Jeremiah 23:12

12 "{Therefore} their way will be to them like the slippery places, they will be pushed in the darkness, and they will fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them [in] the year of their punishment," {declares} Yahweh.

Jeremiah 23:12 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 23:12

Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery [ways] in
the darkness
Their course of life may fitly be compared, and in the issue will prove to be like to a man's walking in a dark night without any lamp or lantern to light him, and in a slippery way, scarce able to stand upon his legs, and cannot see to pick his way, nor where to step next, which is very uncomfortable and dangerous; such are blind leaders of the blind, and both in danger of slipping and falling into a ditch, ( Matthew 15:14 ) ; they shall be driven on, and fall therein;
hurried on by Satan, and their own lusts, in their sinful ways to their ruin; or forced on into captivity and destruction; their enemies and the just judgments of God pursuing them, like a man pursued by others in a dark and slippery way; who cannot stand to feel his way, but is obliged to go on, though he can scarce keep upon his legs, and knows not where to set his foot next; see ( Psalms 35:6 ) ; for I will bring evil upon them:
the evil of punishment, which is from the Lord; as sword, famine, pestilence, or captivity: [even] the year of their visitation, saith the Lord:
the precise and exact time appointed by the Lord to visit them in a way of judgment for their iniquities; which was a set time that would certainly come, and they could not escape; and which may not only respect the time of the Babylonish captivity, but the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, which was the time of their visitation, ( Luke 19:44 ) .

Jeremiah 23:12 In-Context

10 For the land is full [of] adulterers; for the land mourns because of a curse. [The] pastures of [the] desert are dry, and their evil has been their way of running, and their power [is] not right.

11 "For both prophet as well as priest are godless, even in my temple I have found their wickedness," {declares} Yahweh.

12 "{Therefore} their way will be to them like the slippery places, they will be pushed in the darkness, and they will fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them [in] the year of their punishment," {declares} Yahweh.

13 "Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing. They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.

14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen something horrible. They commit adultery, and they walk in lies, and they make strong [the] hands of evildoers, [so] that they have not turned back each from his wickedness. All of them have become to me like Sodom, and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "To thus"
• [b] Literally "a declaration of"