16 2 The Lord forbidding Jeremiah to marry, showeth him what should be the afflictions upon Judah. 13 The captivity of Babylon. 15 Their deliverance. 19 The calling of the Gentiles.
1 The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying,
2 Thou shalt not take [a]thee a wife, nor have sons nor daughters in this place.
3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons, and concerning 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,
4 They shall die of deaths and diseases: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung upon the earth, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
5 For thus saith the Lord, [b]Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, nor be moved for them: for I have taken my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even mercy and compassion.
6 Both the great, and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, [c]nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
7 They shall not stretch out the hands for them in the mourning to comfort them for the dead, neither shall they give them the [d]cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
9 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, even in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
10 And when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, (A)Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great plague against us? or what is [e]our iniquity? and what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?
11 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 worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my Law,
12 ((B)And ye have done worse than your fathers: for behold, you walk everyone after the stubbornness of his wicked heart, and will not hear me.)
13 Therefore will I drive you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither you nor your fathers, and there ye shall serve other gods day and night: for I will show you no grace.
14 (C)Behold therefore saith the Lord, the days come that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel [f]from the land of the North, and from all the lands where he had scattered them, and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, saith the Lord, I will send out many [g]fishers, and they shall fish them, and after will I send out many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the caves of the rocks.
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my land, and have filled mine inheritance with their filthy [h]carrions and their abominations.
19 O Lord, thou art my [i]fortress, and my strength and my refuge in the day of affliction: the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the world, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited [j]lies, and vanity, wherein there was no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Behold, therefore I will this once [k]teach them: I will show them mine hand and my power, and they shall know that my Name is the Lord.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 16:2 Meaning, that the affliction should be so horrible in Jerusalem, that wife and children should but increase his sorrow.
- Jeremiah 16:5 Signifying, that the affliction should be so great, that one should not have leisure to comfort another.
- Jeremiah 16:6 That is, should not rent their clothes in sign of mourning.
- Jeremiah 16:7 For in these great extremities all consolation and comfort shall be in vain.
- Jeremiah 16:10 Because the wicked are always rebellious, and dissemble their own sins, and murmur against God’s judgments, as though he had no just cause to punish them, he showeth him what to answer.
- Jeremiah 16:15 Signifying, the benefit of their deliverance out of Babylon should be so great, that it should abolish the remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt: but he hath here chiefly respect to the spiritual deliverance under Christ.
- Jeremiah 16:16 By the fishers and hunters are meant the Babylonians and Chaldeans, who should destroy them in such sort, that if they escaped the one, the other should take them.
- Jeremiah 16:18 That is, their sons and daughters, which they offered to Molech.
- Jeremiah 16:19 He wondereth at the great mercy of God in this deliverance, which shall not only extend to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles.
- Jeremiah 16:19 Our fathers were most vile idolaters, therefore it cometh only of God’s mercy, that he performeth his promise, and hath not utterly cast us off.
- Jeremiah 16:21 They shall once again feel my power and mercy for their deliverance, that they may learn to worship me.