In Jeremiah 16, the prophet is commanded by God to abstain from marriage and family, attending funerals, and participating in feasts to symbolize the impending judgment and devastation that will befall Judah. The people are warned that due to their idolatry and disobedience, death and desolation will become rampant, leading to a loss of peace and normalcy in life. This stark prophetic message serves as a call for repentance and recognition of the gravity of their sins before disaster strikes.

1. JEREMIAH 16 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Day of Disaster
1 Then the word of the Lord came to me:
BARNES, "In this prophecy Jer. 16:1-18, the punishment of the people is set forth in
even sterner terms than in the last. The whole land is likened to a desert covered with the
bodies of the dead, who lie unbemoaned and uncared for; and the prophet himself is
commanded to abstain from the common usages of mankind that his motto of life, as
well as his words, may warn the people of the greatness of the approaching calamity.
There is, however, to be finally a return from exile, but only after the idolatry of the
nation has been severely punished. The prophecy was probably written about the close
of Jehoiakim’s reign.
CLARKE, "
The word of the Lord came also unto me - This discourse Dahler supposes to
have been delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim.
GILL, "The word of the Lord came unto me, saying. The Targum is, the word of
prophecy from the Lord: whether this is a new prophecy, or the former continued, is not
certain; the latter seems probable. This introduction is omitted in the Septuagint and
Arabic versions.
HENRY, "The prophet is here for a sign to the people. They would not regard what
he said; let it be tried whether they will regard what he does. In general, he must conduct
himself so, in every thing, as became one that expected to see his country in ruins very
shortly. This he foretold, but few regarded the prediction; therefore he is to show that he
is himself fully satisfied in the truth of it. Others go on in their usual course, but he, in
the prospect of these sad times, is forbidden and therefore forbears marriage, mourning
for the dead, and mirth. Note, Those that would convince others of and affect them with
the word of God must make it appear, even in the most self-denying instances, that they
do believe it themselves and are affected with it. If we would rouse others out of their
security, and persuade them to sit loose to the world, we must ourselves be mortified to
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2. present things and show that we expect the dissolution of them.
JAMISON, "Jer_16:1-21. Continuation of the previous prophecy.
K&D 1-4, "The course to be pursued by the prophet with reference to the
approaching judgment. - Jer_16:1. "And the word of Jahveh cam to me, saying: Jer_
16:2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this
place. Jer_16:3. For thus hath Jahveh said concerning the sons and the daughters that
are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bear them, and concerning
their fathers that beget them in this land: Jer_16:4. By deadly suffering shall they die,
be neither lamented or buried; dung upon the field shall they become; and by sword
and by famine shall they be consumed, and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of
the heavens and the beasts of the field. Jer_16:5. For thus hath Jahveh said: Come not
into the house of mourning, and go not to lament, and bemoan them not; for I have
taken away my peace from this people, saith Jahveh, grace and mercies. Jer_16:6. And
great and small shall die in this land, not be buried; they shall not lament them, nor cut
themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Jer_16:7. And they shall not break
bread for them in their mourning, to comfort one for the dead; nor shall they give to
any the cup of comfort for his father and his mother. Jer_16:8. And into the house of
feasting go not, to sit by them, to eat and to drink. Jer_16:9. For thus hath spoken
Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I cause to cease out of this place before 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."
What the prophet is here bidden to do and to forbear is closely bound up with the
proclamation enjoined on him of judgment to come on sinful Judah. This connection is
brought prominently forward in the reasons given for these commands. He is neither to
take a wife nor to beget children, because all the inhabitants of the land, sons and
daughters, mothers and fathers, are to perish by sickness, the sword, and famine (Jer_
16:3 and Jer_16:4). He is both to abstain from the customary usages of mourning for the
dead, and to keep away from mirthful feasts, in order to give the people to understand
that, by reason of the multitude of the dead, customary mourning will have to be given
up, and that all opportunity for merry-making will disappear (Jer_16:5-9). Adapting
thus his actions to help to convey his message, he will approve himself to be the mouth
of the Lord, and then the promised divine protection will not fail. Thus closely is this
passage connected with the preceding complaint and reproof of the prophet (Jer_
15:10-21), while it at the same time further continues the threatening of judgment in
Jer_15:1-9. - With the prohibition to take a wife, cf. the apostle's counsel, 1Co_7:26.
"This place" alternates with "this land," and so must not be limited to Jerusalem, but
bears on Judah at large. ‫ים‬ ִ‫ד‬ ִ‫,י‬ adject. verbale, as in Ex. 1:32. The form ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫מ‬ is found,
besides here, only in Eze_28:8, where it takes the place of ‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫,מ‬ Jer_16:10. ‫ים‬ ִ‫א‬ֻ‫חֲל‬ ַ‫ת‬
‫י‬ ֵ‫ת‬ ‫מ‬ ְ‫,מ‬ lit., deaths of sicknesses or sufferings, i.e., deaths by all kinds of sufferings, since
‫תחלאים‬ is not to be confined to disease, but in Jer_14:18 is used of pining away by
famine. With "they shall not be lamented," cf. Jer_25:33; Jer_8:2; Jer_14:16; Jer_7:33.
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3. TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
Ver. 1. The word of the Lord came also unto me.] It is the property of this prophet
to handle the same thing several ways, and by sundry effectual arguments. God’s
ministers must turn themselves, as it were, into all shapes and fashions, both of
speech and spirit, to win people to God.
WHEDON, " THE PROPHET’S DUTY IN VIEW OF THE COMING
JUDGMENT, Jeremiah 16:1-9.
Some prefer to separate this chapter and the next from the one immediately
preceding, and class them as a distinct prophecy. The general drift, however, is
manifestly the same, and hence it seems better to throw them into the same group.
But as we have here only a summary of what may have been originally many
distinct discourses, it is proper to recognise a distinct individuality in the various
portions.
In these chapters the fate of the people is set forth in, if possible, more impressive
terms. Death is universal. The land is a desert. Life is no longer life. Even its
simplest and most natural manifestations are suppressed.
ELLICOTT, "(1) The word of the Lord came also unto me.—The formula
introduces a new and distinct message, extending to Jeremiah 17:18, and it is one
even more terrible in its threatenings than any that have preceded it. There is
nothing in its contents to fix the date with any certainty, but we may think of it as
probably about the close of the reign of Jehoiakim, when that king was trusting in
an alliance with Egypt (Jeremiah 17:13), and the people taunted the prophet with
the non-fulfilment of his predictions (Jeremiah 17:15).
COFFMAN, "Verse 1
JEREMIAH 16
FAMILY; FUNERALS; AND FESTIVITIES - FORBIDDEN TO JEREMIAH
The following chapter divisions were suggested by Henderson:[1] (1) Jeremiah
forbidden to marry and have a family (Jeremiah 16:1-2); (2) God's explanation for
this prohibition (Jeremiah 16:2-4); (3) funeral celebrations also forbidden (Jeremiah
16:5-7); (4) festival celebrations likewise prohibited (Jeremiah 16:8-9); (5) God's
further elaboration of the reasons for such penalties (Jeremiah 16:10-13); (6) a
prophecy of Israel's restoration (Jeremiah 16:14-15); (7) the metaphor of the
hunters and the fishers (Jeremiah 16:16-18); (8) prophecy of the conversion of the
Gentiles (Jeremiah 16:19-20); (9) a reiteration of the certainty of impending doom
for Judah (Jeremiah 16:21).
First, we wish to notice a classical example of the critical fembu which radical critics
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4. offer instead of an exposition of this chapter.
John Philip Hyatt wrote:
"The Deuteronomic editor of this chapter lived about 550 B.C.; he could look
back upon the events which culminated in the Babylonian exile and interpret the
prophet's celibacy and austerity as a sign to the people of the coming destruction. It
is doubtful if this was the prophet's own motive for his manner of living. The true
explanation is perhaps Jeremiah's wholehearted devotion to his prophetic mission
that did not leave him room for devotion to wife and family.[2]
"There is not a single word of truth in such a comment. There was no
Deuteronomic editor of this chapter; the introduction of such a fictitious,
imaginative character is merely a convenient manner the radical critics have of
saying that Jeremiah never wrote a word of the chapter, but that it was written a
whole generation after Jeremiah died! If a scholar does not believe this is God's
Word, why does he bother us with any comments on it? If it is not God's Word, it
deserves no comment whatever.
"Note also the arrogant conceit of any person who will tell us what "the true"
reason for Jeremiah's not having a family actually was, thus denying what the
scriptures flatly declare, namely, that he refrained from having a family because
Jehovah had so commanded him. Now, who should believe such a comment as that
of Mount Hyatt? The unequivocal answer which we wish to give to that question is:
"Only those who prefer to accept that writer as God's spokesman, instead of the
sacred writers of the Holy Scriptures. This writer is unwilling to accept the
Interpreter's Bible as a substitute for Jeremiah; and we would have to know a lot
more about Mount Hyatt than we know, before we could credit him with any
credibility whatever in such extravagant and untruthful remarks."SIZE>
The date when Jeremiah wrote the chapter is not definitely known; but Payne
Smith suggested that, "It probably was written near the end of the reign of
Jehoiachim."[3]
Kuist mentioned the "patchwork construction of the chapter which puzzles
readers and interpreters";[4] but this is no reflection whatever against the integrity
and authenticity of what is written here. We have repeatedly noted that Biblical
books are simply not organized after the patterns followed in our generation.
Jeremiah 16:1-2
GOD'S FORBIDDING MARRIAGE AND A FAMILY FOR JEREMIAH
"The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife,
neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place."
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5. "Undoubtedly the Lord's command for Jeremiah not to marry was an emotional
shock to him."[5] Note that this very recent scholar acknowledges the scriptural
truth that the Lord did command Jeremiah to "Behave in an eccentric manner to
illustrate his message."[6] This is exactly in keeping with God's orders for Hosea to
take "a wife of whoredoms", and for Isaiah to name one of his sons, "a remnant
shall return." Thus in all three instances, the prophet's life was enlisted as an
additional proof of the truth of what he prophesied.
"Marriage was obligatory among the Jews; and the prohibition of it to Jeremiah
was a sign that the impending calamity was so great as to override all ordinary
duties."[7]
God at once gave the reasons for such an unusual order to Jeremiah.
COKE, "Introduction
CHAP. XVI.
The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage, and from houses of
mourning and feasting, foresheweth the utter ruin of the Jews, because they were
worse than their fathers. Their return from captivity shall be more strange than
their deliverance out of Egypt. God will doubly recompense their idolatry.
Before Christ 602.
Verse 1
Jeremiah 16:1. The word of the Lord came, &c.— We have here a new discourse,
wherein God forbids Jeremiah to marry, principally to mark out the miseries of
parents, in the confused and ruinous state of things in Judaea. Fruitfulness was
promised as a blessing under the law, but ceased to be so in such difficult times as
were coming: for what comfort can parents promise themselves in their children,
who must be exposed to all the miseries of a hostile invasion, and the insults of a
barbarous and conquering enemy?
PETT, "Verses 1-13
Jeremiah Was Not To Take A Wife Or Have Sons And Daughters, Attend Funerals,
Or Participate in Feasting, As A Sign Of The Devastation That Was Coming On
Judah Which Would Transform Life For All Its Inhabitants Who Survived
(Jeremiah 16:1-13).
In powerful words YHWH now tells Jeremiah that he is to demonstrate to Judah
what is coming on them in three distinct ways, each of which was to do with things
central to Judah’s way of life: firstly by himself not taking a wife or having children,
secondly by refraining from attendance at funerals, and thirdly by not taking part
in celebratory feasting. And he was to make it clear that in doing so he was
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6. conveying to the people the words of YHWH. Abstaining from marriage and not
having children would be a sign of what was coming on Judah in that his restraint
would indicate that they, their wives and their children were to die in disgrace.
Abstaining from attendance at funerals would indicate that well-being had been
taken from them and that death had become so much a part of life that mourning
could be ignored. Abstaining from feasting would indicate the dark times that were
coming when there would be nothing to celebrate, not even marriage. For YHWH
was taking away their ‘shalom’, their shalom (peace, well-being) from them.
Furthermore he had to make these words very clear to the people, and when they
asked why this evil was coming on them, and what sin they had committed that
rendered it necessary, he was to point out that it was because of the way in which
they had forsaken YHWH and had turned to other gods and had not obeyed His
Instruction (Torah, Law). It would happen because they were walking in the
stubbornness of heir own hearts and were refusing to listen to YHWH. That was
why they would be cast out of the land to serve other gods in other lands in which
they would be strangers. It would be because He had withdrawn His favour from
them.
In some ways we today are called on to deliver a similar message, For while we are
urgently to seek to bring people under the sound of the Gospel, it is to be with the
recognition that for the large majority of people only judgment awaits. And it is a
judgment that could come at any time, for ‘at such an hour as you think not, the Son
of Man will come’ (Matthew 24:44). So the message is that at any time judgment
could descend on this (or a future) generation. That is why we need to have the same
urgency and concern as Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 16:1
‘The word of YHWH came also to me, saying,’
Jeremiah emphasises that everything that he says and does is because YHWH has
spoken to him, and His word has come to him. And this time it has come in order
that by his own self-sacrifice he might bring home to the people the important
lesson, that their futures were in future to be so troubled that what was usually
central in their lives would through wholesale death become non-existent.
There is a reminder in these words that receiving the word of the Lord should be
what is centrally important in all our lives.
PULPIT, "With this chapter should be taken the first eighteen verses of Jeremiah
17:1-27. The heading of the Authorized Version well expresses the contents of
Jeremiah 17:1-9, provided that "the types" are understood to be typical actions of
the prophet himself. "The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage,
from houses of mourning and feasting, foreshoweth the utter ruin of the Jews." To
the inquiry, why these calamities should come upon them, the old and well-known
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7. answer is to be given (Jeremiah 17:10-12), accompanied by a definite prediction of
captivity (Jeremiah 17:13). Then, to relieve the picture, a glimpse of a happier
future is introduced (Jeremiah 17:14, Jeremiah 17:15); but only a glimpse, for
already the Chaldeans, like so many fishermen and hunters, are on the track of the
Jews, for a "double" retribution must precede the Messianic promise (Jeremiah
17:16-18). Strange contrast—the heathen coming to the truth and the Jews (those of
the present, not of the future time) deserting it (Jeremiah 17:19-21)! We will take up
the thread of thought again at the opening of the next chapter.—The date of this
prophecy would appear to be nearly the same as that of the preceding one, the
circumstances of which are similar. The latter part of it will enable us to fix it more
precisely (see on Jeremiah 17:1-18).
2 “You must not marry and have sons or
daughters in this place.”
BARNES, "As marriage was obligatory upon the Jews, the prohibition of it to
Jeremiah was a sign that the impending calamity was so great as to override all ordinary
duties. Jeremiah was unmarried, but the force of the sign lay in its being an exception to
the ordinary practice of the prophets.
In this place - The whole of Judaea.
CLARKE, "Those shalt not take thee a wife - As it would be very inconvenient
to have a family when the threatened desolations should come on the place. The reason
is given in the following verses.
GILL, "Thou shall not take thee a wife,.... Not because it was unlawful; for it was
lawful for prophets to marry, and they did; but because it was not advisable, on account
of the calamities and distresses which were coming upon the nation; which would be
more bearable by him alone, than if he had a wife, which would increase his care,
concern, and sorrow.
Neither shall thou have sons nor daughters in this place; in Anathoth, says
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8. Kimchi; but it is most likely that Jerusalem in particular is meant, though the whole land
of Judea in general may be designed; and though nothing is more desirable than to have
children to build up the family, and bear and continue a man's name for futurity, yet in
times of public calamity these do but add to the affliction.
HENRY 2-4, "Jeremiah must not marry, nor think of having a family and being a
housekeeper (Jer_16:2): Thou shalt not take thee a wife, nor think of having sons and
daughters in this place, not in the land of Judah, not in Jerusalem, not in Anathoth. The
Jews, more than any people, valued themselves on their early marriages and their
numerous offspring. But Jeremiah must live a bachelor, not so much in honour of
virginity as in diminution of it. By this it appears that it was advisable and seasonable
only in calamitous times, and times of present distress, 1Co_7:26. That it is so is a part
of the calamity. There may be a time when it will be said, Blessed is the womb that bears
not, Luk_23:29. When we see such times at hand it is wisdom for all, especially for
prophets, to keep themselves as much as may be from being entangled with the affairs
of this life and encumbered with that which, the dearer it is to them, the more it will be
the matter of their care, and fear, and grief, at such a time. The reason here given is
because the fathers and mothers, the sons and the daughters, shall die of grievous
deaths, Jer_16:3, Jer_16:4. As for those that have wives and children, 1. They will have
such a clog upon them that they cannot flee from those deaths. A single man may make
his escape and shift for his own safety, when he that has a wife and children can neither
find means to convey with them nor find in his heart to go and leave them behind him. 2.
They will be in continual terror for fear of those deaths; and the more they have to lose
by them the greater will the terror and consternation be when death appears every where
in its triumphant pomp and power. 3. The death of every child, and the aggravating
circumstances of it, will be a new death to the parent. Better have no children than have
them brought forth and bred up for the murderer (Hos_9:13, Hos_9:14), than see them
live and die in misery. Death is grievous, but some deaths are more grievous than others,
both to those that die and to their relations that survive them; hence we read of so great
a death, 2Co_1:10. Two things are used a little to palliate and alleviate the terror of
death as to this world, and to sugar the bitter pill - bewailing the dead and burying them;
but, to make those deaths grievous indeed, these are denied: They shall not be lamented,
but shall be carried off, as if all the world were weary of them; nay, they shall not be
buried, but left exposed, as if they were designed to be monuments of justice. They shall
be a dung upon the face of the earth, not only despicable, but detestable, as if they were
good for nothing but to manure the ground; being consumed, some by the sword and
some by famine, their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of
the earth. Will not any one say, “Better be without children than live to see them come to
this?” What reason have we to say,All is vanity and vexation of spirit, when those
creatures that we expect to be our greatest comforts may prove not only our heaviest
cares, but our sorest crosses!
JAMISON, "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, 1Co_7:26, 1Co_
7:29; Mat_24:19; Luk_23:29).
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9. CALVIN, "This is a new discourse, which yet is not unlike many others, except in
this particular, that the Prophet was not to marry a wife nor beget children in the
land But as to the general subject, he repeats now what he had often said before and
confirmed in many places. But the prohibition to marry was full of meaning; it was
to shew that the people were wholly given up to destruction. The law of man’s
creation, we know, was this,
“Increase and multiply.” (Genesis 1:22; Genesis 8:17; Genesis 9:1)
As then mankind are perpetuated by marriage, here on the contrary God shews that
that land was unworthy of this common and even general blessing enjoyed by the
whole race of man. It is the same as if he had said, “They indeed as yet live, but a
quick destruction awaits them, for I will deprive them of the universal favor which I
have hitherto shewed to all mankind.”
Marriage is the preservation of the human race: Take not to thee a wife and beget
no children We hence see that in the person of Jeremiah God intended to shew the
Jews that they deserved to be exterminated from the earth. This is the import of this
prophecy.
It may however be asked, whether the Prophet was unmarried? But this has nothing
to do with the subject, for he received this command in a vision; and though he
might not have been unmarried, he might still have proclaimed this prophecy, that
God had forbidden him to marry and to beget children. At the same time, I think it
were probable that the Prophet. was not married, for as he walked naked, and as he
carried on his neck a yoke, so also his celibacy might have been intended to be, as it
were, a living representation, in order to produce an effect on the Jews. But, as I
have already said, we need not contend about this matter. Every one then is at
liberty to judge as he pleases, only I suggest what I deem most probable.
TRAPP, " Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters
in this place.
Ver. 2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife, &c.] It is very likely that this befell the
prophet in a vision. Or, if otherwise, it was but for a sign, and in regard of the great
calamity impendent, that he is here forbidden marriage, otherwise lawful enough,
and in some cases necessary. The contrary doctrine (such as was that of the Tatian
heretics and Popish canonists) is a doctrine of devils. [1 Timothy 4:1]WHEDON, " 2.
Not take thee a wife — Marriage was in the general obligatory, and this prohibition
was clearly exceptional. So far, then, from favouring clerical celibacy the bearing of
the passage is distinctly against it. With this prohibition should be compared 1
Corinthians 7:26, and Ezekiel 24:15-27. This command is enforced by the universal
catastrophe which was before the people.
WHEDON, " 2. Not take thee a wife — Marriage was in the general obligatory, and
this prohibition was clearly exceptional. So far, then, from favouring clerical
9

10. celibacy the bearing of the passage is distinctly against it. With this prohibition
should be compared 1 Corinthians 7:26, and Ezekiel 24:15-27. This command is
enforced by the universal catastrophe which was before the people.
ELLICOTT, "(2) Thou shalt not take thee a wife . . .—The words came to an
Israelite and to a priest with a force which we can hardly understand. With them
marriage, and the hopes which it involved, was not only a happiness but a duty, and
to be cut off from it was to renounce both, because the evil that was coming on the
nation was such as to turn both into a curse. We may compare cur Lord’s words in
Matthew 24:19 and those spoken to the daughters of Jerusalem (Luke 23:29), and
what, in part at least, entered into St. Paul’s motives for a like abstinence on account
of “the present distress” (1 Corinthians 7:26).
PETT, "Verses 2-4
The First Sign: Abstention From Marriage And Childbearing (Jeremiah 16:2-4).
Jeremiah’s abstention from marriage and childbearing was in order to underline
the awful future that waited those who were married, along with their wives, sons
and daughters.
Jeremiah 16:2-4
“You shall not take for yourself a wife,
Nor shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.
For thus says YHWH concerning the sons,
And concerning the daughters who are born in this place,
And concerning their mothers who bore them,
And concerning their fathers who begat them in this land,”
They will die grievous deaths (deaths from diseases),
They will not be lamented, nor will they be buried.
They will be as dung on the face of the ground,
And they will be consumed by the sword, and by famine,
And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the heavens,
And for the beasts of the earth.”
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11. The first sign that was to be given by Jeremiah was that of abstention from
marrying and having children. To us that might not be seen as so unusual, but it
was very different for men in Israel in those days. For every Israelite adult male saw
marriage and bearing children as being his most important basic duty and as being
the most necessary requirement of life. By it he was seen as not only fulfilling his
own destiny (‘be fruitful and multiply’ - Genesis 1:28), but as also perpetuating his
name, and ensuring the passing on of his inheritance through the family. Marriage
was considered to form the very basis of society. And it was not only for his own
sake. It was in order that he and his successors might provide security for the whole
family. It was seen as the very foundation of family life, providing stability for all,
and ensuring its continual growth and prosperity. Not to marry was greatly frowned
on, and almost unknown, and not to have children was seen as an especially great
grief, and a catastrophe for the family, which was one reason why dual marriage
was allowed
So when Jeremiah was told by God not to take a wife for himself and have sons and
daughters, he was being asked to go against the very tenets of society, to forego a
basic right, and to be willing to face up to the opprobrium that would almost
certainly follow. But the reason for the abstention was clearly laid out. It was in
order to get over the fact that, in view of Judah’s future prospects, not being
married and not having sons and daughters would be seen as a great advantage,
because death would be so rampant. Fathers, mothers, sons and daughters would all
die grievous deaths through diseases, and they would die in such circumstances that
they would not be lamented because those deaths would be so much a part of what
was happening around them that there would be no opportunity for mourning, and
no one to do the mourning. Their dead bodies would lie unburied, lying scattered
like manure on the fields, and sword and famine would continue to contribute to
their numbers with the result that they would become the prey of scavenger birds
(vultures, etc.) and the dinner of equally unpleasant scavengers in the animal world.
And that was only something which could happen because death had claimed the
whole family so that none was left to fulfil the crucial burial duties (compare
Jeremiah 9:22 and see the piteous example in 2 Samuel 21:10). To be left unburied
and to be eaten by scavengers was seen by Israelites as the most terrible of deaths.
The intention behind his abstinence from marriage was in order to cause people to
ask him why he was not married, at which point he would explain the reasons so as
to bring home YHWH’s warnings.
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12. 3 For this is what the Lord says about the sons
and daughters born in this land and about the
women who are their mothers and the men who
are their fathers:
BARNES, "The times were such that for “the present distress” it was wise for all to
abstain from marriage 1Co_7:26; Mat_24:19.
GILL, "For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the
daughters that are born in this place,..... This is a reason given why the prophet
should not have, and why he should not be desirous to have, sons and daughters in such
a place and country, devoted to destruction:
and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers
that begat them in this land: the land of Judea; which shows what is meant by the
place before mentioned; both the one and the other, parents and children, should die
there; this is what was determined by the Lord concerning them; and therefore it could
not be a desirable thing for a man to have wife and children, whom he must part with in
such an uncomfortable manner, as is after described; and to show the certainty of which
the prophet is forbid to do as above.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:3 For 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;
Ver. 3. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons - born in this place,] i.e., At
Anathoth, say some; but others better, at Jerusalem. So great and grievous shall be
the calamity, that married people shall be ready to wish, as Augustus did for
another cause, Utinam aut caelebs vixissem, aut orbus periissem, Oh that either I
had lived single, or else died childless!
COFFMAN, "GOD'S EXPLANATION OF THIS PROHIBITION
"For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are
born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning the
fathers that begat them in this land: They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be
lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the
ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead
12

13. bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth."
A warning such as this would have been appropriate before the invasion and
captivity; but can any intelligent person suggest why some "Deuteronomic editor"
could possibly have written such a message a whole generation after the invasion
and captivity had already happened? There could have been no point whatever in
such an endeavor.
Notice also that the text plainly declares that God Himself gave these reasons for his
forbidding Jeremiah to marry.
Halley paraphrased these verses thus: "What's the use of raising a family just to be
butchered in the frightful carnage about to be loosed upon the inhabitants of
Judah?"[8]
"In this place ... in this land ..." (Jeremiah 16:3). "This is not a reference to
Anathoth nor to Jerusalem, but to the whole land of Judah."[9]
4 “They will die of deadly diseases. They will not
be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying
on the ground. They will perish by sword and
famine, and their dead bodies will become food
for the birds and the wild animals.”
CLARKE, "They shall die of grievous deaths - All prematurely; see Jer_14:16.
As dung upon the face of the earth - See Jer_8:2.
Be meat for the fowls - See Jer_7:33.
GILL, "They shall die of grievous deaths,.... Such as the sword, famine, and
pestilence. The Targum particularly adds famine. It may be rendered, "deaths of
diseases, or sicknesses" (u); such as are brought on by long sickness and lingering
13

