“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, how will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
Parallel translations
- WEB “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you contend with horses? Though in a land of peace you are secure, yet how will you do in the pride of the Jordan?
- KJV If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
- NKJV “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?
- NASB ¶“If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out, How can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?
- NLT “If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?
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
God answers Jeremiah's complaint with a challenge: if footmen weary him, how will he race horses?
Overview
Rather than directly explaining the wicked's prosperity, God prepares Jeremiah for greater trials ahead. The images of racing horses and the dangerous Jordan thickets warn that harder struggles lie before him. God's reply calls His servant to deeper trust and endurance, a summons every disciple of Christ must heed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- 1 Pet 4:12Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.
- Prov 24:10If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength!
- Heb 12:3–4Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
- Ps 69:1–2For the choirmaster. To the tune of “Lilies.” Of David. Save me, O God, for the waters are up to my neck.
- Jer 50:44Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- Jer 49:19Behold, one will come up like a lion from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture. For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land. Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this? For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me? What shepherd can stand against Me?”
- Ps 42:7Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
- Prov 3:11My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD, and do not loathe His rebuke;
- Josh 3:15Now the Jordan overflows its banks throughout the harvest season. But as soon as the priests carrying the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge,
- Jer 26:8and as soon as he had finished telling all the people everything the LORD had commanded him to say, the priests and prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, “You must surely die!
- Jer 36:26Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.
- 1 Chr 12:15These are the ones who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it was overflowing all its banks, and they put to flight all those in the valleys, both to the east and to the west.
- Jer 38:4–6Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 12:5 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.