Jeremiah 1:12

12 “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching ^[a] over My word to accomplish it.”

Jeremiah 1:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 1:12

Then said the Lord unto me, thou hast well seen
The thing seen is a very proper emblem of what I am about to do, and the quick dispatch that will be made therein: for l will hasten my word to perform it;
the words (yna dqv) , "shoked ani", "I will hasten", or "I am hastening", are in allusion to (dqv) , "shoked", the name of the almond tree in Hebrew; which is so called because it is quick and early, and, as it were, hastens to bring forth its flowers, leaves, and fruit; in like manner the Lord says he would hasten to perform what he had said or should say by him concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, and the captivity of the people, and every thing else he should give him in commission to say. Jarchi and Abendana make mention of an ancient Midrash, or exposition, to this sense; that from the time of the almond tree's putting forth, until its fruit is ripe, are one and twenty days, according to the number of days which were between the seventeenth of Tammuz, in which the city was broken up, and the ninth of Ab, in which the temple was burnt; but though the almond tree is the first of trees, and is very early in putting forth, yet there is a greater time than this between its putting forth and its fruit being ripe; for Pliny ^F19 says, that the almond tree first of all flowers in January, and its fruit is ripe in March.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Nat. Hist. l. 16. c. 25.

Jeremiah 1:12 In-Context

10 See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”

11 And the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” “I see a branch of an almond tree,” I replied.

12 “You have observed correctly,” said the LORD, “for I am watching over My word to accomplish it.”

13 Again the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “What do you see?” “I see a boiling pot,” I replied, “and it is tilting toward us from the north.”

14 Then the LORD said to me, “Disaster from the north will be poured out on all who live in the land.

Footnotes

• [a]. The Hebrew for watching sounds like the Hebrew for almond tree.