14. distempers; by which a man consumes gradually, as by famine, and is not snatched away
at once; and which are very grievous to bear.
They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; which two offices are
usually done to the dead by their surviving relations; who mourn for them, and express
their grief by various gestures, and which especially were used by the eastern nations;
and take care that they have a decent burial: but neither of these would now be, which is
mentioned as an aggravation of the calamity; that not only the deaths they should die of
would be grievous ones, but after death no regard would be shown them; and that either
because there would be none to do these things for them; or they would be so much
taken up in providing for their own safety, and so much in concern for their own
preservation, that they would not be at leisure to attend to the above things:
but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth; lie and rot there, and be
dung to the earth; which would be a just retaliation, for their filthy and abominable
actions committed in the land:
and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; the grievous deaths
before mentioned; the sword without, and the famine within; the one more sudden, and
at once, the other more lingering; and therefore may be more especially designed by the
death of lingering sicknesses referred to:
and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts
of the earth; lying unburied; see Jer_7:33.
JAMISON, "grievous deaths — rather, “deadly diseases” (Jer_15:2).
not ... lamented — so many shall be the slain (Jer_22:18).
dung — (Psa_83:10).
CALVIN, "But the reason why God forbad his Prophet to marry, follows, because
they were all consigned to destruction. We hence learn that celibacy is not here
commended, as some foolish men have imagined from what is here said; but it is the
same as though God had said, “There is no reason for any one to set his mind on
begetting an offspring, or to think that this would be to his advantage: whosoever is
wise will abstain from raarriage, as he has death before his eyes, and is as it were
near to his grave.” The destruction then of the whole people, and the desolation and
solitude of the whole land, are the things which God in these words sets forth.
At the same time, they are not threatened with a common kind of death, for he says
that they were to die by the deaths of sicknesses He then denounces on them
continual languor, which would cause them to pine away with the greatest pain:
sudden death would have been more tolerable; and hence David says, while
complaining of the prosperity of the ungodly, that there
“were no bands in their death.” (Psalms 73:4)
14

15. And the same thing is found in the book of Job, that
“in a moment of time they descend to the grave,”
that is, that they flourish and prosper during life, and then die without any pain.
(Job 21:13) Hence Julius Caesar, shortly before he was killed, called this kind a
happy death, ( εὐθανασίαν,)for he thought it a happy thing to expire suddenly. And
this is what is implanted in men by nature. Therefore Jeremiah, in order to amplify
God’s vengeance, says that they would die by the deaths of sicknesses; (155) that is,
that they would be worn out by daily pains, and pine away until they died.
He adds, They shall not be lamented nor buried We have seen elsewhere, and we
shall hereafter see, (Jeremiah 22:0) that it is a proof of a curse when the dead are
not buried, and when no one laments their death: for it is the common duty of
humanity for relations and friends who survive, to mourn for the dead and to bury
them. But the Prophet seems to mean also something further. I do not indeed
exclude this, that God would deprive them of the honor of sepukure and of
mourning; but he seems also to intimate, that the destruction of men would be so
great that there would be none to perform these offices of humanity. For we lament
the dead when leisure is allowed us; but when many are slain in war they are not
individually lamented, and then their carcases he confused, and one grave is not
sufficient for such a number. The Prophet there means, that so great would be the
slaughter in Judea, that none would be buried, that none would be lamented. The
verb which he uses means properly to lament, which is more than to weep: and we
have said elsewhere, that in those countries there were more ceremonies than with
us; for all the orientals were much given to various gesticulations; and hence they
were not satisfied with tears, but they added lamentation, as though they were in
despair.
But the Prophet speaks according to the customs of the age, without approving of
this excess of grief. As they were wont not simply to bewail the dead, but also to
shew their grief by lamentation, he says, “Their offices shall now cease, for there
will not be graves enough for so many thousands: and then if any one wish to
mourn, where would he begin?” We also know that men’s hearts become hardened,
when many thus die through pestilence or war. The import of the whole is, that
God’s wrath would not be moderate, for he would in a manner empty the land by
driving them all away, so that there would be none remaining. God did indeed
preserve the elect, though as it were by a miracle; and he afterwards preserved them
in exile as in a grave, when they were removed from their own country.
He then adds, That they would be as dung on the face of the land He speaks
reproachfully of their carcasses, as though he had said, “They shall be the putridity
of the land.” As then they had by their faith contaminated the land during life, God
declares that after death they would become foetid like dung. Hence we learn, as I
have before said, that it was an evidence of God’s curse, when carcases were left
unburied; for as God has created us in his own image, so in death he would have
15

16. some evidence of the dignity and excellency with which he has favored us beyond
brute animals, still to remain. We however know that temporal punishments happen
even to the faithful, but they are turned to their good, for the Psalmist complains
that the bodies of the godly were castforth and became food to the birds of heaven.
(Psalms 79:2) Though this is true, yet these two things are by no means inconsistent,
that it is a sign of God’s wrath when the dead are not buried, and that a temporal
punishment does no harm to God’s elect; for all evils, as it is well known, turn out to
them for good.
It is added, By the sword and by famine shall they be consumed; that is, some shall
perish by the sword, and some by famine, according to what, we have before seen,
“Those for the sword, to the sword;
those for the famine, to the famine.” (Jeremiah 15:2)
Then he mentions what we have already referred to, Their carcases shall be for food
to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of heaven (156) He here intimates, that it
would be a manifest sign of his vengeance, when the Jews pined away in their
miseries, when the sword consumed some of them, and famine destroyed others, and
not only so, but when another curse after death followed them, for the Lord would
inflict judgment on their carcases by not allowing them to be buried. How this is to
be understood I have already stated; for God’s judgments as to the reprobate are
evident; but when the godly and the righteous fall under similar punishment, God
turns to good what seems in itself to be the sign of a curse. Though famine is a sign
of a curse, and also the sword, yet we know that many of God’s children perish by
famine and by the sword. But in temporal punishments this modification is ever to
be remembered, — that God shews himself to be a righteous Judge as to the ungodly
and wicked; — and that while he humbles his own people, he is not yet angry with
them, but consults their benefit, so that what is in itself adverse to them is turned to
their advantage.
By deaths of wastings shall they die; They shall not be lamented, nor buried; As
dung on the face of the ground shall they be: Yea, by the sword and by the famine
shall they be consumed, And their carcase shall be for meat To the bird of heaven
and to the beast of the earth.
The latter part is a fuller explanation of what was to take place. “As dung,” so the
Syriac; they were scattered like dung. They were to be cast here and there, to be
devoured by rapacious birds and beasts. — Ed.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:4 They 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.
Ver. 4. They shall die of grievous deaths.] Heb., Death of diseases or grievances, as
16

17. did Jehoram, [2 Chronicles 21:18] and Philip II of Spain, &c.; they shall die
piecemeal, morte valetudinariorum, by death of the sickrooms, which is a misery,
especially if the disease be slow, and yet sharp, as some are.
They shall not be lamented nor buried.] Which are two of the usual dues of the
dead.
5 For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a
house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to
mourn or show sympathy, because I have
withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from
this people,” declares the Lord.
CLARKE, "Enter not into the house of mourning - The public calamities are
too great to permit individual losses to come into consideration.
GILL, "For thus saith the Lord, enter not into the house of mourning,.... On
account of his dead relations or neighbours; since they were taken away from the evil to
come, and therefore no occasion to mourn for them: moreover, this was to show the
certainty of what is before and after said; that, at the time of the general calamity
predicted, there would be no lamentation made for the dead. R. Joseph Kimchi says the
word here used signifies, in the Arabic (w) language, a lifting of the voice, either for
weeping, or for joy (x); and Jarchi, out of the ancient book Siphri, interprets it a "feast";
and it is rendered a "banquet" in Amo_6:7, and so may here design a mourning feast,
such as were used at funerals, called by the Greeks περιδειπνεα, and by the Latins
"parentalia", as Jerom observes. Neither go to lament nor bemoan them; neither go to
the house of mourning, or the mourning feast; to the houses of the deceased, to condole
the surviving relations, and to express sorrow for the dead, by shedding tears, and
shaking the head, or by any other gesture or ceremony after mentioned,
For I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord; all peace or
prosperity is of God, and therefore called his, and which he can take away from a people
17

18. when he pleases; and having determined to take it away from this people because of
their sins, he is said to have done it, it being as certain as if it was done:
even lovingkindness and mercies; all benefits, which flowed from his favour, love,
and mercy, as the whole of their prosperity did.
HENRY 5-7, "Jeremiah must not go to the house of mourning upon occasion of the
death of any of his neighbours or relations (Jer_16:5): Enter thou not into the house of
mourning. It was usual to condole with those whose relations were dead, to bemoan
them, to cut themselves, and make themselves bald, which, it seems, was commonly
practised as an expression of mourning, though forbidden by the law, Deu_14:1. Nay,
sometimes, in a passion of grief, they did tear themselves for them (Jer_16:6, Jer_16:7),
partly in honour of the deceased, thus signifying that they thought there was a great loss
of them, and partly in compassion to the surviving relations, to whom the burden will be
made the lighter by their having sharers with them in their grief. They used to mourn
with them, and so to comfort them for the dead, as Job's friends with him and the Jews
with Martha and Mary; and it was a friendly office to give them a cup of consolation to
drink, to provide cordials for them and press them earnestly to drink of them for the
support of their spirits, give wine to those that are of heavy heart for their father or
mother, that it may be some comfort to them to find that, though they have lost their
parents, yet they have some friends left that have a concern for them. Thus the usage
stood, and it was a laudable usage. It is a good work to others, as well as of good use to
ourselves, to go to the house of mourning. It seems, the prophet Jeremiah had been
wont to abound in good offices of this kind, and it well became his character both as a
pious man and as a prophet; and one would think it should have made him better
beloved among his people than it should seem he was. But now God bids him not lament
the death of his friends as usual, for 1. His sorrow for the destruction of his country in
general must swallow up his sorrow for particular deaths. His tears must now be turned
into another channel; and there is occasion enough for them all. 2. He had little reason
to lament those who died now just before the judgments entered which he saw at the
door, but rather to think those happy who were seasonable taken away from the evil to
come. 3. This was to be a type of what was coming, when there should be such universal
confusion that all neighbourly friendly offices should be neglected. Men shall be in
deaths so often, and even dying daily, that they shall have no time, no room, no heart, for
the ceremonies that used to attend death. The sorrows shall be so ponderous as not to
admit relief, and every one so full of grief for his own troubles that he shall have no
thought of his neighbours. All shall be mourners then, and no comforters; every one will
find it enough to bear his own burden; for (Jer_16:5), “I have taken away my peace
from this people, put a full period to their prosperity, deprived them of health, wealth,
and quiet, and friends, and every thing wherewith they might comfort themselves and
one another.” Whatever peace we enjoy, it is God's peace; it is his gift, and, if he give
quietness, who then can make trouble? But, if we make not a good use of his peace, he
can and will take it away; and where are we then? Job_34:29. “I will take away my peace,
even my loving-kindness and mercies;” these shall be shut up and restrained, which are
the fresh springs from which all their fresh streams flow, and then farewell all good.
Note, Those have cut themselves off from all true peace that have thrown themselves out
of the favour of God. All is gone when God takes away from us his lovingkindness and
his mercies. Then it follows (Jer_16:6), Both the great and the small shall die, even in
18

19. this land, the land of Canaan, that used to be called the land of the living. God's favour is
our life; take away that, and we die, we perish, we all perish.
JAMISON, "(Eze_24:17, Eze_24:22, Eze_24:23).
house of mourning — (Mar_5:38). Margin, “mourning-feast”; such feasts were
usual at funerals. The Hebrew means, in Amo_6:7, the cry of joy at a banquet; here, and
Lam_2:19, the cry of sorrow.
K&D 5-6, "The command not to go into a house of mourning ( ַ‫ֵח‬‫ז‬ ְ‫ר‬ ַ‫,מ‬ loud crying, cry
of lament for one dead, see on Amo_6:7), not to show sympathy with the survivors, is
explained by the Lord in the fearfully solemn saying: I withdraw from this people my
peace, grace, and mercy. ‫ם‬ ‫ל‬ָ‫שׁ‬ is not "the inviolateness of the relation between me and
my people" (Graf), but the pace of God which rested on Judah, the source of its well-
being, of its life and prosperity, and which showed itself to the sinful race in the
extension to them of grace and mercy. The consequence of the withdrawal of this peace
is the death of great and small in such multitudes that they can neither be buried nor
mourned for (Jer_16:6). ‫ד‬ ֵ‫ֹד‬‫גּ‬ ְ‫ת‬ ִ‫,ה‬ but one's self, is used in Deu_14:1 for ‫ן‬ ַ‫ָת‬‫נ‬ ‫ט‬ ֶ‫ר‬ֶ‫,שׂ‬ to make
cuts in the body, Lev_19:28; and ‫ח‬ ַ‫ר‬ ָ‫,ק‬ Niph., to crop one's self bald, acc. to Deu_14:1, to
shave a bare place on the front part of the head above the eyes. These are two modes of
expressing passionate mourning for the dead which were forbidden to the Israelites in
the law, yet which remained in use among the people, see on Lev_19:28 and Deu_14:1.
‫ם‬ ֶ‫ה‬ָ‫,ל‬ for them, in honour of the dead.
CALVIN, "As Jeremiah was forbidden at the beginning of the chapter to take a
wife, for a dreadful devastation of the whole land was very nigh; so now God
confirms what he had previously said, that so great would be the slaughter, that
none would be found to perform the common office of lamenting the dead: at the
same time he intimates now something more grievous, — that they who perished
would be unworthy of any kind office. As he had said before, “Their carcases shall
be cast to the “beasts of the earth and to the birds of heaven;” so now in this place
he intimates, that their deaths would be so ignominious, that they would be deprived
of the honor of a grave, and would be buried, as it is said in another place, like asses.
But when God forbids his Prophet to mourn, we are not to understand that he refers
to excess of grief, as when God intends to moderate grief, when he takes away from
us our parents, or our relatives, or our friends; for the subject here is not the private
feeling of Jeremiah. God only declares that the land would be so desolate that
hardly one would survive to mourn for the dead.
He says, Enter not into the house of mourning Some render ‫,מרזה‬ merezach, a
funeral feast; and it is probable, nay, it may be gathered from the context, that such
feasts were made when any one was dead. (157) And the same custom we see has
19

20. been observed by other nations, but for a different purpose. When the Romans
celebrated a funeral feast, their object was to shake off grief, and in a manner to
convert the dead into gods. Hence Cicero condemns Vatinius, because he came
clothed in black to the feast of Q. Arius, (Orat. pro L. Mur.) and elsewhere he says,
that Tuberonis was laughed at and everywhere repulsed, because he covered the
beds with goat’s skins, when Q. Maximus made a feast at the death of his uncle
Africanus. Then these feasts were among the Romans full of rejoicing; but among
the Jews, as it appears, when they lamented the dead, who were their relatives, they
invited children and widows, in order that there might be some relief to their
sorrow.
However this may be, God intimates by this figurative language, that the Jews, when
they perished in great numbers, would be deprived of that common practice,
because they were unworthy of having any survivors to bewail them.
Neither go, he says, to lament, nor be moved on their account (158) and why? For I
have taken away my peace from this people, that is, all prosperity; for under the
term, peace, the Jews included whatever was desirable. God then says, that he had
taken away peace from them, and his peace, because he had pronounced that
wicked nation accursed. He then adds, that he had taken away his kindness and his
mercies. (159) For the Prophet might have raised an objection and said, that this
was not consistent with the nature of God, who testifies that he is ready to shew
mercy; but God meets this objection and intimates, that there was now no place for
kindness and mercy, for the impiety of the people had become past all hope. It
follows —
For withdrawn have I my peace From this people, saith Jehovah, My mercy also
and my compassions.
There is here a reason given for the preceding prohibitions: the Prophet was to shew
no favor, no kindness to the people, and no sympathy with them: for God had
withdrawn from them his “peace,” which means here his favor, and also his mercy
or his benignity, as some render the word, and his compassions. — Ed.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:5 For 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.
Ver. 5. Enter not into the house of mourning.] Or banquets, whether at burials or
bridals. {as Amos 6:7} Of funeral banquets, see Deuteronomy 26:14. These the
Greeks called περιδειπνα, the Latins Parentalia. See Jeremiah 16:7.
ELLICOTT, " (5) The house of mourning.—Better, mourning-feast. The word is
found only here and in Amos 6:7, where it is translated “banquet.” So the Vulg.
gives here domus convivii, and the LXX. the Greek word for a “drinking party.”
The word literally means a “shout,” and is so far applicable to either joy or sorrow.
20

21. The context seems decisive in favour of the latter meaning, but the idea of the
“feast” or “social gathering” should be, at least, recognised. Not to go into the house
of mirth would be a light matter as compared with abstaining even from visits of
sympathy and condolence. In Ecclesiastes 7:4 the Hebrew gives a different word.
My peace.—The word is used in its highest power, as including all other blessings. It
is Jehovah’s peace: that which He once had given, but which He now withholds
(comp. John 14:27). Men were to accept that withdrawal in silent awe, not with the
conventional routine of customary sorrow.
COFFMAN, "FUNERAL CELEBRATIONS ALSO FORBIDDEN
"For thus saith Jehovah, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament,
neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith
Jehovah, even loving kindness and tender mercies. Both great and 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; neither shall men break bread 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."
"I have taken away my peace ..." (Jeremiah 16:5). It is a serious and terrible thing
indeed for God to remove his peace from any person or from any nation. Keil stated
that, "The consequences of the withdrawal of this peace is the death of great and
small in such multitudes that they could neither be buried nor mourned for."[10]
The natural emotion of pity and regret rises in the heart as one contemplates such
terrible disasters in Judah; but, in this connection, one should recall the terrible
manner in which God instructed Joshua to destroy in the most ruthless and
complete manner the entire populations of ancient Canaan, which were thus
displaced to make room for Israel. Now that Israel had become worse than Sodom
and Gomorrah, the eternal justice required their removal also.
"Nor cut themselves ... nor make themselves bald ..." (Jeremiah 16:6). This is a
reference to pagan customs which were strictly forbidden in Israel (Leviticus 19:28;
2:5; Deuteronomy 14:1). However, it appears that such practices were widely
prevalent anyway (Jeremiah 41:5; 47:5; Ezekiel 7:18; Amos 8:10; and Micah 1:16).
But there would be no time for such behavior in the approaching calamity; and the
very numbers of the dead would simply forbid it.
"Neither... break bread for them ..." (Jeremiah 16:7). This is a reference to a very
ancient custom that is still followed by Christian people, namely, that of providing
food upon the occasion of a funeral. "Some commentators relate the custom of
taking food to the bereaved after a funeral to the ritual uncleanness of a house after
one died in it, making it improper to prepare food in such a house until it had been
freed of the uncleanness."[11]
21

22. "The cup of consolation ..." (Jeremiah 16:7). The cup of consolation was given to the
mourners on the completion of their fast; and the significance of the statement here
is that not even for father or mother were such rituals to be observed. "In later
Judaism, the consoling cup was a special cup of wine drank by the chief
mourner."[12]
PETT, "Verses 5-7
The Second Sign: Abstention From Mourning (Jeremiah 16:5-7).
The second sign was to be seen as the abstention from mourning and from
attendance at funerals. Proper mourning for the dead was again seen as an essential
part of life. Not to do so would have been severely frowned on, for true mourning
was seen as contributing to the well-being and continuity of the whole family. It
ensured proper farewells, and proper succession, enabled release of emotions, and
demonstrated proper respect for the one who had passed on. But death was to
become so commonplace that there would be no time for such activities. Any who
remained alive would be concentrating on their own near kin, and would have no
time for mourning others.
Jeremiah 16:5
“For thus says YHWH,
“Do not enter into the house of mourning,
Nor go to lament, nor bemoan them,
For I have taken away my peace from this people, the word of YHWH,
Even covenant love and tender mercies.”
Jeremiah was called on not to partake in mourning, especially a mourning-feast,
which would be partly celebratory of the deceased, because mourning was
connected with comfort and commiseration, and in the future that was coming there
would be no comfort or commiseration for His people. And this was because YHWH
had removed what was essential for the people’s well-being, ‘even covenant love and
tender mercies’. In other words He no longer had regard for them because they had
rejected His covenant and would therefore leave them to face the worst and would
offer them no comfort.
22

23. 6 “Both high and low will die in this land. They
will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut
themselves or shave their head for the dead.
BARNES, "Cut themselves ... make themselves bald - Both these practices
were strictly forbidden in the Law (marginal references) probably as being pagan
customs, but they seem to have remained in common use. By “making bald” is meant
shaving a bare patch on the front of the head.
CLARKE, "Nor cut themselves - A custom of the heathen forbidden to the Jews,
Lev_19:28; Deu_14:1, and which appears now to have prevailed among them; because,
having become idolaters, they conformed to all the customs of the heathen. They tore
their hair, rent their garments, cut their hands, arms, and faces. These were not only
signs of sorrow but were even supposed to give ease to the dead, and appease the angry
deities. The Hindoos, on the death of a relation, express their grief by loud lamentations,
and not unfrequently bruise themselves in an agony of grief with whatever they can lay
hold on.
GILL, "Both the great and the small shall die in this land,.... The nobles as well
as the common people, high and low, rich and poor; none shall be exempted from the
grievous deaths by the sword, famine, and pestilence.
They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them; as before, Jer_
16:4, this shall be the common case of them all; the great and the rich shall have no more
care and notice taken of them than the poor:
nor cut themselves; their flesh, with their nails, or with knives, to show their grief for
the dead, and to alleviate the sorrow of surviving friends, by bearing a part with them:
nor make themselves bald for them; by plucking off the hair of their heads, or by
shaving them, and between their eyes; which though forbidden the Jews by the law of
God, as being Heathenish customs, yet obtained in the times of Jeremiah, and were
usually done; see Deu_14:1.
JAMISON, "cut themselves — indicating extravagant grief (Jer_41:5; Jer_47:5),
23

24. prohibited by the law (Lev_19:28).
bald — (Jer_7:29; Isa_22:12).
CALVIN, "He pursues the same subject: he says that all would die indiscriminately,
the common people as well as the chief men, that none would be exempt from
destruction; for God would make a great slaughter, both of the lower orders and
also of the higher, who excelled in wealth, in honor, and dignity; Die shall the great
and the small. It often happens in changes that the great are punished; and
sometimes the case is that the common people perish, while the nobles are spared:
but God declares, that such would be the destruction, that their enemies would
make no difference between the common people and the higher ranks, and that if
they escaped the hands of their enemies, the pestilence or the famine would prove
their ruin.
He adds, They shall not bury them, nor beat their breast for them; and then, they
shall not eat themselves, nor make themselves bald for them (160) This is not
mentioned by the Prophet to commend what the people did; nor did he consider that
in this respect they observed the command of the law; for God had forbidden them
to imitate the corrupt customs of the heathens. (Leviticus 21:1) We have already
said, that the orientals were much given to external ceremonies, so that there was no
moderation in their lamentations: therefore God intended to correct this excess. But
the Prophet here has no respect to the command, that the Jews were to moderate
their grief, — what then? He meant to shew, as I have already reminded you, that
the slaughters would be so great, that they — would cause hardness and
insensibility, being so immense as to stun the feelings of men. When any one dies,
friends and neighbors meet, and shew respect to his memory; but when pestilence
prevails, or when all perish by famine, the greater part become hardened and
unmindful of themselves and others, and the offices of humanity are no longer
observed. God then shews, that such would be the devastation of the land, that the
Jews, as though callous and hardened, would no longer lament for one another. In
short, he shews, that together with these dreadful slaughters, such insensibility and
hardness would prevail among the Jews, that no husband would think of his wife,
and no father of his children; but that all of them would be so astonied by their own
evils as to become like the wild beasts.
He says further, They shall not cut themselves nor pull off their hairs, as they had
used to do. These things are mentioned, as they were commonly done; it cannot be
hence concluded, that they were approved by God; for God’s design was not to
pronounce a judgment on their lamentation, on the tearing off of the hair, or on
their incisions. It is indeed certain that these practices proceeded from the
impetuous feelings of men, and were tokens of impatience; but as I have said, God
does not speak here of what was lawful, but of what men were wont to do.
As to that part, where he says, that he had taken away his kindness and his mercies,
he does not mean that he had changed his nature, but his object was to cut off
24

25. occasion from all who might complain; for men, we know, whenever God’s hand
presses hard on them, to make them to deplore rightly their miseries, are
stifficiently ready to say, that God visits them with too much severity. He therefore
shews that they were unworthy of kindness and mercies. At the same time he
reminded them that there was no reason for hypocrites to entertain any hope,
because Scripture so often commends the kindness of God and his mercy; for since
they accumulated sins on sins, God could not do otherwise than come to an
extremity with them.
They shall not bury them nor lament for them.
Then the two concluding verbs are to he rendered as impersonals, —
And there shall be no cutting nor making bald for them.
The Welsh is a literal version of the Hebrew, —
(lang. cy) Ac nid ymdorrir ac nid ymfoelir drostynt.
Nothing can be much more literal. The first verb is in Hithpael, and so the Welsh is;
for like Hebrew it has a reciprocal form for its verbs. The last verb is also in Welsh
in this form; but it needs not be so, for it might be, (lang. cy) ac ni foelir — Ed.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:6 Both 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:
Ver. 6. Both the great and the small shall die.] Princes and peasants, lords and
lowlies together.
Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.] Neque caedetur neque calvabitur.
This they had learned of the heathen, and would needs use it, though flatly
forbidden them. [Leviticus 19:27-28 Deuteronomy 14:1] Now they were told that
they should have little either lust or leisure to do any such matter.
ELLICOTT, "(6) Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.—Both practices
were forbidden by the Law (Leviticus 19:28; Leviticus 21:5; Deuteronomy 14:1),
probably in order to draw a line of demarcation between Israel and the nations
round, among whom such practices prevailed (1 Kings 18:28). Both, however, seem
to have been common, and probably had gained in frequency under Ahaz and
Manasseh (Jeremiah 7:29; Jeremiah 41:5; Ezekiel 7:18; Amos 8:10; Micah 1:16).
The “baldness” (i.e., shaving the crown of the head) seems to have been the more
common of the two.
COKE, "Jeremiah 16:6. Nor cut themselves— The cutting of their own flesh, as a
mark of grief for their deceased friends and relations, though expressly forbidden to
25

