‘And the word of Yahweh came to me saying, “Son of man, those who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, ‘Abraham was one, and he inherited the land. But we are many. The land is given to us for an inheritance.' ” '
Those who now remained in the land, ‘the poorest of the land' who were left to become vinedressers and ploughmen (Jeremiah 52:16), began to boast of their new inheritance. They were able to take over large tracts of empty land, land which had been wasted by war, and boasted that in comparison with Abraham they were many and were thus in a better position than he. They thus saw themselves as having been left there by God as inheritors of God's promises, and indeed had some grounds for optimism had they been faithful to the covenant (Jeremiah 42:10-12).