Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 16:1
The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,
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 Jehoiakims reign.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XVI
On account of the evils which threatened his country, the
prophet is forbidden to encumber himself with a wife and
family, or to bear any share in the little joys and sorrows of
his neighbours, which were to be forgotten and absorbed in
those public calamities, 1-9,
which their sins should draw on them, 10-13.
A future restoration however is intimated, 14, 15,
after these calamities should be endured, 16-18;
and the conversion of the Gentiles is foretold, 19-21.
NOTES ON CHAP. XVI
Verse 1. The word of the Lord came also unto me] This discourse Dahler supposes to have been delivered some time in the reign of Jehoiakim.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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. , adject. verbale, as in Ex. 1:32. The form is found, besides here, only in Eze 28:8, where it takes the place of , Jer 16:10. , lit., deaths of sicknesses or sufferings, i.e., deaths by all kinds of sufferings, since 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.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Prohibitions Given to Jeremiah. | B. C. 605. |
1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or 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 bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; 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. 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. 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: 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. 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, 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 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 present things and show that we expect the dissolution of them.
I. Jeremiah must not marry, nor think of having a family and being a housekeeper (v. 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, 1 Cor. vii. 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, Luke xxiii. 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, 2 Cor. i. 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!
II. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mourning upon occasion of the death of any of his neighbours or relations (v. 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, Deut. xiv. 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 (v. 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 xxxiv. 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 (v. 6), Both the great and the small shall die, even in 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.
III. Jeremiah must not go to the house of mirth, any more than to the house of mourning, v. 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, Amos vi. 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 (v. 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 ch. vii. 34.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 16
GRIEVOUS TROUBLE AND ULTIMATE
REDEMPTION
In the next five chapters one may behold the intimate workings of the prophetic heart and soul. Often referred to as the. “confession” of Jeremiah, it is obvious that the prophet is near unto despair – thinking that death is the only possible solution to his intense suffering.
It seems evident that the setting is in the days of Jehoiakim whose personal dislike and animosity toward Jeremiah actually encouraged others to seek his life.
Vs. 1-4: JEREMIAH FORBIDDEN TO MARRY
1. To be denied the privilege of a home and family is a painful experience in any age, but in Jeremiah’s day it must have seemed tragic.
a. Some boys married as early as 14.
b. All were expected to be married, and in the way of producing children, by the time they were 18 or 20; to be over 20 and unmarried was considered a cursed
c. Not only was it understood that God wanted men to marry and multiply; one’s property could not be held within the family without children.
2. One of the sacrifices a person has to make in order to be an acceptable servant of God, is the yielding of his own feelings, desires and inclinations to the sovereign will and purpose of His Lord, (Luk 9:23-24).
3. But, the divine prohibition is actually rooted in divine love, and is designed to spare Jeremiah deep grief, (vs. 3-4; comp. 1Co 7:26).
a. Grievous sickness – unto death – awaits the children born in this land and the parents who gave them birth, (vs. 3; comp. Jer 6:11; Jer 6:21; Jer 15:2; Jer 15:8).
b. Unlamented, and unburied, their carcasses will lie, as dung, upon the face of the ground – to be consumed by the birds of heaven and the beasts of the field, (vs. 4; Jer 9:22; Jer 25:33; Jer 44:12; Jer 44:27; Jer 15:3; Jer 34:20; comp. Isa 18:6).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.1. Chronology of the Chapter. Chapters 16 and 17 form one prophecy. The taunt in chap. Jer. 17:15 shows that this message from God was delivered before the capture of Jerusalem, which occurred at the close of Jehoiakims career. Jehoiakim was slain in the eleventh year of his reign, i.e., in common chronology, B C. 597, or in Assyrian chronology, B.C. 578. There are allusions in the prophecy which lead to the conclusion that it was delivered during this reign; and we may conjecture it to be a few years before its end.
2. Contemporary Scriptures; 3. National Affairs; and 4. Contemporary History; cf. Notes in chapters 7, 10, and 11. 5. Geographical Referencesnone. 6. Personal Allusionsnone. 7. Natural Historynone.
8. Manners and Customs.Jer. 16:6. Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. Among the Jews, as among almost all ancient nations, it was customary to lacerate themselves, and to make bald a patch on the front of their heads, as signs of excessive grief. This had been prohibited the Jews by Divine law (Lev. 19:28; Lev. 21:5; Deu. 14:1), yet seemed still to be a common practice (chaps. Jer. 7:29; Jer. 41:5; Isa. 22:12; Eze. 7:18; Amo. 8:10; Mic. 1:16). Jer. 16:7. Tear themselves (see MARGIN)Break bread: the bereaved having fasted for a while, their friends came and urged food upon them (2Sa. 1:12; 2Sa. 3:35; 2Sa. 12:16-17); food was also distributed to the mourners at the funeral (Eze. 24:17; Hos. 9:4). Jer. 16:16. Many fishers: many hunters. Fishers were wont to use drag-nets, which swept the waters and captured all the fish; so hunters would surround a large space with beaters and nets, and drive every creature forward into some enclosed spot for capture or destruction. 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 with an eager pleasure us hunters track out their game (comp. Amo. 4:2; Hab. 1:15).Speakers Com.
9. Literary Criticisms.Jer. 16:4. Grievous deaths: lit., deaths of diseases, i.e., deaths by those manifold diseases which accompany war. The word , here rendered grievous, is the same as occurs in chap. Jer. 14:18 [see Lit. Crit, in loc.], tortures of famine.
Jer. 16:5. House of mourning: . In Amo. 6:7 (the only other occurrence of this word in Scripture), is rendered banquet. Doubtless the root means a loud cry: in this verse it is the shriek of grief; in Amos, the shout of jubilation. Enter not into the house of shouting. The LXX. give the rendering, Enter not into their bacchanalian assembly (); Vulgate and Tareum have feast; Jerome, domus convivii.
Jer. 16:7. Neither shall tear for them: is used interchangeably by Jeremiah for (Lam. 4:4); here eliptically for , to break bread, frangere.
Jer. 16:12. Imagination: stubbornness (comp. Jer. 3:17; Jer. 9:11-15).
Jer. 16:13. There shall ye serve other gods, where I will not, &c. The form of the sentence is ironical: there ye may serve other gods night and day, since I will show you no favour.
Jer. 16:14. Therefore, behold: should be rendered nevertheless, not therefore. Blayney gives, After this.
Jer. 16:18. And first: , Henderson says, is used adverbially, and gives it as previously, i.e., before God restores them, as stated in Jer. 16:14. Venema agrees with this: And I will first recompense doubly their iniquity; i e., before I restore them. Calvin, rendering the word formerlyfrom the beginning, explains thus: God would collect together all the iniquities which had been long buried, so as to include fathers and children in the punishment thereof. Jerome, Hitzig, Ewald, Keil, and Umbriet accord with Henderson and Venema.
Carcases of their detestable things: LXX. = , the dead bodies of their abominations; Vulgate, the carrions of their idols; Syriac, the sacrifices of their idols; Blayney, the vileness of their odious practices; Keil, the carcases of their detestableswhich may refer either to their lifeless and hateful idols (Dr. Payne Smith), or victims offered to idols (Rosenm.).
HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 16
Sections
Jer. 16:1-9.
Impending national desolations warn from contracting social relationships.
Sections
Jer. 16:10-13.
Apostasy punished with exile.
Sections
Jer. 16:14-21.
Benignant promises of future restoration and conversion.
Jer. 16:1-9. IMPENDING DESOLATIONS WARN FROM CONTRACTING SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
Near calamities! With death and woe approaching, it was no time for social alliances and family life. Happy they who were not parents, for they would be spared anguish over offspring. Dark the day for those who had loved ones, for destruction would seize those whom they cherished. They who were usually condoled with because of family loneliness would now be congratulated that they had none to love, none therefore over whom to grieve.
i. Home life requires, in order to its enjoyment, inward serenity and external security.
ii. Family relationships multiply our sorrows in times of adversity and experiences of calamity.
iii. Without a prospect of affording happiness, marriage and the creation of a home are inexcusable. (See Addenda: MARRIAGE.)
Thus the topics of the section suggest:
I. Domestic alliances discouraged.Jer. 16:2. With Jeremiah the case was special. The impending disasters emphatically forbade him to entail on himself domestic responsibilities and claims. If a man provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. And his very calling in such adverse and calamitous times would render it impossible for him to fulfil a husbands or a parents part.
1. We should have regard to the future in forming home relationships, and estimate contingencies.
2. We should endeavour, by caution and frugality, to screen our loved ones from impending distress.
3. We should realise how seriously the welfare and happiness of the entire household depends upon our conduct.
II. Family desolations depicted.Jer. 16:3-4. A piteous prospect! Whole families destroyed (Jer. 16:3). Agonising deaths shall overtake them (Jer. 16:4). None shall perform the offices of lamentation or sepulture (Jer. 16:5).
The general lessons are these:
1. How utterly desolating may be the calamities which shall despoil peaceful and pleasant homes!
2. How all the social respect and personal affection which prosperous times ensured us may fail us in evil days!
3. How ruthless are the destructions of the enemy! Nothing spared: not beautiful childhood, nor reverend age!
III. Unmerited pity prohibited.Jer. 16:5-8.
1. Appalling ruin naturally arouses us to lament and bemoan.
2. Miseries entailed by sin should be discriminated from unprovoked calamities.
3. Amid the destruction of Gods enemies, His people must remember that He doeth all things well, and not allow a sentimental pity to overrule their recognition of righteous judgment.