26. the Jews by the law, Leviticus 19:28. Deuteronomy 14:1 appears from hence to have
been still in use among them as well as among their neighbours, on this and other
occasions of great mourning and affliction. See ch. Jeremiah 41:5 and compare
chap. Jeremiah 47:5, Jeremiah 48:37. The like practice attendant on funeral
obsequies has been found among people lately discovered in the South Seas. "The
New Zealanders have deep furrows marked on their foreheads. These were cut, in
the frenzy of their grief, with a sharp shell, for the loss of their friends and relations.
The Otaheitan women wound the crown of the head under the hair with a shark's
tooth, to prove the sincerity of their grief: and the ancient Huns wounded their
cheeks, on all occasions, where they wanted to testify their grief for the loss of a
great man or a relation." Forster's Observations, p. 588. It is curious to remark, and
to investigate the cause of such corresponding usages in nations so widely distant
from each other.
Nor make themselves bald for them— Cutting off the hair was a still more general
practice among mankind as a token of mourning. See Bishop Lowth's Note on
Isaiah 15:2. Forster, in his Observations, p. 560 speaks of "the hair cut off, and
thrown on the bier" at Otaheite. And at the Friendly Islands, it is expressly said,
that "cutting off the hair is one of their mourning ceremonies." Narrative of Cook's
and Clarke's Voyage, vol. 1: p. 112.—This also was forbidden by the Mosaic law, at
the same time and on the same principles as the foregoing one. The hair is the
natural ornament of the head, and the loss of it a considerable defect in the human
figure. It was, therefore, not to be voluntarily assumed by those whose profession
obliged them to "worship JEHOVAH in the beauty of holiness." At what time the
observance of the law in these particulars began to be relaxed, does not appear; but
I do not recollect any traces of such customs among God's chosen people, earlier
than those which are alluded to in the prophetical books properly so called.
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:6-7
“Both great and small will die in this land,
They will not be buried,
Nor will men lament for them, nor cut themselves,
Nor make themselves bald for them,
Nor will men break bread for them in mourning,
To comfort them for the dead,
Nor will men give them the cup of consolation to drink,
For their father or for their mother.”
26

27. His abstention was intended to indicate that death would have no favourites. Both
great and small would die equally. And none would be buried or mourned for. No
one would undergo religious ritual on the behalf of others (cutting themselves and
self-inflicted baldness were seen as signs of great emotional intensity and of contact
with the gods, compare here Leviticus 19:28; Deuteronomy 14:1; 1 Kings 18:28.
Thus the people are also seen as being unfaithful to their false gods). No one would
participate in a wake in their memory. There would be no bread or wine offered in
consolation to the households of the dead. The cup of consolation would appear to
have been offered when a parent had died. For no one would indulge in mourning of
any kind because circumstances would be so devastating.
So Jeremiah’s abstention from everything connected with mourning would draw
attention to the intensity of the desolation that was coming on the land, and would
again raise questions in people’s minds, enabling Jeremiah to press home his
message.
For the custom of giving food and wine to the family of the bereaved compare Hosea
9:4; Ezekiel 24:17; Proverbs 31:6.
7 No one will offer food to comfort those who
mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a
mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to
console them.
BARNES, "Tear themselves - Better as in the margin; “break broad for them.” It
was customary upon the death of a relative to fast, and for the friends and neighbors
after a decent delay to come and comfort the mourner, and urge food upon him 2Sa_
12:17; food was also distributed at funerals to the mourners, and to the poor.
Cup of consolation - Marginal reference note.
GILL, "Neither shall men tear themselves,.... Either their flesh, or their clothes:
27

28. or, "stretch out" (y); that is, their hands, and clap them together, and wring them, as
persons in great distress do: or "divide", or "break", or "deal unto them" (z); that is,
bread, as at their funeral feasts. Thus the Septuagint version, neither shall bread be
broken in their mourning; and to the same sense the Targum; so the word is used in Isa_
63:7, a practice that obtained among the Heathens; see Deu_26:14 and now with the
Jews, as it seems: which they did
for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; they used to carry or send
food to the surviving relations, and went and ate with them, in order to comfort them for
the loss of their friends; but this now would not be done, not because an Heathenish
custom, but because they would have no heart nor leisure for it: see Eze_24:17.
Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father
or for their mother: not give them a cup of good liquor to comfort and cheer their
spirits, overwhelmed with sorrow, on account of the death of a father or mother; which
was wont to be done, but now should be omitted; the calamity would be so great, and so
universal, that there would be none to do such offices as these; see Pro_31:6.
JAMISON, "tear themselves — rather, “break bread,” namely, that eaten at the
funeral-feast (Deu_26:14; Job_42:11; Eze_24:17; Hos_9:4). “Bread” is to be supplied, as
in Lam_4:4; compare “take” (food) (Gen_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.”
K&D, "‫ס‬ ַ‫ר‬ָ‫,פּ‬ as in Isa_58:7, for ‫שׂ‬ ַ‫ר‬ָ‫,פּ‬ Lam_4:4, break, sc. the bread (cf. Isa. l.c.) for
mourning, and to give to drink the cup of comfort, does not refer to the meals which
were held in the house of mourning upon occasion of a death after the interment, for this
custom cannot be proved of the Israelites in Old Testament times, and is not strictly
demanded by the words of the verse. To break bread to any one does not mean to hold a
feast with him, but to bestow a gift of bread upon him; cf. Isa_58:7. Correspondingly, to
give to drink, does not here mean to drink to one's health at a feast, but only to present
with wine to drink. The words refer to the custom of sending bread and wine for
refreshment into the house of the surviving relatives of one dead, to comfort them in
their sorrow; cf. 2Sa_3:35; 2Sa_12:16., and the remarks on Eze_24:17. The singular
suffixes on ‫מ‬ֲ‫ח‬ַ‫נ‬ ְ‫,ל‬ ‫יו‬ ִ‫ב‬ ָ‫,א‬ and ‫מּ‬ ִ‫,א‬ alongside of the plurals ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ה‬ָ‫ל‬ and ‫ם‬ ָ‫ת‬ ‫,א‬ are to be taken
distributively of every one who is to be comforted upon occasion of a death in his house;
and ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ה‬ָ‫ל‬ is not to be changed, as by J. D. Mich. and Hitz., into ‫ם‬ ֶ‫ח‬ֶ‫.ל‬
CALVIN, "With regard to the seventh verse, (161) we may learn from it what I have
already referred to, — that the Jews made funeral feasts, that children and widows
might receive some relief to their sorrow; for the Prophet calls it the cup of
consolations, when friends kindly attended; they had also some ridiculous
gesticulations; for no doubt laughter was often excited by mourners among the
Jews. But we see that men vied with one another in lamenting for the dead; for it
was deemed a shame not to shew grief at the death of their friends. When tears did
28

29. not flow, when the nearest relations did not howl for the dead, they thought them
inhuman; hence it was, that there was much dissimulation in their mourning; and it
was foolishly regarded an alleviation to extend the cup of consolation. But as I have
said before, the Prophet here did not point out what was right, but borrowed his
words from what was commonly practiced. It follows —
7.And they shall not divide bread to the mourner, To console him for the dead: Nor
shall they give them to drink the cup of consolations, Each one for his father and for
his mother.
Blayney quotes Jerome, who says, “It was usual to carry provisions to mourners,
and to make an entertainment, which sort of feasts the Greeks call περιδειπνα, and
the Latin parentalia .” — Ed.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:7 Neither 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.
Ver. 7. Neither shall men tear themselves for them.] Or, Neither shall they deal them
bread in mourning to comfort any for the dead. Compare Ezekiel 24:17. Of feasting
at funerals mention is made by Herodotus, Cicero, Lucian, Pliny, Clement, and
Chrysostom. See Jeremiah 16:5.
Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation,] i.e., The consolatory cup,
usually given at funerals to the disconsolate friends of the deceased. See on Proverbs
31:6-7.
ELLICOTT, "(7) Neither shall men tear themselves.—The marginal reading,
“Neither shall men break bread for them,” as in Isaiah 58:7; Lamentations 4:4,
gives the true meaning. We are entering upon another region of funeral customs,
reminding us of some of the practices connected with the “wakes” of old English life.
After the first burst of sorrow and of fasting, as the sign of sorrow (2 Samuel 1:12; 2
Samuel 3:35; 2 Samuel 12:16-17), friends came to the mourner to comfort him. A
feast was prepared for them, consisting of “the bread of mourners” (Hosea 9:4;
Ezekiel 24:17) and the “cup of consolation,” as for those of a heavy heart (Proverbs
31:6). It is probable that some reference to this practice was implied in our Lord’s
solemn benediction of the bread and of the cup at the Last Supper. As His body had
been “anointed for the burial” (Matthew 26:12), so, in giving the symbols of His
death, He was, as it were, keeping with His disciples His own funeral feast. The
thought of the dead lying unburied, or buried without honour, is contemplated in all
its horrors.
PULPIT, "Tear themselves for them. The verb is used in Isaiah 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
29

30. 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.
8 “And do not enter a house where there is
feasting and sit down to eat and drink.
CLARKE, "Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting - Funeral
banquets were made to commemorate the dead, and comfort the surviving relatives; and
the cup of consolation, strong mingled wine, was given to those who were deepest in
distress, to divert their minds and to soothe their sorrows. These kinds of ceremonies
were common among almost all the nations of the world on funeral occasions. The
Canaanites, the Jews, the Persians, Arabians, New Zealanders, Huns, etc., etc.
GILL, "Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting,.... Which it was lawful
to do, and which the prophet doubtless had done at other times; but now a time of
calamity coming on, it was not proper he should; and the rather he was to abstain from
such places, and from pleasant conversation with his friends, to assure them that such a
time was coming, and this his conduct was a sign of it; for which reason he is forbid to
attend any entertainment of his friends, on account of marriage, or any other
circumstance of life, for which feasts were used:
to sit with them to eat and to drink: which not only expresses the position at table,
but continuance there; for at feasts men not only eat and drink for necessity, or just to
satisfy nature, but for pleasure, and unto and with cheerfulness; which may lawfully be
done, provided that temperance and sobriety be preserved; but the prophet is not
allowed to do that now, which at other times he might do, and did; and that on purpose
that his friends might take notice of it, and inquire the reason of it, the distress that was
coming upon them, as the words following show.
30

31. HENRY 8-9, "Jeremiah must not go to the house of mirth, any more than to the
house of mourning, Jer_16:8. It had been his custom, and it was innocent enough, when
any of his friends made entertainments at their houses and invited him to them, to go
and sit with them, not merely to drink, but to eat and to drink, soberly and cheerfully.
But now he must not take that liberty, 1. Because it was unseasonable, and inconsistent
with the providences of God in reference to that land and nation. God called aloud to
weeping, and mourning, and fasting; he was coming forth against them in his
judgments; and it was time for them to humble themselves; and it well became the
prophet who gave them the warning to give them an example of taking the warning, and
complying with it, and so to make it appear that he did himself believe it. Ministers
ought to be examples of self-denial and mortification, and to show themselves affected
with those terrors of the Lord with which they desire to affect others. And it becomes all
the sons of Zion to sympathize with her in her afflictions, and not to be merry when she
is perplexed, Amo_6:6. 2. Because he must thus show the people what sad times were
coming upon them. His friends wondered that he would not meet them, as he used to do,
in the house of feasting. But he lets them know it was to intimate to them that all their
feasting would be at an end shortly (Jer_16:9): “I will cause to cease the voice of mirth.
You shall have nothing to feast on, nothing to rejoice in, but be surrounded with
calamities that shall mar your mirth and cast a damp upon it.” God can find ways to
tame the most jovial. “This shall be done in this place, in Jerusalem, that used to be the
joyous city and thought her joys were all secure to her. It shall be done in your eyes, in
your sight, to be a vexation to you, who now look so haughty and so merry. It shall be
done in your days; you yourselves shall live to see it.” The voice of praise they had made
to cease by their iniquities and idolatries, and therefore justly God made to cease among
them the voice of mirth and gladness. The voice of God's prophets was not heard, was
not heeded, among them, and therefore no longer shall the voice of the bridegroom and
of the bride, of the songs that used to grace the nuptials, be heard among them. See Jer_
7:34.
JAMISON, "house of feasting — joyous: as distinguished from mourning-feasts.
Have no more to do with this people whether in mourning or joyous feasts.
K&D 8-9, "The prophet is to withdraw from all participation in mirthful meals and
feasts, in token that God will take away all joy from the people. ‫ה‬ ֶ‫תּ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫ית־מ‬ ֵ‫,בּ‬ house in
which a feast is given. ‫ם‬ ָ‫ת‬ ‫,א‬ for ‫ם‬ ָ‫תּ‬ ִ‫,א‬ refers, taken ad sensum, to the others who take
part in the feast. On Jer_16:9, cf. Jer_7:34.
CALVIN, "Here the Prophet refers to other feasts, where hilarity prevailed. The
meaning then is, — that the people were given up to destruction, so that nothing was
better than to depart fom them as far as possible. So Jeremiah is prohibited from
going at all to them, so that he might not be their associate either in joy or in
sorrow; as though he had said, — ‘Have no more anything to do with this people; if
they lament their dead, leave them, for they are unworthy of any act of kindness;
31

32. and if they make joyful feasts, be far from them, for every intercourse with them is
accursed.” We now then understand why the Prophet spoke of grief, lamentation
and mourning, and then mentioned joy. He afterwards adds, —
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with
them to eat and to drink.
Ver. 8. Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting.] Ministers may lawfully go
to feasts, [John 2:1-2] but not in times of common calamity. See Isaiah 22:12-14.
Pliny (a) telleth us that when in the time of the second Punic war, one Fulvius
Argentarius was seen at Rome looking out at a window with a rose garland on his
head, the senate sent for him, laid him in prison, and would not suffer him to come
forth till the war was at an end.
ELLICOTT, "(8) Into the house of feasting.—Literally, the house of drinking, i.e.,
in this case, as interpreted by the next verse, of festive and mirthful gathering. This
prohibition follows à fortiori from the other. If it was unmeet for the prophet to
enter into the house of mourning, much more was he to hold himself aloof from
mirth. He was to stand apart, in the awful consciousness of his solitary mission. The
words of Ecclesiastes 7:2 come to our thoughts as teaching that it was better even so.
COFFMAN, "FESTIVAL CELEBRATIONS FORBIDDEN
"And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to
drink. For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to
cease out of this place, before 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."
The significant thing about these prohibitions is that they removed practically all of
the social duties that pertained to Jeremiah, emphatically denying Hyatt's foolish
explanation (discussed at the head of this chapter) of Jeremiah's celibacy as being in
any manner a result of his being "too busy" to marry and rear a family!
"The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride ..." (Jeremiah 16:9). The
cessation of such joyful sounds as these not only marked God's judgment of the First
Israel, as indicated here; but the same thing shall also mark the termination of the
day of probation for the Spiritual Israel (See Revelation 18:23).
""Before your eyes and in your days ..." (Jeremiah 16:9). The people were here
warned to expect the termination of their nation in the near future, within their own
times. As stated earlier, God was weary of repenting!
PETT, "Verse 8-9
The Third Sign - Non-Participation In Celebratory Feasts (Jeremiah 16:8-9).
32

33. The third sign was to absent himself from all celebratory feasts, as an indication
that the future was so black that there was nothing to celebrate. It was a sign that
soon all merriment would cease in the land. Nothing would attract attention more
than someone who refused to partake in celebratory meals in a day when there was
little other recreation and such feasts were the highlight of their lives. This above all
would cause people to ask him questions.
Jeremiah 16:8
“And you shall not go into the house of feasting,
To sit with them, to eat and to drink.”
Feasts were of many kinds but the aim of all of them was celebration and to have a
good time. Thus Jeremiah’s refusal of all invitations would draw comment. Did he
not believe in having a good time? And it would give him the opportunity to explain
his reasons. His attitude was evidence of the fact that there would soon be nothing to
celebrate.
9 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of
Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I
will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness
and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this
place.
GILL, "For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Who is able to do
what he here threatens he will, and which he will do, notwithstanding his being the God
of Israel; their hearts not being right with him, nor they steadfast in his covenant.
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: upon any account whatsoever, civil
33

34. or religious; and that out of Jerusalem, where their religious feasts were kept, as well as
where were often expressions of joy made on civil accounts; and this should be in their
sight, it should be notorious and remarkable, that they could not but observe it; and it
should be in a short time, in their days, though they were very desirous of putting these
evil days far from them, and were not willing to believe they should be at all, or,
however, not in their days:
the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; the epithalamiums, or
marriage songs, sung at the celebration of nuptials; these should cease, marrying and
giving in marriage being over; the consequence of which must be ruin to the nation, a
lawful succession of mankind being not otherwise to be kept up.
JAMISON, "(Jer_7:34; Jer_25:10; Eze_26:13).
CALVIN, "This verse contains a reason for the preceding, — that every connection
with that people would be accursed. Yet he states one thing more expressly, — that
the time was come in which they were already deprived of all joy; for the ungodly,
even when God most awfully threatens them, strengthen themselves in their
security, hence God intended to give them some presage, that they might before the
time know that the saddest calamities were at hand, by which every joy and
gladness were to be taken away.
He then says, that the God of hosts and the God of Israel had spoken. He at the same
time deprived them of all hope, though he called himself the God of Israel.
Hypocrites were wont either to despise the power of God, or to abuse his goodness.
Had not God checked them, they would have deemed as nothing what the prophets
threatened; and how so? Because they depreciated, as far as they could, the power
of God. Hence God says, that he is the God of hosts. But when they could not in
their pride and haughtiness throw down, as it were the power of God, then they
betook themselves to another asylum; they promised to themselves that he would
deal indulgently with them; and thus they deceived themselves. Hence, on the other
hand, God calls himself here the God of Israel, in order that they might know, that
it was of no avail to them, that he had adopted the seed of Abraham; for they were
not the children of Abraham, but aliens, as they had departed from his piety and
faith. This served as a preface.
Now when he says, ‫,הנני‬ enni, Behold me, he shews that the Jews had no reason to
put off the time, and to indulge avain confidence; for vengeance was already come.
Behold me, he says, he thus comes forth and testifies that he is already prepared to
execute his judgment. Behold me,, he says, taking away from this place, before your
eyes, and in your days, etc.; their destruction would happen in a short time and
before their eyes. I am taking away, he says, the voice of joy and the voice of
gladness, (162) the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride Here by
stating a part for the whole, he intimates that they would become like the dead
rather than the living; for the continuance of the human race is preserved by
34

35. marriage, as in the offspring mankind are as it were born again, who would
otherwise perish daily. Since then there was no more time left for marriages, it was a
token of final destruction. This is what the Prophet intimates, when he says, that
God would cause the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride to cease, so that there
would be no more any congratulations. It follows, —
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:9
For thus says YHWH of hosts,
The God of Israel,
Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place,
Before 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.”
When they questioned his behaviour he would be able to point out that soon God
would be causing all mirth and merriment to cease, and that it was to happen before
their very eyes and in their own day. Thus those who were questioning him would
soon see it for themselves. And things would be so bad that even marriage
celebrations would cease because of the vicissitudes of the times.
10 “When you tell these people all this and they
ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great
disaster against us? What wrong have we done?
What sin have we committed against the Lord our
God?’
GILL, "And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these
35

36. words,.... Or, "all these things" (a); which he was forbid to do; as marrying and having
children, going into the house of mourning or feasting, with the reasons of all, because of
the calamities coming upon them:
and they shall say unto thee, wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this
great evil against us? as if they were quite innocent, and were not conscious of
anything they had done deserving such punishment, especially so great as this was
threatened to be inflicted on them; as their dying grievous deaths, parents and children,
great and small, and be unlamented, and unburied: or "what is our iniquity?" or "what is
our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?" supposing we have been
guilty of some weaknesses and frailties; or of some few faults; which though they cannot
be justified, yet surely are not to be reckoned of such a nature as to deserve and require
so great a punishment: thus would they either deny or lessen the sins they had been
guilty of, and suggest that the Lord was very hard and severe upon them.
HENRY 10-13, "Here is, 1. An enquiry made into the reasons why God would bring
those judgments upon them (Jer_16:10): When thou shalt show this people all these
words, the words of this curse, they will say unto thee, Wherefore has the Lord
pronounced all this great evil against us? One would hope that there were some among
them that asked this question with a humble penitent heart, desiring to know what was
the sin for which God contended with them, that they might cast it away and prevent the
judgment: “Show us the Jonah that raises the storm and we will throw it overboard.” But
it seems here to be the language of those who quarrelled at the word of God, and
challenged him to show what they had done which might deserve so severe a
punishment: “What is our iniquity? Or what is our sin? What crime have we even been
guilty of, proportionable to such a sentence?” Instead of humbling and condemning
themselves, they stand upon their own justification and insinuate that God did them
wrong in pronouncing this evil against them, that he laid upon them more than was
right, and that they had reason to enter into judgment with God, Job_34:23. Note, It is
amazing to see how hardly sinners are brought to justify God and judge themselves when
they are in trouble, and to own the iniquity and the sin that have procured them the
trouble. 2. A plain and full answer given to this enquiry. Do they ask the prophet why,
and for what reason, God is thus angry with them? He shall not stop their mouths by
telling them that they may be sure there is a sufficient reason, the righteous God is never
angry without cause, without good cause; but he must tell them particularly what is the
cause, that they may be convinced and humbled, or at least that God may be justified.
Let them know then, (1.) That God visited upon them the iniquities of their fathers (Jer_
16:11): Your fathers have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. They shook off divine
institutions and grew weary of them (they thought them too plain, too mean), and then
they walked after other gods, whose worship was more gay and pompous; and, being
fond of variety and novelty, they served them and worshipped them; and this was the
sin which God had said, in the second commandment, he would visit upon their
children, who kept up these idolatrous usages, because they received them by tradition
from their fathers, 1Pe_1:18. (2.) That God reckoned with them for their own iniquities
(Jer_16:12): “You have made your fathers' sin your own, and have become obnoxious to
the punishment which in their days was deferred, for you have done worse than your
fathers.” If they had made a good use of their fathers' reprieve, and had been led by the
patience of God to repentance, they would have fared the better for it and the judgment
36

37. would have been prevented, the reprieve turned into a national pardon; but, making an
ill use of it, and being hardened by it in their sins, they fared the worse for it, and, the
reprieve having expired, an addition was made to the sentence and it was executed with
the more severity. They were more impudent and obstinate in sin than their fathers,
walked every one after the imagination of his own heart, made that their guide and rule
and were resolved to follow that, on purpose that they might not hearken to God and his
prophets. They designedly suffered their own lusts and passions to be noisy, that they
might drown the voice of their consciences. No wonder then that God has taken up this
resolution concerning them (Jer_16:13): “I will cast you out of this land, this land of
light, this valley of vision. Since you will not hearken to me, you shall not hear me; you
shall be hurried away, not into a neighbouring country which you have formerly had
some acquaintance and correspondence with, but into a far country, a land that you
know not, neither you nor your fathers, in which you have no interest, nor can expect to
meet with any comfortable society, to be an allay to your misery.” Justly were those
banished into a strange land who doted upon strange gods, which neither they nor their
fathers knew, Deu_32:17. Two things would make their case there very miserable, and
both of them relate to the soul, the better part; the greatest calamities of their captivity
were those which affected that and debarred that from its bliss. [1.] “It is the happiness
of the soul to be employed in the service of God; but there shall you serve other gods
day and night; that is, you shall be in continual temptation to serve them and perhaps
compelled to do it by your cruel task-masters; and, when you are forced to worship idols,
you will be as sick of such worship as ever you were fond of it when it was forbidden you
by your godly kings.” See how God often makes men's sin their punishment, and fills the
backslider in heart with his own ways. “You shall have no public worship at all but the
worship of idols, and then you will think with regret how you slighted the worship of the
true God.” [2.] “It is the happiness of the soul to have some tokens of the lovingkindness
of God, but you shall go to a strange land, where I will not show you favour.” If they had
had God's favour, that would have made even the land of their captivity a pleasant land;
but, if they lie under his wrath, the yoke of their oppression will be intolerable to them.
JAMISON, "(Deu_29:24; 1Ki_9:8, 1Ki_9:9).
K&D 10-15, ""And when thou showest this people all these things, and they say unto
thee, Wherefore hath Jahveh pronounced all this great evil against us, and what is our
transgression, and what our sin that we have committed against Jahveh our God? Jer_
16:11. Then say thou to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jahveh, and
have walked after other gods, and served them, and worshipped them, and have
forsaken me, and not kept my law; Jer_16:12. And ye did yet worse than your fathers;
and behold, ye walk each after the stubbornness of his evil heart, hearkening not unto
me. Jer_16:13. Therefore I cast you out of this land into the land which he know not,
neither ye nor your fathers, and there may ye serve other gods day and night, because I
will show you no favour. Jer_16:14. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jahveh,
that it shall no more be said, By the life of Jahveh, that brought up the sons of Israel out
of the land of Egypt, Jer_16:15. But, By the life of Jahveh, that brought the sons of
Israel out of the land of the north, and out of all the lands whither I had driven them,
and I bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers."
37

