Jeremiah 12:4 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

How long shall the land mourn... — The Hebrew punctuation gives a different division, How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of the whole field (i.e., all the open country) wither? For the wickedness of them that dwell therein, cattle and birds perish, for, say they, he (i.e., the prophet) will not see our latter end (i.e., we shall outlive him, though he prophesies our destruction). A slightly different reading, however, adopted by the LXX. and by some modern scholars, would give for the last clause, “He (God) seeth not our ways,” i.e., will leave us unpunished. The opening words point to a time of distress, probably of drought and famine. But out of this wretchedness, the men who were Jeremiah’s enemies — the forestallers, and monopolists, and usurers of the time — continued to enrich themselves, and scornfully defied all his warnings.