Jeremiah 9:12

12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

Jeremiah 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:12

Who is the wise man that may understand this?
&c.] Not the calamity, but the cause of it; a man of wisdom would inquire into it, find it out, and understand it; but the intimation is, that there was not a wise man among them, at least very few; there were scarce any that took any notice of these things, or were concerned about them: and who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken;
and foretold this desolation and destruction; meaning a prophet: that he may declare it;
as from the Lord, namely, what follows: for what the land perisheth, and is burnt like a wilderness, that none
passeth through?
that is, what were the sins of the inhabitants of the land, which brought such distress upon it, and for which it became such a ruinous heap, and like the heath in the wilderness, so that it had no inhabitant, nor even a passenger: they must be some very great and abominable iniquities that were the cause of all this.

Jeremiah 9:12 In-Context

10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.

11 I will make Yerushalayim heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Yehudah a desolation, without inhabitant.

12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

13 The LORD says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Ba`alim, which their fathers taught them;