Jeremiah 12:13 (KJV)

What does Jeremiah 12:13 mean?

Jeremiah 12:13 describes a harvest that brings disappointment rather than reward. The people’s hard work fails to produce what they hoped for, and the verse connects their shame over the harvest with the LORD’s fierce anger.

The picture begins with wheat seed but ends with thorns. That contrast would be especially clear to people familiar with farming: the crop they expected is replaced by something unwanted and troublesome. Following the devastation described in verse 12, the LORD speaks of the land’s unprofitable harvest.

The Hebrew behind Jeremiah 12:13

• “revenues” — תְּבוּאָה (tevu’ah): The word can mean produce or yield. Here it points to what the land brings in, especially its crops, rather than to a paycheck or tax income.
• “pain” — חָלָה (chalah): The word can carry the sense of becoming weak or worn out. The phrase “put themselves to pain” pictures people exhausting themselves through their effort.
• “fierce” — חָרוֹן (charon): The word carries the sense of burning heat. Joined with “anger,” it gives force to the description of the LORD’s anger.

Why Jeremiah 12:13 matters

• The verse sets effort against outcome, rather than describing people who did nothing. They “have sown wheat” and “put themselves to pain,” yet their labor brings no profit.
• The shame concerns what the land produces. “They shall be ashamed of your revenues” presents the disappointing yield as a source of disgrace, not simply an inconvenience.
• The harvest image belongs within a scene of widespread destruction. In verse 12, a destroying force reaches across the land; verse 13 brings that larger picture down to the level of a farmer’s work and its result.