4. Gods servants should shun any festive companionships with those whose iniquities invoke His anger (Jer. 16:8).
IV. Divine justice explained.Jer. 16:5; Jer. 16:9. The grievous deaths (Jer. 16:4) and the social desolations will not be accidental.
1. The impending woes will be Gods righteous visitation (Jer. 16:9).
2. Forewarned by the prophet, the victims of hearing ruin paid no heed (Jer. 16:10).
3. The withdrawal of Gods mercy will expose them to the destroyer (Jer. 16:5). I have taken away My peace from this people, saith the Lord. His gracious security had ensured their serenity even amid all their sins thus far; but the hour of abandonment comes, and then destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace will be lost for ever.
Jer. 16:10-13. APOSTASY PUNISHED WITH EXILE
I.
Rebels affecting ignorance of their wrong.Jer. 16:10.
II.
Iniquity brought home to the transgressors.Jer. 16:11-12.
III.
Banishment the penalty of apostates.Jer. 16:13.
Jer. 16:14-21. BENIGNANT PROMISES OF FUTURE RESTORATION AND CONVERSION
The verses contain the following suggestions:
I. Gods former miraculous acts of grace recounted.Jer. 16:14. That is the background with which the following promise is brought into comparison.
II. Gods former miraculous acts of grace surpassed.Jer. 16:14-15. Rescued from a more powerful foe, and more hopeless dispersions.
III. Effective ministries of restoration depicted.Jer. 16:16. (See preliminary note under Manners and Customs on this verse.)
IV. Complete recovery of the scattered ones assured.Jer. 16:16. None over-looked. Found in unlikely places. Brought from hiding-places safely home.
V. Omniscience fails not in minutest supervision.Jer. 16:17. Has seen their iniquities in their own land. Will see their ways when scattered over all lands. [Here. however, the word ways refers not to the ways of flight, but their course of action.]
VI. Heavy chastisements to precede restoration.Jer. 16:18. Grievous have been their apostate deeds; dishonouring God, and defying His holy land.
VII. Humanity returning to the true and living God.Jer. 16:19. The prophet, by experience, knew God. The nations would in the end discover their need of Him, and seek the Lord.
VIII. Refuges of lies gladly renounced.Jer. 16:19-20. In ignorance many follow vanities; often fall into the habits of their fathers. Idolatry will disprove itself (Jer. 16:20).
IX. Jehovah realised as Israels blessed hope.Jer. 16:21.
1. A grand crisis of Divine manifestation. I will this once cause them to know My hand and My might.
2. A manifestation in which they shall recognise their God. They shall know that My name is Jehovah. (Comp. Isa. 25:9.) And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is the Lord, &c.
HOMILIES AND COMMENTS ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 16
Jer. 16:2. Theme: JEREMIAH CALLED BY ACTIONS TO ATTEST HIS PREDICTIONS.
1. He had complained that Gods word through him seemed to fail, because fulfilment was deferred (chap. Jer. 15:18).
2. He is now commanded to show his own faith in his messages by abstaining from social alliances.
3. He would by such conduct confirm his words and awaken serious expectancy among his people.
Actions preach where words are impotent. For this I say, brethren, the time is short; it remaineth that they that have wives be as though they had none for the fashion of this world passeth away.
Comments
Jeremiahs prohibition to marry has this application: Let it not be that thy children charge thee as thou hast charged thy mother, chap. Jer. 15:10.Naegelsbach.
And these meanings:
By remaining in a single state, Jeremiah was to be a symbol of the then future condition of his countrymen (comp. Eze. 24:15-27).Henderson.
It was to show that the people were wholly given up to destruction; and the nearing desolation and solitude of the whole land. Celibacy is not here commended.Calvin.
Jer. 16:2-4. Theme: LIMITATIONS OF MARRIAGE.
Generally speaking, it is not good for man to be alone. God has made woman to be his companion and help meet. Generally speaking also, children are an heritage of the Lord (Psa. 127:3-5.) But there are some exceptions to the rule, and great discretion is needed even within the limits of the divine precept, else man may not have a helpmeet, nor will children be to him a comfort. Marriage may become a calamity to husband, wife, and children under some circumstances. It is not always necessary to show that a marriage, or any other act, is unlawful; for, though lawful, it may yet be inexpedient owing to the conditions of life, such as sickness, poverty, or public calamity. Let the peculiar circumstances pass away, and then that which is lawful may not be inexpedient.
I. Marriage may be inexpedient owing to a call to some peculiar work. It would appear that others were not forbidden to marry, but only the prophet. He was commissioned to a hazardous undertaking, and the cares of a family would have brought considerations which might not have been helpful to him in the work.
We can well imagine that Micaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, John Baptist, Paul, and such like men, might find it best to be free from the claims of a wife and family. Of course they had to sacrifice the comforts of home.
It would be difficult to imagine how our Lord could have carried out His work for us had He been married, and that not because there was any reason in Him why it would have been unlawful, but because He could not be entangled by any secondary considerations.
Paul gives advice most difficult to follow when he asks that those who have wives be as though they had none. This needs much grace and great wisdom to do aright.
Many workers for Christ, as missionaries, and those who have undertaken difficult tasks, have denied themselves the comforts of companionship, and the luxuries of home, for His names sake. This is not monastic celibacy, but divine singleness of eye and heart to one all-absorbing pursuit.
II. Marriage may be inexpedient owing to some peculiar phase in a nations history. Jerusalem was under divine threatening, and great calamities were about to come upon her; it was kindness to Jeremiah to advise and even to command that he should not involve others more than might be. So in times of epidemic, famine, siege of cities, or any great public misfortune, it may be a duty to limit ourselves in any indulgence or luxury, however lawful in itself, or justifiable under other circumstances.
We recognise the mercy of God in thus preventing much misery to any offspring which might have resulted from such a marriage. They would, according to the text, have been born to an inheritance of misery and ruin. Gods servants desire for their children a happy and useful life. There will be enough of sorrow taking life even at its best, but oh the grief of being born to almost necessary and unavoidable ruin!
III. Marriage may be inexpedient owing to some peculiar spiritual conditions. It was from spiritual causes that the troubles came upon Jerusalem.
It was for spiritual, as well as natural, reasons that God gave the command to Jeremiah.
Much of the sorrow of life arises from disregard to spiritual conditions as qualifications for marriage. There is often the marriage of the body when there is no real union of the soul.
Such marriages are not only inexpedient, but unscriptural.
The consequences to children, to society, and to the Church of Christ are very serious indeed.
The Scripture gives great liberty, but it also prescribes some rule. We are at liberty to be married to whom we will only in the Lord.
If we rightly understand the precept, it indicates Gods desire for our comforts, and His consequent direction as to the only way it can be realised.
Marry only to those who love God.
Marry only when you can confer real happiness on the object of your affection.
Marry only to those who will not impede your spiritual progress, or hinder your efforts to serve the Lord and His Church.W. Whale.
See Addenda: MARRIAGE.
Comments
Jer. 16:4. They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, &c.
Similarly in the plagues of Athens and London, the greatness of the general misery crushed out the gentler sympathies of human nature. (Comp. Thuc. ii. 52.)Dr. Payne Smith.
Jer. 16:5. Theme: SIN EXCLUDES FROM SYMPATHY AND SORROW. 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.
Indicate how
I. Sin brings heavy woes upon transgressors.
1. The loss of Gods peace. Taken away My peace. Therefore there is no peace to the wicked.
2. The alienation of Providential favours. Even lovingkindness and mercies. Godly lives are girded about by heavenly ministries, and enriched with daily blessings of goodness.
3. The accumulation of calamities and sorrows. So that there is occasion to lament and bemoan. All men have trouble, are born to trouble; but the godly hides himself in the sacred place of the Most High, and finds Everlasting arms underneath him in his day of grief. But the wicked are comfortless in their miseries. No consolations wherewith God comforts us in any sorrow alleviate the transgressors desolations and distresses. Nor has the sinner any heavenly outlook which brightens his present gloom.
II. Sin, if prolonged, necessitates Divine abandonment.
1. God is slow in withdrawing His grace. And indeed the Intercessor pleads, Let be this year also.
2. Yet slighted patience leads to withdrawal of peace. Trifling with Gods lovingkindness and mercies compels Him at last to take away His peace and leave the soul to its terrors.
3. There are actual instances of such Divine abandonment. This is not a prediction, a menace; but a statement of fact: Thus saith the Lord, I have taken away, &c. Any in the assembly: old sinners, reckless and perverse youths! Kiss the Son, lest He be angry and ye perish from the way.
III. Sin, when persistent, alienates tenderness and pity.
1. Criminals can expect little commiseration.
2. Condolence with sinners when suffering the consequences of their sins is an error. It overlooks the righteousness of punishment.
3. Generally the craving of guilty persons for sympathy amid their miseries is attended by no contrition for their iniquities which entailed such disasters upon them.
Without contrition there can be no conversion, and
Without conversion no consolation.
Jer. 16:9. Theme: GODLESS MIRTH SILENCED. Steeped in guiltiness as were these people, they yet were hilarious. Their sins were allowed license. They lived on in mirth as if there were no God.
See Addenda: FRIVOLOUS SINNING.
I. Sinful revelries.
1. Sinners sport with sin. Live as if free to do as they listed.
2. Unlicensed self-indulgences are their delight.
3. Conscience and God are silenced amid their revelries.
4. Mad mirth heeds not Gods frown. Indifferent and even defiant.
5. To silence Divine denunciations (as now through Jeremiah), sinners plunge into yet more exciting self-indulgences and gaieties. Oh, what a scene of reeking vice and appalling blasphemy lies under the eye of Heaven!
