I
will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: no grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
Jeremiah 8:13
Jeremiah 8 [5.] Why then have the people of Jerusalem fallen back by a perpetual backsliding?
They cling to deceit, they refuse to return.
I listened and heard, but they didn’t say what is right.
No one repents of his wickedness, saying, “What have I done?”
Everyone turns to his course,
as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times;
and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming;
but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.
“‘How do you say, “We are wise, and Yahweh’s law is with us?”
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
The wise men are disappointed.
They are dismayed and trapped.
Behold, they have rejected Yahweh’s word.
What kind of wisdom is in them?
Jeremiah 8 [10.] Therefore will I give their wives to others,
and their fields to those who shall possess them.
For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness;
from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.
They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
“Peace, peace,” when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed,
neither could they blush:
therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
“‘I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh:
no grapes shall be on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree,
and the leaf shall fade;
and the things that I have given them
shall pass away from them.’”
“Why do we sit still?
Assemble yourselves,
and let us enter into the fortified cities,
and let us be silent there;
for Yahweh our God has put us to silence,
and given us water of gall to drink,
because we have sinned against Yahweh.
Jeremiah 8 [15.] We looked for peace, but no good came;
and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan:
at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles;
for they have come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it;
the city and those who dwell therein.”
“For, behold, I will send serpents,
adders among you,
which will not be charmed;
and they shall bite you,” says Yahweh.
Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
My heart is faint within me.
Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land that is very far off:
“Isn’t Yahweh in Zion?
Isn’t her King in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign vanities?”
Meaning:
Jeremiah prophesied in Judah during the last forty years before Jerusalem fell to Babylon in 586 BC. In this chapter God grieves that his people will not turn back: even the stork and the swallow know their seasons, “but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law” (see the Context above). Prophets and priests alike were dealing falsely, comforting the people with “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace. Verse 13 pronounces the result. Using the picture of a failed harvest, God declares that the fruit he looked for will not be found, and that the blessings he gave will be taken away. Jesus’ cursing of a fruitless fig tree echoes these words (Mark 11:12-14).
- “I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh”
The words are severe. They sound like a harvest in which everything is gathered and nothing left. God had warned his people through Moses that unfaithfulness to the covenant would bring disaster. For generations he had sent his servants the prophets to call them back, but they would not listen, and Jeremiah himself was told, “they will not listen to you”. The judgment came when the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, destroyed the temple and carried the people into exile.
- “No grapes shall be on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree”
The vine and the fig tree were the most familiar crops in Israel and a picture of peace and plenty. The prophets described the age of blessing as a time when people “will sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and no one will make them afraid” (Micah 4:4). An empty vine and a bare fig tree meant the loss of that peace.
The picture also points to Israel itself. Isaiah sang of God’s vineyard: “For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel … and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression” (Isaiah 5:7). God came looking for the fruit of faithfulness and found none. Jesus told a parable of a fig tree whose owner came “seeking fruit on it, and found none” (Luke 13:6-9), and in Jerusalem he acted it out with a real fig tree that had leaves but no fruit (Mark 11:19-21).
- “And the leaf shall fade”
Even the leaves, the outward appearance of life, would wither. A people might keep up the show of religion for a while, but without roots in God the show cannot last. Contrast the person who trusts in Yahweh: “he shall be as a tree planted by the waters … but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit” (Jeremiah 17:7-8). The difference between the fading leaf and the green leaf is trust in God.
- “And the things that I have given them shall pass away from them”
The land, the harvests, the city and the temple were all God’s gifts. Judah had kept the gifts and forgotten the Giver. When people turn away from God, they cannot hold on to his blessings forever. Yet Jeremiah’s message did not end in judgment. The same prophet announced a new covenant in which God would write his law on his people’s hearts: “I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
The Significance of Jeremiah 8:13
- God looks for fruit
God is not satisfied with leaves, the appearance of faith. He looks for lives that bear the fruit of justice, faithfulness and love.
- Fruit comes from remaining in him
Jesus said, “He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit” (John 15:5). The fruit God desires is produced by his Spirit in those who trust him (Galatians 5:22-23).
- Turn back while there is time
Jeremiah’s hearers refused to say, “What have I done?” The call to repent and “produce fruit worthy of repentance” (Matthew 3:8) still stands.
Cross-References:
Isaiah 5:7: "For the vineyard of Yahweh of Armies is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry of distress." God’s vineyard without fruit.
Mark 11:13: "Seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came to see if perhaps he might find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves" Jesus acts out the prophets’ picture.
Luke 13:6: "A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it, and found none." The parable of the barren fig tree.
Jeremiah 17:8: "For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green" The green leaf of those who trust God.
Conclusion: Jeremiah 8:13 announces God’s judgment on a people who would not repent: there would be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree, the leaves would fade, and the gifts God had given would be taken away. The vine and fig tree were pictures of Israel and of God’s blessing, and the empty harvest showed that God had looked for fruit and found none. Jesus echoed this prophecy with the fruitless fig tree in Jerusalem, and the passage still calls God’s people to bear real fruit by trusting him.
PIB Scriptures are derived from the World English Bible