Jeremiah 16

16:1, 2 THE word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. 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: They shall die of 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 carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. For thus saith the LORD, 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 the LORD, even lovingkindness 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. And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. For thus saith the LORD 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. 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? then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; 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 shew you no favour. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, as the LORD 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. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their 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. O LORD, my strength, and my strong hold, 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 nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

Chap. 16. The special message commencing here embraces the entire sixteenth chapter and the first eighteen verses of chap. 17. The date is not given, but the subject-matter favors its date in the third or fourth year of Jehoiakim, about the time when he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar, and “the Lord brought upon the land bands of Chaldeans, Syrians,” etc., resulting in the first deportation of captives to Babylon. (See 2 K. 24:1, 2.) These calamities were obviously just at hand—the first instalment of that series of judgments which closed with the final and utter devastation and depopulation of the country. H. C.

1-9. 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 everything 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. H.—It is made plain upon the surface of this command that the house of mourning and the house of feasting are not forbidden in themselves. The man on whom the injunction is laid is a special man, and he is spoken to in special circumstances. All others may cross the threshold of such houses; the prophet alone must remain outside. This peculiar conduct was meant to emphasize his predictions. Every time there is a funeral or a marriage feast, the terrible judgments shortly coming on the land are once more set forth. The worst sorrows of the present are but as a child’s shallow grief compared with the universal and dreadful experiences that are yet to come; and in the joys of the present it would be unseemly for the man to share whose breast is filled with the sense of how soon these joys must pass away. A man who had to live as Jeremiah lived, in such an age, with such a message, seeing visions of so much woe, how could he receive pleasure from any festive gathering or bring pleasure to it? The more he advances in his mission as prophet the more he has to walk alone. Y.

2. The prophet, remaining unmarried and without family by a special command of the Lord, would be a standing testimony to the people of the judgments impending over the land. It was also a kindness to him, exempting him from some cares that might otherwise have greatly augmented the difficulties of his very difficult work. H. C.

5. Have taken away loving-kindness and tender mercies.** Nothing sweeter than mercy when it is improved; nothing fiercer when it is abused; nothing colder than lead when it is taken out of the mine; nothing more scalding than lead when it is heated; nothing blunter than iron; nothing sharper when it is whetted. “The mercy of the Lord is upon them that fear Him.” Mercy is not for them that sin and fear not, but for them that fear and sin not. God’s mercy is a holy mercy; where it pardons it heals. Watson.

9. Essentially the same things are said (chap. 7:34). That this should occur before their eyes and in their days indicates it to be very near at hand.

10-13. Note the care taken to make the people inquire after the causes of these sore calamities. For the desired moral results this was of the utmost consequence. The Lord would have them understand that these judgments came because of their great sins, and very particularly because of their sins in the worship of idol gods, and in violation of His law generally. These phrases have occurred before. H. C.

10. The picture drawn by Jeremiah is vague and yet terribly suggestive. It is so foreign to the experience and expectation of his hearers that they look upon it with incredulity and astonishment. Instead of evoking from them expressions of repentance and fear concerning the way in which they are walking, it provokes questions that exhibit the callous indifference and self-deception of hardened hearts. They cannot conceive of such a fate awaiting them. What have they done? Is it just that their conduct should be so dealt with? If any offence had been committed, surely it was out of all proportion to such a judgment, and so on. Is not this the attitude of the sinner today? The more awful the future predicted for him the more secure he feels in himself now. He fails to trace the definite line of connection between the germ and the fruit of his sin. It is a part of his infatuation to misapprehend the law of the Divine reward and punishment, and even the real outlines and proportions of the Divine character. M.

14-21. 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. H.