II. Nearing retribution. I will cause to cease in your days.
1. Reckless mirth cannot arrest the retribution it ignores.
2. Godless revelries will not escape Gods judgment. While revelry goes on within, behold the Judge standeth before the door.
3. The term of indulgence is alarmingly curtailed. In your days. While the prophet lived the end of all this impious conduct would come.
III. Silenced rejoicings. I will cause to cease, &c.
1. God will assuredly hush these impious revelries.
2. Death will seal the lips of carousers in silence.
3. Boon companions in sin will exchange hilarity for bitter lamentations.
4. Scenes of mirth will be deserted in the day of calamity. They supply no solace to crushed lives.
5. Troubles desolate the brightest homes, and silence the sounds of gladness.
REFLECTIONS
(a.) Joy may be pure; and God would have us joyful.
(b.) Pure joy has no sting, and is enduring.
(c.) God will enrich the joys of the good.
(d.) Trouble nor death can silence the gladness of the godly.
(e.) Their earthly scenes of joy will be by them exchanged for a land where there is fulness of joy and pleasure for evermore.
(f.) Shun irreligious pleasures, and you shall inherit the blessedness of a life whose joys are Divine.
Jer. 16:10. Theme: SINNERS IN ALTERCATION WITH GOD.
The messages of Jehovah produce effect. Even rebels feel them. There is in Heavens words something which compels the most godless to notice them. Indeed sinners are stirred to vindicate themselves against Gods messages, and rise in strife with His prophets.
Instances of altercation with the prophets are numerous in the Scriptures (comp. especially chaps. Jer. 5:19; Eze. 2:6-8; Eze. 33:17; Mal. 3:13, &c.)
I. Challenging the justice of God. Wherefore, &c.
1. Willingly oblivious of their demerits.
2. Feigning innocency of great transgressions.
3. Self-excusings.
4. Professing ignorance of having done wrong.
II. Surprise at the severity of God.
Their reply is virtually this:
1. The evil threatened is out of all reasonable proportion. Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil?
2. Such severity disproves His assured graciousness. Did He not pledge Himself specially gracious to us? Yet all this great evil against us!
3. There has been no specific sin calling down such vengeance. What is our iniquity, and what is our sin, &c.
II. Resistance of the condemnations of God. For all springs from this purpose.
1. They refuse to be convinced of sin.
2. They resent the charge of Gods prophet.
3. They reject the call to contrition.
4. They affect religious feelings as a cloak for all their guilt. Speak piously: What sin have we committed? as if they could not be wicked. Further: What have we done against the Lord our God? Oh, the hypocrisy, to dare call Jehovah their God after such shameless apostasy? Rather, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, &c.
Comments
Jer. 16:10. When people are desperately bad, and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathens and publicans (Mat. 17:18; Tit. 3:10; 1Co. 5:9).Cramer.
If people are so hardened in their sins as to expostulate with the prophet, he is to show them that the severe sentence passed upon them is the consequence of idolatry, persisted in through many generations till it has finally deepened into natural apostasy.Speakers Com.
Jer. 16:11. Gods reply. See Homilies on chapters Jer. 5:19; Jer. 7:25-28; Jer. 13:21-22.
Jer. 16:12. Theme: WORSE THAN YOUR FATHERS.
The stream swells as it extends its course. These men were guiltier because they had
I. Fuller warning. The fate of their ancestors admonished them, giving emphasis to Gods threatenings.
II. More restraints. Gods dealings of mercy had been known for longer time, and proved in more manifold forms. They had a history to keep, a name to honour.
III. Greater advantages. Their Scriptures were larger than those their fathers possessed; for they grew as their history enlarged, and as successive prophets wrote and spake. Their acquaintance with God and His will was more clear. Their indebtedness to His grace was more evident.
IV. Heavier criminality.
Apostasy assumed most heinous forms.
Iniquity ran into revolting licenses.
Defiance of Gods messages and prophet was more insolent.
Disregard of their national safety and honour was more reckless.
(a.) Sin increases in volume and force by an inevitable law of accumulation.
(b.) Actions take their moral character from the inducements which prompt them, or the restraints which check them.
(c.) Guilt attains its climax when it becomes insolently stubborn.
Jer. 16:14-15. Theme: THE GREATER FUTURE OF ISRAEL.
Restoration from Egypt will be forgotten in contrast with the deliverance from the North. Doubtless the return from Babylon is primarily meant here, but there yet awaits the ingathering from all lands.
Note: This restoration is yet prospective: so points to the coming glories of Gods ancient people.
I. Severer preliminary sufferings.
1. The bondage in the iron furnace of Egypt would be easy and light contrasted with the despotism under which they would groan in the North.
2. Instead of their being carried away into one land, as in Egypt, they would now be driven through all lands; separated, helpless, abandoned.
II. More astonishing preservation in exile.
1. Dangers greater. In the hands of a more relentless despotism. The armies of Nineveh and Babylon ground other nations they conquered and captured into a confused mass, destroying their individuality. In this captivity they would not be kept together, nor localised, but driven into widest dispersion.
2. Destruction more threatening. The North meant their complete obliteration as a people, and did all that could be done to effect it. Egypt did not design nor attempt this.
III. Grander supernatural redemption.
1. It should be recognised as Gods work of rescue. The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel.
2. It should surpass their great historic deliverance from Egypt. All along their career hitherto Jehovah had perpetually reminded them that He was their God that brought them out of Egypt: see the frequency and varied circumstances under which He recurred to that fact. But it would henceforth be forgotten in contrast with the coming redemption.
IV. Richer revelation of Divine grace.
1. Their greater sin did not lead God to abandon them.
2. Renewed apostasy did not weary Gods patience.
3. Amid their exile He would jealously guard and individually care for them.
4. None should be lost in the glad ingathering to their own land.
Jer. 16:16-17. Theme: NETS TO CATCH MEN.
They used trawl-nets in those days for sweeping the waters of fish and the country of game. (See note under Manners and Customs for explanation.)
I. Imagery of invading captors. This is the meaning of the figures here.
1. Fishers express the ease with which these invaders would capture the prey. The Northern armies would secure them with as little difficulty or trouble as anglers gather fishes within their trawl-nets.
2. Hunters express the keenness and resoluteness with which these Northern invaders would pursue their prey; neglecting no hiding-place, penetrating into every retreat, and allowing small hope of escape.
(a.) Tempters thus throw out nets for the unwary, and gather the simple into the enclosures of pleasure and sin. We are not ignorant of his devices.
(b.) Disputers thus hunt the more valorous souls, and seek to capture them with doubts of the truths of religion, and conquer them by force of argument.
(c.) Various are the nets employed, for the resources of those who would capture souls are multitudinous, yet adapted to catch men. Flattery, indulgence, companionships, books, worldly advantages, to draw into sin; or annoyance, browbeating, calumny, argument, to drive to despair and neglect of God.
(d.) Death drags its net to gather in men, and it sweeps the sea of life effectually.
(e.) The angels of judgment will at the end of the world gather souls in from all lands, and not a sinner shall escape.
See Addenda: HUNTING.
II. Imagery of redeeming agencies.
1. Of the recovery of scattered Israel from the lands of the spoiler.
Some expositors misapplied these verses to that idea, and supposed God was here predicting their ingathering.
Yet the words may without inconsistency be so applied. The figure of fishing is so used by Ezekiel (Eze. 47:9-10). And surely in Israels restoration they will be graciously hunted wherever they have been driven, and brought back from heights and valleys, and even repelling holes of the rocks. For Gods eyes are upon all their ways (Jer. 16:17) in their dispersion.
2. Of the capture of souls for Christ. I will make you fishers of men. Being crafty, I caught you with guile.
(a.) Gentle attractions of the Gospel. Easily drawing souls into the kingdom.
(b.) Manifold yet adapted truths of Scripture, winning men individually into conviction and faith. The precious promises, words of sacred comfort, convincing truths, inspiring teaching of Gods Word capture souls, and sweetly force them in to the enclosure of Divine assurances.
(c.) The Holy Spirits work, of awakening souls to their state and need, of witness in consciences and hearts, and of revealing Christ and the Gospel to men.
(d.) Wise ministrations of Gospel messengers. Preachers and teachers so present Christs truth, so contend with hearers doubts and hesitancy to persuade men, that, being wise, they win souls, and so draw sinners and weary lives to the Saviour.
III. Imagery of a grand ingathering.
1. Of the scattered sons of Israel to restored Zion. From all lands shall they come. It shall be as life from the dead (Rom. 11:15).
2. Of humanity drawn into the faith of Christ. Other sheep I have, them also will I bring, &c. (Joh. 10:16). And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me (Joh. 12:32).
3. Of redeemed souls to the glorious heaven. They shall come from the east and west, north and south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. Redeemed out of every kindred and people and tongue and nation.
Jer. 16:17. Theme: OMNISCIENCE REGULATES JUDGMENT. For Mine eyes are upon all their ways, &c. Ways means career of conduct. Gods dispensations are determined upon full knowledge and examination of our doings.
I. Human life attracts the observant eye of God. Mine eyes are upon all their ways. This fact, that God so attentively and constantly watches us, suggests
1. The Divine interest in His creature man.
2. Jehovahs solicitude for His peoples welfare.
3. His great distress on beholding their faithlessness.
4. His longing to witness in them loyalty and love.
II. Mans iniquity is minutely watched by Omniscience. Neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes. It so grieves Him, and is so amazing after all He has done, that He cannot withdraw His gaze.