38. The turn of the discourse in Jer_16:10 and Jer_16:11 is like that in Jer_5:19. With
Jer_16:11 cf. Jer_11:8, Jer_11:10; Jer_7:24; with "ye did yet worse," etc., cf. 1Ki_14:9;
and on "after the stubbornness," cf. on 1Ki_3:17. The apodosis begins with "therefore I
cast you out." On this head cf. Jer_7:15; Jer_9:15, and Jer_22:26. The article in ‫ל־‬ַ‫ע‬
‫ץ‬ ֶ‫ר‬ ָ‫א‬ ָ‫,ה‬ Graf quite unnecessarily insists on having cancelled, as out of place. It is
explained sufficiently by the fact, that the land, of which mention has so often been
made, is looked on as a specific one, and is characterized by the following relative clause,
as one unknown to the people. Besides, the "ye know not" is not meant of geographical
ignorance, but, as is often the case with ‫ע‬ ַ‫ָד‬‫י‬, the knowledge is that obtained by direct
experience. They know not the land, because they have never been there. "There ye may
serve them," Ros. justly characterizes as concessio cum ironia: there ye may serve, as
long as ye will, the gods whom ye have so longed after. The irony is especially marked in
the "day and night." Here Jeremiah has in mind Deu_4:28; Deu_28:36, Deu_28:63.
‫ר‬ֶ‫ֲשׁ‬‫א‬ is causal, giving the grounds of the threat, "I cast you out." The form ‫ָה‬‫נ‬‫י‬ִ‫חֲנ‬ is hap
leg . - In Jer_16:14 and Jer_16:15 the prophet opens to the people a view of ultimate
redemption from the affliction amidst the heathen, into which, for their sin, they will be
cast. By and by men will swear no more by Jahveh who redeemed them out of Egypt, but
by Jahveh who has brought them again from the land of the north and the other lands
into which they have been thrust forth. In this is implied that this second deliverance
will be a blessing which shall outshine the former blessing of redemption from Egypt.
But just as this deliverance will excel the earlier one, so much the greater will the
affliction of Israel in the northern land be than the Egyptian bondage had been. On this
point Ros. throws especial weight, remarking that the aim of these verses is not so much
to give promise of coming salvation, as to announce instare illis atrocius malum, quam
illud Aegyptiacum, eamque quam mox sint subituri servitutem multo fore duriorem,
quam olim Aegyptiaca fuerit. But though this idea does lie implicite in the words, yet we
must not fail to be sure that the prospect held out of a future deliverance of Israel from
the lands into which it is soon to be scattered, and of its restoration again to the land of
its fathers, has, in the first and foremost place, a comforting import, and that it is
intended to preserve the godly from despair under the catastrophe which is now
awaiting them.
(Note: Calvin has excellently brought out both moments, and has thus expounded
the thought of the passage: "Scitis unde patres vestri exierint, nempe e fornace
aenea, quemadmodum alibi loquitur (xi. 4) et quasi ex profunda morte; itaque
redemptio illa debuit esse memorabilis usque ad finem mundi. Sed jam Deus
conjiciet vos in abyssum, quae longe profundior erit illa Aegypti tyrannide, e qua
erepti sunt patres vestri; nam si inde vos redimat, erit miraculum longe excellentius
ad posteros, ut fere exstinguat vel saltem obscuret memoriam prioris illius
redemptionis.")
‫ן‬ֵ‫כ‬ָ‫ל‬ is not nevertheless, but, as universally, therefore; and the train of thought is as
follows: Because the Lord will, for their idolatry, cast forth His people into the lands of
the heathen, just for that very reason will their redemption from exile not fail to follow,
and this deliverance surpass in gloriousness the greatest of all former deeds of blessing,
the rescue of Israel from Egypt. The prospect of future redemption given amidst
announcements of judgment cannot be surprising in Jeremiah, who elsewhere also
interweaves the like happy forecastings with his most solemn threatenings; cf. Jer_4:27;
Jer_5:10, Jer_5:18, with Jer_3:14., Jer_23:3., etc. "This ray of light, falling suddenly
38

39. into the darkness, does not take us more by surprise than 'I will not make a full end,'
Jer_4:27. There is therefore no reason for regarding these two verses as interpolations
from Jer_23:7-8" (Graf).
CALVIN, "He shews here what we have seen elsewhere, — that the people flattered
themselves in their vices, so that they could not be turned by any admonitions, nor
be led by any means to repentance. It was a great blindness, nay, even madness, not
to examine themselves, when they were smitten by the hand of God; for conscience
ought to have been to them like a thousand witnesses, immediately condemning
them; but hardly any one was found who examined his own life; and then, though
God proved them guilty, hardly one in a hundred winingly and humbly submitted to
his judgment; but the greater part murmured and made a clamor, whenever they
felt the scourges of God. This evil, as Jeremiah shews, prevailed among the people;
and he shewed the same in the fifth chapter.
Hence it is that God says, When thou shalt declare these words to this people, and
they shall say, Wherefore has Jehovah spoken all this great evil against us; what is
our iniquity? what is our sin, that he so rages against us, as though we had acted
wickedly against him? God no doubt intended to obviate in time what that perverse
people might have said, for he knew that they possessed an untameable disposition.
As then he knew that they would be so refractory as to receive no reproof, he
confirms his own Prophet, as though he had said, “There is no reason for their
perverseness to discourage thee; for they will immediately oppose thee, and treat
thee as one doing them a grievous wrong; they will expostulate with thee and deny
that they ought to be deemed guilty of so great crimes; if then they will thus
petulantly cast aside thy threatenings, there is no reason for thee to be disheartened,
for thou shalt have an answer ready for them.”
We now see how hypocrites gained nothing, either by their evasions, or by wantonly
rising against God and his Prophets. At the same time all teachers are reminded
here of their duty, not to vacinate when they have to do with proud and intractable
men. As it appeared elsewhere, where God commanded his Prophet to put on a
brazen front, that he might boldly encounter all the insults of the people; (Jeremiah
1:18) the same is the case here, they shall say to thee, that is, when thou threatenest
them, they will not winingly give way, but they will contend as though thou didst
accuse them unjustly, for they will say, “What is our sin? what is our iniquity? what
is the wickedness which we have committed against Jehovah our God, that he
should declare this great evil against us?” Thus we see that hypocrites vent their
rage not only against God’s servants, but against God himself, not indeed that they
profess openly and plainly to do so. But what is the effect when they cannot bear to
be corrected by God’s hand, but resist and shew that they do not endure correction
with a resigned mind? do they not sufficiently prove that they rebel against God?
But Jeremiah here graphically describes the character of those who struggled with
39

40. God, for they dared not wholly to deny that they were wicked, but they extenuated
as far as they could their sin, like Cain, who ventured not to assert that he was
innocent, for he was conscious of having done wrong; and the voice of God, “Where
is thy brother?” strengthened the voice of conscience, but in the meantime he ceased
not to utter this complaint,
“Greater is my punishment than I can bear.”
(Genesis 4:9)
So also Jeremiah introduces the people as speaking, “O, what is our iniquity? and
what is the sin which we have committed against Jehovah our God, that he should
speak this great evil against us?” They say not that they were wholly without fault,
they only object that the atrocity of their sins was not so great as to cause God to be
so angry with them, and to visit them with so grievous a punishment. They then
exaggerated the punishment, that they might obtain some covering for themselves;
and yet they did not say that they were innocent or free from every fault, but they
speak of their iniquities and sins as though they had said, “We indeed confess that
there is something which God may reprehend, but we do not acknowledge such a
mass of sins and iniquities as to cause him thus to thunder against us.”
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:10 And 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?
Ver. 10. And they shall say unto thee, Wherefore?] This is still the guise of
hypocrites, to justify themselves, and quarrel the preacher that reproveth them. See
Jeremiah 5:19.
What is our iniquity?] Nature showeth no sin; it is no causeless complaint of a grave
divine, that some deal with their souls as others do with their bodies. When their
beauty is decayed, they desire to hide it from themselves by false glasses, and from
others by painting; so their sins from themselves by false glosses, and from others by
excuses.
ELLICOTT, "(10) What is our iniquity? . . .—Now, as before (Jeremiah 5:19), the
threatenings of judgment are met with words of real or affected wonder. “What
have we done to call for all this? In what are we worse than our fathers, or than
other nations?” All prophets had more or less to encounter the same hardness. It
reaches its highest form in the reiterated questions of the same type in Malachi 1, 2.
COFFMAN, "MORE REASONS FOR SUCH PENALTIES
"And it shall come to pass when thou shalt show this people all these words, and
they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evil
40

41. against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed
against Jehovah our God? thou shalt say unto them, Because your fathers have
forsaken me, saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served
them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
and ye have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after
the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto me: therefore will I
cast you forth out of this land into the land that ye have not known, neither ye nor
your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; for I will show you
no favor."
Ash noted that, "The verbs used here were part of the distinctive vocabulary used to
describe the breach of the covenant."[13] Significantly, however, it was not merely
the breach of that holy covenant by the forefathers of Israel that led to their
deportation from Canaan; but that current generation also had sinned even beyond
the outrageous behavior of their ancestors.
"There shall ye serve other gods day and night ..." (Jeremiah 16:13). "The form of
the sentence here is ironical."[14] A number of writers have attempted to convey the
irony as follows: "They will have the opportunity of indulging their desire for pagan
worship day and night (continually), for God will ignore them."[15] "There you
may serve those idols you are so mad about, even to satiety, and without
intermission (day and night)."[16]
"I will cast you forth out of this land ..." (Jeremiah 16:13). Green pointed out that
the word here for "cast out" is actually "hurl out," and thus a clever play upon the
name of Jeremiah.[17] The kind of hurling mentioned here was that of placing a
stone in a sling, releasing it after hurling it round and round. It was used here as a
metaphor for the violent removal of God's Once Chosen People from Palestine.
PETT, "Verses 10-18
What Jeremiah Is To Answer Once He Has Given His Explanation As To Why He
Is Abstaining From Marriage And Family Life, From All Forms Of Mourning, And
From All Celebratory Feasts (Jeremiah 16:10-18).
With Jeremiah having brought home to the people the significance of his signs, i.e.
that they are indications of great desolation ahead, they are then moved to ask him
why YHWH has pronounced this great evil on them (Jeremiah 16:10). In view of
their claim that ‘they had done nothing wrong’ we may assume that their questions
were indignant rather than fearful. It reveals that they were so hardened in their
disobedience that they could not understand why Jeremiah was suggesting that God
was angry with them. To them it seemed preposterous. As with so many people in
the present day they were so blind spiritually that they were confident that there
was nothing in their lives that really displeased God. Conviction of sin has always
been one of the most difficult things to bring about in men’s lives, and they were
unable to see that it was their whole attitude of heart that was wrong (compare John
41

42. 16:8-11 where it is made clear that to bring such conviction is the work of the Spirit
of God).
Jeremiah’s response is to bring out that in fact their sin is so serious (Jeremiah
16:11-12) that what is to happen to them will alter their whole view of history. For
after what is in the future to happen to them in ‘the land of the North’, they will no
longer see the deliverance from ‘the land of Egypt’ as the great past event of their
history but will date their renewed nationhood from the time of their deliverance
from ‘the land of the North (Jeremiah 16:14-15). And that is because they are to
receive double payment for their sins (Jeremiah 16:18).
Jeremiah 16:10
“And it will come to about when you shall show this people all these words,
And they will say to you,
Why has YHWH pronounced all this great evil against us?
Or what is our iniquity?
Or what is our sin,
That we have committed against YHWH our God?
When Jeremiah tells the people the significance of his signs they are unable to
believe what they are hearing. They were fully confident that they and their way of
life were satisfactory to God. Were they not maintaining the Temple ritual in the
way that was required? Why then should God be displeased? Had they not always
given Him His due? Let Jeremiah now explain in what way they had fallen short.
11 then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors
forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed
other gods and served and worshiped them. They
forsook me and did not keep my law.
42

43. BARNES, "The severe sentence passed upon them is the consequence of idolatry
persisted in through many generations until it has finally deepened into national
apostasy.
GILL, "Then shalt thou say unto them,.... In answer to their questions; not in a
general way, but by observing to them particular sins, and those gross ones, they had
been guilty of:
because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord; that is, his worship, as
the Targum; they had quitted his service, and left attending on his word and ordinances;
and therefore it was but just with him to forsake them, and give them up into the hands
of their enemies:
and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have
worshipped them; were guilty of gross idolatry, serving and worshipping the creature
more than and besides the Creator; even idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and wood,
and stone, which were no gods; for there is no other true God besides the Lord; and
which they were well informed of, and therefore their sin was the greater to leave him
and worship them; and which sin, because of the heinousness of it, is repeated:
and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; they forsook his worship, as
the Targum, and did not observe the law of the decalogue or ten commandments;
especially the two first of them, which required the worship of the one true God, and
forbid the worshipping of others; and which threatened the visiting such iniquiti fathers
upon the children, to the third and fourth generation, of such that hated the Lord; and
such were these persons, as follows.
JAMISON, "(Jer_5:19; Jer_13:22; Jer_22:8, Jer_22:9).
CALVIN, "But he then says, Thou shalt answer them, Because your fathers forsook
me; they went after foreign gods, served and worshipped them; and me they forsook
and my law they kept not, and ye have done worse (163) God in the first place
accused their fathers, not that punishment ought to have fallen on their children,
except they followed the wickedness of their fathers, but the men of that age fully
deserved to be visited with the judgment their fathers merited. Besides well known
is that declaration, that God reckons the iniquities of the fathers to their children;
(Exodus 20:5; Exodus 34:7; Deuteronomy 5:9) and he acts thus justly, for he might
justly execute vengeance for sins on the whole human race, according to what Christ
says,
“On you shall come the blood of all the godly, from righteous Abel to Zachariah the
son of Barachiah.” (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51)
Thus then the Scripture often declares, that children shall be punished with their
43

44. fathers, because God will at one time or another require an account of all sins, and
thus will make amends for his long forbearance, for as he waits for men and kindly
invites them through his patience to repent, so when he sees no hope he inflicts all
his scourges. It is hence no wonder that children are more grievously punished after
iniquity has prevailed for many ages.
We hence see that these two things are not inconsistent — that God connects the
punishment of children with that of their fathers, and that he does not punish the
innocent. We indeed see this fulfilled,
“The soul that sinneth it shall die; the children shall not bear the iniquity of their
fathers, nor the father the iniquity of his child,” (Ezekiel 18:4)
for God never blends children with their fathers except they be their associates in
wickedness. But yet there is nothing to prevent God to punish children for the sins
of their fathers, especially when they continually rush headlong into worse sins,
when the children, as we shall hereafter see, exceed their fathers in all kinds of
wickedness.
We further learn from this passage, that they bring forward a vain pretense who
allege against us the examples of the Fathers, as we see to be done now by those
under the Papacy; for the shield they boldly set up against us is this, that they
imitate the examples of the fathers. But God declares here that they were worthy of
double punishment who repented not when they saw that their fathers had been
ungodly and transgressors of the law.
Let us now notice the sins which God mentions: he says, that they had forsaken him.
That people could not make any excuse for going astray, like the unhappy heathens,
to whom no Prophet had been sent, and no law had been given. Hence the heathens
had some excuse more than the Jews. The truth indeed respecting all was, that they
were all apostates, for God had bound the human race to himself, and all they who
followed superstitions were justly charged with the sin of apostasy; there was yet a
greater atrocity of wickedness in the Jewish people, for God had set before them his
law, they had been brought up as it were in his school, they knew what true religion
was, they were able to distinguish the true God from fictitious gods. We now then
see the meaning of the expression, They have forsaken me: and it is twice repeated,
because it was necessary thus to prove the Jews guilty, that their mouths might be
stopped; for we have seen that they were to be thus roused from their insensibility,
inasmuch as they would have never yielded nor acknowledged their sins, were they
not constrained.
He says further, that they went after foreign gods, served them, and worshipped
them Now this statement enhances again their sins, for the Jews preferred their own
inventions to the true God, who had by so many signs and testimonies manifested
his glory and made known his power among them. As then God had abundantly
testified his power, it was by no means an endurable ingratitude in them to follow
44

45. strange gods, of whom they had only heard. The heathens indeed vainly boasted of
their idols, and spread abroad many fables to allure unhappy men to false and
corrupt worship, but the Jews knew who the true God was. To believe the fables of
the heathens, rather than the law and their own experience, was not this the basest
impiety? This then was the reason why God complained that foreign gods were
worshipped by them.
Then he adds, They served and worshipped them The verb to serve is often used by
the Hebrews to express worship, as we have stated elsewhere; and thus is refuted the
folly of the Papists who deny that they are idolaters, because they worship pictures
and statues with dulla, that is, with service, if we may so render it, and not with
latria, as though Scripture in condemning idolatry never used this verb. But God
condemns here the Jews because they served strange gods, because they gave credit
to the false and vain fictions of the heathens; and then he adds the outward action,
that they prostrated themselves before their idols.
At the end of this verse he shews how he had been forsaken, even because they kept
not his law. He then confirms what I have already stated, that there was on this
account a worse apostasy among the Jews, for they had knowingly and wilfully
forsaken the fountain of living water, as we have seen in the second chapter: hence
simple ignorance is not what is here reprehended, as though they had sinned
through error or want of knowledge, but they had rejected the worship of God as it
were designedly. The rest I shall defer till to-morrow.
11.Then say to them, Because your fathers forsook me, saith Jehovah, And walked
after foreign gods, And served them and bowed down to them: Yea, me they forsook
and my law kept not,
12.And ye have become evil by doing worse than your fathers; For lo, ye are
walking, every man, After the resolutions of his own evil heart, So as not to hearken
to me.
In the first part their fathers’ conduct is set forth; in the second their fathers’
conduct and their own. And their “worse” conduct was in not hearkening to the
voice of God by his Prophets. — Ed.
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:11-12
“Then you will say to them,
Because your fathers have forsaken me,
The word of YHWH,
And have walked after other gods,
45

46. And have served them,
And have worshipped them,
And have forsaken me,
And have not kept my law,
And you have done evil more than your fathers,
For, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart,
So that you do not listen to me,”
YHWH’s reply was straight and to the point. It was because He was no longer the
centre of their lives. It was because they had failed to live in accordance with His
Instruction (Law). It was because they had forsaken Him and in their daily personal
worship had walked after the ways of other gods, and served them and worshipped
them. It was because He was no longer the One to Whom they listened. It was
because they stubbornly walked in their own ways and in accordance with their own
ideas. Central to all was that they were not responding to God’s word.
12 But you have behaved more wickedly than
your ancestors. See how all of you are following
the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of
obeying me.
BARNES, "Imaginations - Read stubbornness.
CLARKE, "And ye have done worse than your fathers - The sins of the fathers
would not have been visited on the children, had they not followed their example, and
become even worse than they.
46

47. GILL, "And ye have done worse than your fathers,.... Not only committed the
same sins, but greater, or, however, attended with more aggravating circumstances; they
were wilfully and impudently done, and obstinately persisted in; and therefore deserving
of the great evil of punishment pronounced against them.
For, behold, ye walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart; they
walked not as the word of God directs, but as their own evil heart dictated; the
imagination of which was evil, and that continually, Gen_6:5.
JAMISON, "ye — emphatic: so far from avoiding your fathers’ bad example, ye have
done worse (Jer_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.”
CALVIN, "I was constrained yesterday to leave unfinished the words of the
Prophet. He said that the children were worse than their fathers, and gave the
reason, Because they followed the wickedness of their evil heart, and hearkened not
to God He seems to have said before the same thing of the fathers: it might then be
asked, Why does he say that the children had done worse than their fathers, and
pronounce their sins worse? Now we have already seen that sins became worse
before God, when the children strengthened themselves in wickedness by following
the examples of their fathers. We must also notice, that not only the law had been set
before them, but that also Prophets had been often sent to them, who added their
reproofs: and this is what Jeremiah seems to have expressed at the end of the verse,
by saying that they hearkened not, though daily spoken to by the Prophets. It was
then their obstinacy that God so severely punished: they had imitated their wicked
fathers, and then they not only had despised, but also through their obstinate
wickedness had rejected all the warnings which the Prophets gave them.
13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land
neither you nor your ancestors have known, and
there you will serve other gods day and night, for
I will show you no favor.’
47

48. BARNES, "And there shall ye ... - Ironical, and “there ye may serve other gods day
and night, since I will shew you no favor.”
CLARKE, "Will I cast you out of this land - See Jer_7:15, and Jer_9:15.
GILL, "Therefore will I call you out of this land,.... By force, and against their
wills, whether they would or not, and with abhorrence and contempt: it is to be
understood of their captivity, which was but a just punishment for the above sins; for
since they had cast off the Lord and his worship, it was but just that they should be cast
off by him, and cast out of their land, which they held by their obedience to him:
into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; a foreign country, at a
great distance from them; with which they had no alliance, correspondence, or
commerce; and where they had no friends to converse with, or show them any respect;
and whose language they understood not; all which was an aggravation of their captivity
in it:
and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; should have their fill of
idolatry, even to loathsomeness; and what they had done willingly in their own land,
following the imagination of their own evil hearts, now they should be forced to; and
what they did for their own pleasure, and at certain times, when they thought fit, now
they should be obliged to attend tonight and day. The Targum is, "and there shall ye
serve people that worship idols day and night"; that as they had served idols, now they
should serve the people, the worshippers of those idols; the former was their sin, the
latter their punishment:
where I will not show you favour; or, "not give you grace" (b); the favour and mercy
of God serve to support persons in distress; but to be denied these is an aggravation of it,
and must needs make the captivity of those people the more afflicting. Some understand
this of the Lord's not suffering their enemies to show them any favour or mercy; so
Kimchi,
"the enemy shall have no mercy on you, but make you serve with rigour;''
and to the same purpose the Targum, connecting them with the people, the idol
worshippers, and paraphrasing them thus,
"who shall not be merciful to you;''
48

49. and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "who shall not give you mercy"; or "rest", as
the Vulgate Latin. The Jews (c) interpret this of the Messiah, whose name, they say, is
Chaninah, the word here used, whom the Lord would not give them where they were.
JAMISON, "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 (Dan_3:12;
Dan_6:7).
day and night — irony. You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even to
satiety, and without intermission.
CALVIN, "Then follows a commination, I will eject you, he says, or remove you,
from this land to a land which ye know not, nor your fathers, for they had followed
unknown gods, and went after inventions of their own and of others. God now
declares that he would be the vindicator of his own glory, by driving them to a land
unknown to them and to their fathers. He immediately adds, There shall ye serve
other gods day and night We must take notice of this kind of punishment, for
nothing could have happened worse to the Jews than to be constrained to adopt
false and corrupt forms of worship, as it was a denial of God and of true religion. As
this appears at the first view hard, some mitigate it, as though the worship of
strange gods would be that servitude into which they were reduced when they
became subject to idolators: but this is too remote. I therefore do not doubt but that
God abandoned them, because they had violated true and pure worship, and had
gone after the many abominations of the heathens; and thus he shews that they were
worthy to be thus dealt with, who had in every way contaminated themselves, and as
it were plunged themselves into the depth of every thing abominable: and it is
certainly probable that they were led by constraint into ungodly ceremonies, when
the Chaldeans had the power to treat them, as they usually did, as slaves, without
any measure of humanity. It is then hence a probable conjecture that they were
drawn to superstitions, and that interminably; so that they were not only forced to
worship false gods, but were also constrained to do so by way of sport, as they daily
triumphed over them as their conquerors.
And he confirms this clause by what follows, For I will not, etc., for the relative ‫אשר‬
asher, is here to be taken for a causative particle, For I will not shew you favor, or
mercy; that is, I will not turn the hearts of your enemies so as to be propitious or
kind to you. (164) By these words God shews that he would not only punish them by
subjecting them to their enemies, or by suffering them to be driven into exile; but
that there would be an additional punishment by rendering their enemies cruel to
them; for God can either tame the ferocity of men, or, when he pleases, can rouse
them to greater rage and cruelty, when it is his purpose to use them as scourges.
We now then understand the whole design of what the Prophet says, that the Jews
who had refused to worship God in their own land would be led away to Chaldea,
where they would be constrained, wining or unwining, to worship strange gods, and
49

50. that without end or limits. It now follows —
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:13 Therefore 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.
Ver. 13. Therefore I will cast you.] Jeremiah 10:18. Because ye have sinned wilfully
and willingly, ye shall be cast out of this land, though full sore against your wills.
And there shall ye serve other gods.] (a) Will ye nill ye (for a just punishment of
your voluntary idolatries); being compelled by your imperious enemies so to do,
except ye will taste of the whip, as now the Turks’ galley slaves.
Where I will not show you favour.] This was a cutting speech, and far worse than
their captivity; like as that was a sweet promise, "They shall be as if I had not cast
them off, and I will hear them." [Zechariah 10:6]
WHEDON, "10-13. Wherefore hath, etc. — God’s ways need to be explained. Even
with the utmost care it is not always possible to prevent wrong interpretations.
Hence, when the people, by their inquiries, made either in complaint or with desire
to know the truth, shall open the way, the prophet is commanded to explain God’s
dealings toward them. God’s real purpose in all things pertaining to this universe is
a moral one. Take out this element from man’s history, and all would be a hopeless
enigma.
Imagination — Rather, stubbornness.
Land that ye know not — Not geographical ignorance is meant, but lack of
experience. They know it not, because they have not been there.
ELLICOTT, " (13) There shall ye serve other gods day and night.—The words are
spoken in the bitterness of irony: “You have chosen to serve the gods of other
nations here in your own land; therefore, by a righteous retribution, you shall serve
them in another sense, as being in bondage to their worshippers, and neither night
nor day shall give you respite.”
Where I will not shew you favour.—Better, since, or for, I will not shew you favour.
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:13
“Therefore will I cast you forth out of this land,
Into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers,
And there you will serve other gods day and night,
50

