(12) All high places.--i.e., the bare treeless heights so often chosen as the site of an idolatrous sanctuary. The sword of the Lord.--As in the cry of "the sword of Jehovah and of Gideon" (Judges 7:18) all man's work in war is thought of as instrumental in working out a Will mightier than his own. The sword of the Chaldean invader was, after all, His sword. The thought was more or less the common inheritance of Israel, but it had recently received a special prominence from Deuteronomy 32:41. No flesh shall have peace.--The context limits the prediction to the offenders of the cities of Judah. As peace was for the Israelite the sum and substance of all blessedness, so its absence was the extremest of all maledictions. "Flesh" is used, as in Genesis 6:3, for man's nature as evil and corrupt. Verse 12. - Upon an high places thresh the wilderness; rather, upon all bare heights in the wilderness (see on Jeremiah 3:2). Hardly with a reference to their pollution by idolatry; the mention of "the wilderness" (or pasture-country) suggests that it is merely a feature in the impoverishment of the country (a contrast to Isaiah 49:9). The sword of the Lord shall devour; rather, the Lord hath a sword which devoureth. It is the heavenly sword (Isaiah 34:5), the symbol of Divine vengeance (see below on Jeremiah 46:5). 12:7-13 God's people had been the dearly-beloved of his soul, precious in his sight, but they acted so, that he gave them up to their enemies. Many professing churches become like speckled birds, presenting a mixture of religion and the world, with its vain fashions, pursuits, and pollutions. God's people are as men wondered at, as a speckled bird; but this people had by their own folly made themselves so; and the beasts and birds are called to prey upon them. The whole land would be made desolate. But until the judgments were actually inflicted, none of the people would lay the warning to heart. When God's hand is lifted up, and men will not see, they shall be made to feel. Silver and gold shall not profit in the day of the Lord's anger. And the efforts of sinners to escape misery, without repentance and works answerable thereto, will end in confusion.The spoilers are come upon all high places through the wilderness,.... Of Judea; or which lay between Chaldea and Judea, through which the Chaldean army came; called here the "spoilers", because they spoiled and plundered all places where they came; nor could the high, strong, and fortified places withstand them, or escape their ravage and fury. De Dieu renders it, "upon all the plains in the wilderness"; where was pasture, land for cattle, as Kimchi serves; which were trodden down and spoiled by the soldiers, and made forage of.For the sword of the Lord shall devour from the one end; of the land even the other end of the land; the sword of the Chaldeans is called the sword of the Lord, because it was drawn by his order and appointment, and was succeeded by him to do execution; and the calamity which it brought upon the land reached from one end of it to the other, so general and; extensive it was. No flesh shall have peace; no inhabitant of Judea shall be in safety, but be exposed to the sword, or to captivity. |