Jeremiah 9:12 — Meaning and Application

For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through {them}; neither can {men} hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. {habitations: or, pastures} {burned up: or, desolate} {both...: Heb. from the fowl even to, etc}

And I will make Jerusalem heaps, {and} a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. {desolate: Heb. desolation}

Who {is} the wise man, that may understand this? and {who is he} to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth {and} is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?

And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: {imagination: or, stubbornness}