14. God here gives the people notice of a future restoration, on purpose to guard them during their exile from falling into idolatry through despair, by letting them see they had still a prospect of recovering God’s wonted favor and protection. Blayney.—These words of promise are interposed here for the comfort of all pious hearts, to show that these judgments would not exterminate the nation utterly, for yet a remnant should survive and should still enjoy the rich mercies of the God of their fathers. The deliverance from this new captivity would so greatly eclipse the exodus from Egypt as quite to supersede it in the thought and speech of the people. The former would cease to be named as the one great deliverance; the latter would take its place. In form the same promises occur again (23 : 7, 8). H. C.

Here again we come upon the evangelical element in Jeremiah’s prophecies; and again we have to notice that, when this element does appear, it makes up for its infrequency by the brilliance and emphasis of the prediction. The prophet has just been compelled to speak of domestic suffering, national exile and the withdrawal for a season of Divine favor. These necessary judgments must be magnified and stated in all their severity; not one of them can be omitted; the cup poured out by Jehovah must be drunk to its last drop. But when all these experiences are over, terrible and yet full of discipline, a glorious future remains. The manner of the prophecy is full of encouragement, and not least in this, that there is such a sudden turning from the deepest darkness to the brightness of noon. Y.

15. God will bring back His banished ones, and make good the promise: “I will bring them again into the land that I gave unto their fathers.” Till then, a church without a temple, a people without a country, a race without a home, a nation meted out and trodden down, they shall be a proverb and a by-word and a perpetual hissing.

Strange fortunes these! yet, far from proving God’s hand to be shortened, they prove the very reverse. With the regularity of a law of nature, one of two fates has befallen all other conquered nations. Like the Indians of America, who have fallen before the white man as their forests before his axe, they have been extirpated; or the conquered have intermarried with their conquerors to breed a race like ours, in whose veins flows the mingled tide of Roman, Celtic, Saxon and Scandinavian blood. The fate of the Jews how different and how singular! They have been oppressed, persecuted, trodden under foot; and, like the grass which grows thickest when trodden on, they have thriven under oppression—bearing a charmed life—the true sons of their fathers in the land of Egypt; of whom it was said, the more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied and grew.

The Jews are everywhere, inhabiting every country, yet belonging to none; mixed with every people, but combining with none. By the thrones of kings, in the senate-house of nations, in the mart of business, in the ranks of armies, everywhere the same, the Jew preserves his nationality, his faith, his haughty pride, his blood so pure that, whether you encounter him in the streets of London, or Paris, or Rome, or Petersburg, or Pekin, you can tell at once by his features that he is a son of Abraham. They exist among others as no other race ever did—like oil in water; and like oil, too, where their talents and ambition have free play, they usually rise to the top. They are not a holy nation, nor are they zealous of good works; yet they are a peculiar people—a standing moral miracle; their history a mystery. Living, multiplying, flourishing amid circumstances that, by all the common laws of providence, should have been fatal to their existence, they illustrate the unchanging and unchangeable purpose and power of God. Guthrie.

16. Enemies and oppressors are elsewhere represented under the metaphors of “fishers” and “hunters (see Gen. 10 : 9; Amos 4 : 2; Hab. 1 : 14, 15), because they use all the methods of open force and secret wiles, frequently compared to nets, in order to make men their prey. (See Ezek. 12 : 13; Hos. 5 : 1.) These two similitudes imply that the Chaldeans shall make an entire conquest and booty of the whole land, of its inhabitants and their riches; and what shall escape one party shall fall into the hands of another. W. Loweth.

16-21. The striking imagery of these verses teaches us that there shall be no hiding-place, whether by sea or land, where God will not find those whom His vengeance pursues. The sinner may be sure that his sin will find him out. Men doubt this. Long impunity has made them bold. Such findings of them out as have taken place, in defilement of conscience, hardening of the heart, loss of peace with God, etc., they do not care for. They only care for public exposure and punishment. They see others go on in sin unpunished. But the declaration of God on this matter is nevertheless true. The Scriptures affirm it (compare all those which teach the omniscience and omnipresence of God). Conscience attests it. There is nothing in sin to show wherefore it should not be. The revelation of the future life distinctly provides for it. And even now it is continually being proved true. A man’s sin finds him out in many ways—in body, mind, estate, reputation, etc. And in one or more of these sin does ever find a man out, even now. The apparent exceptions are accounted for on the ground of God’s long suffering to the sinful; God’s purpose to test and exercise the faith of His own people.

