Jeremiah 12:10

Many foreign rulers ¹  will ruin the land where I planted my people. ²  They will trample all over my chosen land. ³  They will turn my beautiful land into a desolate wasteland.

Ps 80:8-16; Isa 5:1-7; Isa 43:28; Isa 63:18; Jer 3:19; Jer 6:3; Jer 25:9; Jer 39:3; La 1:10,11; Lu 20:9-16; Lu 21:14; Re 11:2

¹ tn Heb “Many shepherds.” For the use of the term “shepherd” as a figure for rulers see the notes on 10:21.

² tn Heb “my vineyard.” To translate literally would presuppose an unlikely familiarity of this figure on the part of some readers. To translate as “vineyards” as some do would be misleading because that would miss the figurative nuance altogether.

sn The figure of Israel as God’s vine and the land as God’s vineyard is found several times in the Bible. The best known of these is the extended metaphor in Isa 5:1-7. This figure also appears in Jer 2:20.

³ tn Heb “my portion.”