51. For I will show you no favour”.
So if they wanted other gods they could have them. He was casting them forth out of
the land as He had warned He would do from the beginning if they went after other
gods and walked in their ways (Leviticus 18:25; Leviticus 18:28; Leviticus 20:22;
Deuteronomy 7:4; Deuteronomy 8:19; Deuteronomy 11:28; Deuteronomy 28:14 ff.).
And it would not be onto familiar ground but into a land they had never known or
experienced, and there they would serve other gods both day and night (indicating
their total commitment). And all this would happen to them because His favour had
been withdrawn.
14 “However, the days are coming,” declares the
Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely
as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up
out of Egypt,’
BARNES 14-15, "These two verses, by promising a deliverance greater than that
from Egypt, implied also a chastisement more terrible than the bondage in the iron
furnace there. Instead of their being placed in one land, there was to be a scattering into
the north and many other countries, followed finally by a restoration.
CLARKE, "The Lord liveth, that brought up - See Isa_43:18.
GILL, "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,.... Or nevertheless,
"notwithstanding" (d) their sins and iniquities, and the punishment brought upon them
for them: or "surely", verily; for Jarchi says it is an oath, with which the Lord swore he
would redeem them, though they had behaved so ill unto him:
that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt; this was the form of an oath with the Jews, when a
man, as Kimchi observes, used to swear by the living God that brought Israel out of
Egypt; or this was a fact which they used frequently to make mention of, and relate to
their children; and observe to them the power and goodness of God in it; and so the
51

52. Targum,
"there shall be no more any declaring the power of the Lord who brought up, &c.''
HENRY 14-17, "There is a mixture of mercy and judgment in these verses, and it is
hard to know to which to apply some of the passages here - they are so interwoven, and
some seem to look as far forward as the times of the gospel.
I. God will certainly execute judgment upon them for their idolatries. Let them expect
it, for the decree has gone forth. 1. God sees all their sins, though they commit them ever
so secretly and palliate them ever so artfully (Jer_16:17): My eyes are upon all their
ways. They have not their eye upon God, have no regard to him, stand in no awe of him;
but he has his eye upon them; neither they nor their sins are hidden from his face, from
his eyes. Note, None of the sins of sinners either can be concealed from God or shall be
overlooked by him, Pro_5:21; Job_34:21; Psa_90:8. 2. God is highly displeased,
particularly at their idolatries, Jer_16:18. As his omniscience convicts them, so his
justice condemns them: I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, not double
to what it deserves, but double to what they expect and to what I have done formerly. Or
I will recompense it abundantly; they shall now pay for their long reprieve and the
divine patience they have abused. The sin for which God has a controversy with them is
their having defiled God's land with their idolatries, and not only alienated that which he
was entitled to as his inheritance, but polluted that which he dwelt in with delight as his
inheritance, and made it offensive to him with the carcases of their detestable things,
the gods themselves which they worshipped, the images of which, though they were of
gold and silver, were as loathsome to God as the putrid carcases of men or beasts are to
us. Idols are carcases of detestable things. God hates them, and so should we. Or he
might refer to the sacrifices which they offered to these idols, with which the land was
filled; for they had high places in all the coasts and corners of it. This was the sin which,
above any other, incensed God against them. 3. He will find out and raise up
instruments of his wrath, that shall cast them out of their land, according to the
sentence passed upon them (Jer_16:16): I will send for many fishers and many
hunters - the Chaldean army, that shall have many ways of ensnaring and destroying
them, by fraud as fishers, by force as hunters. They shall find them out wherever they
are, and shall chase and closely pursue them, to their ruin. They shall discover them
wherever they are hid, in hills or mountains, or holes of the rocks, and shall drive them
out. God has various ways of prosecuting a people with his judgments that avoid the
convictions of his word. He has men at command fit for his purpose; he has them within
call, and can send for them when he pleases. 4. Their bondage in Babylon shall be sorer
and much more grievous than that in Egypt, their task-masters more cruel, and their
lives made more bitter. This is implied in the promise (Jer_16:14, Jer_16:15), that their
deliverance out of Babylon shall be more illustrious in itself, and more welcome to them,
than that out of Egypt. Their slavery in Egypt came upon them gradually and almost
insensibly; that in Babylon came upon them at once and with all the aggravating
circumstances of terror. In Egypt they had a Goshen of their own, but none such in
Babylon. In Egypt they were used as servants that were useful, in Babylon as captives
that had been hateful. 5. They shall be warned, and God shall be glorified, by these
judgments brought upon them. These judgments have a voice, and speak aloud, (1.)
Instruction to them. When God chastens them he teaches them. By this rod God
expostulates with them (Jer_16:20): “Shall a man make gods to himself? Will any man
52

53. be so perfectly void of all reason and consideration as to think that a god of his own
making can stand him in any stead? Will you ever again be such fools as you have been,
to make to yourselves gods which are no gods, when you have a God whom you may call
your own, who made you, and is himself the true and living God?” (2.) Honour to God;
for he will be known by the judgments which he executes. He will first recompense their
iniquity (Jer_16:18), and then he will this once (Jer_16:21) - this once for all, not by
many interruptions of their peace, but this one desolation and destruction of it. “For this
once, and no more, I will cause them to know my hand, the length and weight of my
punishing hand, how far it can reach and how deeply it can wound. And they shall know
that my name is Jehovah, a God with whom there is no contending, who gives being to
threatenings and puts life into them as well as promises.”
II. Yet he has mercy in store for them, intimations of which come in here for the
encouragement of the prophet himself and of those few among them that tremble at
God's word. It was said, with an air of severity (Jer_16:13), that God would banish them
into a strange land; but, that thereby they might not be driven to despair, there follow
immediately words of comfort.
1. The days will come, the joyful days, when the same hand that dispersed them shall
gather them again, Jer_16:14, Jer_16:15. They are cast out, but they are not cast off, they
are not cast away. They shall be brought up from the land of the north, the land of their
captivity, where they are held with a strong hand, and from all the lands whither they
are driven, and where they seemed to be lost and buried in the crowd; nay, I will bring
them again into their own land, and settle them there. As he foregoing threatenings
agreed with what was written in this law, so does this promise. Yet will I not cast them
away, Lev_26:44. Thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, Deu_30:4. And the
following words (Jer_16:16) may be understood as a promise; God will send for fishers
and hunters, the Medes and Persians, that shall find them out in the countries where
they are scattered, and send them back to their own land; or Zerubbabel, and others of
their own nation, who should fish them out and hunt after them, to persuade them to
return; or whatever instruments the Spirit of God made use of to stir up their spirits to
go up, which at first they were backward to do. They began to nestle in Babylon; but, as
an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters over her young, so God did by them, Zec_2:7.
2. Their deliverance out of Babylon should, upon some accounts, be more illustrious
and memorable than their deliverance out of Egypt was. Both were the Lord's doing and
marvellous in their eyes; both were proofs that the Lord liveth and were to be kept in
everlasting remembrance, to his honour, as the living God; but the fresh mercy shall be
so surprising, so welcome, that it shall even abolish the memory of the former. Not but
that new mercies should put us in mind of old ones, and give us occasion to renew our
thanksgivings for them; yet because we are tempted to think that the former days were
better than these, and to ask, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? as if
God's arm had waxed short, and to cry up the age of miracles above the later ages, when
mercies are wrought in a way of common providence, therefore we are allowed here
comparatively to forget the bringing of Israel out of Egypt as a deliverance outdone by
that out of Babylon. That was done by might and power, this by the Spirit of the Lord of
hosts, Zec_4:6. In this there was more of pardoning mercy (the most glorious branch of
divine mercy) than in that; for their captivity in Babylon had more in it of the
punishment of sin than their bondage in Egypt; and therefore that which comforts Zion
in her deliverance out of Babylon is this, that her iniquity is pardoned, Isa_40:2. Note,
God glorifies himself, and we must glorify him, in those mercies that have no miracles in
them, as well as in those that have. And, though the favours of God to our fathers must
53

54. not be forgotten, yet those to ourselves in our own day we must especially give thanks
for.
JAMISON, "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, Jer_
16:13, Jer_16:17, Jer_16:18, proves (Jer_23:7, Jer_23:8; Isa_43:18).
CALVIN, "Jeremiah seems here to promise a return to the Jews; and so the passage
is commonly expounded, as though a consolation is interposed, in which the faithful
alone are concerned. But I consider the passage as mixed, that the Prophet, in part,
speaks in severe terms of the dreadful exile which he foretells, and that he in part
blends some consolation; but the latter subject seems to me to he indirectly referred
to by the Prophet. I therefore think this to be an amplification of what he had said.
This is to be kept in mind. He had said, “I will expel you from this land, and will
send you to a land unknown to you and to your fathers.” Now follows a
circumstance which increased the grievousness of exile: they knew how cruel was
that servitude from which God had delivered their fathers. Their condition was
worse than hundred deaths, when they were driven to their servile works; and also,
when all justice was denied them, and when their offspring were from the womb put
to death. As then they knew how cruelly their fathers had been treated by the
Egyptians, the comparison he states more fully shewed what a dreadful punishment
awaited them, for their redemption would be much more incredible.
We now perceive what the Prophet meant, as though he had said, “Ye know from
what your fathers came forth, even from a brazen furnace, as it is said elsewhere,
and as it were from the depth of death, so that that redemption ought to be
remembered to the end of the world; but God will now cast you into an abyss deeper
than that of Egypt from which your fathers were delivered; and when from thence
he will redeem you, it will be a miracle far more wonderful to your posterity, so that
it will almost extinguish, or at least obscure the memory of the first redemption: It
will not then be said any more, Live does Jehovah, who brought the children of
Israel from Egypt, for that Egyptian captivity was far more endurable than what
this latter shall be; for ye shall be plunged as it were into the infernal regions; and
when God shall rescue you from thence, it will be a work far more wonderful.” This
I consider to be the real meaning of the Prophet. (165)
Yet his object was at the same time indirectly to give them some hope of their future
redemption; but this he did not do avowedly. We ought then to regard what the
Prophet had in view, even to strike the Jews, as I have said, with terror, so that they
might know that there was an evil nigh at hand more grievous than what their
fathers suffered in Egypt, who yet had been most cruelly oppressed. Then their
former liberation would be rendered obscure and not celebrated as before, though it
was nevertheless an evidence of the wonderful power of God.
54

55. TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:14 Therefore, 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;
Ver. 14. Therefore. behold.] Or, Notwithstanding, scil., these grievous threatenings
and extreme desolations. Thus the Lord still remembereth his remnant, and the
covenant made with them. Ministers also must comfort the precious, as well as
threaten the vile and vicious. Evangelizatum, non maledictum missus es: laudo
zelum, modo non desideretur mansuetudo, said Oecolampadius to Farellus in a
certain epistle - Thou wert sent to preach gospel, and not law only; to pour off as
well as wine into wounded consciences. I commend thy zeal, so it be tempered with
"meekness of wisdom."
That it shall no more be said,] i.e., Not so much be said: the lustre of this deliverance
shall in some sort dim the lustre of that, but both must be perpetually celebrated.
ELLICOTT, "Verse 14-15
(14, 15) Behold, the days come . . .—Judgment and mercy are tempered in the
promise. Here the former is predominant. Afterwards, in Jeremiah 23:5-8, where it
is connected with the hope of a personal Deliverer, the latter gains the ascendant. As
yet the main thought is that the Egyptian bondage shall be as a light thing compared
with that which the people will endure in the “land of the north,” i.e., in that of the
Chaldæans; so that, when they return, their minds will turn to their deliverance
from it, rather than to the Exodus from Egypt, as an example of the mercy and
might of Jehovah. Then once again, and in a yet higher degree, it should be seen that
man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.
COFFMAN, "ISRAEL'S RESTORATION PROPHESIED
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As
Jehovah liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As
Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north,
and from all the countries whither he had driven them. And I will bring them again
into their land that I gave unto their fathers."
This wonderful promise of the restoration of Israel belongs right here where it
stands in the Bible. We reject Ash's statement that, "There is good reason to believe
that this oracle was inserted by an editor."[18] The alleged reason for this opinion
was given as follows, "It is intrusive in subject matter and flow of thought";[19] but
this is no sufficient reason for denying the authorship of Jeremiah in the giving of
this prophecy.
As Dummelow pointed out, this device of throwing in a bright and encouraging
prophecy right in the middle of very discouraging and gloomy prophecies
corresponds exactly with Jeremiah's pattern of writing throughout the prophecy.
55

56. "See Jeremiah 3:14; 4:27; 5:10; 5:18; 37:22; 30:3; and 32:27."[20]
The thing that confuses some writers is the foolish critical rule that denies the
authenticity of this sacred pattern; but the pattern is not only found throughout the
Old Testament, but likewise in the New Testament, where Jesus prophesied heaven
and hell in the same breath.
As the Dean of Canterbury put it, "There is no reason for regarding these verses as
an interpolation."[21]
Harrison likewise declared that it is not necessary to regard these verses as
displaced. "All of the pre-exilic prophets interspersed their denunciations with
expectations of a brighter future. See Joel 3:18-21; Amos 9:11-15, etc."[22]
"That brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north ..." (Jeremiah
16:15). This implies that the second bringing up of Israel from captivity will
outshine God's bringing them up from Egypt. "But just as this promised
deliverance will excel the earlier one, so much greater will the affliction of Israel be
in the projected second captivity."[23]
That something more than a mere return of captives from Babylon is meant here
was discerned by Jamieson: "Although the return from Babylon is primarily meant,
the `gathering from all lands' shows that the return from Babylon was the salvation
of Israel in only a limited sense."[24] It appears to this writer that there are
overtones in the passage of the conversion of the Gentiles. See under Jeremiah
16:20.
COKE, "Jeremiah 16:14. Therefore, behold, the days come, &c.— Besides, lo! the
days come, saith the Lord, &c. Houbigant. It may hence seem, that God's intent was,
not only that they should consider their last deliverance by Cyrus to have been as
much the effect of his providence, as was the rescuing of their fathers from the
power of Pharaoh; but likewise that they were to consider the law of Moses,
according to the interpretation which he had put upon it, and the alteration that he
had made by the prophets, as preparatory to the introduction of a better covenant.
See Durell's Parallel Prophecies, p. 226.
PARKER, " Larger Providences
Jeremiah 16:14-15
Thus epochs are made; thus new dates are introduced into human history; thus the
less is merged in the greater; the little judgment is lost in the great judgment, and
the mercy that once appeared to be so great seems to be quite small compared with
the greater mercy that has healed and blessed our life. This is the music and this is
the meaning of the passage. Once the great thought was the Egyptian deliverance:
how marvellous, how unexpected, how mighty was the arm of the Lord! how
56

57. Pharaoh trembled under the stroke of the unseen sword! For a long time that
thought held dominion over the minds of the people; but there came a period when
it was scarcely to be named by reason of the mightier deliverance, the more
surprising and startling liberation, the return of the people from exile, harder in its
oppressions and endurances than ever had been known in the reckoned history of
mankind. The passage may be read in either of two ways: either as referring to one
judgment greater than another, or to one mercy greater than another: both readings
would be right; it is better not to separate them, but to combine them, and out of
their united strength to draw this lesson, that God is always making new and larger
epochs, always developing his providences on new and larger scales, always
surprising the universe with new manifestations of his power and glory. The case in
Egypt was bad enough; the Israelites had enough to suffer there; they thought it
impossible that anything severer could ever befall their poor lives; they supposed
themselves to be in extremity of distress: yet Egyptian experience was forgotten.
What is experience worth? It is worth exactly what we make of it; it will not follow
us and insist upon being looked at and estimated and applied; it Isaiah , so to say,
either a negative or a positive possession; we can make it either, according to the
exercise of our will and inclination. Some men have a gift of forgetting all their holy,
sacred, instructive past; they have no yesterday, even in the sense of having a grave
in which they have buried many a tormenting memory; yesterday is not a grave, it is
a simple land of forgetfulness, a section so to say of oblivion; it does not grow fruits
and flowers of today"s nourishment and suggestion and stimulus, it is a forgotten
nightmare. Other men live on their experience; they fall back upon it and say, What
wonders were wrought for me years ago! They bring up all their yesterdays and
turn them into a phalanx of helpers, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped me, and
he hath not helped me for a hundred days that he may desert me on the hundred-
and-first; every help he has given lies on the road to final triumph. Set the helps in
order, in historical and moral sequence, they all go in one line, and the line
terminates only in victory—that is to say, in heaven. How often we vow not to forget
our experience; yet it is stolen from us in the nighttime, and we awake in the
morning empty-handed, empty-minded, beggared to the uttermost point of
destitution. We write our vows in water: who can make any impression on the
ocean? whole fleets have passed over the sea, not a track is left behind where the
waves were sundered; they roll together again, as if with emulous energy they seek
to obliterate the transient mark of the intrusive ships. It is so with ourselves. We
have forgotten even our friends; whilst we are waiting for their next benefaction we
have forgotten their last. Let no man think he has sounded the whole depth of
God"s providence in this matter of punishment or of benediction and blessing.
History has recorded nothing yet; history is getting its pen ready for the real
registration of divine ministry in human affairs. No judgment has yet befallen the
world worth naming compared with the judgment that may at any moment be
revealed. They say that the earth was once drenched and drowned: it was but a
sprinkling of water compared with the infinite cataract that God could pour down.
We have seen streamlets, little silver rills of water trickling down the green hillsides:
we have not seen the hidden floods. Do not tempt them: there they are, locked up
amid the rocks of eternity. What God could do if he pleased, if his anger were
57

58. excited! "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Do not say we
have had the rain, and there is no more to fall. There is a flood which no ark could
ride. They say that once the clouds were shaken by invisible hands, and there came
out of them fire and brimstone exceeding hot, exceeding much, and the whole cities
were burnt up and left in hot ashes, as if God had initialled them in sign of
disapproval. We know nothing about God"s fire, we cannot understand the full
judgment of the Most High: what we have seen is a spark, a little spluttering spark,
one little hot cinder or speck of white ash: the great fire burns in the volcanoes
unseen; at any moment those volcanoes may be let loose, and lava may fall upon a
condemned universe. Do not mock God; do not defy him or tempt him: what you
have had is but the sting of a whip; he could smite you with a thong of scorpions.
Rather say, God pity us, God spare us; remember that we are but dust; a wind that
cometh for a little time and then passeth away smite us not in thine hot anger, O
loving One; in wrath remember mercy. We do not know what plagues God could
send upon the earth. He could change our language, so that we should not know the
speech of father, mother, child, the familiar tongue that filled home with music; as
for our skin, how he could scorch it, and blotch it, and fill it with uncleanness, and
make us afraid of one another as men might stand aghast in the presence of the
risen but unspeaking dead. Again the lesson comes upon us: Be not presumptuous
against the divine government; do not say, God cannot do this, or send down that
judgment; if he forbare, it is because his mercy restrains, not because his judgment
is impotent.
Yet God can seldom, perhaps never, speak of judgment alone. He has no interest in
that grim theme; he does not want to speak about it; judgment is his strange work,
mercy is his peculiar delight. Yet judgment must have some place in human history;
the ministry of fear cannot be dismissed. It would be idle sentiment that desired
always to see nothing but morning dew, or noontide light, and feel nothing but
summer zephyrs, benedictions with wings, coming lightly, silently from above to
bless the world. Such a desire would spring from ignorance, and not from a
philosophical or wise conception of the relation and purpose of things. We must
have the whip; we must have the prison. Society has found that out in its own
civilisation, which it claims to be a piece of its own philosophy. Society has
elaborated a civilisation. What have we in that civilisation? A heaven and a hell.
You cannot get rid of the Biblical lines and distributions of things. You have reward
and punishment; you have a benediction pronounced by paternal or pastoral voice,
holy, sweet, noble in dignity; and you have denunciation, sentencing to darkness,
solitude, or sharp penalty of other kinds. Even in society you have reward and
punishment; so in the great society which God is building up for himself, and
therefore for itself in the largest sense of the term, we have judgment as well as
mercy—indeed, we could have no mercy were there no judgment. Mercy is a night-
child; mercy wanders out most eagerly at midnight; when it is darkest mercy is
busiest; when our moments are fewest mercy invests herself with her chief
eloquence and her noblest persuasiveness, and begs us to surrender and return. So
in this connection the exile is to end. In the twenty-third chapter of this prophecy
and the seventh verse we have almost identical words, but they take a specific term,
58

59. for one is promised by name ( Jeremiah 23:5): "Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth." Not only is there a
promise, there is a predicted Saviour, a Prayer of Manasseh , the Son of God, who is
able and willing to work out this mighty deliverance, and able to cause the Israelites
to return from the north and be liberated from the hand of tyranny, a hand so
mighty that the pressure of the hand of Pharaoh seemed gentleness itself. History
has always been waiting for this man. The Old Testament is a book of discontent; it
never falls into peaceful rhythm until the prophets have said that One was coming
who should rule all things in righteousness and mercy. "Unto us a child is barn,
unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name
shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace." Continue the cataract of nomenclature until you have brought into
it every word significant of majesty, dignity, tenderness, outvying and outstripping
the tenderness of shepherd and nurse and mother.
By a natural accommodation of the passage, we may be led into quite another line of
thinking and illustration: "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no
more be said... but"; and between these words we may put in our own experience
and our own commentaries upon life and destiny. Thus: Behold, the days come that
it shall no more be said that we have a Creator, but we have a Redeemer. Men shall
not talk about creation. There are some men who are content to talk about one
infinitesimal speck of creation; they have not learned the higher philosophy, the
fuller Wisdom of Solomon , the riper, vaster law. They are gathering what they can
with their hands; they are first the admirers, secondly the devotees, and thirdly the
victims of the microscope. They have made an idol of that piece of glazed brass; they
who mock the heathen for worshipping ivory and stone and tree and sun may
perhaps be creating a little idol of their own. Behold, the days come when men shall
no longer talk about the body, but about the soul. It is time we had done with
physiology. If we have not mastered the body, what poor scholars we have been!
And yet how far men are from having mastered it in the sense of being able to heal
it! If men knew as much about the healing of the body as they do about what ails the
body, how extremely able and useful they would be! But the doctor is the first man
to say, We can tell you what the matter Isaiah , but—we will see you again
tomorrow. God keeps the true healing with himself. He has shown us a plant or two
whose juices we can cause to exude for our momentary healing, but he has not
shown us where grows the plant that holds in it the juice of physical immortality.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when men shall no more talk about human
deliverance, or deliverance from human extremity, but they shall talk about
liberation from diabolic captivity; they shall say they have been loosed from their
sins, they have been disimprisoned and set at liberty as to the dominion of their
passions and desires and appetences; they shall speak about the higher
emancipation, and everywhere men shall be eloquent about the Deliverer who drew
the soul from Egyptian and Chaldean tyranny, and gave it liberty and joy in the
Holy Ghost. The whole subject of human speech shall be changed; men shall not
talk about Egypt, but about Canaan; they shall not talk about the law, but about the
59

60. higher law; they shall not talk about the outward, but about the inward. Thus dates
are introduced into human history. You do not believe in Jesus Christ? Then why
do you date your letters by his birth? Why not be an infidel out and out, and make a
date of your own—say from the day when you began to illumine the world. That
would make a striking date at the top of a letter: why not be a thorough infidel, a
downright disbeliever, a thorough-paced anti-Christian? Why do you borrow a
date? Why do you dip your pen, and write part of the Bible at the head of every
letter? It is thus that new epochs are made; it is thus that reluctant homage is paid
by men who would gladly rub out with one hand what they write with the other.
The time will come when we shall not talk about Saturday, but about Sunday. For
thousands of years men spoke of Saturday and called that the Sabbath; they had a
creation-Sabbath, they looked around them and said, All these things we are told
were finished, and God rested on the seventh day, and the seventh day we keep in
thankful memorial of the completion of these things we see overhead and underfoot.
It was a poor Sabbath; it was all the world could do at that time. Now men forget
creation in redemption, and they say when speaking with Christian hearts and
expressive piety, Christ the Lord is risen today.
What is the sun? nothing; even the scientific men have found that out: it is only like
everything else we see, a development of a tuft of fire-cloud; nobody knowing where
it came from, or where it is going to. Philosophy has made a doormat of the
universe, and has wiped its feet upon that Matthew , and then sat down upon
nothing. It is a poor issue, it is a miserable catastrophe: but the Christian, say of him
what you may, comes with a noble poem, if not with a noble revelation; he says to
the nations, To-day we were redeemed; today for the first time the word Liberty was
spoken to us with its fullest emphasis and its divinest meaning; today a charter was
handed to us which we can so use as to make the whole world green with celestial
verdure, beautiful with supernal summer. The man who speaks that message ought
to speak truly; the words have music enough in them to be divine; the declaration so
touches the spirit as to constrain the spirit to say, Well, would God it were true!
Some men have accepted it in its full truthfulness, and today they say, It doth not yet
appear what we shall be, but we have a great promise hidden in our hearts; one day
we shall see him who did this, and we shall be like him because the sight of his
beauty shall transfigure us into a kindred loveliness. The time will come when men
will not speak about being born, but about being "born again." Your birthday was
your deathday,—or only the other aspect of it. Date your born-again day from the
beginning, the morning of your immortality. Drop the lower theme, seize the higher;
dismiss the noise, and entreat the music to take full possession of your nature.
Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord, when men shall no longer talk about prayer,
but about praise. The old prayer days will be over; they were needful as part of our
experience and education, but the time will come when prayer will be lost in praise;
the time will come when work will be so easy as to have in it the throb and joy of
music; the time will come when it will be easy to live, for life will carry no burden
and know the strain of no care; the days of anxiety will be ended, solicitude will be a
forgotten word, and the companionship of God and his angels shall constitute our
heaven. We must now praise, we must now suffer, we must now work; but all these
60

