Jeremiah 12:13-15 New English Translation

¹³My people will sow wheat, but will harvest weeds.^[a]
They will work until they are exhausted, but will get nothing from it.
They will be disappointed in their harvests^[b]
because the Lord will take them away in his fierce anger.^[c]

¹⁴“I, the Lord, also have something to say concerning^[d] the wicked nations who surround my land^[e] and have attacked and plundered^[f] the land that I gave to my people as a permanent possession.^[g] I say: ‘I will uproot the people of those nations from their land and I will free the people of Judah who have been taken there.^[h] ¹⁵But after I have uprooted the people of those nations, I will relent^[i] and have pity on them. I will restore the people of each of those nations to their own lands^[j] and to their own country.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Jeremiah 12:13 sn Invading armies lived off the land, using up all the produce and destroying everything they could not consume.
Jeremiah 12:13 tn The pronouns here are actually second plural: Heb “Be ashamed/disconcerted because of your harvests.” Because the verb form (וּבֹשׁוּ, uvoshu) can either be Qal perfect third plural or Qal imperative masculine plural, many emend the pronoun on the noun to third plural (see, e.g., BHS). However, this is the easier reading and is not supported by either the Latin or the Greek, which have second plural. This is probably another case of the shift from description to direct address that has been met with several times already in Jeremiah (the figure of speech called apostrophe; for other examples see, e.g., 9:4; 11:13). As in other cases, the translation has been leveled to third plural to avoid confusion for the contemporary English reader. For the meaning of the verb here see BDB 101 s.v. בּוֹשׁ Qal.2 and compare the usage in Jer 48:13.
Jeremiah 12:13 tn Heb “be disappointed in their harvests from the fierce anger of the Lord.” The translation makes explicit what is implicit in the elliptical poetry of the Hebrew original.
Jeremiah 12:14 tn Heb “Thus says the Lord concerning….” This structure has been adopted to prevent a long, dangling introduction to what the Lord has to say, which does not begin until the middle of the verse in Hebrew. The first person address was adopted because the speaker is still the Lord, as in vv. 7-13.
Jeremiah 12:14 tn Heb “my wicked neighbors.”
Jeremiah 12:14 tn Heb “touched.” For the nuance of this verb here see BDB 619 s.v. נָגַע Qal.3 and compare the usage in 1 Chr 16:22, where it is parallel to “do harm to,” and in Zech 2:8, where it is parallel to “plundered.”
Jeremiah 12:14 tn Heb “the inheritance which I caused my people Israel to inherit.” Compare 3:18.
Jeremiah 12:14 tn Heb “I will uproot the house of Judah from their midst.”sn There appears to be an interesting play on the Hebrew word translated “uproot” in this verse. In the first instance it refers to “uprooting the nations from upon their lands,” i.e., to exiling them. In the second instance it refers to “uprooting the Judeans from the midst of them,” i.e., to rescuing them.
Jeremiah 12:15 tn For the use of the verb “turn” (שׁוּב, shuv) in this sense, see BDB s.v. שׁוּב Qal.6.g and compare the usage in Pss 90:13; 6:4; and Joel 2:14. It does not simply mean “again” as several of the English versions render it.
Jeremiah 12:15 sn The Lord is sovereign over the nations and has allotted each of them their lands. See Deut 2:5 (Edom); 2:9 (Moab); 2:19 (Ammon). He promised to restore not only his own people Israel to their land (Jer 32:37), but also Moab (Jer 48:47) and Ammon (Jer 49:6).

New English Translation (NET)