פירוש על ירמיהו 12:5

For if you have run with foot men and they wearied you Your kin, the priests like you and the men of your city come to kill you. with footmen Heb. רגלים (pieton in O.F), pedestrian.

how will you compete with horses To run with the horses. That is to say, If even your brethren the priests come to kill you, surely the princes of Judah will rise up against you to kill you. This is the reason for My anger against them, and this is the reason for the success of the enemy. And so did Jonathan render: This is the reply, etc. And, according to the Midrash of our Rabbis (Sanhedrin 96a): If you are amazed about the reward for the three steps that Nebuchadnezzar ran in My honor in the days of Merodach-baladan, why I gave him so much greatness, how much more will you be amazed when you see the payment of reward that I will pay the righteous who ran before Me like horses!

will you compete (aastir in O.F.).

and in the peaceful land that you trust there they wearied you.

how will you do in the heights The princes of Judah. The pride of the Jordan is symbolic since it is a place of lions and tigers, and Jonathan taught us this in many places. And here he paraphrased. And how do you expect to do against the wild beasts that are on the height of the Jordan? “And behold, as a lion ascends from the height of the Jordan,” Jonathan renders in two places (infra 49:19, 50:44): like a lion that ascends from the height of the Jordan.