John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 12:8

"My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest: she hath uttered her voice against me; therefore I have hated her." — Jeremiah 12:8 (ASV)

God now shows the reason why He resolved to reject the people; for it might appear at first glance very inconsistent that God’s covenant, which He had made with Abraham and his descendants, should become void. Therefore, He shows here that He was not too harsh in severely punishing the Jews, and that He could not be accused of frivolity or inconstancy in rejecting or disowning them.

Mine heritage, He says, has become like a lion in the forest; that is, they have not only acted insolently toward Me, but they have even dared furiously to attack Me, like a lion that roars against men in the forest. God then complains here of their contempt, and then He declares how furious their impiety was, for the Jews, as if seized by the rage of a wild beast, dared to make a violent attack on Him.

And the words, as they are connected, render the sin even more atrocious. My heritage, He says, has become to Me as a lion in the forest: one’s heritage and patrimony, we know, is his delight; and then, those who possess small tenements live much more quietly than those who occupy large ones.

God now shows that He was in His own heritage as if He were in a vast and wild forest, and also, that the fields which ought to have been His delight, and also His vineyards and meadows, had become places of the greatest horror, as if a lion were roaring and raging against unhappy men.

He says further, that it had sent forth its voice. By these words He accuses the people of extreme wantonness. Such behavior is to be found in the world today. For how audaciously do the Papists vomit forth their blasphemies against God? The unprincipled and the dregs of society do not hesitate to be openly insolent toward God. Courtiers and epicures also, and those who admire themselves for their splendor and wealth—with what haughtiness do they rise up against Him, and how disdainfully do they reject every truth that is set before them! Therefore, in this miserable age, we experience the very same thing that the Prophet deplores in the men of his own time—that they raised their voices against God Himself.

He therefore comes to this conclusion—that He hated His own heritage. “Since then,” He says, “the Jews have become to Me as lions in a forest, since they have rendered themselves a horror instead of a delight to Me, what am I to do with them? Can I treat them as My patrimony and heritage? But they have put Me to flight by their treachery, indeed, by their diabolical fury. It is therefore not strange that I hate them, though they have been My heritage.” Thus the Prophet shows that it availed the Jews nothing that they had long ago been adopted, since they had repudiated themselves and had become alienated from God their Father.

Let us also learn from this that whatever honor hypocrites possess in the Church today, they still boast in vain. For though they may for a time be counted as the heritage of God, they are at the same time hated by God, inasmuch as they are inwardly full of wickedness and perverseness toward Him. And then, when urged and pressed, they do not hesitate to vomit forth their insolence. It follows—