Jeremiah 9:12 kjv
Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
Jeremiah 9:12 nkjv
Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?
Jeremiah 9:12 niv
Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?
Jeremiah 9:12 esv
Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
Jeremiah 9:12 nlt
Who is wise enough to understand all this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it to others? Why has the land been so ruined that no one dares to travel through it?
Jeremiah 9 12 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Jeremiah 9:12 | "Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?" | Contextualizes the reason for judgment |
| Deuteronomy 29:24 | "They will say, 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.'" | Covenant violation as cause of ruin |
| Jeremiah 5:23 | "But these people have hearts that are stubborn and rebellious; they have all turned aside and gone away." | Rebellious nature of the people |
| Jeremiah 6:13 | "'Very well,' he said, 'I will pour out my wrath on them and test them. How will they endure when I test them? With their leaders, their priests and their prophets!'" | Judgment on leaders, priests, prophets |
| Jeremiah 7:24 | "But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the cravings of their stubborn, evil hearts. They went backward and not forward." | Failure to listen and obey |
| Jeremiah 8:10 | "Therefore I will give their fields to others and their wives to new owners, for from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy, from prophet to priest they do all that is false." | Greed and falsehood prevalent |
| Jeremiah 8:11 | "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." | False security and lack of true peace |
| Hosea 4:6 | "My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you from being my priests; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I too will forget your children." | Rejection of knowledge and law |
| Amos 3:7 | "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets." | God reveals His plans |
| Isaiah 5:11 | "Woe to those who go to wine until late at night, when they are inflamed with wine!" | Indulgence of leaders |
| Ezekiel 22:26 | "Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things. They do not distinguish between the sacred and the common; they do not teach the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them." | Corruption of religious leaders |
| Proverbs 2:6 | "For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." | True wisdom and understanding from God |
| Romans 11:34 | "For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?" | The incomprehensible wisdom of God |
| 1 Corinthians 1:20 | "Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" | God's wisdom vs. world's wisdom |
| Psalm 107:43 | "Whoever is wise, let him attend to these things, that they may consider the steadfast love of the Lord." | Call to wisdom and remembrance of God's love |
| Jeremiah 2:8 | "The priests did not ask, 'Where is the Lord?' Those who administer the law did not know me. The leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols." | Ignorance of God by leaders and priests |
| Jeremiah 6:14 | "They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace." | False prophets speak peace |
| Jeremiah 9:23 | "This is what the Lord says: 'Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches.'" | Warning against boasting |
| Matthew 13:15 | "For this people’s heart has become dull, and with their ears they can hardly hear, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them." | Similar spiritual dullness |
| Acts 28:27 | "For this people’s heart has become dull, and with their ears they can hardly hear, and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them." | The people's inability to understand |
Jeremiah 9 verses
Jeremiah 9 12 Meaning
This verse explains why God will punish the land with desolation. The people have broken their covenant with God and turned away from His teachings. Their leaders, priests, and prophets also disregard God's law and do not warn the people of the consequences of their disobedience. Instead of seeking God, they follow their own paths and practice deceit and violence.
Jeremiah 9 12 Context
Jeremiah 9 is part of a larger oracle of judgment against Judah and Jerusalem. The preceding verses lament the sin and coming destruction of the city. God poses a rhetorical question through Jeremiah about why the land is so desolate, highlighting the pervasive disobedience that has led to this state. This verse specifically focuses on the spiritual and moral bankruptcy of the nation, pointing to the people, their leaders, priests, and prophets as being responsible for turning away from God and His laws, thus bringing about the divine judgment described. The historical context is the declining years of the Kingdom of Judah, leading up to the Babylonian exile, where covenant unfaithfulness and idolatry were rampant.
Jeremiah 9 12 Word Analysis
“Who” (Mi): This interrogative pronoun initiates a series of questions designed to provoke reflection and reveal a startling lack of understanding.
“is wise” (chakam): Refers to wisdom, discernment, and prudent understanding, qualities notably absent in the current leadership and populace.
“understand this?” (yavin zoth): Implies a failure to grasp the divine implications of their actions and the cause of their impending ruin.
“who has been instructed” (mi lemud Yahweh): Highlights a deliberate neglect of divine teaching and revelation. "Lemud" signifies one who is taught or disciplined by God.
“and can explain it?” (ve yechabe-nnah): Refers to the ability to articulate, interpret, or give a coherent reason for the desolation, a task that no one among them can competently do.
“Why” (lamah): Again, a question seeking the reason for the observed state of the land.
“has the land been ruined” (tuwatah ha'arets): The passive verb indicates a passive suffering or spoiling, resulting from their actions.
“and laid waste” (verivakah): Denotes being made empty, desolate, or barren.
“like a desert” (katsedzah): A simile for extreme desolation and emptiness, where life cannot be sustained.
“that no one can cross?” (lo-yevuru bah): Emphasizes the totality of the devastation; it is a wasteland so severe that even travel through it is impossible or perilous.
Group of Words Analysis:
- “Who is wise enough to understand this?”: This phrasing immediately sets up a stark contrast between the perceived wisdom of the people and the reality of their spiritual blindness. It challenges any who claim wisdom, indicating that true understanding stems only from divine instruction.
- “who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it?”: This emphasizes that the cause of the nation's downfall is not a mystery but a direct consequence of their rejection of God's teaching. The inability to explain the devastation reveals their profound disconnection from divine truth.
- “Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?”: This potent imagery underscores the severity of the judgment. The "desert" metaphor is classic in Scripture for God's judgment upon sin, rendering fertile land barren, a mirror of the spiritual barrenness of the people. The impossibility of passage highlights the completeness of the destruction.
Jeremiah 9 12 Bonus Section
The rhetorical questions posed in this verse echo a consistent theme in prophetic literature, where God challenges the spiritual discernment of His people, especially in times of crisis. The description of the land as a "desert that no one can cross" vividly illustrates the consequence of unfaithfulness. This imagery resonates with the curses of the covenant found in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, which warned that disobedience would lead to the land becoming a desolate wasteland. The verse implies that the spiritual barrenness of the people mirrors the physical barrenness that will overtake their land. The wisdom being sought is not intellectual but moral and spiritual discernment that comes from obedience to Yahweh.
Jeremiah 9 12 Commentary
This verse functions as a profound diagnosis of national decline rooted in spiritual apathy and rebellion. God, speaking through Jeremiah, laments that His people have become so devoid of divine wisdom that they cannot even comprehend the reasons for their own destruction. The leaders, priests, and prophets, who should have been stewards of God's law and conduits of His truth, have failed miserably. Their failure to understand and explain the land's ruin stems from their own rejection of God's guidance. The resulting desolation is presented as a direct consequence, a natural outcome of breaking the covenant and turning to self-serving practices, depicted as a barren, impassable wasteland—a stark picture of a land spiritually dead due to its inhabitants' spiritual estrangement from God.
- Practical application: True wisdom is found in adhering to God's word, not in human intellect or might. Leaders and teachers have a solemn responsibility to clearly articulate and live out God's truth, lest they contribute to the spiritual desolation of those they are meant to guide.