Bible Strands
Jeremiah 12:13
They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves to no avail. Bear the shame of your harvest because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD addresses Judah and Israel amid a prophetic declaration of imminent national ruin, positioned between descriptions of widespread slaughter and a promise to uproot both the nation and its hostile neighbors from the land.
The words — נֶחְל֖וּ (nech.Lu) = they have wearied themselves and יוֹעִ֑לוּ (yo.'I.lu) = they have profited.
The thread — This pattern of futile labor under divine judgment recurs in Deuteronomy 28:38, Micah 6:15, and Haggai 1:6.
Why it lands — The text declares that the people's agricultural efforts will yield only shame and exhaustion because of God's fierce anger, demanding recognition that their labor is rendered void by covenant consequences.
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
They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 28:38 You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.
- Micah 6:15 You will sow but not reap; you will press olives but not anoint yourselves with oil; you will tread grapes but not drink the wine.
- Haggai 1:6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
- Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.
- Isaiah 55:2 Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
- Jeremiah 4:26 I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert. All its cities were torn down before the LORD, before His fierce anger.
- Jeremiah 25:37 The peaceful meadows have been silenced because of the LORD’s burning anger.
- Habakkuk 2:13 Is it not indeed from the LORD of Hosts that the labor of the people only feeds the fire, and the nations weary themselves in vain?
- Isaiah 30:1 “Woe to the rebellious children,” declares the LORD, “to those who carry out a plan that is not Mine, who form an alliance, but against My will, heaping up sin upon sin.
- Isaiah 31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy One of Israel; they do not seek the LORD.