Jeremiah 1:12

12 And the Lord said to me, Thou hast seen well, for I shall wake on my word, to do it. (And the Lord said to me, Thou hast seen well, for I am on watch, to carry out my word.)

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.

---

FOOTNOTES:

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

Jeremiah 1:12 In-Context

10 lo! I have ordained thee today on folks, and on realms (lo! today I have ordained thee over nations, and over kingdoms), that thou draw up, and destroy, and lose, and scatter, and build, and plant.

11 And the word of the Lord was made to me, and said, What seest thou, Jeremy? And I said, I see a rod wakening. (And the word of the Lord was made to me, and said, What seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, I see a branch, or a shoot, of an almond tree.)

12 And the Lord said to me, Thou hast seen well, for I shall wake on my word, to do it. (And the Lord said to me, Thou hast seen well, for I am on watch, to carry out my word.)

13 And the word of the Lord was made the second time to me, and said, What seest thou? [And I said,] I see a pot boiling, and the face thereof from the face of the north (And I said, I see a boiling pot, and its face is towards the north).

14 And the Lord said to me, From the north shall be showed all evil on all the dwellers of the land. (And the Lord said to me, From the north shall come all evil for all the inhabitants of this land.)