Jeremiah 16

God forbids Jeremiah to marry, to join funerals, or to join feasts. His lonely life becomes a living sign that judgment is near and ordinary life is about to end. The chapter explains why the people will be exiled, promises a return greater than the Exodus, and ends with a glimpse of the nations turning from idols to the LORD.

Jeremiah 16:1-2

God gives Jeremiah a strange command: do not marry or raise children here. His single, childless life is a sign to the people. Family life, the hope of every Israelite, is about to be swept away by coming judgment.

BSA: marry (“take a wife, enter into a covenant of marriage”): Marriage is a covenant, so Jeremiah’s refusal to enter it is a costly, visible warning that the covenant life of the land is ending.

Jeremiah 16:3-4

The reason is grim. Children born in this land, and their parents, will die by disease, sword and famine. There will be no mourning and no burial. Their bodies will lie like dung and feed the birds and beasts. Jeremiah is spared the grief of watching his own children suffer this.

BSA: dung (“worthless, insignificant”): The picture is of bodies treated as refuse, a total loss of human dignity.

See also: Jeremiah 7:33.

Jeremiah 16:5

Jeremiah must stay away from the house of mourning. This is not coldness. God has withdrawn his peace, his loving devotion and his compassion from the people, so there is no real comfort to offer. Their sorrow has become hollow.

BSA: peace (“shalom, completeness and wellness”): Shalom means wholeness of life, and God says he has taken this away, not just quiet circumstances. loving devotion (“kindness and mercy”): This is God’s covenant faithfulness, the very thing the people had counted on and are now losing.

Hebrew: חֶסֶד (ḥesed, H2617) — “steadfast, covenant love.” The Hebrew word speaks of loyal love that keeps a promise. Its withdrawal here is shocking, since it was the foundation of Israel’s relationship with God.

Jeremiah 16:6-7

Death will reach everyone, great and small, and the usual mourning customs will go undone. These included cutting oneself and shaving the head, which the law discouraged but people practiced. Nobody will be left to bring bread or a cup of comfort to the bereaved.

BSA: consolation (“comfort, solace, to alleviate sorrow”): The shared cup was a gift of human kindness, and even that small comfort will be gone.

See also: Leviticus 19:28.

Jeremiah 16:8

Jeremiah must also avoid feasts. Having been told to stay out of funerals, he is now kept from celebrations as well. His whole life says that ordinary days of weeping and rejoicing are about to end, and the nation is heading for disaster while pretending all is well.

Jeremiah 16:9

God says plainly what the sign means. Within the lifetime of those listening, the sounds of joy and the voices of bride and bridegroom will be silenced. Weddings are the happiest moments of village life, so their silence shows how complete the judgment will be.

BSA: remove (“cause to cease, put an end to”): God himself brings the joy to a stop; this is not mere misfortune.

See also: Jeremiah 7:34.

Jeremiah 16:10

Jeremiah is told to expect an indignant question. The people, who feel innocent, ask what they have done to deserve this. It shows how blind sin can be, and how easily a people can think themselves right while heading for ruin.

BSA: sin (“transgression, rebellion”): The people do not see their conduct as rebellion against a covenant God, which is exactly the problem.

Jeremiah 16:11

God’s answer begins with the past. Their fathers abandoned him, ran after other gods and ignored his instruction. The root of the trouble is not bad luck or foreign armies but a broken relationship, a forsaking of the living God for gods that are not.

BSA: instruction (“law, teachings, Torah”): The word means teaching given by a loving father, not merely a list of rules.

Jeremiah 16:12

The present generation cannot blame its ancestors. They are even worse. Each person follows the stubbornness of his own evil heart, refusing to listen to God. Sin is passed on, but each person also owns it.

BSA: stubbornness (“hard-heartedness, obstinacy”): It describes a heart set firm against God and unwilling to bend.

Hebrew: שְׁרִירוּת (shᵉrirut, H8307) — “stubbornness, hardness.” The word is used of a heart that has set like stone. Jeremiah uses it repeatedly for a people who will not be moved.

See also: Jeremiah 7:26.

Jeremiah 16:13

The penalty fits the sin. They wanted other gods, so God will hurl them into a foreign land where they can serve those gods day and night. It is a sad kind of freedom. Without God’s favor they will find idols a heavy master.

BSA: favor (“mercy, kindness, compassion”): The Hebrew idea is gracious kindness, which will be withheld during exile.

Jeremiah 16:14-15

Suddenly hope breaks in. A day is coming when God’s people will point to a new rescue, greater than the Exodus, bringing them back from the north and every land of exile. God keeps his promise about the land given to their forefathers, and judgment is not the last word.

BSA: return (“to bring back, to restore”): God does more than allow them home; he restores them to what he gave.

See also: Jeremiah 23:7-8; Jeremiah 29:10.

Jeremiah 16:16

Before the return, however, comes the capture. God likens the invaders to fishermen who drag people out of the water and then to hunters who track them into mountains and rock crevices. No hiding place will be safe.

BSA: fishermen (“those who catch fish”): The image suggests a net drawn in and people gathered up in great numbers. hunters (“those who pursue and capture”): The hunters picture a second, more relentless search that reaches even hidden places.

Jeremiah 16:17

No one will slip through unnoticed. God’s eyes are on every path they take, and no sin lies hidden from him. This is a warning to the guilty, and a comfort to anyone who is wronged and thinks no one sees.

BSA: hidden (“concealed, or kept secret”): Nothing done in secret escapes God’s notice.

See also: Hebrews 4:13.

Jeremiah 16:18

God will repay their sin in full, because they have polluted his land with lifeless idols. The land is his inheritance, and filling it with their abominations was like soiling a holy place. The double repayment points to the full measure of what is owed.

BSA: double (“twice, in full measure”): It can mean the full, matching measure of the debt, not just a harsh extra penalty. defiled (“polluted, made unclean”): The land itself is made unclean by idolatry, which shows that sin touches more than individuals.

Jeremiah 16:19

Jeremiah answers in prayer. In the middle of judgment he knows God as his strength, fortress and refuge. He then sees a future where nations from the ends of the earth come to God, admitting that their inherited gods were lies and of no use.

BSA: refuge (“safe place, sanctuary”): Jeremiah finds shelter in God himself, even when the nation is under judgment. nations (“Gentiles, non-Hebrew peoples”): Peoples outside Israel are included in God’s saving purpose.

See also: Isaiah 2:2-3.

Jeremiah 16:20

The nations’ confession is simple common sense. People cannot make gods for themselves, and what they make is not a god. An idol is the work of human hands and can never be the maker of the one who forms it.

See also: Psalm 115:4-8.

Jeremiah 16:21

God has the last word. He will make his power and might known, and people will finally learn that his name is the LORD. His judgments are meant to teach, so that people everywhere come to know who he really is.

BSA: name (“identity, character”): God’s name stands for who he is, so knowing it means knowing his true nature.

Hebrew: יְהוָה (Yhwh, H3068) — “the LORD, the covenant name of God.” It is the personal name God gave Israel, tied to his promise to be with his people. To know this name is to know him as the faithful and living God.

See also: Exodus 3:15.