

shepherd

vineyard

turn

delight

desert

desolate

mourn

heart

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Many shepherds The commanders of the troops of Nebuchadnezzar’s army, as it is stated above (6:3): “Shepherds and their flocks shall come to her.”

they have trampled Heb. בססו, an expression of trampling. Cf. (Zech. 10:5) “And they shall be like mighty men trampling (בוסים) the mire of the streets.”

My field Heb. חלקתי, (campagne in French), countryside.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.