1. Iniquity has a beginning, and a course of development.
2. The sinners path is beset with restrictions or indusements.
3. Ungodliness varies in degree and animus.
4. Much wrongdoing is done secretly, and guilt is often more in the heart than in the act. But Gods eyes search out, and His thoughts weigh the measure of every act, or thought, or motive of sin. Yea, our secret sins are set in the light of His countenance. He understands our thought afar off.
III. Divine chastisements are determined by mens deeds. Their ways are not hid from My face, neither their iniquities hid from Mine eyes.
1. Caprice never moves God in His dispensations of wrath.
2. Heaviest judgment cannot exceed the sinners demerits.
3. Anguish derives its keenest pang from the sufferers knowledge that he righteously incurred it.
4. None can hope for escape from punishment so equitably administered. None doeth good and sinneth not. He will appoint to every man according to his deed. Every mouth shall be stopped, and all become guilty before God.
CONCLUSION:
1. Who can expect to evade judgment? If Thou, Lord shouldst work iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand?
2. Where can redemption be found? If we cannot escape from judgment, can we from the sin which necessitates it? Yes; Christ removes the sin, and thus ransoms us from the judgment.
Cover my defenceless head
With the shadow of Thy wing.
Jer. 16:18. Theme: REQUITING SINNERS FOR THEIR WORK OF SPOLIATION. (See Lit. Crit. on this verse.)
We fail to recognise what wrong we do God, what ravages our misconduct works, when we sin.
I. Sin despoils what God prizes. My land, Mine inheritance.
1. God has a right to all the pleasant scenes which men wickedly use and prostitute to their selfish and sinful enjoyments. The earth is the Lords, &c.
2. Upon every life He has set His seal, and justly requires that we preserve its powers and affections inviolate. All we are, all our endowments and abilities He entrusted us with.
3. When we withhold from God His due, in love, loyalty, and service, we rob God. He made us for His glory.
4. Every use of Gods fair world for evil purposes is sacrilege. We do Him a wrong. We defile His land.
5. Such cruel misuse of our life and the scenes we occupy must be as offensive to God as it is criminal in itself. He values us, loves usso loved us that He gave His only-begotten Son to redeem us, and grieves over our alienation and prodigality: wasting our substance in a far country, degrading our being, and dishonouring His handiwork.
II. Sins spoliations will God requite. I will recompense their sin and their iniquity double, because, &c.
1. The punishment foretold is but retribution for sins. It was so with these Jews, it is so with us. Nothing is threatened against the sinner but is the due reward of our deeds. Having defiled the land by their idolatry, they shall be driven out of it. And the wicked, having misused earths fair scene, shall be turned into hell.
2. Divine inflictions have a twofold severity. Yes; it may be thought that Gods punishments are therefore excessive; that He not merely requites sin, but goes beyond our deserts. St. Chrysostom here points out that many, taking these words literally, have been troubled in mind, as though God did not punish men according to their desert, but more than their desert. But really every punishment is twofold; for first, there is the loss of the blessing which would have followed upon obedience, and secondly, the presence of actual misery. So also, as Dr. Payne Smith suggests, sin is twofold: there is the leaving of Gods will undone, and the actual wrongdoing.
Sinners lose Gods favour and incur His wrath: recompense double.
They lose the bliss of heaven and inherit the woe of hell: double.
Yet nothing they lose and suffer can equal the wrong which, by their iniquity and their sin, they have done God!
(1.) They defiled His land with the vileness of their detestable things, and
(2.) They filled His inheritance with their abominations.
Thus did they pervert sacred scenes to detestable purposes; render the holy land offensive to Him whose inheritance it was; and by their foul idolatry they gave the glory of their service and worship to abominations. Oh, do not the abominable thing which I hate.
See Addenda: THE EVIL OF SIN.
Jer. 16:19. Theme: THE GOOD MANS STRENGTH, FORTRESS, AND REFUGE. O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction.
I. The Infinite becomes the strength of the finite. We may well ask how the Eternal becomes the strength of the mortal; God, the strength of a man? And reply
1. By the confidence reposed in Him. Confidence in a leader is the very strength of those who follow. Thus Wellington was the strength of his army, and Nelson of his navy. Gods people have confidence in His wisdom, power, love; hence through God they do valiantly, for He it is that treads down their enemies under them.
2. The valorous deeds effected by men of God are marvellous. Pauls list in Hebrews 11 illustrates the triumphs of faith. And what is faith but confidence in God? The triumphs of faith are the wonderful achievements effected through this confidence in God, so that God becomes the strength of men. Girded with strength Divine they can each say, I can do all things.
3. The man whose strength is the Lord is able to bear what would crush other men. He who gave Samson strength to bear and carry away massive gates, gives to His servants strength to bear weightiest troubles and heaviest sufferings. See Pauls recital of his sufferings; yet he afterwards talks of these light afflictions, &c.
II. Yet the Lord gives to His people protection. He is their fortress.
This Divine fortress is impregnable. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Yet it may be asked, Have not thousands of Gods saints been slaughtered by persecutors? What is the Book of Martyrs out a record of Gods slain ones! True; but the Divine fortress is for the protection of souls, not of bodies. The exposure of the body to peril on the one hand, and the safety of the soul on the other, are clearly indicated by our Lords words, Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.
III. Further, He is their Refuge in the day of affliction In the evil day we hasten to Him as soldiers to a fortress when hotly pursued, or as vessels to a harbour when the wind blows a gale. When tossed with tempest and not comforted, we have found the Lord a refuge from the storm and a covert from the tempest. And this refuge is open still to every troubled saint and every penitent sinner.Rev. D. Pledge: Walks with the Prophet Jeremiah.
Jer. 16:19-20. Theme: THE CONFESSION OF THE GENTILES. 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. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
The result of Gods 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 (Fausset).
(Note: This prophecy in course of fulfilment.)
I. Their repentance. Shall come. They had followed the devices of their own heartsits failure profited them nothing. Trusting in gods made by their own hands could not profit them; for, Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? a contradiction in terms. They repent of their folly, and come to Jehovahthe only true God.
(a.) Repentance is necessary to our acceptance by God. A man must realise the folly of his sin, and, turning from it with his face toward God, must make confession of his transgressions in order to their remittance. Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost (Act. 2:38).
(b.) Must be with the heart. Sincere. Our real existence in the sight of God consists in the inner and not in the outer life (Farrar).
II. Their confession. Our fathers have inherited lies and things wherein there is no profit. Idolatry in all its forms; not only gods of wood and stone, but all the idols of our own heart, our own imaginatione.g., the love of riches. All idolatry must be renounced, and a confession made unto God that we have abandoned them. The essential element of confession is that it be spiritual and true. To a right confession we must have
(a.) A knowledge of our own hearts. If this is possessed, the heart will be laid open to God for its purification. There is only one way of getting a heart and mind pure, and that is by confessing to God its present impuritiesimploring Him to create in us a clean heart.
(b.) Faith in God. In His willingness to hear, in His power to do. Their faith was strong; they acknowledge that, apart from God, all is vanity and lies. The world promises much, but when those promises are chased and caught, you have in your hand nothing better than vanity and lies.
III. Their acceptance. This we infer, because If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Joh. 1:9). Wherever the contrite heart is, there is the forgiving God. The Gentiles shall comethey are coming, and by the power and attraction of the Cross. The Gospel has many victories yet to achieve. The Saviour said, And I, if I be lifted up, shall draw all men unto Me.Achilles Taylor.
Jer. 16:19; Jer. 16:21. Theme: MISSIONARY SERMON.
The true knowledge of God:
I. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer. 16:19).
II. It will also make its way to the heathen. For
1. It is Gods will that they should be instructed (Jer. 16:21).
2. They are ready to be instructed (Jer. 16:19-20).
Comments
Jer. 16:19. My strength and my fortress. Lit., my strength and my place of strengththe one for attack, and the other for defence.Speakers Com.
The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honoured and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that Gods name is honoured and His glory more widely extended.Cramer.
Jer. 16:21. I will this once cause them to know. As the Jews had chosen to put their trust in such senseless things as idols, of which the very heathen will be ashamed (Jer. 16:19), Jehovah will teach them this once, i.e., in a summary manner once for all, by a punishment which the nation shall never forget, that there is a difference between Him and idols.Dr. Payne Smith.
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 Gods hand in all His dealings with them. Neither in the times of the Judges, nor in the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, was there anything comparable to it. Only one other event in their history is of equal magnitudethe destruction of Jerusalem by Titus; but that was the closing of their history as the preparatory Church, and comes therefore under a different category.Dr. Payne Smith.
I WILL CAUSE THEM TO KNOW. Nothing can be learned of God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus.Cramer.
Know that my name is THE LORD. The fulfiller of His threatenings, as well as the performer of His promises (Exo. 6:3).Lowth.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 16: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 16:2. MARRIAGE.
God is the best Maker of all marriages.Shakespeare.
When the Rev. Philip Henry was minister at Worthenbury, he sought the hand of the only daughter of a wealthy man. The father demurred, saying that though Mr. Henry was an excellent preacher and a gentleman, yet he did not know from whence he came. True, said the daughter, but I know where he is going, and I should like to go with him.
Marriage is a feast, where the grace is sometimes better than the dinner.Colton.
We are really what we are relatively.P. Henry.
