NOTES for Jer 12:7
In the Book of Psalms the sinners are very often compared with the stubble carried away by the wind. Such a comparison is completely justified, if we take into consideration his spiritual meaning: for, it is about what we usually call the spiritual fulfillment of man. And life itself is generally perceived in the Bible, on one hand, as the breath, that God " breathed " the man " into nostrils" at the creation, and from the other part as the power filling man, while he is alive (in the King James Version translation it is generally called "the soul", although the Jewish corresponding word has few links with what we generally call today soul, having in mind the beginning of the personality of man).
When this power leaves the man, he dies, becomes a shadow, it remains from him only an empty shell of what he was before, in the world of the living. And however the fallen man (and people having a spiritual experience always felt it) involved in life not in such fullness, which would have been accessible to him, even in the state of non-transformation, whether he is free from sin.
The way of righteousness, bringing man closer to God, is called in the biblical books the way of life, and reason for which: it brings man closer to the Source of life and gives hope that one day, the one walking on this way will obtain life in all its fullness. The author of Ezra’s Book transfers these same representations on people in general.
But if it is applied to a concrete person, it will be necessary to speak about his earthly path, which ends with the death and the resurrection on the day of the Judgment, and if it is applied to a nation then it will be necessary to speak about its history, which has to end with the coming of the messianic Kingdom of the Messiah. But will the nation live until this day? Will it not scatter on the earth?
As we see, here also everything depends on the spiritual fullness. The historic death of the nation, quite as the physical death of a man, depends on this living power that God gives him, as well as He gives it to a concrete person. And quite as in the case with a concrete person, it depends only on the nation itself, how it will dispose of this gift of God.