A deep and abiding conviction of this to be greatly desired. And such conviction may be had. It is the sacred and salutary power of prayer thus to make God real to us. In prayer we look to Him and we see Him looking upon us; we speak to Him and He speaks to us; by aid of it we walk with Him and He walks with us. He who thus lives in daily fellowship with God can never be without the conviction spoken of. C.

19,20. Addressing God as his own strength and refuge, he expresses his confident assurance that Gentile nations, taught by His dealings with Israel, will come to the true God, acknowledging that the idol gods of their fathers were lies and vanity, and astonished that a man should think to make his own gods which yet could be no gods at all. This must have been a most delightful anticipation to the tried and tender heart of this prophet. H. C.

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. 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. H.

It was One who knew that said, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” Happy are they only who have sorrow sweetened by the Divine promise. They have storms, but they have both an anchor and a haven. Goodness cannot be manifested more clearly than in a sanctifying process, however severe. There are thoughts in the darkened chamber of sorrow which visit us nowhere else—important, salutary thoughts, to instruct, confirm, purify, arm and comfort; thoughts of our sin, our selfishness, our idolatry, our worldliness, our unbelief; thoughts of the abiding joy laid up in heaven, where sickness, alarm, despair and sin never come. And I speak the mind of all sanctified affliction, when I add, that among them all, no thought is more constant than that of God’s goodness as an eternal refuge. J. W. A.

We are in a state of trial because we are men, because we are limited in the capacities of our understanding and in the power of our endurance; but we are subject to so painful a necessity as this pre-eminently because we are sinners, and because a heroic treatment is needed if we are to secure salvation from sin. We are full of pride, and the root of Pharisaism needs to be cut by the sharp edge of God’s truth.

The malady of the heart needs to be exposed; and sometimes that requires severe, stern, painful, persistent discipline. Oh, the obstinacy of the human soul! And then, if we remember that covetousness is idolatry, who of us is there that has not been guilty of idolatry! The riches of this world, the pleasures of this life, the applause of men—oh, how sweet they are, how eagerly sought for amid the mad competitions of life! And it requires a stern and bitter discipline sometimes to teach us that the things that are seen are, after all, only temporal, while the things that are unseen are the only things that are eternal. O beloved! God loves you. He knows that there is weakness in you. He knows you will rest your souls’ salvation on the false foundation of your own righteousness unless He sweeps that from underneath you, and makes you feel that there is nothing but emptiness under your feet; and so comes in the serious discipline of life, to teach us our weakness and show us the weakness of our supports, that we may hasten to find refuge in His grace, and to find shelter under the shadow of His wing. Behrends.

21. He will give His people this experience for the sake in part of its influence on the heathen—as much as to say, Very true, the influence of these judgments on My apostate people will reach and bless the heathen, therefore all the more will I make My people know the power of My hand and the glorious attributes of My eternal being. H. C.

The Gentiles are represented as coming to Jehovah. They have groped their way out of darkness and disentangled themselves from superstitions, while the very people whom Jehovah had brought to Himself with so much power and patience, making their way clear and safe, would not inwardly come, even though they were outwardly brought. Their hearts were not changed with their changed circumstances. And it is a thing which cannot be too much remarked, that the Gentiles have long had an understanding, not only of the New Testament, but equally of the Old, which the children of Israel have been utterly unable to reach. And not only are these Gentiles to come; they are to come from the ends of the earth. God’s drawing power is felt everywhere. Jerusalem is the centre from which light and truth in their great historical manifestations have gone out. Y.