Let us no more contend, nor blame
Each other, blamd enough elsewhere; but strive,
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each others burden, in our share of woe.
Miltons Paradise Lost.
Family Maxims: Let God be first. Be happy and make happy.
Jer. 16:9. FRIVOLOUS SINNING.
Fools make a mock of sin, will not believe
It carries such a danger in its sleeve.
How can it be? they say, that such a thing,
So full of sweetness, eer should wear a sting?
They know not that it is the very spell
Of sin, to make men laugh themselves to hell.
Look to thyself then, deal with sin no more,
Lest He that saves against thee shuts the door.Bunyan.
Jer. 16:16. HUNTING.
The original term for hunting occurs in reference to the invasion of human rights, in 1Sa. 24:12, Lam. 3:15, and Jer. 16:16. This usage affords a clue to Nimrods character. With the band of lawless spirits his skill had attracted, he proceeded from hunting beasts to oppressing man:
Proud Nimrod first the mighty chase began;
A mighty hunterand his prey was man.
Pope.
Hunting, with its snares, may remind us of that mighty hunter Satan, and his devicespitfalls, decoys, snares, &c.for the unwary. Hence the duty of watchfulness: In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird (Pro. 1:17). Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Satan is now the mighty hunter who hunts down sins, ignorance, bad habits, &c. God helps us to escape out of the machinations of the wicked (Psa. 124:6-8). Death is a great hunter Ecc. 9:12).Topics for Teachers.
Jer. 16:18. THE EVIL OF SIN.
We might illustrate the evil of sin thus: Supposing I were going along a street, and were to dash my hand through a large pane of glass, what harm would I receive?You would be punished for breaking the glass.Would that be all the harm I should receive?Your hand would be cut by the glass.Yes; and so it is with sin. If you break Gods laws, you shall be punished for breaking them; and your soul is hurt by the very act of breaking them.J. Inglis.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
III. PROPHETIC CONDUCT Jer. 16:1-21
Jeremiah came through his personal crisis. He repented and God took him back. Now that the rebellious prophet was humble and contrite, God gives him further instructions concerning his personal conduct (Jer. 16:1-9) and his message (Jer. 16:10-13). God pulls back the curtain to reveal to His prophet the purpose and reason for the forthcoming judgment (Jer. 16:14-18). To all of this the prophet responds with a ringing affirmation of faith and vision (Jer. 16:19-21).
A. Directions to the Prophet Jer. 16:1-9
TRANSLATION
(1) And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, (2) Do not take a wife for yourself nor shall you have sons and daughters in this place. (3) For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and the daughters who are being born in this place and concerning their mothers who are bearing them and concerning their fathers who are begetting them in this land: Painful deaths they shall die. (4) They shall not be mourned nor shall they be buried. They will be as dung upon the face of the ground. They shall be consumed by the sword and famine; and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the land. (5) For thus says the LORD: Do not enter the house of mourning nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people (oracle of the LORD), loving-kindness and compassion. (6) Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried nor shall lamentation be made for them nor shall one cut himself nor make himself bald for them. (7) Neither shall men break bread for them in mourning to comfort anyone for the dead; neither shall they give them the cup of consolation for ones father and for ones mother. (8) And to the house of feasting do not go to sit with them, to eat and to drink. (9) For thus says the LORD of Hosts the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to cause to cease from this place before your eyes and in your days the sound of joy and gladness, the sound of bridegroom and bride.
COMMENTS
A minister must live a life that is consistent with the message he brings else he will be charged with hypocrisy and insincerity. Jeremiah had for the most part been preaching a message of doom and judgment. His life must reflect the gloomy prospects of the nation. A man preaches by what he does and does not do as well as by his words. There is a great deal of truth in the old adage what you are speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say. In order to bring the life of Jeremiah into harmony with the message he was to deliver, God laid down three prohibitions for His prophet.
In the first prohibition Jeremiah is commanded not to marry and father children (Jer. 16:2). Hosea was married as was Isaiah and Ezekiel. Probably most of the prophets had helpmates. But Jeremiah was denied wifely companionship. He had complained of his pain and loneliness and now a greater burden was laid upon him. But it was necessary that he abstain from marriage in order to get across to his contemporaries the message of how terribly desperate were the times. In Old Testament times marriage was regarded as the natural state. To remain unmarried would cause the people to realize how serious the times really were. Jeremiahs non-marriage was a symbolic act with predictive overtones. Shortly the time would come when there would be no more marriage. Furthermore the nation was about to go through a period of brutal warfare. Children as well as their parents would die painful deaths (literally, deaths of sickness), including starvation (Jer. 16:3). Those who died of sword and famine would be left as dung upon the ground, their corpses being eaten by bird and beast alike (Jer. 16:4). This was no kind of a world in which to rear a child. While, therefore, it may seem harsh to disallow marriage for Jeremiah, the prohibition is fundamentally beneficent. Jeremiah was spared the added agony of seeing wife and little ones destroyed. One thinks immediately of the attitude of the Apostle Paul toward marriage in similar circumstances (1Co. 7:26).
In the second prohibition Jeremiah is forbidden to attend funerals (Jer. 16:5). How difficult it must have been for the prophet to abstain from the customary extension of sympathy to the family of those who were near and dear to him. Again Jeremiahs action would have predictive significance. His abstinence from the normal visitation to homes where there had been a death would provide an opportunity for him to describe the great slaughter which would shortly take place in Judah. So many would die in that day of famine, pestilence and warfare that the few survivors would not be able nor inclined to conduct the normal funeral service. Nobles and commoners will die but no one will bury them or take up a lament over them. The pagan rites of showing remorse by cutting oneself or shaving the head would not be performed (Jer. 16:6). Both of these latter customs were forbidden in the law of Moses (Deu. 14:1; Lev. 19:28; Lev. 21:5). The funeral feast normally conducted in the home of the bereaved after the burial will be dispensed with (Jer. 16:7). This meal no doubt was accompanied by lamentation and prayers for comfort (cf. 2Sa. 3:35; Eze. 24:17; Hos. 9:4). These formalities would have to be abandoned. Death would be so common that men could not participate in such observances even if they wanted to do so. All of this will befall Judah because God had withdrawn His peace, loving-kindness and compassion from the nation (Jer. 16:5). Judah is forsaken by her God. She is helpless and hopeless. A third prohibition forbade Jeremiah to attend joyous feasts and festivals as, for example, a wedding meal (Jer. 16:8). Jeremiah was no recluse. In fact in his previous prayer he complains that he has been excluded from the assemblies of merrymakers (Jer. 15:17). Again Jeremiahs abstinence is to have a didactic purpose, it is intended to be an object lesson to the people of that generation. The nation was crumbling to destruction. This was no time for feasting and rejoicing. In the very near future all joyous activities would cease (cf. Jer. 7:34). When faced with extermination men would no longer think of feasting and banqueting (Jer. 16:9). While the prohibition had a valid and useful objective it nonetheless added to the burden which Jeremiah had to bear.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XVI.
(1) The word of the Lord came also unto me.The formula introduces a new and distinct message, extending to Jer. 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 (Jer. 17:13), and the people taunted the prophet with the non-fulfilment of his predictions (Jer. 17:15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE PROPHET’S DUTY IN VIEW OF THE COMING JUDGMENT, Jer 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.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
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 ( Jer 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 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’ (Mat 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.
Jer 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.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 1. An Overall Description Of Jeremiah’s Teaching Given In A Series Of Accumulated, Mainly Undated, Prophecies, Concluding With Jeremiah’s Own Summary Of His Ministry ( Jer 2:4 to Jer 25:38 ).
From this point onwards up to chapter 25 we have a new major section (a section in which MT and LXX are mainly similar) which records the overall teaching of Jeremiah, probably given mainly during the reigns of Josiah (Jer 3:6) and Jehoiakim, although leading up to the days of Zedekiah (Jer 21:1). While there are good reasons for not seeing these chapters as containing a series of specific discourses as some have suggested, nevertheless they can safely be seen as giving a general overall view of Jeremiah’s teaching over that period, and as having on the whole been put together earlier rather than later. The whole commences with the statement, ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel, thus says YHWH —.’ It is therefore directed to Israel as a whole, mainly as now contained in the land of Judah to which many northerners had fled for refuge. We may divide up the main subsections as follows, based partly on content, and partly on the opening introductory phrases:
1. ‘Hear you the word of YHWH, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel —’ (Jer 2:4). YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel/Judah because they have failed to continue to respond to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the wilderness and in the years that followed, resulting by their fervent addiction to idolatry in their losing the water of life in exchange for empty cisterns. It ends with a plea for them to turn back to Him like an unfaithful wife returning to her husband. This would appear to be mainly his initial teaching in his earliest days, indicating even at that stage how far, in spite of Josiah’s reformation, the people as a whole were from truly obeying the covenant, but it also appears to contain teaching given in the days of Jehoiakim, for which see commentary (Jer 2:4 to Jer 3:5).
2. ‘Moreover YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah –’ (Jer 3:6). This section follows up on section 1 with later teaching given in the days of Josiah, and some apparently in the days of Jehoiakim. He gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, facing Judah up to the certainty of similar coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people. This is, however, intermingled with a promise of final blessing and further pleas for them to return to YHWH, for that in the end is YHWH’s overall purpose. But the subsection at this time ends under a threat of soon coming judgment (Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30).
3. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1). In this subsection Jeremiah admonishes the people about the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, and warned that like Shiloh they could be destroyed. He accompanies his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would be dispersed and the country would be despoiled (Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:21), and seeks to demonstrate to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness. In a fourfold comparison he then vividly brings out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors (Jer 9:22 to Jer 10:25).
4. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 11:1). He now deprecates their disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples the total corruption of the people, revealing that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined (Jer 11:1 to Jer 12:17). The section closes with a symbolic action which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land (13).
5. ‘The word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1). “The word concerning the drought,” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile. A promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is, however, once more incorporated (Jer 16:14-15) although only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced by observing the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
6. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 18:1). Chapters 18-19 then contain two oracles from God illustrated in terms of the Potter and his handiwork, which bring out on the one hand God’s willingness to offer mercy, and on the other the judgment that is about to come on Judah because of their continuance in sin and their refusal to respond to that offer. The consequence of this for Jeremiah, in chapter 20, is severe persecution, including physical blows and harsh imprisonment. This results in him complaining to YHWH in his distress, and cursing the day of his birth.
7. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 21:1). This subsection, which is a kind of appendix to what has gone before, finally confirming the hopelessness of Jerusalem’s situation under Zedekiah. In response to an appeal from King Zedekiah concerning Judah’s hopes for the future Jeremiah warns that it is YHWH’s purpose that Judah be subject to Babylon (Jer 21:1-10). Meanwhile, having sent out a general call to the house of David to rule righteously and deal with oppression, he has stressed that no hope was to be nurtured of the restoration of either Shallum, the son of Josiah who had been carried off to Egypt, nor of Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim who had been carried off to Babylon. In fact no direct heir of Jehoiachin would sit upon the throne. And the reason that this was so was because all the current sons of David had refused to respond to his call to rule with justice and to stamp down on oppression. What had been required was to put right what was wrong in Judah, and reign in accordance with the requirements of the covenant. In this had lain any hope for the continuation of the Davidic monarchy. But because they had refused to do so only judgment could await them. Note in all this the emphasis on the monarchy as ‘sons of David’ (Jer 21:12; Jer 22:2-3). This is preparatory to the mention of the coming glorious son of David Who would one day come and reign in righteousness (Jer 23:3-8).
Jeremiah then heartily castigates the false shepherds of Judah who have brought Judah to the position that they are in and explains that for the present Judah’s sinful condition is such that all that they can expect is everlasting reproach and shame (Jer 23:9 ff). The subsection then closes (chapter 24) with the parable of the good and bad figs, the good representing the righteous remnant in exile who will one day return, the bad the people who have been left in Judah to await sword, pestilence, famine and exile.
8. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah –’ (Jer 25:1). This subsection contains Jeremiah’s own summary, given to the people in a sermon, describing what has gone before during the previous twenty three years of his ministry. It is also in preparation for what is to follow. He warns them that because they have not listened to YHWH’s voice the land must suffer for ‘seventy years’ in subjection to Babylon, and goes on to bring out that YHWH’s wrath will subsequently be visited on Babylon, and not only on them, but on ‘the whole world’. For YHWH will be dealing with the nations in judgment, something which will be expanded on in chapters 46-51. There is at this stage no mention of restoration, (except as hinted at in the seventy year limit to Babylon’s supremacy), and the chapter closes with a picture of the final desolation which is to come on Judah as a consequence of YHWH’s anger.
While the opening phrase ‘the word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah’ will appear again in Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1 it will only be after the sequence has been broken by other introductory phrases which link the word of YHWH with the activities of a particular king (e.g. Jer 25:1; Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 28:1) where in each case the message that follows is limited in length. See also Jer 29:1 which introduces a letter from Jeremiah to the early exiles in Babylon. Looking at chapter 25 as the concluding chapter to the first part, this confirms a new approach from Jer 26:1 onwards, (apparent also in its content), while at the same time demonstrating that the prophecy must be seen as an overall unity.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Section 5. The Word Concerning The Droughts: The Certainty Of Exile For Judah ( Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:27 ).
The new section is again introduced by the words ‘The word of YHWH which came to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1) although in slightly altered form (literally ‘that which came, the word of YHWH, to Jeremiah’). “The word concerning the droughts” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile, although a promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is also incorporated (Jer 16:14-15), but this only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced in the observance of the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 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.
Jer 16:5
Jer 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.
Jer 16:16
[19] John Hagee, John Hagee Today (San Antonio, Texas: John Hagee Ministries), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Instruction Of Jehovah
v. 1. The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, v. 2. Thou shall not take thee a wife, neither shall thou have sons or daughters in this place, v. 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, v. 4. They shall die of grievous deaths, v. 5. For thus saith the Lord, v. 6. Both the great and the small shall die in this land, v. 7. neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, v. 8. Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting to sit with them to eat and to drink, v. 9. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
With this chapter should be taken the first eighteen verses of Jer 17:1-27. The heading of the Authorized Version well expresses the contents of Jer 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 answer is to be given (Jer 17:10-12), accompanied by a definite prediction of captivity (Jer 17:13). Then, to relieve the picture, a glimpse of a happier future is introduced (Jer 17:14, Jer 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 (Jer 17:16-18). Strange contrastthe heathen coming to the truth and the Jews (those of the present, not of the future time) deserting it (Jer 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 Jer 17:1-18).
Jer 16:2
Thou shalt not take thee a wife. So St. Paul, “I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is (1Co 7:26, Revised Version); and Hosea has already drawn an awful picture of “Ephraim bringing forth his children to the murderer” (Hos 9:9). In ordinary times it was a kind of unwritten law among the Israelites to marry and beget children. Most of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah) appear to have been married. In this place; i.e. in the land of Judah. A Jeremianic phrase (comp. Jer 7:3).
Jer 16:4
Grievous deaths; literally, deaths of sicknesses; i.e. all kinds of painful deaths, including (as Jer 14:18 shows) death by starvation. They shall not be lamented. The absence of sepulture has already been pointed to several times as a feature of the horror of the times (Jer 8:2; Jer 14:16; comp. Jer 7:33), but this is a new and affecting touch. Dr. Payne Smith aptly refers to the plagues of Athens and London, in which the gentler elements of human nature were for the time almost extinguished.
Jer 16:5
Compare this prohibition with that given to Ezekiel (Eze 24:15-27), The house of mourning; literally, of. screaming (an uncommon word, only occurring againof banquetersin Amo 6:7). It is, no doubt, the wail of mourning relatives which is meant.
Jer 16:6
Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald. Both practices are forbidden in the Law (Deu 14:1; Le 19:28; Deu 21:5), but the prohibition was at any rate unknown to the masses (see, for the former, Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5; and for the latter, Jer 47:5; Isa 22:12, “The Lord Jehovah called to baldness;” Amo 8:10; Mic 1:16; Eze 7:18). St. Jerome remarks, and incidentally gives a valuable evidence of the tenacity of primitive customs, “Mos hic fuit apud veteres, et usque hodie in quibusdam permanet Judaerum, ut in luctibus incidant lacertos,” etc.
Jer 16:7
Tear themselves for them. The verb is used in Isa 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 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.
Jer 16:9
The voice of mirth, etc.; a striking deaf, on, repeated from Jer 7:34.
Jer 16:12
Imagination; rather, stubbornness (Jer 3:17).
Jer 16:13
A grim irony. In me foreign land ye shall serve your idols to your hearts’ content, day and night if ye will, “because, [not, where] I will not have mercy upon you“ (by delivering you, and so calling you from your idols).
Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15
The text of these verses occurs in a more characteristic form and in a bettor connection in Jer 23:7, Jer 23:8. The connection here would be improved by insorting the passage before Jer 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. Isa 10:23, Isa 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 Jer 23:18. How can the prophet say, “And first I will recompense their iniquity double,” when Jer 23:16, Jer 23:17 contain a description of this very double recompense?
Jer 16:16, Jer 16:17
I will send for should rather be, I will send. Fishers and hunters, by a divinely given impulse, shall “fish” and “hunt” the unhappy fugitives from their lurking-places. There may, perhaps, be an allusion to the cruel ancient practice of “sweeping the country with a drag-net” (Herod, 3.149), and then destroying the male population: Samos, e.g. was thus “netted” and depopulated by the Persians. Habakkuk may also refer to this when he says (Hab 1:15), “They catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag.”
Jer 16:18
Firsti.e. before “I bring them back again into their land”I will recompense double; i.e. amply, in full measure (comp. Jer 17:18; Isa 40:2; Rev 18:6). With the carcasses, etc. The idols, which “defile the consciences” of those who worship them, are compared to the most unclean and loathsome objects.
Jer 16:19
O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, etc. Jeremiah falls into the tone of the psalmists (Psa 18:2; Psa 28:8; Psa 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.
Jer 16:20
But the Jews of this generation, in spite of the manifold proofs of the true religion which have been vouchsafed to them, are deserting the real divinity for the unreal. In a tone of surprise the prophet exclaims, Shall a man make gods unto himself, etc.?
Jer 16:21
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 Jer 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.
HOMILETICS
Jer 16:2
Forbidding to marry.
I. CELIBACY IS NOT A SCRIPTURAL VIRTUE. Marriage is a Divine institution. It is natural, and God is the Author of nature; it is recognized and regulated by inspired teaching and blessed by Christ; it is a means of human welfare.
II. CELIBACY MAY BE WISELY OBSERVED IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF PECULIAR TROUBLE. Such were the circumstances of Judah in the clays of Jeremiah; such, in the opinion of St. Paul, were the circumstances of his own time (1Co 7:26). Those were not times for wedding festivities; the married would be encumbered and hindered from doing their best for the public weal, and children born then would be born only to a heritage of misery. Similar circumstances may recur.
