Jeremiah 16
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“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.” — John 5:39
1The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
2Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.
CHAPTER 16
Jr 16:1-21. Continuation of the Previous Prophecy.
2. in this place--in Judea. The direction to remain single was (whether literally obeyed, or only in prophetic vision) to symbolize the coming calamities of the Jews (Eze 24:15-27) as so severe that the single state would be then (contrary to the ordinary course of things) preferable to the married (compare 1Co 7:8, 26, 29; Mt 24:19; Lu 23:29).
Thou shalt not take thee a wife. So St. Paul, "I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is (1Co_7:26, Revised Version); and Hosea has already drawn an awful picture of "Ephraim bringing forth his children to the murderer" (Hos_9:9). In ordinary times it was a kind of unwritten law among the Israelites to marry and beget children. Most of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah) appear to have been married. In this place; i.e. in the land of Judah. A Jeremianic phrase (comp. Jer_7:3).
3For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;
4They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
4. grievous deaths--rather, "deadly diseases" (Jr 15:2).
not ... lamented--so many shall be the slain (Jr 22:18).
dung--(Psa 83:10).
Grievous deaths; literally, deaths of sicknesses; i.e. all kinds of painful deaths, including (as Jer_14:18 shows) death by starvation. They shall not be lamented. The absence of sepulture has already been pointed to several times as a feature of the horror of the times (Jer_8:2; Jer_14:16; comp. Jer_7:33), but this is a new and affecting touch. Dr. Payne Smith aptly refers to the plagues of Athens and London, in which the gentler elements of human nature were for the time almost extinguished.
5For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.
5. (Eze 24:17, 22, 23).
house of mourning--(Mr 5:38). Margin, "mourning-feast"; such feasts were usual at funerals. The Hebrew means, in Am 6:7, the cry of joy at a banquet; here, and La 2:19, the cry of sorrow.
Compare this prohibition with that given to Ezekiel (Eze_24:15-27), The house of mourning; literally, of. screaming (an uncommon word, only occurring again—of banqueters—in Amo_6:7). It is, no doubt, the wail of mourning relatives which is meant.
6Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
6. cut themselves--indicating extravagant grief (Jr 41:5; 47:5), prohibited by the law (Le 19:28).
bald--(Jr 7:29; Is 22:12).
Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald. Both practices are forbidden in the Law (Deu_14:1; Le 19:28; Deu_21:5), but the prohibition was at any rate unknown to the masses (see, for the former, Jer_41:5; Jer_47:5; and for the latter, Jer_47:5; Isa_22:12, "The Lord Jehovah called … to baldness;" Amo_8:10; Mic_1:16; Eze_7:18). St. Jerome remarks, and incidentally gives a valuable evidence of the tenacity of primitive customs, "Mos hic fuit apud veteres, et usque hodie in quibusdam permanet Judaerum, ut in luctibus incidant lacertos," etc.
7Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
7. tear themselves--rather, "break bread," namely, that eaten at the funeral-feast (De 26:14; Job 42:11; Eze 24:17; Ho 9:4). "Bread" is to be supplied, as in La 4:4; compare "take" (food) (Ge 42:33).
give ... cup of consolation ... for ... father--It was the Oriental custom for friends to send viands and wine (the "cup of consolation") to console relatives in mourning-feasts, for example, to children upon the death of a "father" or "mother."
Tear themselves for them. The verb is used in Isa_58:7 of breaking bread (the accusative is there expressed), and there is no doubt that this is the meaning here. The only question is whether lahem, for them, should not rather be lekhem, bread. St. Jerome sees here an allusion to the funeral feasts (comp. the parentalia), and surely he is right. The Jews had a conception of the nature of the life of the other world only less distinct than that of their Egyptian neighbors. The funeral feast was not merely for the living, but for the dead. Indeed, it was primarily intended for the spiritual nourish-merit of those who had gone before to the unseen world. Chardin, the old traveler, asserts that "the Oriental Christians still make banquets of this kind by a custom derived from the Jews." The cup of consolation. It would seem as if the funeral feasts had dwindled among the Jews into little more than a refection for the benefit of the mourners.
8Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
8. house of feasting--joyous: as distinguished from mourning-feasts. Have no more to do with this people whether in mourning or joyous feasts.
9For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
9. (Jr 7:34; 25:10; Eze 26:13).
The voice of mirth, etc.; a striking deaf, on, repeated from Jer_7:34.
Imagination; rather, stubbornness (Jer_3:17).
10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?
10. (De 29:24; 1Ki 9:8, 9).
11Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
11. (Jr 5:19; 13:22; 22:8, 9).
12And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
12. ye--emphatic: so far from avoiding your fathers' bad example, ye have done worse (Jr 7:26; 1Ki 14:9).
imagination--rather, "stubborn perversity."
that they may not hearken--rather, connected with "ye"; "ye have walked ... so as not to hearken to Me."
13Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
13. serve other gods--That which was their sin in their own land was their punishment in exile. Retribution in kind. They voluntarily forsook God for idols at home; they were not allowed to serve God, if they wished it, in captivity (Da 3:12; 6:7).
day and night--irony. You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even to satiety, and without intermission.
A grim irony. In me foreign land ye shall serve your idols to your hearts' content, day and night if ye will, "because, [not, where] I will not have mercy upon you" (by delivering you, and so calling you from your idols).