61. things, rightly done, lie on the road towards a fruition in which they shall be
forgotten, not forgotten in any sense suggesting unthankfulness, but forgotten as
men forget March in June, as men forget the grain of corn in the golden head of
wheat; forgotten as men might forget the little helpless infant when he has grown
into a giant, a hero, a man of might Thus the law is not abrogated, but fulfilled.
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:14-15
“Therefore, behold, the days come, the word of YHWH,
That it will no more be said,
‘As YHWH lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
But, ‘As YHWH lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the
north,
And from all the countries to which he had driven them.’
And I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.”
Jeremiah’s confidence that YHWH would one day restore His people to the land
(something which is a feature of Jeremiah, compare Jeremiah 3:14-19; Jeremiah
4:27; Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 5:18; Jeremiah 23:3 ff., Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah
29:10; Jeremiah 30-33 and indeed of all the prophets) comes out here, but that is not
the main emphasis of the verses. The main emphasis, continuing the theme of this
passage, is that just as so long ago they had suffered so dreadfully in ‘the land of
Egypt’, so now would they suffer even more dreadfully in ‘the land of the North’.
Indeed so dreadful would be the things that they were about to experience that the
awfulness of Egypt would be forgotten. This emphasis is brought out by the
‘therefore’ (as with the ‘therefore in Jeremiah 16:13) and by the whole tenor of the
verses. It is an explanation of the consequences of their sins.
A great deal of the worship in the Temple was based on the fact of the deliverance
from Egypt, and many of the Psalms emphasised the thought. It was seen as the very
basis of the nation’s existence. But so horrifying would be what they were about to
experience that that emphasis would in the end change into how God had delivered
them from their awful exiles among the nations in the North.
Nevertheless having said that, the verses do also bring out Jeremiah’s confidence
that in the end God would once again deliver His people, so much so that all their
gratitude would in future be levelled at that fact. For this time the deliverance
would not just be of one people in one place, but of people in many places who
would return back to God and be brought back to the land which God had given
them, something fulfilled in the return of the people after the Babylonian exile and
onwards, which resulted in the establishment of an independent Jewish Kingdom
61

62. composed of people from all the tribes of Israel, a return which prepared the way
for the coming of Jesus Christ (it does not therefore await fulfilment).
It is an indication of how deeply rooted it was in Jeremiah’s thinking that God
would one day restore His people that he is able to treat it here as an obvious
assumption.
BI, "I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Larger providences
Thus epochs are made; thus new dates are introduced into human history; thus the less
is merged in the greater; the little judgment is lost in the great judgment, and the mercy
that once appeared to be so great seems to be quite small compared with the greater
mercy that has healed and blessed our life. This is the music, and this is the meaning of
the passage. What is experience worth? It is worth exactly what we make of it; it will not
follow us, and insist upon being looked at and estimated and applied; it is, so to say,
either a negative or a positive possession; we can make it either, according to the
exercise of our will and inclination. How often we vow not to forget our experience; yet it
is stolen from us in the night time, and we awake in the morning empty-handed, empty-
minded, beggared to the uttermost point of destitution. We write our vows in water; who
can make any impression on the ocean? whole fleets have passed over the sea, not a
track is left behind where the waves were sundered; they roll together again, as if with
emulous energy they seek to obliterate the transient mark of the intrusive ships. It is so
with ourselves. Let no man think he has sounded the whole depth of God’s providence in
this matter of punishment or of benediction and blessing. History has recorded nothing
yet; history is getting its pen ready for the real registration of Divine ministry in human
affairs. No judgment has yet befallen the world worth naming, compared with the
judgment that may at any moment be revealed. Do not mock God; do not defy Him or
tempt Him: what you have had is but the sting of a whip; He could smite you with a
thong of scorpions. Rather say, God pity us, God spare us; remember that we are but
dust; a wind that cometh for a little time and then passeth away: smite us not in Thine
hot anger, O loving One; in wrath remember mercy. We do not know what plagues God
could send upon the earth. Be not presumptuous against the Divine government; do not
say, God cannot do this, or send down that judgment; if He forbear, it is because His
mercy restrains, not because His judgment is impotent. By a natural accommodation of
the passage, we may be led into quite another line of thinking and illustration: “Behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said . . . but”; and between these
words we may put in our own experience, and our own commentaries upon life and
destiny. Thus: Behold, the days come that it shall no more be said that we have a
Creator, but we have a Redeemer. Men shall not talk about creation. There are some men
who are content to talk about one infinitesimal speck of creation; they have not learned
the higher philosophy, the fuller wisdom, the riper, vaster law. They are gathering what
they can with their hands; they are first the admirers, secondly the devotees, and thirdly
the victims of the microscope. They have made an idol of that piece of glazed brass; they
who mock the heathen for worshipping ivory and stone and tree and sun, may perhaps
be creating a little idol of their own. Behold, the days come when men shall no longer
talk about the body, but about the soul. It is time we had done with physiology. If we
have not mastered the body, what poor scholars we have been! And yet how far men are
from having mastered it in the sense of being able to heal it! Behold, the days come, saith
62

63. the Lord, when men shall no more talk about human deliverance, or deliverance from
human extremity, but they shall talk about liberation from diabolic captivity; they shall
say they have been loosed from their sins, they have been disimprisoned and set at
liberty as to the dominion of their passions and desires and appetences; they shall speak
about the higher emancipation, and everywhere men shall be eloquent about the
Deliverer who drew the soul from Egyptian and Chaldean tyranny, and gave it liberty
and joy in the Holy Ghost. The whole subject of human speech shall be changed; men
shall not talk about Egypt, but about Canaan; they shall not talk about the law, but about
the higher law; they shall not talk about the outward, but about the inward. Thus dates
are introduced into human history. The time will come when men will not speak about
being born, but about being “born again.” Your birthday was your deathday,—or only the
other aspect of it. Date your born-again day from the beginning, the morning of your
immortality. Drop the lower theme, seize the higher; dismiss the noise, and entreat the
music to take full possession of your nature. Behold, the day is come, saith the Lord,
when men shall no longer talk about prayer, but about praise. The old prayer days will be
over; they were needful as part of our experience and education, but the time will come
when prayer will be lost in praise; the time will come when work will be so easy as to
have in it the throb and joy of music; the time will come when it will be easy to live, for
life will carry no burden, and know the strain of no care; the days of anxiety will be
ended, solicitude will be a forgotten word, and the companionship of God and His angels
shall constitute our heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God’s care over His people
A crew of explorers penetrate far within the Arctic circles in search of other expeditions
that had gone before them—gone and never returned. Failing to find the missing men,
and yet unwilling to abandon hope, they leave supplies of food carefully covered with
stones, on some prominent headlands, with the necessary intimations graven for safety
on plates of brass. If the original adventurers survive, and on their homeward journey,
faint, yet pursuing, fall in with these treasures, at once hidden and revealed, the food,
when found, will seem to those famished men the smaller blessing. The proof which the
food supplies that their country cares for them is sweeter than the food. So the proof
that God cares for us is placed beyond a doubt; the “unspeakable gift” of His Son to be
our Saviour should melt any dark suspicion to the contrary from our hearts. (W. Arnot.)
15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives,
who brought the Israelites up out of the land of
the north and out of all the countries where he
63

64. had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the
land I gave their ancestors.
CLARKE, "The land of the north - Chaldea: and their deliverance thence will be
as remarkable as the deliverance of their fathers from the land of Egypt.
GILL, "But the Lord liveth,.... Or they shall swear by the living Lord; or declare his
power, as the Targum: "that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the
north"; that is, from Babylon, which lay north of Judea. The Jews (d) gather from hence,
that the land of Israel was higher than all other lands, because it is said, that "brought
up", or "caused to ascend"; as out of the land of Egypt as before, so out of all other lands.
The meaning is, that the deliverance from the Babylonish captivity was a greater blessing
and mercy than the deliverance out of Egypt; the hardships they endured in Babylon
being in some respects greater than those they endured in Egypt; and especially the
favour being recent, and fresh upon their mind, it would swallow up the remembrance of
the former mercy; that would be comparatively forgotten, and not be so frequent and
common in the mouths of men; so great would be the sense of this deliverance;
wherefore this prophecy both expresses the grievousness of their captivity in Babylon, as
exceeding their bondage in Egypt, and the greatness of their salvation from it; when they
should be not only brought out of Babylon, but also
from all the lands whither he had driven them; from Egypt, Media, and Persia,
and other places: or, "whither they were driven": by the kings of the earth, as Kimchi
interprets it; though it is certain the Lord's hand was in it; it was according to his will,
and by his providence, that they were scattered about among the nations:
and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers;
which had its accomplishment at their return from the Babylonish captivity; and will be
more fully accomplished in the latter day, when the Jews shalt be converted, and return
to their own land. Kimchi says this refers to the days of the Messiah, and the gathering of
the captives; and some following passages manifestly belong to Gospel times. So Jarchi
and Abarbinel understand this and the following of the days of the Messiah.
JAMISON, "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 Jer_24:6; see on Jer_30:3; see on Jer_
32:15).
64

65. CALVIN, "But, it will be rather said, Live does Jehovah, for he has brought his
people from the land of the north; and for this reason, because there will be less
hope remaining for you, when the Chaldeans shall subdue and scatter you like a
body torn asunder, and when the name of Israel shall be extinguished, when the
worship of God shall be subverted and the Temple destroyed. When therefore all
things shall appear to be past remedy, this captivity shall be much more dreadful
than that by which your fathers had been oppressed. Therefore, when God restores
you, it will be a miracle much more remarkable. And that the Prophet took occasion
to give thom some hope of God’s favor, may be gathered from the end of the verse,
when he says, And I will make them to return to their own land: but the copulative
ought to be rendered as a conditional particle, as though he had said, When I shall
restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers It now follows —
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:15 But, 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.
Ver. 15. But the Lord liveth, &c.] Or, "Let the Lord live, and let the God of our
salvation be exalted." [Psalms 18:46] {See Trapp on "Psalms 18:46"} How much
more, then, should our redemption from sin, death, and hell by Jesus Christ obscure
all temporal deliverance! See for this Jeremiah 23:7-8 cf. Jeremiah 3:16.
PULPIT, "Jeremiah 16:14, Jeremiah 16:15
The text of these verses occurs in a more characteristic form and in a bettor
connection in Jeremiah 23:7, Jeremiah 23:8. The connection here would be
improved by insorting the passage before Jeremiah 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. Isaiah 10:23, Isaiah 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 Jeremiah 23:18. How can the prophet say, "And first I will
recompense their iniquity double," when Jeremiah 23:16, Jeremiah 23:17 contain a
description of this very double recompense?
16 “But now I will send for many fishermen,”
declares the Lord, “and they will catch them.
After that I will send for many hunters, and they
65

66. will hunt them down on every mountain and hill
and from the crevices of the rocks.
BARNES, "The scattering of the people is to be like that of hunted animals, of which
but few escape, the ancient method of hunting being to enclose a large space with
beaters and nets, and so drive everything within it to some place where it was destroyed.
The destruction of the whole male population was one of the horrible customs of ancient
warfare, and the process is called in Herodotus “sweeping the country with a drag-net.”
The same authority tells us that this method could only be effectually carried out on an
island. Literally, understood, the fishers are the main armies who, in the towns and
fortresses, capture the people in crowds as in a net, while the hunters are the light-
armed troops, who pursue the fugitives over the whole country, and drive them out of
their hiding places as hunters track out their game.
CLARKE, "The scattering of the people is to be like that of hunted animals, of which
but few escape, the ancient method of hunting being to enclose a large space with
beaters and nets, and so drive everything within it to some place where it was destroyed.
The destruction of the whole male population was one of the horrible customs of ancient
warfare, and the process is called in Herodotus “sweeping the country with a drag-net.”
The same authority tells us that this method could only be effectually carried out on an
island. Literally, understood, the fishers are the main armies who, in the towns and
fortresses, capture the people in crowds as in a net, while the hunters are the light-
armed troops, who pursue the fugitives over the whole country, and drive them out of
their hiding places as hunters track out their game.
GILL, "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them,.... Which some understand of the Egyptians, who lived much on fish, and
were much employed in catching them, to which the allusion is thought to be; but rather
the Chaldeans are intended, whom God, by the secret instinct of his providence, brought
up against the Jews; who besieged Jerusalem, and enclosed them in it, and took them as
fishes in a net; see Hab_1:14, though some interpret this, and what follows, of the
deliverance of the Jews by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, who searched for them
in all places, and sent them into their own land; or of Zerubbabel, and others with him,
who used all means to persuade the Jews in the captivity to go with them, and build the
house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and there are not wanting others, who by the "fishers"
think the apostles are meant; who were fishers by occupation, and whom Christ made
fishers of men, and sent forth to cast and spread the net of the Gospel in the several
parts of Judea, for the conversion of some of that people; see Mat_4:18,
and after will l send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every
66

67. mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks; either the
same persons, the Chaldeans, are meant here, as before; who, as they should slay those
they took in Jerusalem with the edge of the sword, as fishes taken in a net are killed, or
presently die, which is the sense of the Targum, and other Jewish commentators; so
those that escaped and fled to mountains, hills, and holes of the rocks, to hide
themselves, should be pursued by them, and be found out, taken, and carried captive: or,
the Romans (e). So Nimrod, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel, being a tyrant
and an oppressor, is called a mighty hunter, Gen_10:8.
JAMISON, "send for — translate, “I will send many”; “I will give the commission to
many” (2Ch_17:7).
fishers ... hunters — successive invaders of Judea (Amo_4:2; Hab_1:14, Hab_1:15).
So “net” (Eze_12:13). As to “hunters,” see Gen_10:9; Mic_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, Eze_47:10). 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 (Mat_4:19; Luk_5:10; Act_2:41; Act_
4:4); compare here Jer_16:19, “the Gentiles shall come unto thee” (2Co_12:16).
K&D, "Further account of the punishment foretold, with the reasons for the same. -
Jer_16:16. "Behold, I send for many fishers, saith Jahve, who shall fish them, and after
will I send fore many hunters, who shall hunt them from every mountain and every
hill, and out of the clefts of the rock. Jer_16:17. For mine eyes are upon all their ways,
they are not hidden from me, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes. Jer_
16:18. And first, I requite double their iniquity and their sin, because they defiled my
land with the carcases of their detestables, and with their abominations they have filled
mine inheritance. Jer_16:19. Jahveh, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in
the day of trouble! Unto Thee shall the peoples come from the ends of the earth and say:
But lies have our fathers inherited, vanity, and amidst them none profiteth at all. Jer_
16:20. Shall a man make gods to himself, which are yet no gods? Jer_16:21. Therefore,
behold, I make them to know this once, I make them to know my hand and my might,
and they shall know that my name is Jahveh."
Jer_16:16-17
Jer_16:16-18 are a continuation of the threatening in Jer_16:13, that Judah is to be
cast out, but are directly connected with Jer_16:15, and elucidate the expulsion into
many lands there foretold. The figures of the fishers and hunters do not bespeak the
gathering again and restoration of the scattered people, as Ven. would make out, but the
carrying of Judah captive out of his land. This is clear from the second of the figures, for
the hunter does not gather the animals together, but kills them; and the reference of the
verses is put beyond a doubt by Jer_16:17 and Jer_16:18, and is consequently admitted
by all other comm. The two figures signify various kinds of treatment at the hands of
enemies. The fishers represent the enemies that gather the inhabitants of the land as in a
net, and carry them wholesale into captivity (cf. Amo_4:2; Hab_1:15). The hunters,
67

68. again, are those who drive out from their hiding-places, and slay or carry captive such as
have escaped from the cities, and have taken refuge in the mountains and ravines; cf.
Jer_4:29, Jdg_6:2 1Sa_13:6. In this the idea is visibly set forth that none shall escape
the enemy. ‫ה‬ַ‫ל‬ָ‫שׁ‬ c. ְ‫ל‬ pers., send for one, cause him to come, as in Jer_14:3 (send for
water), so that there is no call to take ְ‫ל‬ according to the Aram. usage as sign of the
accusative, for which we can cite in Jeremiah only the case in Jer_40:2. The form ‫ים‬ִ‫ָג‬‫וּ‬ ַ‫דּ‬
(Chet.) agrees with Eze_47:10, while the Keri, ‫ים‬ִ‫ָג‬‫יּ‬ ַ‫,דּ‬ is a formation similar to ‫ים‬ ִ‫ָד‬‫יּ‬ַ‫.צ‬ In
the second clause ‫ים‬ ִ‫בּ‬ ַ‫ר‬ is, like the numerals, made to precede the noun; cf. Pro_31:29;
Psa_89:51. - For the Lord knows their doings and dealings, and their transgressions are
not hid from Him; cf. Jer_23:24; Jer_32:19. ‫ל‬ַ‫ע‬ for ‫ל‬ ֶ‫,א‬ indicating the direction. Their
ways are not the ways of flight, but their course of action.
CALVIN, "Some explain this of the apostles; but it is wholly foreign to the subject:
they think that Jeremiah pursues here what he had begun to speak of; for they
doubt not but that he had been speaking in the last verse of a future but a near
deliverance, in order to raise the children of God into a cheerful confidence. But I
have already rejected this meaning, for their exposition is not well founded. But if it
be conceded that the Prophet had prophesied of the liberation of the people, it does
not follow that God goes on with the same subject, for he immediately returns to
threatenings, as ye will see; and the allegory also is too remote when he speaks of
hunters and fishers; and as mention is made of ‘hills and mountains, it appears still
more clearly that the Prophet is threatening the Jews, and not promising them any
alleviation in their miseries. I therefore connect all these things together in a plain
manner; for, having said that the evil which the Jews would shortly have to endure
would be more grievous than the Egyptian bondage, he now adds a reason as a
confirmation, —
Behold, he says, I will send to them many fishers, that they may gather them
together on every side. He mentions fishers, as they would draw the children of
Israel from every quarter to their nets. He then compares the Chaldeans to fishers,
who would so proceed through the whole land as to leave none except some of the
most ignoble, whom also they afterwards took away; and to fishers he adds hunters.
Some understand by fishers armed enemies, who by the sword slew the conquered;
and they consider that the hunters were those who were disposed to spare the life of
the many, and to drive them into exile; but this appears too refined. Simple is the
view which I have stated, that the Chaldeans were called fishers, because they would
empty the whole land of its inhabitants, and that they were called hunters, because
the Jews, having been scattered here and there, and become fugitives, would yet be
found out in the recesses of hins and rocks.
The two similitudes are exceedingly suitable; for the Prophet shews that the
Chaldeans would not have much trouble in taking the Jews, inasmuch as fishers
only spread their nets; they do not arm themselves against fishes, nor is there any
need; and then all the fish they take they easily take possession of them, for there is
68

69. no resistance. Thus, then, he shews that the Chaldeans would gain an easy victory,
for they would take the Jews as fishes which are drawn into nets. This is one thing.
Then, in the second place, he says, that if they betook themselves into recesses of
mountains, that if they hid themselves in caverns or holes, their enemies would be
like hunters who follow the wild beasts in forests and in other unfrequented places;
no brambles, nor thorns, nor any obstructions prevent them from advancing, being
led on by a strong impulse; so in like manner no recesses of mountains would be
concealed from the Chaldeans, no caverns where the Jews might hide themselves,
for they would all be taken. We hence see that he confirms by two similitudes, what
he had said in a preceding verse. He afterwards adds —
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:16 Behold, 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.
Ver. 16. Behold, I will send for many fishers, &c.] scil., To enclose in their
αμφιβληστορα, large and capacious nets, whole shoals of them together. These were
the Chaldees, whom God sent for, arcano instinctu cordium, by putting it into their
hearts to come up against Jerusalem. Howbeit, some by fishers understand the
Egyptians, who lived much by fishing, and by hunters the Chaldeans. {as Genesis
10:8-9}
And they shall hunt them.] Out of all their starting holes and lurking places, as the
Romans afterwards pulled them out of their secret places, &c.
ELLICOTT, " (16) I will send for many fishers . . .—The words refer to the threat,
not to the promise. The “fishers,” as in Amos 4:2; Habakkuk 1:15, are the invading
nations, surrounding Judah and Jerusalem as with a drag-net, and allowing none to
escape. The process is described under this very name of “drag-netting” the country
by Herodotus (iii. 149, 6:31), as applied by the army of Xerxes to Samos, Chios,
Tenedos, and other islands. The application of the words either to the gathering of
the people after their dispersion or to the later work of the preachers of the Gospel
is an after-thought, having its source in our Lord’s words, “I will make you fishers
of men” (Matthew 4:19). It is, of course, possible enough that those words may have
been suggested by Jeremiah’s, the same image being used, as in the parable of
Matthew 13:47, to describe the blessing which had before presented its darker
aspect of punishment.
Hunters.—Another aspect of the same thought, pointing, so far as we can trace the
distinction between the two, to the work of the irregular skirmisher as the former
image did to that of the main body of the army: men might take refuge, as hunted
beasts might do, in the caves of the rocks, but they should be driven forth even from
these.
COFFMAN, "METAPHOR OF THE FISHERS AND THE HUNTERS
69

70. "Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them up;
and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every
mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For mine eyes are
upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face, neither is there iniquity
concealed from mine eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable
things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations."
The fishers and hunters in this passage are metaphors used to describe the
thoroughness and completeness of the Babylonian destruction of apostate Israel. All
of the sinful people will be flushed out of their hiding places, and none shall escape.
COKE, "Jeremiah 16:16. Behold, I will send for many fishers— It is common with
the sacred writers to represent enemies and oppressors under the metaphor of
fishers and hunters, because they use all the methods of open force and secret
stratagem, to make men their prey. These two similitudes imply, that the Chaldeans
should make an entire conquest of their whole land, and strip it of its riches and
inhabitants. Nothing can be more absurd than the imagination of some, that by
these fishermen are meant the apostles of Christ.
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:16
“Behold, I will send for many fishers, the word of YHWH,
And they will fish them up,
And afterward I will send for many hunters,
And they will hunt them from every mountain,
And from every hill,
And out of the clefts of the rocks.”
There would be no way of escape from their fate. Their enemy would come down on
them with the same urgency as that shown by fishermen when they were seeking to
catch their fish, and would take them up in their net. And they would follow this up,
chasing down the survivors with the same urgency and thoroughness with which
hunters pursue their prey. There will be no place of refuge. They will be hunted
from every mountain, from every hill and from the very clefts of the rocks. None
will escape.
70

71. 17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not
hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from
my eyes.
BARNES, "This chastisement arises not from caprice, but is decreed upon full
knowledge and examination of their doings.
GILL, "For mine eyes are upon all their ways,.... Not only which they may take to
hide themselves from their enemies, and where they should be directed to find them; but
their evil ways in which they walked, and which were the cause of their calamities; these,
how secret soever they were, were under the eye of God, whose eyes are in every place,
and upon all the ways of men, good and bad; though they might flatter themselves, as
wicked men sometimes do, that the Lord sees them not, and does not take notice of their
iniquities: but, that they might be assured of the contrary, it is added,
they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes;
neither their ways nor their works, their persons nor their actions, could be concealed
from the Lord; none can hide himself in secret places, that they should not be seen by
him; the darkness and the light are both alike to an omniscient God. The Targum is,
"their iniquities are not hid from before (or from, or the sight of) my Word;''
JAMISON, "For mine eyes are upon all their ways,.... Not only which they may
take to hide themselves from their enemies, and where they should be directed to find
them; but their evil ways in which they walked, and which were the cause of their
calamities; these, how secret soever they were, were under the eye of God, whose eyes
are in every place, and upon all the ways of men, good and bad; though they might flatter
themselves, as wicked men sometimes do, that the Lord sees them not, and does not take
notice of their iniquities: but, that they might be assured of the contrary, it is added,
they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes;
neither their ways nor their works, their persons nor their actions, could be concealed
from the Lord; none can hide himself in secret places, that they should not be seen by
him; the darkness and the light are both alike to an omniscient God. The Targum is,
"their iniquities are not hid from before (or from, or the sight of) my Word;''
71

72. CALVIN, "The Prophet now shews that the grievous calamity of which he had
spoken would be a just reward for the wickedness of the people; for we know that
the prophets were endued with the Spirit of God not merely that they might foretell
things to come — for that would have been very jejune; but a doctrine was
connected with their predictions. Hence the prophets not only foretold what God
would do, but at the same time added the causes. There is then now added a
doctrine as a seasoning to the prophecy; for the Prophet says that the destructiorl of
the Jews was at hand, because they had long greatly provoked the wrath of God. As
there is no end to the evasions of hypocrites, according to what we observed
yesterday, God here reminds them of his judgment, as though he had said, “This
one thing is sufficient, he knows their iniquities, and he is a fit judge; so they
contend in vain, and try in vain, to excuse or to extenuate their fault.”
Hence he says that the eyes of God were on all their ways: and he mentions all their
ways, because they had not offended only once, or in one way, but they had added
sins to sins. Nor are they hid, he says: the Prophet presses the matter on their
attention; for had he allowed their false pretences, they would have made no end of
excuses. He therefore says that their ways were not hid, nor their iniquities
concealed from the eyes of God. Now follows a confirmation —
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:17
“For my eyes are on all their ways,
They are not hid from my face,
Nor is their iniquity,
Concealed from my eyes.”
And this thoroughness would be because YHWH was aware of all their ways, and of
all their iniquity. His eyes were upon them and He saw everything. They could not
hide from His face. And what He saw was disobedience (their disobedient ways) and
iniquity.
18 I will repay them double for their wickedness
and their sin, because they have defiled my land
with the lifeless forms of their vile images and
72

73. have filled my inheritance with their detestable
idols.”
BARNES, "First - Before the return from exile.
I will recompense their iniquity ... double - The ordinary rule of the Law (Isa_
40:2 note). Sin is twofold; there is the leaving of God’s will undone, and the actual
wrongdoing. And every punishment is twofold: first, there is the loss of the blessing
which would have followed upon obedience, and secondly, the presence of actual misery.
Because they have defiled ... - Rather, “because they have profaned My land with
the carcases of their detestable things” (their lifeless and hateful idols, the very touch of
which pollutes like that of a corpse, Num_19:11); “and hare filled My inheritance with
their abominations.”
CLARKE, "The carcasses of their detestable - things - Either meaning the
idols themselves, which were only carcasses without life; or the sacrifices which were
made to them.
GILL, "And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,.... Or,
"but first I will recompense", &c. (f); meaning, before he showed favour to them, and
returned their captivity, Jer_16:15, he would punish them according to their sins; not
double to what they deserved, but to what: they were used to have, or he was used to
inflict upon them, punishing them less than their sins deserved; but now he would
reward them to the full, though not beyond the measure of justice, yet largely and
abundantly, and with rigour and severity. Some understand this of God's gathering
together all their sins and iniquities "from the beginning" (g), as they render the word;
the sins of their fathers and their own, and punishing them for them all at once; or first
their fathers' sins, and then their own, in which they imitated their fathers, and filled up
the measure of their iniquity. So the Targum,
"and I will render to the second as to the first, for everyone of both, their iniquities and
their sins.''
Because they have defiled my land; out of which he cast the Canaanites for the
same reason; and which he chose for the place of his residence and worship, and settled
the people of Israel for that purpose in it: that they might serve him in it, and not do as
the Heathens before them had done, and which yet they did; and this was what was
provoking to him.
73

