Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard. They have trodden my portion under foot. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
Parallel translations
- KJV Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
- BSB Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of ground. They have turned My pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
- NKJV “Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard, They have trodden My portion underfoot; They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
- NASB “Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard, They have trampled down My field; They have made My pleasant field A desolate wilderness.
- NLT “Many rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines and turning all its beauty into a barren wilderness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Many 'shepherds' have ruined God's vineyard, trampling His pleasant land into wilderness.
Overview
The 'shepherds' are likely the invading rulers and leaders who devastate Judah, God's vineyard. The vineyard image recalls Israel as God's cherished planting now laid waste (Isaiah 5). Jesus, the true Vine and Good Shepherd, restores what faithless shepherds destroyed (John 10; John 15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Isa 5:1–7Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill.
- Jer 23:1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” says Yahweh.
- Isa 63:18Your holy people possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary.
- Jer 3:19“But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’
- Luke 20:9–16He began to tell the people this parable. “A man planted a vineyard, and rented it out to some farmers, and went into another country for a long time.
- Ps 80:8–16You brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations, and planted it.
- Jer 6:3Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his place.”
- Luke 21:14Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,
- Rev 11:2Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don’t measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
- Isa 43:28Therefore I will profane the princes of the sanctuary; and I will make Jacob a curse, and Israel an insult.”
- Lam 1:10–11The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you commanded that they should not enter into your assembly.
- Jer 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,” says Yahweh, “and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations around. I will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Jer 39:3all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate, Nergal Sharezer, Samgarnebo, Sarsechim, Rabsaris, Nergal Sharezer, Rabmag, with all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 12:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.