Jeremiah 8:13

13 "I wanted to gather my people, as a farmer gathers a harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land."

Jeremiah 8:13 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:13

I will surely consume them, saith the Lord
Or, "gathering I will gather them" ^F11; into some one place, the city of Jerusalem, and there destroy them. The word is, (hyylk Nwvl) , expressive of consumption and destruction, as Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech observe; and so the Targum,

``destroying I will destroy them, saith the Lord.''

There shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the
leaf shall fade;
some understand this by way of complaint, that there were no fruit on the vine and fig tree, nor even leaves; which they allegorically interpret of the fruit of good works being wanting in them, which was the cause of their ruin. Others think there are metaphors which describe the manner of their destruction; and so the Targum,

``and they shall fall, as the grapes fall from the vine, and as the falling fruit from the fig tree, and as the leaf from the tree.''

Though it rather intends the sterility of the land, and in general the famine that should attend the siege of Jerusalem. Grapes and figs are mentioned only, as Kimchi observes, because they were the chief fruits, and they are put for the whole. And the things that I have given them shall pass away from them;
whatever they had in their barns and cellars, or were just becoming ripe in their fields, vineyards, and gardens, should either be blasted, or rather be taken away and devoured by their enemies, so that they themselves should not enjoy them. The Targum interprets it of the law transgressed by them, as the cause of their ruin, and paraphrases it thus,

``because I have given them my law from Sinai, and they have transgressed it;''

and so Jarchi,

``this shall be unto them, because I have given them statutes, and they have transgressed them.''

---

FOOTNOTES:

F11 (Mpyoa Poa) "eolligendo colligam eos", Montanus, Tigurine version. So Piscator.

Jeremiah 8:13 In-Context

11 They act as if my people's wounds were only scratches. "All is well,' they say, when all is not well.

12 My people, were you ashamed because you did these disgusting things? No, you were not ashamed at all; you don't even know how to blush! And so you will fall as others have fallen; when I punish you, that will be the end of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

13 "I wanted to gather my people, as a farmer gathers a harvest; but they are like a vine with no grapes, like a fig tree with no figs; even the leaves have withered. Therefore, I have allowed outsiders to take over the land."

14 "Why are we sitting still?" God's people ask. "Come on, we will run to the fortified cities and die there. The Lord our God has condemned us to die; he has given us poison to drink, because we have sinned against him.

15 We hoped for peace and a time of healing, but it was no use; terror came instead.

Footnotes

• [a]. Therefore . . . land; [Hebrew unclear.]