They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

They have made it a desolation; it mourneth unto me, being desolate; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart.

they have made it a desolation; desolate, it mourneth unto me: the whole land is made desolate, for no man layeth it to heart.

He hath made it become a desolation, The desolation hath mourned unto Me, Desolated hath been all the land, But there is no one laying it to heart.

They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourns to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man lays it to heart.

They have made it waste; it is weeping to me, being wasted; all the land is made waste, because no man takes it to heart.

They have squandered it, and it has grieved concerning me. The entire earth has become utterly desolate, because there is no one who understands with the heart."

Posuit vastitatem, luxit super me (vel, ad me) vastata (vel, vastatio, quidam adjective accipiunt, quidam volunt esse nomen substantivum, sed proprie smmh secundum grammaticam est vastatio, sed appositive loco participii capitur, quemadmodum continuo post subjicit,) vastata est omnis terra; quia (vel, tametsi) nemo posuit super cor (hoc est, nemo animum adjecit, quemadmodum alibi vidimus.)

There is a change of number in the verb sm shem; but there is no obscurity: for the Prophet means, that the Jews would be exposed to the outrage of all, so that every one would plunder and lay waste the land. He does not then speak only of all their enemies or of the whole army; but he also declares that every one would be their master, so as to vex, scatter, devour, and wholly to destroy them at his pleasure: in short, he sets forth the atrocity of their punishment, -- that the whole land would not only be spoiled by the united army, but also by every individual in it. [1] He then adds that the land was in mourning before him. The Prophet seems to me to touch here the torpor of his own nation, because there was no one who had any regard for God; nay, they laughed at the judgments which were nigh at hand, and of which he had often spoken. Hence God says, that they would at length come to him when calamities oppressed them and caused them to mourn. "As then in peaceable times," he says, "they are unwining to come to me, but are so refractory and untameable, that I can effect nothing by so many warnings, they shall come," he says, "but in another state of mind, even in extreme mourning." He afterwards adds, No one lays on the heart What this means we have elsewhere explained. But the particle ky, ki, which is properly a causative, may be here rendered as an adversative. If we take it in its first and most proper sense, then a reason is here given why the Jews would be brought to a most grievous mourning, even because they had despised all the prophets, and wholly disregarded as a fable what they had so often heard from God's mouth: and this is the view taken by most interpreters. But it may be also taken as an adversative, as in many other places, -- "Though no one lays on the heart;" and thus it will be a complaint as to their perverse stupor, inasmuch as, when smitten by God's hand, they did not perceive that they were punished for their sins, not that they were wholly insensible as to their evils. But what avails it to cry and to howl, as God's Spirit speaks elsewhere, except, the hand of the smiter be perceived? The Jews then ought, had a spark of wisdom been in them, to have considered their sins, to have prayed for forgiveness, and to have repented, and also to have embraced the favor promised to them. But when they perversely added sins to sins, God justly expostulated with them, because they did not attend to the signs of his wrath, by which they ought not only to have been taught, but also subdued. It follows --

Footnotes

1 - The Septuagint and Arabic render the verb as passive in the singular number, "It has been set a desolation." We may take smh as a passive participle, the v being omitted, with h, it, affixed. Then the verse would run thus, -- 11. Set it is an utter desolation; It has mourned before me (or, to me) being utterly desolate: Desolate has been the whole land, Though no man lays it to heart. "Utter desolation" is the meaning, for it is a reduplicate noun. Both the Vulgate and the Targum connect "being utterly desolate" with the next line, though not rightly: but both, as well as the Syriac, render the first verb, as though it were smvh "They have set it." Venema and Houbigant render ly, in the second line, a preposition, and render the line thus, -- It has mourned on account of desolation. -- Ed.

Desolate - The force of the protest lies in this word. Thrice the prophet uses it.
Layeth it to heart - Rather, laid it "to heart." The desolate land must put up its silent cry to God, because the people had refused to see the signs of the coming retribution.

No man layeth it to heart - Notwithstanding all these desolations, from which the land every where mourns, and which are so plainly the consequences of the people's crimes, no man layeth it to heart, or considereth that these are God's judgments; and that the only way to have them removed is to repent of their sins, and turn to God with all their hearts.

They have made it desolate, [and being] desolate it mourneth to me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth (l) [it] to heart.
(l) Because no man regards my word, or the plagues that I have sent on the land.

They have made it desolate,.... Which is repeated to denote the certainty of it; astonishment at it, and that it might be observed:
and being desolate it mourneth unto me; not the inhabitants of it for their sins, the cause of this desolation; but the land itself, because of the calamities upon it; it crying to God, in its way, for a restoration to its former beauty and glory.
The whole land is made desolate; it was not only the case of Jerusalem, and the parts adjacent, but even of the whole land of Judea:
because no man layeth it to heart, took any notice of the judgment threatened, foretold by the prophets; nor repented of their sins, for which they were threatened with such a desolation; nor even were properly affected with the destruction itself; the earth seemed more sensible of it than they were; this expresses the great stupidity of this people.

mourneth unto me--that is, before Me. EICHORN translates, "by reason of Me," because I have given it to desolation (Jeremiah 12:7).
because no man layeth it to heart--because none by repentance and prayer seek to deprecate God's wrath. Or, "yet none lays it to heart"; as in Jeremiah 5:3 [CALVIN].

They - Hebrews. He hath made it desolate: but it cannot be meant of God, for it is God that speaketh, and God is he mentioned in the next words; it must therefore either be understood of Nebuchadnezzar, the instrumental cause; or (one number being put for another) of the people or the rulers as the meritorious cause, and in that rueful state into which their sins had brought it, it cried onto God. Because - And one great cause of this sore judgment was, the peoples not seriously considering what God had done or was doing against it.