III. CELIBACY MAY BE WISELY OBSERVED BY MEN WHO ARE CONTEMPLATING TASKS OF PECULIAR LONELINESS DANGER OR DIFFICULTY. There are risks that a man may encounter for himself which he should avoid if others would be seriously involved in his fate. There is work which precludes the enjoyment of domestic life. It is not right to undertake obligations to another that cannot be fulfilled. The pioneer of dangerous travel, the John the Baptist of wilderness missions, is better unmarried.
IV. CELIBACY IS A DUTY FOR ALL UNTIL THEY ARE ABLE TO PROVIDE A SUITABLE MAINTENANCE FOR A FAMILY. It is not heroic but selfish to bring a family into a life of certain hardship and misery. The principle which applied to the public circumstances of distress in Jeremiah’s age applies to the private circumstances of distress which are met with in every age.
Jer 16:12
Worse than your fathers.
I. EACH GENERATION SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THAT WHICH PRECEDES IT. The natural movement of all mankind should be onward and upward. We have the lessons of past history to warn and to inspire us; the continued, increasing, long-suffering mercy of God to urge us to serve him more faithfully; and the growing light of slowly accumulating knowledge to guide us into better paths. Later generations have more aids of Divine revelation than were vouchsafed to the earlier. The Jews under the prophets had more light, more Divine inducements to fidelity, than the Jews under Moses; and Christians have a much clearer light and much more powerful motives in the revelations of God’s will and of God’s love in Christ. To go back when we ought to go forward is doubly inexcusable. Christians are bad indeed if they fall lower than the men of Old Testament ages, and Protestants of modern times if they do not live up to the attainments of the Mediaeval Church.
II. EVIL INCLINES TO GROW WORSE FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION. Men ought to improve; but if they begin a course of evil they deteriorate in it. Nothing in the world is stationary. Nations are either progressing or retrograding. Each generation is either better or worse than its predecessor. Evil has a contagious property, and if it is unchecked it is certain to spread like an epidemic. It is a leaven that, left to itself, will surely leaven the whole mass. We should, therefore, seek to stamp out a sin in its earlier stages. We must not trust to any necessary law of progress, any idea of the inherent goodness of human nature, any thought of the temporary character of evil, but seek at once to resist and overthrow the sin. Here is a warning to parents. Evil tendencies are hereditary. The vice, which seems to do little harm in our own day, taking root and spreading, will break out into worse fruits in our children’s time. How sad to leave only a bad example for our children to be referred to!
III. IF EVIL IS TO BE CONQUERED IT MUST BE BY SOME SUPERHUMAN METHOD. The natural laws of progress fail here. Depravity unchecked grows more depraved. Innumerable practical reforms, new systems of morality, draconian codes, etc; have been tried, and all in vain. Josiah made the experiment with his violent reformation, but it failed of anything but superficial good. Some are now trusting to sanitary improvements, to industrial progress, to popular education; but these too will not touch the root of the sore. The history of sin furnishes the greatest proof of the need of a Divine redemption if the world is ever to be saved. For this Christ came, and now the highest progress of the world is to be traced to that new influence of life which he introduced to turn the current of history from deepening depravity to growing truth and righteousness.
Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15
The greatest gratitude for the latest blessings.
The circumstances of the Jews are illustrative of those of all of us in the fact that we all have occasion to feel most thankful for the most recent gifts of God’s goodness. The reasons for this are manifold, viz.
I. THE LATEST BLESSINGS ARE MOST THOROUGHLY APPRECIATED. A present impression is stronger than a memory. Even if the good things we are now enjoying are not equal to those we formerly possessed, the immediate good we derive from them is greater than that which we derive from a mere recollection of better times. Thanksgiving tends to become formal and conventionalthe empty repetition of phrases which had a deep signification when they were the spontaneous response of the soul to fresh tokens of God’s love, but which have become almost meaningless after the occasion for them has fallen into the past. To be real, gratitude must refer to the real mercies which we are now enjoying.
II. THE LATEST BLESSINGS ARE ADDITIONAL PROOFS OF THE GOODNESS OF GOD. We should “sing a new song” as we see new manifestations of Divine love. We have more to be thankful for when we have received two gifts than we had when we were only possessors of one of them. God is constantly adding to the vast pile of his favors to us. The latest stands highest, is so to speak, mounted on all that precede; and therefore this calls for the strongest expression of gratitude. Inasmuch as the longer we live the more we have to be thankful for, so also the more deeply should our hearts be stirred with gratitude. The restoration of the Jews is an additional mercy following that of the Exodus. One such stupendous deliverance should call forth never-failing songs of praise, but a second should intensify the volume of those songs.
III. THE LATEST BLESSINGS ARE ALSO THE GREATEST. The restoration is referred to as containing grander blessings than those of the Exodus. Gratitude should be proportionate to favors. This is often not the case, because the best things are least appreciated. Their merits are not superficial nor discernible at first. The spiritual blessings are the highest; yet to unspiritual men they are the least valued. Thus the chief elements of the Messianic promises of restoration were spiritual, and therefore not so acceptable to the mass of the people as the material blessings promised to the Jews in the first possession of the “land flowing with milk and honey.” We are too ready to complain of the present and regret the lost past, ungratefully selecting the troubles of our own time for notice and ignoring its bright features, while we forget the hardships of the past and remember only its last pleasant features, like the Jews, who forgot the rigors of the slavery from which they had escaped, but remembered with regret the flesh-pots of Egypt (Exo 16:3). The Bible favors no sentimental regrets for “the good old times;” it teaches us that God’s goodness is increasingly manifest. The latter times are better than the former, the Gospel age than the Old Testament era, the later years of Christendom than the earlier. The best is not yet revealed. The songs of the future should be sweeter than those of the past, since God has greater mercies in store for us than any we have yet enjoyed. Already God has favored us more highly than our fathers. We need not search the musty annals of antiquity for proofs of the goodness of God. This is a present goodness, and the richest fruits of it are the latest.
IV. THE LATEST BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN IN SPITE OF OUR GREATEST ILL DESERT. We have added to the tale of our sins while God has been adding to the tale of his mercies. As his goodness has increased with many, their sin has also increased. The Egyptian bondage overtook the innocent; the Babylonian captivity was a punishment to the guilty. Deliverance from the latter was an act of forgiving mercy. It was a proof of God’s forbearance that he continued to be gracious, and of his pardoning love that he forgave the sinful people. Our greatest reason for praise is in God’s latest mercy of redemption, restoring us after our falls into sin.
Jer 16:16-18
Fishers and hunters.
I. THE CHASE. The guilty will be sought after for punishment. If they do not seek God in penitence he will seek them in judgment. However far we may flee from obedience we cannot flee from responsibility. Jonah fled “from the presence of the Lord “(Jon 1:3), but he was overtaken by a Divine judgment. If God s present long-suffering makes him appear indifferent, the day will come when his wrath will be swift, searching, and far-reaching. Then none of the impenitent can escape. None can hide from the approaching doom; hunters “shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.” It will be useless then to “call on the hills to cover us,” etc. None will be overlooked. Fishers will come with their drag-net, gathering all classes as fish of all kinds and of all sizes are collected in the sea. Rank counts for nothing when kings are hunted like foxes; intellectual ingenuity can then find no covert of sophistry beneath which to elude the keen scent of the bloodhounds of justice; exceptional originality can secure no position beyond the reach of the broad sweeping net of a general judgment.
II. THE REASON FOR EXPECTING A FATAL RESULT TO THE CHASE. God undertakes the direction of it (verse 17). He knows all; he is ever watching every one of his children, for their joy if they are obedient and submissive, for their shame if they are rebellious and impenitent.
1. God’s eyes are upon their ways. He does not depend upon hearsay evidence, upon the testimony of his emissaries. Hence
(1) none can elude his searching gaze, and
(2) we shall not be convicted on false evidence.
2. God’s eyes are upon their ways. He notes conduct, action, behavior.
3. God’s eyes are upon all their ways. The most secret do not escape his notice. Little faults are observed; hidden sins are known; all is fairly weighed and compared. God does not select conduct for judgment; he observes both the good and the bad, and judges of the whole.
4. Iniquity is not hidden. God looks beneath the ways to the iniquities which prompt them; he reads the heart, and judges of conduct by motive. Who can escape such a searching ordeal?
III. THE FATAL END TO THE CHASE. (Verse 18.) After conviction follows the sentence.
1. This is a recompense. It is earned and it is fairly proportionate to guilt. None of us dare ask for the simple reward of our conduct.
“Consider this
That in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy.”
2. It increases in severity with the increase of sin. The successive sieges of Jerusalem were successively more terrible; so were the repeated raids upon Rome. The longer we treasure up wrath for the day of wrath the greater must be the weight of it that will ultimately burst on our heads.
3. It is justly required by great sin. This was
(1) great moral and religious corruption;
(2) practiced in “the holy land “in God’s inheritance, and therefore a sacrilegious defilement of Divine things; and
(3) an abuse of God’s blessings in the land God had given the people. The sin of those who enjoy Divine privileges and hold positions in the Church by means of which they can glorify or dishonor the Name of God is, on these accounts, especially culpable.
Jer 16:19-21
God revealed to the heathen by his judgment on his people.
I. GOD IS REVEALED IN JUDGMENT. Blessings reveal God’s love; judgments, his righteous power. They who ignore the perennial tokens of God’s loving-kindness may be roused by startling manifestations of his justice. The judgments which fall on the professed people of God are the most striking proofs of his unflinching and impartial justice.
