Bible Strands
Jeremiah 12:4
How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field be withered? Because of the evil of its residents, the animals and birds have been swept away, for the people have said, “He cannot see what our end will be.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah speaks to God immediately after recording the Lord's command to judge the wicked. He voices the nation's complaint while the surrounding environment reflects the consequences of their actions.
The words — The Hebrew מָתַי (ma.Tai) poses "when?" regarding the duration of the land's mourning, paired with תֶּאֱבַל (te.'e.Val) and יִיבָשׁ (yi.Vash) for the soil drying up and vegetation withering.
The thread — Ecological ruin accompanies human conduct in Jeremiah 9:10 and Jeremiah 4:25, where scorched pastures and fleeing birds mark the scene. Psalm 107:34 explicitly connects fertile ground becoming salt fields to the wickedness of its inhabitants.
Why it lands — The passage records the people's declaration that God cannot see their end, using ecological decay as the visible backdrop. It requires the reader to recognize how observed judgment is met with the false assertion of divine blindness.
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
How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? the beasts are consumed, and the birds; because they said, He shall not see our last end.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Psalms 107:34 and fruitful land into fields of salt, because of the wickedness of its dwellers.
- Jeremiah 4:25 I looked, and no man was left; all the birds of the air had fled.
- Hosea 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.
- Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?
- Jeremiah 7:20 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.
- Jeremiah 23:10 For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused.
- Romans 8:22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
- Joel 1:10 The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
- Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,