Bible Strands
Jeremiah 5:17
They will devour your harvest and food; they will consume your sons and daughters; they will eat up your flocks and herds; they will feed on your vines and fig trees. With the sword they will destroy the fortified cities in which you trust.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Jeremiah delivers this oracle from the LORD to Judah during a period of covenant rebellion and imminent invasion. The text describes a foreign army systematically stripping the nation of its people, resources, and defensive strongholds.
The words — The Hebrew root אָכַל (a.Khal) repeats to mean “it will devour” or “they will devour,” stressing total consumption. It is directly linked to קְצִירְךָ (ke.tzi.re./kha), literally “your harvest,” grounding the judgment in the loss of agricultural sustenance.
The thread — This sequence of foreign forces consuming crops, livestock, and families mirrors the covenant warning in Leviticus 26:16 and Deuteronomy 28:33. The specific mention of destroying fortified cities aligns with the prophetic indictment in Hosea 8:14.
Why it lands — The text states that trust in military fortifications and material wealth will be dismantled by the invading army. It requires the reader to acknowledge that reliance on temporal security is futile when divine judgment operates through historical agents.
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
And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword.
Cross-references
- 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.
- Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- Hosea 8:14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
- Deuteronomy 28:30 You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.
- Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other people of the east would come up and invade them,
- Isaiah 62:9 For those who harvest grain will eat it and praise the LORD, and those who gather grapes will drink the wine in My holy courts.”
- Isaiah 65:22 No longer will they build houses for others to inhabit, nor plant for others to eat. For as is the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people, and My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands.
- Jeremiah 1:15 For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the LORD. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.
- Jeremiah 4:7 A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited.
- 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.