Jeremiah 12:14

Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Thus saith the Lord.—The introduction of a new message from Jehovah, speaking through the prophet, is indicated by the usual formula.

Mine evil neighbours.—These were the neighbouring nations—Edomites, Moabites, Hagarenes—who rejoiced in the fall of Judah, and attacked her in her weakness (2Kings 24:2; Psalm 83:6-9; Psalm 137:7). In the midst of his burning indignation against the sins of his own people the prophet is still a patriot, and is yet more indignant at those who attack her. For them, too, there shall be a like chastisement (comp. Jeremiah 25:18-26), but not for them so signal a deliverance as that in store for Judah. They should be “plucked out” from their own land, Judah from the land of its exile.

Benson Commentary

Jeremiah 12:14-15. Thus saith the Lord, against, or concerning, all mine evil neighbours — By these are meant the Moabites, Ammonites, Idumeans, and Philistines; against whom Jeremiah prophesies, chap. 47., 48., 49.; and Ezekiel, chap. 25. These are called evil neighbours, because of the spite and ill-will which they showed toward the Jews on all occasions: that touch the inheritance, &c. — Who lie near to, and border upon, Judea: Behold, I will pluck them out, &c. — These people were accordingly wasted and spoiled, and part of them carried into captivity by the Babylonians. And pluck out the house of Judah, &c. — Many of the Jews were carried captive, or went for safety into those neighbouring countries, before the general Babylonish captivity, Jeremiah 15:4; Jeremiah 11:11. Of these Jews some were carried captive, together with the natives of those countries, by the Chaldeans afterward: others went down into Egypt. See chap. 43., 44. Here is foretold the restoration of the Jews from their several dispersions. Compare Jeremiah 32:37; Ezekiel 28:25-26. This promise was partly fulfilled in the time succeeding the Babylonish captivity, Psalm 147:2; but will be more fully accomplished at the final restoration of that nation, when the fulness of the Gentiles will likewise be brought into the church, which is foretold in the words of the next verse. And after that I have plucked them out — In justice for the punishment of their sins, and in jealousy for the honour of Israel; I will return — Will change my way, and have compassion on them — Though, as being heathen, they can lay no claim to the mercies of the covenant made with Abraham and his seed, yet they shall have benefit by the compassions of the Creator, who will look upon them as the work of his hands. And will bring them again every man to his heritage — Thus, after Jeremiah had threatened severe judgments upon several countries, he concludes with a general promise of their return from their captivity in the latter days; which promise probably relates chiefly to their conversion under the gospel.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:14-17 The Lord would plead the cause of his people against their evil neighbours. Yet he would afterwards show mercy to those nations, when they should learn true religion. This seems to look forward to the times when the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. Those who would have their lot with God's people, and a last end like theirs, must learn their ways, and walk in them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The prophet addresses the spoilers.

Evil neighbors - The Syrians, Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, and Philistines, who at all times took advantage of Judah's weakness. The special mercy to Judah was the prelude to mercy to the whole Gentile world.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14-17. Prophecy as to the surrounding nations, the Syrians, Ammonites, &c., who helped forward Judah's calamity: they shall share her fall; and, on their conversion, they shall share with her in the future restoration. This is a brief anticipation of the predictions in the forty-seventh, forty-eighth, and forty-ninth chapters.

touch—(Zec 2:8).

pluck them out … pluck out … Judah—(Compare end of Jer 12:16). During the thirteen years that the Babylonians besieged Tyre, Nebuchadnezzar, after subduing Cœlo-Syria, brought Ammon, Moab, &c., and finally Egypt, into subjection [Josephus, Antiquities, 10:9.7]. On the restoration of these nations, they were to exchange places with the Jews. The latter were now in the midst of them, but on their restoration they were to be "in the midst of the Jews," that is, as proselytes to the true God (compare Mic 5:7; Zec 14:16). "Pluck them," namely, the Gentile nations: in a bad sense. "Pluck Judah": in a good sense; used to express the force which was needed to snatch Judah from the tyranny of those nations by whom they had been made captives, or to whom they had fled; otherwise they never would have let Judah go. Previously he had been forbidden to pray for the mass of the Jewish people. But here he speaks consolation to the elect remnant among them. Whatever the Jews might be, God keeps His covenant.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

God will not be angry for ever with his own people, nor suffer the rod of the wicked for ever to rest upon the back of the righteous; for saith he, for those that are nay evil neighbours, the nations bordering upon Judea, which God calls his inheritance, upon which account he calleth them his neighbours, who touched his inheritance, not so much by contiguity of habitation, as by rapacious fingers to do them hurt, insulting over them when the hand of God was upon them, and contributing to their affliction and misery by helping their enemies against them, as did the Edomites, Philistines, Moabites, &c.:

I will also pluck them out of their land, I will bring the sword upon them also, and they shall be led into captivity; and though they may have made some inroads upon my people, and have carried away some of them into captivity, yet I will fetch them out of their captivity.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thus saith the Lord against all mine evil neighbours,.... Or, "concerning" (h) them; the Egyptians, Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Tyre, and Sidon; whom the Lord calls his "neighbours", because they were near the land of Canaan, where his people dwelt, to whom he vouchsafed his presence, and where the temple was in which he took up his residence; and his "evil" neighbours, because they often distressed and afflicted his people.

That touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; meaning not only that they bordered on the land of Canaan, and so might be said to touch it, but that they did hurt unto it; in which sense the word touch is used, Psalm 105:15, the land of Canaan was an inheritance which was distributed by lot to the children of Israel, who were a people dear unto the Lord, as this shows; and therefore they that touched them, or their inheritance, as to do them any harm, touched the apple of his eye, and which he resented greatly, Zechariah 2:8.

Behold, I will pluck them out of their land; cause them to be carried captive into other lands, or be destroyed in their own; see Jeremiah chapters forty six through forty nine: and pluck out the house of Judah from among them; such of the Jews they had formerly carried captive, or who had fled to them upon the Chaldean invasion; these the Lord would cause to come forth from among them, and return them to their own land.

(h) "de omnibus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Cocceius.

Geneva Study Bible

Thus saith the LORD against all mine evil neighbours, that touch the inheritance which I have caused my people Israel to inherit; Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. and will pluck up … from among them] This clause, occurring in a passage otherwise dealing solely with foreign nations, is suspiciously like a gloss. Gi. for this and metrical reasons omits the clause, omitting also “which I have caused … to inherit.”

14–17. See introd. summary to the section.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Here occurs a transition. The prophet comes forward with a denunciation in the name of Jehovah. All mine evil neighbors; the hostile, peoples, mentioned, in 2 Kings 24. My neighbors, because Jehovah "dwelleth in Zion." Pluck them out of their land; viz. by deportation into a foreign land. Judah and the neighboring nations shall share the same fate. This is indicated by the use of the same verb "to pluck out" in the next clause with reference to Judah (comp. 1 Kings 14:15, Hebrew). In the case of Judah, however, to be "plucked out" is a mercy as well as a judgment, considering who they are "out of" whose "midst" the Jews are "plucked." Jeremiah 12:14

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The spoilers of the Lord's heritage are also to be carried off out of their land; but after they, like Judah, have been punished, the Lord will have pity on them, and will bring them back one and all into their own land. And if the heathen, who now seduce the people of God to idolatry, learn the ways of God's people and be converted to the Lord, they shall receive citizenship amongst God's people and be built up amongst them; but if they will not do so, they shall be extirpated. Thus will the Lord manifest Himself before the whole earth as righteous judge, and through judgment secure the weal not only of Israel, but of the heathen peoples too. By this discovery of His world-plan the Lord makes so complete a reply to the prophet's murmuring concerning the prosperity of the ungodly (Jeremiah 12:1-6), that from it may clearly be seen the justice of God's government on earth. Viewed thus, both strophes of the passage before us (Jeremiah 12:7-17) connect themselves singularly well with Jeremiah 12:1-6.

Jeremiah 12:14-15

The evil neighbours that lay hands on Jahve's heritage are the neighbouring heathen nations, the Edomites, Moabites, Ammonites, Philistines, and Syrians. It does not, however, follow that this threatening has special reference to the event related in 2 Kings 24:2, and that it belongs to the time of Jehoiakim. These nations were always endeavouring to assault Israel, and made use of every opportunity that seemed favourable for waging war against them and subjugating them; and not for the first time during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, at which time it was indeed that they suffered the punishment here pronounced, of being carried away into exile. The neighbours are brought up here simply as representatives of the heathen nations, and what is said of them is true for all the heathen. The transition to the first person in שׁכני is like that in Jeremiah 14:15. Jahveh is possessor of the land of Israel, and so the adjoining peoples are His neighbours. נגע ב, to touch as an enemy, to attack, cf. Zechariah 2:12. I pluck the house of Judah out of their midst, i.e., the midst of the evil neighbours. This is understood by most commentators of the carrying of Judah into captivity, since נתשׁ cannot be taken in two different senses in the two corresponding clauses. For this word used of deportation, cf. 1 Kings 14:15. "Them," Jeremiah 12:15, refers to the heathen peoples. After they have been carried forth of their land and have received their punishment, the Lord will again have compassion upon them, and will bring back each to its inheritance, its land. Here the restoration of Judah, the people of God, is assumed as a thing of course (cf. Jeremiah 12:16 and Jeremiah 32:37, Jeremiah 32:44; Jeremiah 33:26).