I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
Jeremiah was a prophet in ancient Judah around 600 BCE, during a period when the people had persistently broken their covenant with God — practicing injustice, worshiping other gods, and ignoring repeated warnings. In this verse, God announces the removal of the harvest: no grapes, no figs, and withering leaves. In the ancient world, grapes, figs, and olives were not luxuries — they were the foundation of life and visible signs of God's blessing on the land. The fig tree in particular was a symbol of the nation's health and peace. When God says 'what I have given them will be taken from them,' it is the painful reversal of blessing — gifts withdrawn because the relationship that gave them meaning had been abandoned.
God, I don't want to drift so far that I stop noticing what you've given me. Show me where I've been taking your gifts for granted and where the leaves in my life are starting to curl. I want to return to you before the branches go bare. Amen.
Figs don't disappear overnight. They wither slowly — the leaves curling at the edges first, then the fruit softening and dropping before it's ripe, then bare branches where there used to be shade. Jeremiah watched a whole nation do this spiritually over decades, and what strikes me is that God's declaration here sounds less like a verdict and more like a grief. Jeremiah himself was known as the weeping prophet. This isn't an announcer reading a score; it's a parent watching something they built and loved fall apart in slow motion. The harder question this verse asks is whether there are places in your own life where the leaves are already yellowing. Not because God is hunting for reasons to take things from you, but because there is a real connection between the Source and what flows from him — and when that connection frays, things dry up. A faith that used to feel alive now feels like going through motions. A gratitude that once came easily has quietly been replaced by entitlement. The good news is that the same prophet who recorded these words also wrote about a love that never ceases. There is still time to tend the vine.
What does the agricultural imagery in this verse — grapes, figs, withering leaves — tell you about how God communicated judgment to people in Jeremiah's time, and what modern equivalent might land the same way for you?
Have you ever experienced a spiritual 'withering' — a gradual loss of something you once had in your faith or in your sense of God's presence? What did that feel like from the inside?
This verse describes consequences as the removal of gifts rather than active punishment. Does that framing change how you think about what judgment means? Why or why not?
How does your gratitude — or lack of it — for what God has given you shape how you treat the people around you?
What is one specific gift from God that you want to tend more carefully this week, and what does 'tending' it actually require of you?
And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:11
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:8
For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
James 1:11
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:
Habakkuk 3:17
The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.
Joel 1:12
The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Psalms 1:4
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psalms 1:3
"I will gather and snatch them away [utterly consuming them]," says the LORD. "There will be no grapes on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And even the leaf will wither; And the things that I have given them will pass away [by the hand of those whom I have appointed]."'"
AMP
When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.”
ESV
'I will surely snatch them away,' declares the LORD; 'There will be no grapes on the vine And no figs on the fig tree, And the leaf will wither; And what I have given them will pass away.'''
NASB
“‘I will take away their harvest, declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.’”
NIV
“I will surely consume them,” says the LORD. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”
NKJV
I will surely consume them. There will be no more harvests of figs and grapes. Their fruit trees will all die. Whatever I gave them will soon be gone. I, the LORD, have spoken!’
NLT
" 'I went out to see if I could salvage anything' " —God's Decree— " 'but found nothing: Not a grape, not a fig, just a few withered leaves. I'm taking back everything I gave them.' "
MSG