Jer_16:14, Jer_16:15
The text of these verses occurs in a more characteristic form and in a bettor connection in Jer_23:7, Jer_23:8. The connection here would be improved by insorting the passage before Jer_23:18; and as displacements are not unfamiliar phenomena in manuscripts, this would not be a violent act. The difficulty is not m the therefore introducing the promise, which frequently occurs in prophecies immediately after threatenings (e.g. Isa_10:23, Isa_10:24), as if to say, "Things being in such a miserable plight, your God will interpose to help you;" but in the position of Jer_23:18. How can the prophet say, "And first I will recompense their iniquity double," when Jer_23:16, Jer_23:17 contain a description of this very double recompense?
Jer_16:16, Jer_16:17
I will send for should rather be, I will send. Fishers and hunters, by a divinely given impulse, shall "fish" and "hunt" the unhappy fugitives from their lurking-places. There may, perhaps, be an allusion to the cruel ancient practice of "sweeping the country with a drag-net" (Herod, 3.149), and then destroying the male population: Samos, e.g. was thus "netted" and depopulated by the Persians. Habakkuk may also refer to this when he says (Hab_1:15), "They catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag."
14Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
14. Therefore--So severe shall be the Jews' bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a greater benefit than that out of Egypt. The consolation is incidental here; the prominent thought is the severity of their punishment, so great that their rescue from it will be greater than that from Egypt [Calvin]; so the context, Jr 16:13, 17, 18, proves (Jr 23:7, 8; Is 43:18).
15But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
15. the north--Chaldea. But while the return from Babylon is primarily meant, the return hereafter is the full and final accomplishment contemplated, as "from all the lands" proves. "Israel" was not, save in a very limited sense, "gathered from all the lands" at the return from Babylon (see on Jr 24:6; Jr 30:3; Jr 32:15).
16Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
16. send for--translate, "I will send many"; "I will give the commission to many" (2Ch 17:7).
fishers ... hunters--successive invaders of Judea (Am 4:2; Ha 1:14, 15). So "net" (Eze 12:13). As to "hunters," see Ge 10:9; Mi 7:2. The Chaldees were famous in hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were in fishing. "Fishers" expresses the ease of their victory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes; "hunters," the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It is remarkable, the same image is used in a good sense of the Jews' restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by God to take them in hand for destruction, so the same shall be employed for their restoration (Eze 47:9, 10). So spiritually, those once enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally) were employed by God to be heralds of salvation, "catching men" for life (Mt 4:19; Lu 5:10; Ac 2:41; 4:4); compare here Jr 16:19, "the Gentiles shall come unto thee" (2Co 12:16).
17For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
17. (Jr 32:19; Pr 5:21; 15:3).
their iniquity--the cause of God's judgments on them.
18And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
18. first ... double--Horsley translates, "I will recompense ... once and again"; literally, "the first time repeated": alluding to the two captivities--the Babylonian and the Roman. Maurer, "I will recompense their former iniquities (those long ago committed by their fathers) and their (own) repeated sins" (Jr 16:11, 12). English Version gives a good sense, "First (before 'I bring them again into their land'), I will doubly (that is, fully and amply, Jr 17:18; Is 40:2) recompense."
carcasses--not sweet-smelling sacrifices acceptable to God, but "carcasses" offered to idols, an offensive odor to God: human victims (Jr 19:5; Eze 16:20), and unclean animals (Is 65:4; 66:17). Maurer explains it, "the carcasses" of the idols: their images void of sense and life. Compare Jr 16:19, 20. Le 26:30 favors this.
First—i.e. before "I bring them back again into their land"—I will recompense … double; i.e. amply, in full measure (comp. Jer_17:18; Isa_40:2; Rev_18:6). With the carcasses, etc. The idols, which "defile the consciences" of those who worship them, are compared to the most unclean and loathsome objects.
19O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
19-20. The result of God's judgments on the Jews will be that both the Jews when restored, and the Gentiles who have witnessed those judgments, shall renounce idolatry for the worship of Jehovah. Fulfilled partly at the return from Babylon, after which the Jews entirely renounced idols, and many proselytes were gathered in from the Gentiles, but not to be realized in its fulness till the final restoration of Israel (Is 2:1-17).
O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, etc. Jeremiah falls into the tone of the psalmists (Psa_18:2; Psa_28:8; Psa_59:17). All that is choicest and most permanent in Old Testament religion finds its adequate lyric expression in the Book of Psalms. The Gentiles shall some unto thee. The article, however, is not expressed. "Nations." i.e. a crowd of peoples, hitherto ignorant of the true God, shall hasten to the scene of Jehovah's great interposition; they have been convinced by Israel's unlooked-for restoration of the unique divinity of Jehovah.
20Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
But the Jews of this generation, in spite of the manifold proofs of the true religion which have been vouchsafed to them, are deserting the real divinity for the unreal. In a tone of surprise the prophet exclaims, Shall a man make gods unto himself, etc.?
21Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
21. Therefore--In order that all may be turned from idols to Jehovah, He will now give awful proof of His divine power in the judgments He will inflict.
this once--If the punishments I have heretofore inflicted have not been severe enough to teach them.
my name ... Lord--Jehovah (Psa 83:18): God's incommunicable name, to apply which to idols would be blasphemy. Keeping His threats and promises (Ex 6:3).
The final answer of Jehovah. There will be no further grace-time. I will this once cause them to know; rather, I will this time (comp. on Jer_10:18) cause them to acknowledge. The judgment which Jeremiah has had the sad duty of announcing will prove to the blinded Jews that Jehovah alone is true God, alone can strike and heal.
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