Jeremiah 12:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Being desolate, it mourneth unto me— Lo! it mourneth because it is made desolate. An elegant figure, whereby the prophet expresses the lamentable condition of the land. No man layeth it to heart. "No man acknowledgeth the hand of the Almighty in the calamities that he feels, or humbles himself under them." This desolation of Judaea, says Bishop Newton, is expressed or implied in several other places in Scripture, and the state of Judaea now for many ages hath been exactly answerable to this description. That a country should be depopulated by the incursions of foreign armies is nothing wonderful; but that it should lie so many ages in this miserable condition, is more than man could foresee, and could be revealed only by God. A celebrated French writer [Voltaire], in his history of the Croisades, pretends to exhibit a true picture of Palestine; and he says, that then "it was just what it is at present, the worst of all the inhabited countries of Asia. It is almost wholly covered with parched rocks, on which there is not one line of soil; if this small territory were cultivated, it might not improperly be compared to Switzerland." But there is no need to cite authorities in proof that the land is forsaken of its inhabitants, is uncultivated, unfruitful, and desolate; for the enemies of our religion make this very thing an objection to the truth of religion. They say, that so barren and wretched a country could never have been a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have supplied and maintained such multitudes, as it is in Scripture represented to have done. But they do not see and consider, that hereby the prophesies are fulfilled; so that it is rather an evidence for the truth of religion than an argument against it. See his Dissertations on Prophesy, p. 222.