74. They have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and
abominable things; with their idols, which were not only lifeless, but stinking,
loathsome, and abominable; or unclean creatures, which were sacrificed unto them; and
some think human sacrifices, the bodies of men, are meant: places of idolatrous worship
were set up everywhere in the land, and therefore it is said to be filled therewith; and it
was an aggravation of their wickedness, that this was done in a land which the Lord had
chosen for his own possession, and had given to Israel as an inheritance.
HENRY 18-21, "Their deliverance out of captivity shall be accompanied with a
blessed reformation, and they shall return effectually cured of their inclination to
idolatry, which will complete their deliverance and make it a mercy indeed. They had
defiled their own land with their detestable things, Jer_16:18. But, when they have
smarted for so doing, they shall come and humble themselves before God, Jer_16:19-21.
(1.) They shall be brought to acknowledge that their God only is God indeed, for he is a
God in need - “My strength to support and comfort me, my fortress to protect and
shelter me, and my refuge to whom I may flee in the day of affliction.” Note, Need
drives many to God who had set themselves at a distance from him. Those that slighted
him in the day of their prosperity will be glad to flee to him in the day of their affliction.
(2.) They shall be quickened to return to him by the conversion of the Gentiles: The
Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the earth; and therefore shall not we come?
Or, “The Jews, who had by their idolatries made themselves as Gentiles (so I rather
understand it), shall come to thee by repentance and reformation, shall return to their
duty and allegiance, even from the ends of the earth, from all the countries whither they
were driven.” The prophet comforts himself with the hope of this, and in a transport of
joy returns to God the notice he had given him of it: “O Lord! my strength and my
fortress, I am now easy, since thou hast given me a prospect of multitudes that shall
come to thee from the ends of the earth, both of Jewish converts and of Gentile
proselytes.” Note, Those that are brought to God themselves cannot but rejoice greatly to
see others coming to him, coming back to him. (3.) They shall acknowledge the folly of
their ancestors, which it becomes them to do, when they were smarting for the sins of
their ancestors: “Surely our fathers have inherited, not the satisfaction they promised
themselves and their children, but lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. We
are now sensible that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous worship; it did not
prove what it promised, and therefore what have we to do any more with it?” Note, It
were well if the disappointment which some have met with in the service of sin, and the
pernicious consequences of it to them, might prevail to deter others from treading in
their steps. (4.) They shall reason themselves out of their idolatry; and that reformation
is likely to be sincere and durable which results from a rational conviction of the gross
absurdity there is in sin. They shall argue thus with themselves (and it is well argued),
Should a man be such a fool, so perfectly void of the reason of a man, as to make gods to
himself, the creatures of his own fancy, the work of his own hands, when they are really
no gods? Jer_16:20. Can a man be so besotted, so perfectly lost to human
understanding, as to expect any divine blessing or favour from that which pretends to no
divinity but what it first received from him? (5.) They shall herein give honour to God,
and make it to appear that they know both his hand in his providence and his name in
his word, and that they are brought to know his name by what they are made to know of
his hand, Jer_16:21. This once, now at length, they shall be made to know that which
they would not be brought to know by all the pains the prophets took with them. Note,
So stupid are we that nothing less than the mighty hand of divine grace, known
74

75. experimentally, can make us know rightly the name of God as it is revealed to us.
4. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of this great salvation to
be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather together in one the children of God
that were scattered abroad. And this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out
of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be forgotten. To this some
apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of the gospel, who were fishers
of men, to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out in every mountain and hill,
and secure them for Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God, some from the ends of the
earth, and turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.
JAMISON, "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” (Jer_16:11, Jer_
16:12). English Version gives a good sense, “First (before ‘I bring them again into their
land’), I will doubly (that is, fully and amply, Jer_17:18; Isa_40:2) recompense.”
carcasses — not sweet-smelling sacrifices acceptable to God, but “carcasses” offered
to idols, an offensive odor to God: human victims (Jer_19:5; Eze_16:20), and unclean
animals (Isa_65:4; Isa_66:17). Maurer explains it, “the carcasses” of the idols: their
images void of sense and life. Compare Jer_16:19, Jer_16:20. Lev_26:30 favors this.
K&D, "Jer_16:18
The punishment foretold is but retribution for their sins. Because they have defiled
the land by idolatry, they shall be driven out of it. ‫ָה‬‫נ‬ ‫אשׁ‬ ִ‫,ר‬ first, is by Jerome, Hitz., Ew.,
Umbr. made to refer to the salvation promised in Jer_16:15 : first, i.e., before the
restoration of my favour spoken of in Jer_16:15, I requite double. Against this Graf has
objected, that on this view "first" would appear somewhat superfluous; and Näg., that
the manifestly intended antithesis to ‫ֶה‬‫נ‬ ְ‫שׁ‬ ִ‫מ‬ is left out of account. There is little force in
either objection. Even Näg.'s paraphrase does not do full justice to the presumed
antithesis; for if we render: "For the first time the double shall be requited, in the event
of repetition a severer standard shall be used," then the antithesis to "first" would not be
"double," but the supplied repetition of the offence. There is not the slightest hint in the
context to lead us to supply this idea; nor is there any antithesis between "first" and
"double." It is a mere assumption of the comm., which Rashi, Kimchi, Ros., Maur., etc.,
have brought into the text by the interpolation of a ‫ו‬ cop. before ‫:משׁנה‬ I requite the first
of their transgressions and the repetition of them, i.e., their earlier and their repeated
sins, or the sins committed by their fathers and by themselves, on a greater scale. We
therefore hold the reference to Jer_16:15 to be the only true one, and regard it as
corresponding both to the words before us and the context. "The double of their
iniquity," i.e., ample measure for their sins (cf. Isa_40:2; Job_11:6) by way of the
horrors of war and the sufferings of the exile. The sins are more exactly defined by:
because they defiled my land by the carcases of their detestables, i.e., their dead
detestable idols. ‫ים‬ ִ‫קּוּצ‬ ִ‫שׁ‬ ‫ת‬ ַ‫ל‬ ְ‫ב‬ִ‫נ‬ is formed according to ‫י‬ ֵ‫ר‬ְ‫ג‬ ִ‫פּ‬ , Lev_26:30, and it belongs
to "they defiled," not to "they filled," as the Masoretic accentuation puts it; for ‫א‬ֵ‫ל‬ ָ‫מ‬ is
75

76. construed, not with ְ‫בּ‬ of the thing, but with double accus.; cf. Eze_8:17; Eze_30:11, etc.
So it is construed in the last clause: With their abominations they have filled the
inheritance of Jahveh, i.e., the land of the Lord (cf. Jer_2:7). The infin. ‫ם‬ ָ‫ל‬ ְ‫לּ‬ ַ‫ח‬ is
continued by ‫אוּ‬ ְ‫ל‬ ָֽ‫מ‬ in verbo fin., as usual.
In Jer_16:19-21 we have more as to the necessity of the threatened punishment. The
prophet turns to the Lord as his defence and fortress in time of need, and utters the hope
that even the heathen may some time turn to the Lord and confess the vanity of idolatry,
since the gods which men make are no gods. To this the Lord answers in Jer_16:21, that
just therefore He must punish His idolatrous people, so that they shall feel His power
and learn to know His name.
CALVIN, "Jeremiah introduces here nothing new, but proceeds with the subject we
observed in the last verse, — that God would not deal with so much severity with
the Jews, because extreme rigor was pleasing to him, or because he had forgotten his
own nature or the covenant which he had made with Abraham, but because the
Jews had become extremely obstinate in their wickedness. As, then, he had said that
the eyes of God were on all their ways, so now he adds that he would recompense
them as they deserved.
But every word ought to be considered: He says ‫ראשונה‬ rashune, which I render
“From the beginning.” Some render it more obscurely, “at first,” — I will first
recompense them. The word means formerly, and refers to time. The Prophet then, I
have no doubt, means what I have already referred to, — that God would punish
the fathers and their children, and would thus gather into one mass their old
iniquities. We have quoted from the law that God would recompense unto the
bosom of children the sins of their fathers; and we have also quoted that declaration
of Christ,
“Come upon you shall righteous blood from Abel to Zachariah, the son of
Barachiah.” (Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51)
The Prophet now repeats the same thing, — that God, in allotting to the Jews their
reward, would collect together as it were all the iniquities which had been as it were
long buried, so that he would include the fathers and their children in one bundle,
and gather together all their sins, in order that he might consume them as it were in
one heap. In this way I explain the term “From the beginning.” (166)
He then adds, The double of their iniquities and their sins The Prophet does not
mean that there would be an excess of severity, as though God would not rightly
consider what men deserved; but “double” signifies a just and complete measure,
according to what is said in Isaiah 40:2,
“The Lord hath recompensed double for all her sins;”
that is, sufficiently and more, (satis superque) as the Latins say. There God assumes
76

77. the character of a father, and, according to his great kindness, says that the Jews
had been more than sufficiently punished. So also in this place, in speaking of
punishment, he calls that double, not what would exceed the limits of justice, but
because God would shew himself differently to them from what he had done before,
when he patiently bore with them; as though he had said, “I will to the utmost
punish them; for there will be no remission, no lenity,no mercy.” We hence see that
what is here designed is only extreme rigor, which yet was just and right; for had
God punished a hundred times more severely even those who seemed to have sinned
lightly, his justice could not have been questioned as though he had acted cruelly.
Since, the Jews, then, had in so many ways, and for so long a time, and so grievously
sinned, God could not have been thought too severe, when he rendered to them their
reward; and he calls it double because he omitted nothing in order to carry it to the
utmost severity. Probably he alludes also to the enemies as being ministers of his
vengeance, whose cruelty would be more atrocious than the Jews thought, who
imagined some slight remedies for slight sins, as we say, Il n’y faudra plus
retourner, or, tote outre.
He mentions sins and iniquities, for Jeremiah had introduced them before as
speaking thus, “What is our iniquity? and what is our sin?” Though they could not
wholly exculpate themselves, they yet continued to allege some pretences, that they
might not appear to be altogether wicked. But here God declares that they were
wholly wicked and ungodly; and he adds a confirmation, that they had polluted the
land with the carcases of their abominations The Prophet mentions a particular
thing, for had he spoken generally, the Jews would have raised a clamor and said,
that they were not conscious of being so wicked. That he might then bring the
matter home to them, he shews as it were by the finger that their sin was by no
means excusable, for they had polluted the land of God with their superstitions;
they have polluted, he says, my land He exaggerates their crime by saying, that they
polluted the holy land. The earth indeed is God’s and its fullness. (Psalms 24:1)
Hence it might be said justly of the whole world, that the land of God is polluted
when men act on it an ungodly part. But here God distinguishes Canaan from other
countries, because it was dedicated as it were to his name. As God then had set apart
that land for himself, that he might be there worshipped, he says, they have polluted
my land
And he adds, With the carcases of their abominations It is probable that he calls
their sacrifices carcases. For though in appearance their superstitions bore a
likeness to the true and lawful worship of God, yet we know that the sacrifices
which God had commanded were seasoned by his word as with salt; they were
therefore of good odor and fragrance before God. As to the sacrifices offered to
idols, they were foetid carcases, they were mere rottenness, yet the ceremony was
altogether alike. But God does not regard the external form, for obedience is better
before him than all sacrifices. (1 Samuel 15:22) We hence see that there is to be
understood a contrast between the carcases and the sweet odor which lawful
sacrifices possessed. For as sacrifices, rightly offered according to the rule of the
law, pleased God and were said to be of sweet savor so the victims superstitiously
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78. offered having no command of God in their favor, were called filthy carcases.
And he says further, With their defilements have they filled mine inheritance The
land of Canaan is called the inheritance of God in the same sense in which the land
is before called his land. But in this second clause something more is expressed, as it
is the usual manner of Scripture to amplify. It was indeed a grievous thing that the
land dedicated to God should be polluted; but when he says, This is mine
inheritance, that is, the, land which I have chosen to dwell in with my people, that it
might be to me as it were a kind of an earthly habitation, and that this land was
fined with defilements, it was a thing altogether intolerable. We now then see that
the Jews were so bridled and checked that they in vain attempted to escape, or
thought to gain anything by evasions, for their impiety was intolerable and deserved
to be most severely punished by God. I will not proceed further, for it is a new
discourse.
Venema gives the best exposition of this passage, from Jeremiah 16:14 to the end, he
considers it a prophecy of the restoration of the people from Babylon. The “fishers”
and “the hunters,” in Jeremiah 16:16, he regards as the indibviduals employed by
God to gather them from the countries to which they had been dispersed, suych as
Zerubbabel, Joshuah, Ezra, and Nehemiah. He connects this verse more especially
with the latter part of Jeremiah 16:17. Having stated that their ways would not be
hid from God in their dispersion, the Prophet refers to their previous iniquity as
having not been hid from them, and then says in God’s name, “And I will first
recompense doubly their iniquity,” etc., that is before I restore them. These two
verses may be thus rendered, the first line being connected with the previous
verse, —
17.For mine eyes shall be on all their ways. Concealed have they not been from me,
Nor hid has been their iniquity from my eyes;
18.And I will first doubly recompense Their iniquity and their sin, Because they
have polluted my land With the vileness of their detestable things, And with their
abominations have fined mine inheritance.
As the previous verse is in the future tense, so the first line in Jeremiah 16:17. The
“detestable things” were their idols. The version of the Septuagint is, “with the dead
bodies ( θνησιμαίοις) of their abominations;” of the Vulgate, “with the carrions
(morticinis) of their idols;” and of the Syriac, “with the sacrifices of their idols.”
Blayney’s rendering is, “by the vileness of their odious practices.” The word
“carcases” is derived from the Targum. Idolatrous practices are evidently the things
referred to. — Ed
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:18 And 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.
78

79. Ver. 18. And first,] i.e., Before I restore them. I will recompense their iniquity and
their sin
double,] i.e., Abundantly. (a) I will have my full pennyworths of them; not double to
their deserts, {as Isaiah 40:2; Isaiah 60:1}
With the careases,] i.e., With their idolatries, more odious and loathsome than any
stinking carcases can be.
WHEDON, " 18. And first — Namely, before the return already mentioned.
Double — Various interpretations have been given of this. 1) I will recompense
double — that is, two times — in allusion to the Babylonian and Roman captivities.
2) I will recompense their former iniquities and the repetition of them. 3) Amply and
fully. Compare Isaiah 40:2; Job 11:16; Jeremiah 17:18. This is the only satisfactory
explanation.
ELLICOTT, " (18) I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double.—A
restitution, or fine, to double the amount of the wrong done was almost the normal
standard of punishment under the Law of Moses (Exodus 22:4; Exodus 22:7). The
words threaten accordingly a full punishment according to the utmost rigour. In
Isaiah 40:2 the same thought is presented in its brighter aspect. Israel has received
“double for all her sins,” and therefore, having paid, as it were, “the uttermost
farthing” (Matthew 5:26), she may now hope for mercy.
The carcases . . .—The word may be used in scorn of the lifeless form of the dumb
idols which the people worshipped, to touch which was to be polluted, as by contact
with a corpse (Numbers 19:11); but it more probably points to the dead bodies of
the victims that had been sacrificed to them. The phrase occurs also in a like context
in Leviticus 26:30. It would appear from Isaiah 65:4 that these often included
animals which by the Law were unclean: “swine’s flesh and broth of abominable
things.”
PETT, "Jeremiah 16:18
“And first I will recompense their iniquity,
And their sin double,
Because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things,
And have filled my inheritance with their abominations.
The consequence was therefore to be that He would recompense them double for all
their sins (compare Isaiah 40:1, and see Exodus 22:4; Exodus 22:7), in other words
He would demand from them the full measure required. And this was because they
79

80. had polluted His land, which belonged to Him and which He had given to them, by
filling it with idols and false gods, and with the behaviour that resulted from such
worship. The ‘carcasses of their detestable things’ may refer to the sacrifices offered
to the idols which were to be seen as an affront to YHWH, and may include the idea
that among other things swine and other unclean things were offered (Isaiah 65:4).
But the reference to the carcasses of idols in Leviticus 26:30 may simply suggest that
that is what is in mind.
‘First.’ That is, first before anything else. YHWH sees it as His most urgent task.
Deliverance may follow, but it is first necessary that there be a full measure of
judgment.
19 Lord, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.
CLARKE, "The Gentiles shall come - Even the days shall come when the Gentiles
themselves, ashamed of their confidence, shall renounce their idols, and acknowledge
that their fathers had believed lies, and worshipped vanities. This may be a prediction of
the calling of the Gentiles by the Gospel of Christ; if so, it is a light amidst much
darkness. In such dismal accounts there is need of some gracious promise relative to an
amended state of the world.
GILL, "O Lord, my strength and my fortress,.... These are the words of the
prophet, rising out of the temptation which beset him; casting off his impatience,
diffidence, and unbelief; calling upon God, and exercising faith in him; having received
the promise of the restoration of his people to their land, and a view of the future
conversion of the Gentiles; which were a means of recovering his spiritual strength, of
invigorating grace in him, and of encouraging him to exercise it in a lively manner; to go
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81. on in his duty constantly, and to bear affliction cheerfully and patiently; "strength" to do
which he had from the Lord; and to whom he ascribes it; and whom he calls his
"fortress", or strong hold; and such the Lord is to his people, a strong hold to prisoners
of hope, and a strong tower or place of defence to all his saints:
and my refuge in the day of affliction; in which he now was, or saw was coming
upon him, when he should be carried captive into Babylon; but God was his refuge,
shelter, and protection, and to him he betook himself, where he was safe; and which was
infinitely better to him than the mountains, hills, and holes of rocks, others would fly
unto, Jer_16:16.
The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth; not the Jews,
who were like to the Gentiles for their idolatries, and other wicked practices, and
therefore so called, who should return from the several distant countries where they had
been scattered, to their own land, and to the worship of God in it; but such who were
really Gentiles, that should be converted, either at the time of the Babylonish captivity,
and should come along with the Jews when they returned, and worship the Lord with
them; or rather in Gospel times. And so Kimchi says this belongs to the times of the
Messiah; when the Gospel was to be, and was preached among them, even to the ends of
the earth; and many savingly came to Christ for righteousness and strength, for peace,
pardon, salvation, and eternal life; and turned to him as to a strong hold, and fled to him
for refuge, and laid hold on him, the hope set before them.
And shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanities, and things
wherein there is no profit; meaning their idols, which did not give what their
priests, and the abettors of them, promised; and so deceived their votaries, and
disappointed them of their expectations, which became vain, and so were of no profit
and advantage to them; a poor inheritance this, which they had possessed and enjoyed
for many generations, which their children, now being convinced of, relinquish; for a
false religion is not to be retained on this score, because the religion of ancestors, and of
long possession with them.
HENRY 19-21, " Their deliverance out of captivity shall be accompanied with a
blessed reformation, and they shall return effectually cured of their inclination to
idolatry, which will complete their deliverance and make it a mercy indeed. They had
defiled their own land with their detestable things, Jer_16:18. But, when they have
smarted for so doing, they shall come and humble themselves before God, Jer_16:19-21.
(1.) They shall be brought to acknowledge that their God only is God indeed, for he is a
God in need - “My strength to support and comfort me, my fortress to protect and
shelter me, and my refuge to whom I may flee in the day of affliction.” Note, Need
drives many to God who had set themselves at a distance from him. Those that slighted
him in the day of their prosperity will be glad to flee to him in the day of their affliction.
(2.) They shall be quickened to return to him by the conversion of the Gentiles: The
Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the earth; and therefore shall not we come?
Or, “The Jews, who had by their idolatries made themselves as Gentiles (so I rather
understand it), shall come to thee by repentance and reformation, shall return to their
duty and allegiance, even from the ends of the earth, from all the countries whither they
were driven.” The prophet comforts himself with the hope of this, and in a transport of
joy returns to God the notice he had given him of it: “O Lord! my strength and my
81

82. fortress, I am now easy, since thou hast given me a prospect of multitudes that shall
come to thee from the ends of the earth, both of Jewish converts and of Gentile
proselytes.” Note, Those that are brought to God themselves cannot but rejoice greatly to
see others coming to him, coming back to him. (3.) They shall acknowledge the folly of
their ancestors, which it becomes them to do, when they were smarting for the sins of
their ancestors: “Surely our fathers have inherited, not the satisfaction they promised
themselves and their children, but lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. We
are now sensible that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous worship; it did not
prove what it promised, and therefore what have we to do any more with it?” Note, It
were well if the disappointment which some have met with in the service of sin, and the
pernicious consequences of it to them, might prevail to deter others from treading in
their steps. (4.) They shall reason themselves out of their idolatry; and that reformation
is likely to be sincere and durable which results from a rational conviction of the gross
absurdity there is in sin. They shall argue thus with themselves (and it is well argued),
Should a man be such a fool, so perfectly void of the reason of a man, as to make gods to
himself, the creatures of his own fancy, the work of his own hands, when they are really
no gods? Jer_16:20. Can a man be so besotted, so perfectly lost to human
understanding, as to expect any divine blessing or favour from that which pretends to no
divinity but what it first received from him? (5.) They shall herein give honour to God,
and make it to appear that they know both his hand in his providence and his name in
his word, and that they are brought to know his name by what they are made to know of
his hand, Jer_16:21. This once, now at length, they shall be made to know that which
they would not be brought to know by all the pains the prophets took with them. Note,
So stupid are we that nothing less than the mighty hand of divine grace, known
experimentally, can make us know rightly the name of God as it is revealed to us.
4. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of this great salvation to
be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather together in one the children of God
that were scattered abroad. And this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out
of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be forgotten. To this some
apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of the gospel, who were fishers
of men, to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out in every mountain and hill,
and secure them for Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God, some from the ends of the
earth, and turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.
JAMISON, "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 fullness till the final restoration of Israel (Isa_
2:1-17).
K&D 19-21, "Jer_16:19-21
In his cry to the Lord: My strength...in the day of trouble, which agrees closely with
Psa_28:8; Psa_59:17; Psa_18:3, Jeremiah utters not merely his own feelings, but those
which would animate every member of his people. In the time of need the powerlessness
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83. of the idols to help, and so their vanity, becomes apparent. Trouble therefore drives to
God, the Almighty Lord and Ruler of the world, and forces to bend under His power. The
coming tribulation is to have this fruit not only in the case of the Israelites, but also in
that of the heathen nations, so that they shall see the vanity of the idolatry they have
inherited from their fathers, and be converted to the Lord, the only true God. How this
knowledge is to be awakened in the heathen, Jeremiah does not disclose; but it may be
gathered from Jer_16:15, from the deliverance of Israel, there announced, out of the
heathen lands into which they had been cast forth. By this deliverance the heathen will
be made aware both of the almighty power of the God of Israel and of the nothingness of
their own gods. On ‫ל‬ ֶ‫ב‬ ֶ‫ה‬ cf. Jer_2:5; and with "none that profiteth," cf. Jer_2:8; Jer_
14:22. In Jer_16:20 the prophet confirms what the heathen have been saying. The
question has a negative force, as is clear from the second clause. In Jer_16:21 we have
the Lord's answer to the prophets' confession in Jer_16:19. Since the Jews are so blinded
that they prefer vain idols to the living God, He will this time so show them His hand
and His strength in that foretold chastisement, that they shall know His name, i.e., know
that He alone is God in deed and in truth. Cf. Eze_12:15; Exo_3:14.
CALVIN, "What the Prophet has said hitherto might appear contrary to the
promises of God, and wholly subversive of the covenant which he had made with
Abraham. God had chosen to himself one people from the whole world, now when
this people were trodden under foot what could the most perfect of the faithful
suppose but that that covenant was rendered void, since God had resolved to
destroy the Jews and to obliterate their name? This was then a most grievous trial,
and sufficient, to shake the strongest minds. The Prophet therefore now returns to
the subject, and obviates this temptation; and seeing men in despair he turns to
God, and speaks of the calling of the Gentiles, which was sufficient wholly to remove
that stumbling — block, which I have mentioned respecting the apostasy and ruin of
the chosen people. We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning.
When any one reads the whole chapter, he may think that Jeremiah abruptly turns
to address God; but what I have stated ought to be borne in mind, for his purpose
was to fortify himself and the faithful against the thought I have mentioned, which
would have otherwise shaken the faith of them all. And he shews what is best to be
done in a troubled and dark state of things, for Satan hunts for nothing more than
to involve us in various and intricate disputes, and he is an acute disputant, yea, and
a sophist; we are also very ready to receive what he may suggest, and thus it
happens that the thoughts which we either attain ourselves or too readily receive
when offered by the artifice of Satan, often overwhelm us. There is then no better
remedy than to break off such disputes and to turn our eyes and all our thoughts to
God. This the Prophet did when he said, O Jehovah, to thee shall the Gentiles come
We now see that Jeremiah sets the conversion of the Gentiles in opposition to the
destruction which he had before denounced; for the truth of God and his mercy
were so connected with the salvation of the chosen people, that their destruction
seemed to obliterate them. Therefore the Prophet sets forth in opposition to this the
83

