Jeremiah 6:12

And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:9-17 When the Lord arises to take vengeance, no sinners of any age or rank, or of either sex escape. They were set upon the world, and wholly carried away by the love of it. If we judge of this sin by God's word, we find multitudes in every station and rank given up to it. Those are to be reckoned our worst and most dangerous enemies, who flatter us in a sinful way. Oh that men would be wise for their souls! Ask for the old paths; the way of godliness and righteousness has always been the way God has owned and blessed. Ask for the old paths set forth by the written word of God. When you have found the good way, go on in it, you will find abundant recompence at your journey's end. But if men will not obey the voice of God and flee to his appointed Refuge, it will plainly appear at the day of judgment, that they are ruined because they reject God's word.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Turned - Violently transferred. Houses, fields, wives, all they most valued, and most jealously kept to themselves - are gone.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

12. The very punishments threatened by Moses in the event of disobedience to God (De 28:30).

turned—transferred.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Their houses shall be turned unto others, i.e. their houses and their lands shall be devolved or turned over to strangers, Jeremiah 8:10, even that land which they thought had been entailed upon them, and they so firmly fixed in for ever, Psalm 132:13,14.

Their wives; their most desirable things; howbeit it need not be restrained precisely to wives, the Hebrew signifying women largely, Jeremiah 7:18, comprising

maids, wives, or concubines, and this according to the threatening, Deu 28:30 Jeremiah 8:10.

I will stretch out my hand, viz. to smite, to give you a sorer blow, Isaiah 5:25; a synecdoche of the kind, spoken after the manner of men. Here the prophet gives them the reason of this their unexpected calamity, that they might not think it an impossibility; namely, because God was become their enemy.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And their houses shall be turned unto others,.... To strangers, to the Chaldeans; they shall be transferred unto them, come into their hands, and become their property:

with their fields and wives together: not only their houses and lands shall be taken away from them, and put to the use of others, but even their wives; than which nothing could be more distressing:

for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord; the inhabitants of the land of Judea; and so the Septuagint render it, "upon them that inhabit this land"; and so the Arabic version: wherefore, since the Lord would exert himself in this affair, and stretch out his hand of almighty power, as the Targum paraphrases it,

"I will lift up the stroke of my power;''

it might be depended upon that all this destruction threatened would come on them.

Geneva Study Bible

And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together: for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. I will stretch out my hand] Cp. for this phrase Isaiah 5:25.

12–15. These verses are almost identical with ch. Jeremiah 8:10-12, where they are probably a later insertion.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - Shall be turned; i.e. transferred. Their fields and wives. Wives are regarded as a property, as in Exodus 20:17 (comp. Deuteronomy 5:21). Jeremiah 6:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Jeremiah 6:12 gives the result of being thus taken: their houses, fields, and wives will be handed over to others, descend to others. Wives are mentioned along with houses and fields, as in the commandment, Exodus 20:17; cf. Deuteronomy 5:18. The loss of all one's possessions is mentioned in connection with reproof, following in Jeremiah 6:13, of greed and base avarice. The threatening is confirmed in Jeremiah 6:12 by the clause: for I((Jahveh) stretch my hand out, etc. Then in Jeremiah 6:13 and Jeremiah 6:14 the cause of the judgment is adduced. The judgment falls upon all, for all, great and little, i.e., mean and powerful (cf. Jeremiah 6:4, Jeremiah 6:5), go after base gain; and the teachers, who ought to lead the people on the true way (Isaiah 30:21), sue deceit and dishonesty. They heal the breach of the daughter of my people, i.e., the infirmities and injuries of the state, after a light and frivolous fashion (נקלּה is partic.Niph. faem., and על is of the thing that covers another); - in this, namely, that they speak of peace and healing where there is no peace; that they do not uncover the real injuries so as to heal them thoroughly, but treat them as if they were trifling and in no way dangerous infirmities.