Famine, Sword, and Death
Jer 16:1 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
Jer 16:2 “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.”
Jer 16:3 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:
Jer 16:4 “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.”
Jer 16:5 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the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the LORD.
Jer 16:6 “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.
Jer 16:7 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.
Jer 16:8 “And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink.
Jer 16:9 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.
Jer 16:10 “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?’
Jer 16:11 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.
Jer 16:12 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.
Jer 16:13 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.’
The Lord Will Restore Israel
Jer 16:14 “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,’
Jer 16:15 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 had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
Jer 16:16 “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 will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.
Jer 16:17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.
Jer 16:18 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 have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
Jer 16:19 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.
Jer 16:20 Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!”
Jer 16:21 “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.
1 The prophet, under the types of abstaining from marriage, from houses of mourning and feasting, foreshowed the utter ruin of the Jews, 10 because they were worse than their fathers. 14 Their return from captivity shall be stranger than their deliverance out of Egypt. 16 God will doubly recompense their idolatry.
Famine, Sword, and Death
Jer 16:1 Then the word of the LORD came to me:
J1. The word of the Lord. See on ch. 14:1.
Jer 16:2 “You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.”
This prohibition doubtless came early in the prophet’s life, for Hebrew youth generally married at an early age (see on Gen. 38:1; 2 Kings 22:1; 23:36). The reason for this prohibition is indicated in Jer. 16:3, 4.
Both parents and children were soon to suffer the most tragic fate. Jeremiah’s unmarried state was thus a sign to that rebellious generation. Compare Isa. 8:18; Eze. 24:24, 27. The conduct of the work of God often requires personal sacrifices (Luke 14:26; see on 1 Cor. 7:29).
Jer 16:4 “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.”
Inasmuch as the Jews regarded funeral observances and ceremonies as very important, to neglect them was a great dishonor (see chs. 9:20–22; 14:16).
Jer 16:5 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.
This prohibition emphasized further the seriousness of the troubles that were to come upon Judah (see Eze. 24:15–27; see on Lev. 10:6, 7).
Jer 16:6 “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.
Of the two evils, the shaving of the crown of the head was probably more commonly practiced.
Jer 16:7 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.
In the solemn awareness of his solitary mission he was to remain aloof from such gatherings.
Jer 16:9 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.
Jer 16:10 “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?’
Ever did they cling to the forms of true worship and trusted in the Temple (see on ch. 7:4).
Jer 16:12 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.
Jer 16:13 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.’
Since persistently God’s people were determined to serve foreign gods in their own land, in righteous retribution the Lord would place them in the land of these gods to serve them there.
The Lord Will Restore Israel
Jer 16:14 “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,’
So much more vivid in their remembrance would be the Babylonian captivity than the Egyptian bondage that, when the exiles returned, they would think of their deliverance from Babylon rather than their exodus from Egypt as the outstanding manifestation of divine mercy and power.
Jer. 16:15 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 had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
Jer 16:16 “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 will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.
A figure of the Babylonian invaders, who would surround Judah and Jerusalem as with a dragnet allowing no one to escape (see Amos 4:2; Hab. 1:15).
The figure of fishers is also employed in a good sense. Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to a “net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind” (Matt. 13:47). He called upon His disciples to be “fishers of men” (Matt. 4:19). The true evangelist is described as one who “hunts and fishes for men” (Ev 116).
Hunters. Another figure of the invaders, perhaps emphasizing the thought of searching out the individual Israelite for capture or death, whereas the “fishers” illustrates the taking of the Jews in the net of the military campaign.
Jer 16:18 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 have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
God warns Judah that their chosen course of iniquity can but lead to full recompense.
Jer 16:19 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.
The prophet entertains a hope and confidence as to what God will do in the future. This suggests to him a view of what the Lord was willing to do for the citizens of foreign nations who would turn to Him (see pp. 29, 30).
The LXX fittingly renders the closing part of the verse, “How vain were the idols which our fathers procured to themselves, and there is no help in them.”
Jer 16:20 Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!” Jer 16:21 “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. hey shall know. See on Eze. 6:7.