84. conversion of the Gentiles, as though he had said, “Though the race of Abraham
perishes, yet God’s covenant fails not, nor is there any diminution of his grace, for
he will convert all the Gentiles to himself.” If any one objects and says, that though
the Gentiles be converted, yet the covenant of God could not have been valid and
perpetual, except the posterity of Abraham were heirs of that grace which God had
promised to him. To this there is a ready answer, for when God turned the Gentiles
to himself he was mindful of his promise, so as to gather a Church to himself both
from the Jews and the Gentiles, as we also know that Christ came to proclaim peace
to those afar off and to them who were nigh, according to what Paul teaches.
(Ephesians 2:17) Jeremiah then includes in the calling of the Gentiles what is said
elsewhere,
“A remnant according to the election of grace.”
(Romans 9:5)
It is an argument from the greater to the less; “God will not retain a few men only,
but will gather to himself those who now seem dispersed through the whole world;
much more then shall all those of the race of Abraham, who are chosen by God, be
saved; and though the great body of the people perish, yet the Lord, who knows his
own people, will not suffer them to perish even in the worst state of things.”
But as the struggle was difficult, he calls God his strength, and fortress, and refuge.
He says ‫ומעזי‬ ‫עזי‬ ozi vemozi, ma force et forteresse, for the two words come from the
same root, and we cannot in Latin thus fitly translate them. He then calls God his
strength and his fortress, but both words are derived from a verb which means to be
strong. He then adds, my refuge in the day of affliction We here see that God
according to circumstances is adorned with names, such as are fit to give us
confidence, and as it were to arm us for the purpose of sustaining all the assaults of
temptations, for there was not sufficient force and power in that plain declaration,
“O Jehovah, the Gentiles shall come to thee,” but as the Prophet was reduced to the
greatest straits, and, as I have said, his faith nmst have been greatly tried, he calls
God his strength, his fortress, and his refuge in the day of affliction; as though he
had said, “Now is the time when I find how necessary is thy protection, thy strength,
thy power; for though my present miseries, and the approaching ruin dishearten
me, yet thou wilt be to me a refuge.”
But he says, that the Gentiles would come from the ends of the earth (167) A
contrast is to be observed here also; for the Jews at first worshipped God, as it were
in an obscure corner; but he says, “When that land shall cast out its inhabitants, all
nations shall come, not only from neighboring countries, but also from the
extremities of the earth.” He adds, that the Gentiles would say, surely falsehood
leave our fathers possessed; it was vanity, there was nothing profitable in them To
possess, here means the same as to inherit; for we know that one’s own inheritance
is valuable to him; and men are as it were fixed in their farms and fields. As then the
Gentiles, before they were enlightened, thought their chief happiness to be in their
superstitions, the Prophet says here, by way of concession, that they possessed
84

85. falsehood, as though it was said, “Our fathers thought themselves blessed and happy
when they worshipped idols and their own inventions.” It was therefore their
heritage, that is, they thought nothing better or more to be desired than to embrace
their idols and their errors; but it was falsehood, he says, that is, when they thought
that they had a glorious inheritance it was only a foolish imagination; it was, in
short, vanity, and there was nothing useful or profitable in them. This confession
proves the conversion of the Gentiles by external evidences. When we offend God,
not only secretly, but also by bad examples, repentance requires confession. Hence
the Prophet shews a change in the Gentiles, for they would of themselves
acknowledge that their fathers had been deceived by superstitions; for while they
thought that they were acting rightly, they were only under the influence of inusions
and fascinations.
But it is not to be doubted but that the Prophet here indirectly condemns the Jews,
because they had not departed from the sins of their fathers, though they had been
often admonished. The Gentiles then shall come, and the ignorance of their fathers
shall not prevent them from confessing that they and their fathers were guilty
before God. Since then the hinderance which from deliberate wickedness held fast
the Jews, would not prevail with the Gentiles, it appeared evident how great was the
contumacy of the people, who could not be persuaded to forsake the bad examples
of their fathers. We now understand what the Prophet means, and for what purpose
he introduced this prayer. It follows —
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:19 O 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.
Ver. 19. My refuge.] Better than those of the fugitive Jews, out of which they were
hunted and murdered.
The Gentiles shall come to thee.] By faith and repentance.
WHEDON, "19. Lord, my strength… fortress… refuge — Mark the expressiveness
of these epithets for a lone, weak, unprotected man. Out of the prophet’s own need
comes a more vivid realization of God. In this concluding portion of the chapter we
have Jeremiah’s prophetical prayer for the heathen, and God’s answer thereto. So
vain and so corrupt is idolatry that even the heathen themselves shall repudiate
their foul inheritance.
ELLICOTT, " (19) O Lord, my strength, and my fortress.—The words speak of a
returning confidence in the prophet’s mind, and find utterance in what is practically
(though the Hebrew words are not the same) an echo of Psalms 18:2, or more closely
of Psalms 28:1; Psalms 28:8; Psalms 59:17; 2 Samuel 22:3.
The Gentiles shall come unto thee.—The sin and folly of Israel are painted in
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86. contrast with the prophet’s vision of the future. Then, in that far-off time of which
other prophets had spoken (Micah 4:1; Isaiah 2:2), the Gentiles should come to
Jerusalem, turning from the “vanities” they had inherited; and yet Israel, who had
inherited a truer faith, was now abasing herself even to their level or below it. Israel
had answered in the affirmative the question which seemed to admit only of an
answer in the negative: “Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no
gods?”
COFFMAN, "THE FUTURE CONVERSION OF THE GENTILES
"O Jehovah, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction,
unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our
fathers have inherited naught but lies, even vanity, and things wherein there is no
profit. Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods?"
Here is a clear prophecy of the Gentiles coming unto the true God, and of their
rejection of idolatry, clearly identifying this passage as a reference to the Messianic
Age and the spread of Christianity throughout the world. We may be certain that
neither Jeremiah nor the people who heard this message had any full understanding
whatever of all that was prophetically revealed in such words. Adam Clarke was
correct in labeling these verses, "Light in the midst of darkness."[25] This, of
course, makes it a parallel prophecy to Jeremiah 16:14-15; and as Clarke stated, "In
such dismal accounts (as this chapter) there is need of some gracious promise
relative to an amended state of the world."[26] This need is, of course, exactly the
reason this pattern of "light in the midst of darkness" is so generally followed
throughout the Bible.
"Lies... vanities ... things wherein is no profit ...". (Jeremiah 16:19). "All of these are
synonyms for idols."[27]
COKE, "Jeremiah 16:19. O Lord, my strength, and my fortress— To demonstrate
more emphatically the absurdity of idolatry, the prophet here foretels, that the time
will come when the Gentiles themselves shall be ashamed of their idols, and address
themselves to the true God in all their wants, as their only rock, their refuge, and
defence; acknowledging the errors of their fathers, and that their former confidence
was only vanity and lies. See Calmet.
PETT, "Verse 19-20
The Sin Of Judah Is Especially Heinous In The Light Of The Fact That One Day
The Nations Will Recognise The Folly Of Their Idolatry. This Make Judah’s
Turning To Idols Totally Reprehensible (Jeremiah 16:19-20).
The encouraging idea that one day the nations would turn from their idols and seek
YHWH is prominent in a number of the prophets (compare Jeremiah 4:2; Genesis
12:1-3; Psalms 2; Isaiah 2:1-3; Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 42:4; Isaiah 49:6; Isaiah 56:6-7;
86

87. Isaiah 60:3-7; Isaiah 66:19-20; Amos 9:11-12; Micah 4:2; Zechariah 8:20-23;
Zechariah 14:16-17), and is taken up by Jeremiah here in order to underline the
heinousness of Judah’s own behaviour. In the light of this fact their behaviour is
seen to be totally reprehensible.
Jeremiah 16:19
“O YHWH, my strength, and my stronghold,
And my refuge in the day of affliction,
To you will the nations come,
From the ends of the earth, and will say,
Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
Vanity and things in which there is no profit.”
Jeremiah’s confidence in YHWH has been restored so that he can now speak of Him
as his strength and stronghold, and as his refuge in the day of affliction. The ideas
are taken from Psalms 28:8; Psalms 59:17; Psalms 18:3. And in the light of this he
exults in his certainty that, as the prophets had promised (see above), one day the
nations would come to seek YHWH, admitting the folly of their previous idolatry.
They would come from the ends of the earth and would declare that what they had
previously believed in had been lies, merely a puff of wind (hebel - empty air), and
profitless.
Jeremiah 16:20
“Will a man make to himself gods,
Which yet are no gods?
Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know,
This once will I cause them to know,
My hand and my might,
And they will know that my name is YHWH.”
The fact that the nations would one day recognise the folly of their idolatry made it
all the more reprehensible that Judah had chosen to make himself gods of what
were no-gods. Would anyone do such a foolish thing? The answer is ‘yes, for Judah
have already done it. That was especially why they had to be taught a sharp lesson.
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88. By it He would cause them to know His power and His might. The fact that He
would ‘cause them to know’ is emphasised twice, and the fact that they would
‘know’ is emphasised three times. And by it YHWH would bring home to them once
and for all the power of His hand and of His might, and cause them to know that
His Name was truly YHWH, ‘the One Who is whatever He wants to be’. It was a
lesson that in future they would never forget, and prepared the way for the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ Who made known His Name as never before, first to the
Jews and then to the Gentiles.
Some, however, interpret this verse as referring to the conversion of the Gentiles,
and it can equally apply to that for it is a general statement. But the emphasis and
the context suggest that the first interpretation is paramount.
PULPIT, "O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, etc. Jeremiah falls into the tone of
the psalmists (Psalms 18:2; Psalms 28:8; Psalms 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.
20 Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”
CLARKE, "Shall a man make gods unto himself? - Can any be so silly, and so
preposterously absurd? Yes, fallen man is capable of any thing that is base, mean, vile,
and wicked, till influenced and converted by the grace of Christ.
GILL, "Shall a man make gods unto himself,.... Can a man make his own gods? a
poor, weak, mortal man? can he make gods of gold, silver, brass, wood, or stone? can he
put deity into them? and when he has made images of these, can he be so stupid as to
account them gods, and worship them? can he be so sottish, and void of understanding,
as to imagine that anything that is made by himself or any other, can be God?
and they are no gods; that are made by men; he only is the true God, that is the
Maker and Creator of all things; or they are no gods themselves that pretend to make
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89. them, and therefore how should they make gods? can they give that which they have
not? or impart deity to others which they have not themselves? These words are a
continuation of the speech of the Gentiles, and contain their reasonings, exposing the
folly of their idolatrous ancestors: though some take them to be the words of God, or of
the prophet, inveighing against the Jews for their stupidity in worshipping idols; when
the Gentiles were convinced of the folly and vanity of such practices, and acknowledged
it.
JAMISON, "ndignant protest of Jeremiah against idols.
and they (are) no gods — (Jer_2:11; Isa_37:19; Gal_4:8). “They” refers to the idols.
A man (a creature himself) making God is a contradiction in terms. Vulgate takes “they”
thus: “Shall man make gods, though men themselves are not gods?”
CALVIN, "Some frigidly explain this verse, as though the Prophet said that men are
doubly foolish, who form for themselves gods from wood, stone, gold, or silver,
because they cannot change their nature; for whatever men may imagine, the stone
remains a stone, the wood remains wood. The sense then they elicit from the
Prophet’s words is this — that they are not gods who are devised by the foolish
imaginations of men. But the Prophet reasons differently, — “Can he who is not
God make a god?” that is, “can he who is created be the creator?” No one can give,
according to the common proverb, what he has not; and there is in man no divine
power. We indeed see what our condition is; there is nothing more frail and
perishable: as man then is all vanity, and has in him nothing solid, can he create a
god for himself? This is the Prophet’s argument: it is drawn from what is absurd, in
order that men might at length acknowledge, not only their presumption, but their
monstrous madness. For when any one is asked as to his condition, he must
necessarily confess that he is a creature, and that he is also, as the ancients have
said, all ephemeral animal, that his life is like a shadow. Since then men are
constrained, by the real state of things, to make such a confession, how comes it that
they dare to form gods for themselves? God does not create a god, he creates men;
he has created angels, he has created the heavens and the earth, but yet he does not
put forth his power to create a new god. Now man, what is he? nothing but vanity;
and yet he will create a god though he is no God. (168)
There is no doubt but that the Prophet here, as with new rigor, boldly attacks the
Jews. For it seems evident that, when this temptation assailed him — “What can this
mean t what will at length happen when God rejects the race of Abraham whom he
had chosen?” he turned to God: but now, having recovered confidence, he inveighs
against the ungodly, and says, can man create gods for himself while yet he is not a
god? The change in the number ought not to be deemed strange; for when there is
an indefinite declaration the nmnber is often changed, both in Greek and Latin. If
some particular person was intended, the Prophet would not have said, And they
themselves are not gods; but as he speaks of mankind generally and indefinitely, the
sentence reads better when he says, “Shall man make a god? and they,” that is men,
“are not gods.” This remark I have added, because it is probable, that those who
consider idols to be intended in the last clause have been led astray by the change
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90. that is made in the number. It follows, —
Shall man make for himself gods? But they are no gods.
As the future may often be rendered potentially, the better version would be this, —
Can man make for himself gods When they are no gods?
That is, can he make gods of those who are not gods? This is, in my view, a
continuation of the confession in the previous verse, which I render as follows, —
“Truly, falsehood have our fathers inherited — vanity, And they had nothing that
profited: Can man make for himself gods, When they are no gods?”
“Falsehood” was false religion, the character of which was “vanity,” an empty and
useless thing: and this is more fully asserted in the next line, which is literally, “And
nothing in them,” or with them, i.e., the fathers, “that was profitable.” — Ed.
21 “Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the Lord.
BARNES, "This once - Whether we consider the greatness of the national disgrace
and suffering caused by it, or its effect upon the mind of the Jews, the burning of
Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, followed by the captivity of the people at Babylon, stands
out as the greatest manifestation of God’s “hand” in all His dealings with them.
CLARKE, "Therefore, behold, I will this once - I will not now change my
purpose. They shall be visited and carried into captivity; nothing shall prevent this: and
they shall know that my name is Jehovah. Since they would not receive the abundance of
my mercies, they shall know what the true God can do in the way of judgment.
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91. GILL, "Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know,.... Or, "at this
time", as the Targum; when the Gentiles shall be convinced of the idolatry they have
been brought up in, and of the vanity and falsehood of their idols; they shall be made to
know the true God, God in Christ, Christ himself, whom to know is life eternal, and to
know the way of life and salvation by him; and all this through the ministry of the Gospel
that should be brought among them, the Spirit of God accompanying it; by means of
which they should come to Christ from the ends of the earth, before predicted.
I will cause them to know my hand and my might; to experience the power and
efficacy of his grace in conversion; quickening their dead souls, softening their hard
hearts, taking away the stony heart, and giving a heart of flesh; and making them willing
in the day of his power to be saved by Christ, and to serve him; to relinquish their idols,
and turn to and worship the living God in spirit and in truth: though most understand
this not as a promise of grace to the Gentiles, but as a threatening of punishment to the
idolatrous Jews; that because of their idolatry they should once for all, or by this one and
grievous calamity, captivity in Babylon, be made to know what they could not be brought
to know by all the instructions and warnings of the prophets; they should now feel the
weight of the Lord's hand, the lighting down of his arm with the indignation of his
wrath; and so the Targum,
"I will show them my vengeance and the stroke of my power.''
And they shall know that my name is the Lord; the Jehovah, the self-existent
Being, the Being of beings, the everlasting and unchangeable I AM; who is able to make
good his promises, or perform his threatenings; a name incommunicable to creatures,
which do not belong to the idols of the Gentiles, is peculiar to the true God, who is the
most High in all the earth; see Psa_83:18.
HENRY, "Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of this great
salvation to be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad. And this is that which so far outshines the
deliverance out of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be
forgotten. To this some apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of the
gospel, who were fishers of men, to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out in
every mountain and hill, and secure them for Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God,
some from the ends of the earth, and turned to the worship of him from the service of
dumb idols.
JAMISON, "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 (Exo_6:3).
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92. CALVIN, "The Prophet again threatens the Jews, because their impiety was
inexcusable, especially when attended with so great an obstinacy, he therefore says
that God was already present as a judge: Behold I, he says — the demonstrative
particle shews the near approach of vengeance — I will shew at this time: the words
are emphatical, for God indirectly intimates that the Babylonian exile would be an
extraordinary event, far exceeding every other which had preceded it. At this time,
he says — that is, if ye have hitherto been tardy and insensible, or, if the
punishments I have already inflicted have not been sufficiently severe — I will at
this time shew to them my hand and my power; and they shall know that my name
is Jehovah (169)
This way of speaking often occurs in Scripture; but God here, no doubt, reproves
the false sentiments with which the Jews were imbued, and by which they were led
astray from true religion — for they had devised for themselves many gods; hence
he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, that is, that my name is sacred,
and ought not to be given to others. But at the same time he intimates that he would
shew to them his power by destroying them, which they had refused to acknowledge
in the preservation promised to them. They would indeed have ever found the God
of Abraham to be the same, had they not deprived themselves of his favor. As then
they had wandered after their own delusions and inventions, God says now, I will
shew to them my hand, that is, for their ruin; and they shall now know for their own
misery what they had refused to acknowledge for their own safety — that I am the
only true God.
Here let us first learn that it was wholly a diabolical madness, when men dared to
devise for themselves a god; for had they regarded their own beginning and their
own end, doubtless they could not have betrayed so much presumption and audacity
as to invent a god for themselves. If this only came to the mind of an idolater, “What
art thou? whence is thine origin? where goest thou, and what end awaits thee?” all
his false imaginations would have instantly fallen to the ground; he would no longer
think of forming a god for himself, nor of worshipping anything he might invent.
How then does it happen that men proceed to such a madness as to devise gods for
themselves, according to their own fancies, except that they know not themselves? It
is then no wonder that men are blind in seeking God, when they do not consider nor
examine themselves. It hence follows that God cannot be rightly worshipped except
men are made humble. And humility is the best preparation for faith, that there
may be a submission to the word of God. Idolaters do indeed pretend some kind of
humility, but they afterwards involve themselves in such stupidity, that they are
unwining to make any enquiry, so as to make any difference between light and
darkness. But true humility leads us to seek God in his word.
But when the Prophet asks this question, “Shall man make a god for himself?” he
does not mean, that either the Egyptians or the Assyrians were so ignorant as to
think that they could give divinity to wood or stone; but that whatever men dared to
invent for themselves as to divine worship, was nothing else but the creation of a
god. As soon then as we allow ourselves the liberty to worship God in this or in that
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93. way, or to imagine God to be such and such a being, we create gods for ourselves.
And as to that point where he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, we
must observe, that what is his own is taken away from God, except we acquiesce in
him alone, so as to allow no other divinities to creep in and to be received; for God
does not retain his own right or his own glory, except he be regarded as the only
true God. Now follows —
Therefore, behold I make known to them, at this time, And I will make known to
them My hand and my power; And they shall know that my name is Jehovah.
The Septuagint is as follows, —
Therefore, behold I will manifest to them at this time my hand, And I will make
known to them my power; And they shall know that my name is the Lord.
To remove the word “hand” to the first line has no MS. in its favor; but it shews
that they thought that the two verbs had a similar objective case, and the
conjunction “and” is supplied before the second verb, as it is also in the Syriac and
Arabic.
It is probable that by the “hand” is meant the infliction of punishment, and is
rendered “vengeance” in the Targum; and that by “power” or strength is intended
what God manifested in the restoration of the people. The combined influence of
both was to make them to know that God was really Jehovah, the only supreme,
ever the same, true and faithful, without any change. How remarkably has this
prophecy been accomplished! The Jews have ever since acknowledged Jehovah as
the only true God. — Ed.
TRAPP, "Jeremiah 16:21 Therefore, 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.
Ver. 21. I will for this once.] And "this once" shall stand for all. Affliction shall not
rise up the second time. [Nahum 1:9]
And I will make them to know.] Effectu magis quam affectu. Effecting more than
affecting.
My hand and my might,] i.e., My mighty hand, mine irresistible power in their just
punishment.
COFFMAN, "THE CERTAINTY OF IMPENDING DOOM
"Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once, will I cause them to know
my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah."
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94. This final warning stresses the certainty of the destruction prophesied for Israel;
and, as Jeremiah 16:9 stated it, that destruction was something they were to see, for
it would occur in their times.
Regarding these last three verses, "They have been questioned because of the
universalism."[28] That is, they have been questioned because of the promise
regarding the calling of the Gentiles from "all the nations." However all such
challenges are based upon a priori bias of the challenger who has already made up
his mind about what Jeremiah should have said and are unsupported by any factual
or textual evidence whatever. Throughout the Bible, especially in Isaiah, there are
many such promises of the calling of the Gentiles. See Romans 9-11.
It is refreshing that Green, writing in the Broadman Commentary, gave his opinion
of these verses thus: The passage swarms with Jeremiahic phrases, and its poetic
structure and style are quite similar to those of Jeremiah. This writer believes the
passage to be authentic.[29]
COKE, "Jeremiah 16:21. I will this once cause them to know— Instead of this once,
Houbigant reads by this turn, or change; "that is," says he, "after the Jews are
rendered unworthy to be called the people of God:" for the Gentiles were then to be
called to the faith of the Gospel, when the Jews were rejected. To know my hand
and my might, signifies, "my vengeance and power, shewn in the destruction of
their idolatry."
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Example is often more effectual than precept. He who was
sent to warn others of the destruction of the land, must by his conduct shew his
assured conviction of the truth of what he preached. They who are urging men to
look to the eternal world, must shew their own hearts fixed upon it, by their holy
self-denial and deadness to every thing on earth. Three things are forbidden the
prophet, and the reasons for these prohibitions subjoined.
1. He must not marry, nor have a family. Not as if a life of celibacy were, in an
abstract view, either enjoined or desirable; but because of the distress coming upon
the land, which would make a family a burden, and occasion the bitterest anguish
from the grievous deaths of those so near and dear to him. For God was about to
pour down his judgments; to send forth death in all its terrors, armed with the
famine, pestilence, and sword; and to cover the earth with carcases so numerous,
that there should not be graves to receive them, nor any to lament over or to bury
them.
2. He must not go to the house of mourning. With friendly sympathy he had, no
doubt, been wont to weep with those that wept; but now he must abstain, and shew
no usual expression of grief for his nearest friend or relation, because either the
dead were removed from the evils to come, or rather as a sign to the living of the
greatness of the approaching calamities; when death would make such terrible
devastation, that even the great should lie unburied on the ground, and none be left
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95. to shew the last kind office to the corpse, or to mourn over it. God having removed
his peace from the land, a consumption utter and universal is decreed against it.
3. He must not go to the house of feasting. He had been accustomed, no doubt, to
join with his friends when they made an entertainment, and innocently to partake of
their repast; but this was now unseasonable; and when he foresaw the terrible
wrath of God impending, he wanted by his own conduct to awaken their concern.
The voice of mirth and bridal songs were about to cease, and no voice to be heard
but the shrieks of the miserable and the groans of the dying.
2nd, We have,
1. The insolent and unhumbled challenge which this hardened people should make,
beholding his conduct and hearing his warnings. They would ask, Wherefore hath
the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? as if they had never given him
any provocation: or, What is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have
committed against the Lord our God? They pretend a claim to God, as their God,
and would deny the charge which the prophet continued to lay against them; so
blind, hardened, and obstinate, are sinners in the error of their ways; and, instead
of justifying God in his judgments, quarrel with his visitations as unjust or severe.
2. The prophet has his answer given him, and enough to silence their presumption.
Their fathers' iniquities, backslidings, disobedience, and idolatries, were great and
shameful; but their own far exceeded: instead of being warned by the judgment
which they suffered, or being led to repentance by God's patience, they had grown
worse and worse, filling up what was lacking of the wickedness of their
predecessors; more perversely set on their own evil ways, and more resolutely
hardened against all the rebukes of God's prophets; therefore no wonder that, as
the just punishment of their iniquities, God would cast them out of that good land
which they had defiled, send them far off into a miserable captivity, make that
idolatry which had been their sin their grievous punishment, and withdraw from
them every token of favour which might alleviate their miseries.
3rdly, In judgment God still remembers mercy.
1. He gives them hopes that a glorious day of deliverance should come, so much
greater than that of their redemption from Egypt, that in a measure it should
obliterate the mention of it. And this was primarily fulfilled in the recovery of the
Jews from Babylon, and the countries of the north, whither they had been carried
away captives, and may have reference to that more glorious expected event, when
the Lord shall call them into his church from their present dispersion.
2. Before he shewed them this favour, he would severely visit their iniquities. As
fishes taken in an evil net, and beasts in the hunter's snare, so would God give them
up to the Chaldeans to be taken and destroyed, who should pursue them into all
their lurking-places, and drag them into captivity. Their evil ways, however secret,
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96. were not hid from God's eye: he marked their impious rites and abominable
idolatries, the carcases of their detestable things, offered to their idols, so many, and
so universally practised through the land, that they filled God's inheritance with
their horrid profanations. For this, therefore, he threatens to recompense their sin
double; not beyond what it deserved, but double above all other visitations that he
had brought upon them, or much more than they feared or apprehended. Note; (1.)
No darkness can hide the sinner from God's eye. (2.) Flight is in vain when he
pursues: no cave, no mountain can then conceal the guilty from his judgment.
3. The prophet is comforted, not only in the prospect that the punishment of his
people, however severe, would have an end, but also with the foresight of the
conversion of the Gentiles; O Lord, my strength and my fortress, who had hitherto
supported him amidst all his infirmities, and against all his enemies; and my refuge
in the day of affliction, who would preserve him amidst all the approaching evils:
the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth; either when the Jews
returned from Babylon, and many proselytes came up with them; or when the
Gospel was preached, and the Gentiles became obedient to the faith, renouncing the
idols of their fathers, convinced of their vanity and unprofitableness, and astonished
at their absurdity, that any could think those to be gods which were the
workmanship of their own hands, wood or stone. But now God will cause them to
know better, making them, by his divine grace, acquainted with his own glorious
perfections as the only living Jehovah, with the Gospel of his dear Son, and the way
of life and salvation attainable through the Redeemer.
Some choose rather to understand all this of the Jews, called Gentiles, because of
their imitation of their sins, and now quitting with shame their idolatries, and
returning to the one living and true God. Note; (1.) They who make God their refuge
shall find support under the heaviest afflictions. (2.) When the sinner, convinced
and ashamed of his folly, begins bitterly to reflect upon himself, then God will again
restore him to his favour, and make him know once more the wonders of his grace.
PULPIT, "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 Jeremiah 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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