'If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then
how canst thou contend with horses? and though in a land of peace thou
art secure, yet how wilt thou do in the pride of Jordan?'--JER. xii. 5,
R.V.
The prophet has been complaining of his persecutors. The divine answer
is here, reproving his impatience, and giving him to understand that
harder trials are in store for him.
Both clauses mean substantially the same thing, and are of a parabolic
nature. The one adduces the metaphor of a race: 'Footmen have beaten
you, have they? Then how will you run with cavalry?' The other is more
clear in the Revised Version rendering: 'Though in a land of peace you
are secure, what will you do in Jordan when it swells?' The 'swelling
of Jordan' is a figure for extreme danger.
The questions may be taken as referring to our own lives. Note how the
one refers more to strength for duties, the other to peace and safety
in dangers. They both recognise that life has great alternations as to
the magnitude of its tasks and trials, and they call on experience to
answer the question whether we are ready for times of stress and peril.