Bible Strands
Jeremiah 12:10
Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks to Jeremiah, describing the judgment He is bringing upon Judah by allowing destructive forces to ravage what He owns.
The words — The Hebrew רֹעִים (ro'Im) identifies the agents as "shepherds," while שִׁׁחֲתוּ (shiḥaṯû) and בֹסְסוּ (bōsəssû) literally state they "have ruined" and "trampled down" the vineyard and portion.
The thread — This vineyard and shepherd imagery directly parallels Isaiah 5:1, Isaiah 63:18, and Jeremiah 23:1.
Why it lands — The text records that entrusted leaders actively destroyed and trampled God's inheritance, turning fertile ground into a waste that no one regards.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 5:1 I will sing for my beloved a song of his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
- Isaiah 63:18 For a short while Your people possessed Your holy place, but our enemies have trampled Your sanctuary.
- Jeremiah 23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” declares the LORD.
- Psalms 80:8 You uprooted a vine from Egypt; You drove out the nations and transplanted it.
- Jeremiah 3:19 Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.
- Jeremiah 6:3 Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents all around her, each tending his own portion:
- Luke 20:9 Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time.
- Isaiah 43:28 So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”
- Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
- Jeremiah 39:3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-sarsekim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.