“If you have raced with foot runners

That have wearied you,

How will you compete with horses?

If in a safe land

You fall down,

How will you fare

In the thickets of the Jordan?”

Yahweh responds to Jeremiah by reminding him that if he has a hard time in a foot race that tires him out, what will happen if he has to race against horses? The same is true that if he is falling down in a safe land, how would he do if he was lost in the thickets along the Jordan River? Things could be worse than they are.