II. THE HEATHEN MAY LEARN THE LESSONS WHICH ARE LOST TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD. The heathen seem to be here described as returning to God before the Jews. Nothing is so blinding as sin against light. The publican repents before the Pharisee. Worldly men are more ready to receive religious impressions than people who were once religious and have fallen away.
III. THE REVELATION OF GOD VOUCHSAFED TO THE SPIRITUAL–MINDED IS HIGHER THAN THE REVELATION MADE TO THE HEATHEN IN JUDGMENT. The latter is grand and striking, but it does not open up the choicer stores of the knowledge of God. Jeremiah prizes these. To him God is a Strength, Fortress, and Refuge. God is not a mere Judge. He is a gracious Father, and this is his chief character. He is a strengthactively saving and inspiring energy; a Fortressprotecting us when attacked in the hard battle of life; and a Refuge in the clay of affliction, affording solace to his sorrowing children. God’s people enjoy personal relations with him very different from those of men who simply recognize the terrible presence of God in judgment. Thus Jeremiah says, “My Strength,” etc.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 16:1-4
Celibacy as an obligation of the minister of God.
This passage has been quoted in support of the Romish doctrine of the celibacy of the clergy. Like other favorite references of the advocates of this regulation, however, it only requires to be examined to show that its bearing is quite of an opposite character. Its terms are not by any means absolute or universal. Not even the whole lifetime of the prophet nor his entire ministry are within the scope of the prohibition. It was a special revelation for exceptional circumstances, and must not be converted into a general rule.
I. THE LIMITATIONS IMPOSED UPON THE PROPHET, AND THEIR REASONS.
1. The Command related to:
(1) The prophet himself. It was in the second person singular. A matter affecting himself alone.
(2) The holy land”in this place.” Should circumstances lead him elsewhere, the inference is that the restriction would be withdrawn.
(3) The period of time elapsing between the delivery of the special “word of Jehovah“ and its fulfillment.
2. That Jeremiah himself was alone required to observe this restriction might at first appear strange were it not for his exceptional position.
(1) As a symbol of the Divine attitude and intention towards Judah. Not only special actions, such as the hiding of the girdle, were to be of this character, but the whole personality of the prophet. He was representative both of God and the ideal Israel. Therefore he represents the mind of God towards those who usurped the place of the latter. The conditions of the then present relations of God and Judah were not such as warranted an assumption of responsibilities implying for their happy fulfillment the Divine acceptance and favor. In the midst of a luxurious people his celibacy would be impressive.
(2) As an example to others. The inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, whatever they might experience in the future, would not be able to say they had been entrapped or deceived into a false security. The self-restraint and serious, sad aspect he presented were intended to influence the action of the people at that juncture. The calamities foretold would not come upon those who had been unwarned.
II. THE BEARING OF THESE UPON THE QUESTION OF THE “CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.” It is obvious that, as there were many other ministers of God in Judah and Jerusalem at that time to whom the command was not given, it was intended for one occupying an exceptional position. Further, there is no necessary permanent obligation attaching to it. A certain contingency is regardeda time of distress and bloodshedand the conduct of the prophet is directed with regard to that. But the celibacy of the clergy is a permanent institution with those who uphold it. No regard is paid to special circumstances or times. And the office of the Christian minister is not to be considered as occupied for a season of short-lived, delusive peace, but instituted and maintained in a world which is being reconciled to God; in which the Holy Spirit is given to them that ask it for direction and comfort; and whose institutions are more and more influenced by the laws of the kingdom of God. So in St. Paul’s day it was the “present distress’ which gave rise to the injunction. The world was conceived of as approaching a grand climateric; a sudden and overwhelming calamity was to inaugurate Christ’s reign amongst men. Much will depend upon this, viz. Is the minister of the gospel a prophet of evil or a preacher of peace and glad tidings? If the latter, it can hardly be necessary that he should assume the bearing of Jeremiah. And the influence of a celibate clergy upon the general institutions of marriage has been found to be pernicious, lowering its relative sacredness and violating the law of nature, which is its greatest safeguard.
III. PRINCIPLES OF GENERAL OBLIGATION INVOLVED. The duties and restraints here imposed upon the prophet are not rightly apprehended when supposed entirely peculiar to office and position. They are not wholly those of a class or a special individual, but rather the generally obligatory principles of the spiritual life intensified and specialized. Every Christian ought to hold himself ready to sacrifice and to adapt himself as the duties imposed upon him under given circumstances may require.
1. The responsibilities of marriage. One’s own happiness merely is not to be consulted m marrying, but the probabilities of comfort and right upbringing of children that may be born. A season of calamity such as that now foretold was a sufficient reason against contracting marriage, as by that means its effects would only be the more widely extended.
2. Consciousness of God‘s displeasure ought to exert a restraining influence upon men. The marriage feast and the usual rejoicings that take place on such occasions show that they are regarded as of a joyous nature, and not amongst the sterner duties. It was but fitting, therefore, that it should be refrained from in view of what was about to take place. It would have shown a heedlessness of God’s anger provoking the more signal punishment. The “marrying and giving in marriage” of the antediluvians was a sign of their godlessness and unbelief.
3. The responsibility of example is here presented in an extreme form. What would have applied to the case of a private person thus forewarned was of greater force in that of one occupying an exceptional position and necessarily of great public influence. If the declarer of the Divine message had himself exhibited no sign of restraint or chastened severity of life, how could others be expected to believe him? The life of the preacher is the best illustration of his doctrine, and it naturally is regarded by others with special and critical attention.M.
Jer 16:10-13
The destiny of sinners a self-created one.
I. AS IT IS IN ITSELF. It is a fearful prospect which is here held out to the unbelieving Jews. They are to experience a complete change of condition. The land of promise, national independence and honor, family purity and happiness, and the institution and ordinances of true religion are to be forfeited. The land to which they are to be exiled is unfamiliar to themfull of strange scenes and customs; a scene of bondage and tyranny. This is but an illustration of the eternal destiny of sinners. Much must necessarily be vague in their conceptions of it, but it will be a greater change from their present circumstances and experiences than can be imagined. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus teaches that there will be a complete reversal of relations and conditions. How impossible for the lost to reconcile themselves to circumstances so different from those to which they have been accustomed! Their nature will be wholly enslaved, and the best service they can render will be exacted for objects unworthy of it and known to be so. Hell, so far as Scripture allusion to it can be understood, is represented as abnormal, unnatural, a state in which the soul shall be filled with fruitless reset, and sink into lower and still lower deeps of degradation and misery. It is depicted as a strange and sunless land, irradiated by no celestial smile and no sunrise of hope.
II. AS THE SINNER REGARDS IT. 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.
1. A destiny in his view so disproportionate to his offence becomes incredible. And just as the Jew could not conceive of the features and characteristics of the life upon which he was to enter when this prophecy should be fulfilled, the transgressor now fails to realize the position he must occupy when circumstance will depend only upon character. Passing consequences may be seen and partly estimated, but the final outcome of it all is, because of its very nature and extent, unreal to him.
2. The future of the sinner is strange and unreal to him, and therefore fails to impress him as it ought.
III. AS EXPLAINED BY GOD. This is one of the main purposes of revelation, viz. to connect the present with the future and to interpret their relations. Whilst it is true that every sinner already contains within himself the elements of his future punishment, it is also true that of himself he could not forecast the actual extent or nature of the destiny he is working out. It is necessary, therefore, both for emphasis and enlightenment, to supplement experience with revelation.
1. Their punishment was but the natural development of their sin. The latter was of old date. Their fathers forsook Jehovah, did not keep his Law, and went after other gods. The tendency was inherited by themselves, and in aggravated degree: “Ye have done worse than your fathers.” They now paid more attention and honor to idols than to Jehovah, and when this is the case it cannot last long. The veil of decency will be cast aside; the real character will betray itself, and shame will cease. They became more and more “sold under sin.” The vices of a false religion weakened their character and made them a ready prey to the ambition and rapacity of their neighbors. The same law is apparent in spiritual destiny. Let the sinner be warned. He may be sure his sin will find him out.
2. It was but right that they should be so punished, as they had added to their ancestral offence an intolerable personal aggravation. The terms of the covenant were flagrantly violated, and they had forfeited the land by their moral unfitness to occupy it. If an earthly country could be so hallowed as not to admit of being occupied by unclean idolaters, how much less possible must it be for confirmed sinners to stand in the presence of God amidst the multitudes of redeemed! Heaven would be bell to such persons.
3. The spiritual condition that was so dealt with presented no ground for consideration. God said, “I will show you no favor.” It was a deliberate sin, and there were no signs of repentance. The day of grace, however, was with them whilst the prophet spoke. So is it represented to be with the preaching of the gospel. Whilst God calls to us his mercy still continues. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.” But in that day present obstinacy will be the worst condemnation. “I called, and ye refused,” etc.M.
Jer 16:13
Sin a tyrannous and exhaustive service.
I. THAT WHICH WAS AT FIRST A FREE CHOICE WILL IN TIME BECOME A COMPULSORY SERVICE. The waywardness and capricious eclecticism of the idolatrous Jews was to be sternly visited upon them. They had toyed and compromised with idols; soon it would be discovered that that dalliance could not be prolonged.
1. Jehovah will not continue to accept a half-hearted service. It was only his forbearance that had suffered it so long. Whilst it might appear possible that Judah would repent, the imperfection of its service was overlooked; but when that imperfection seemed likely to be stereotyped, or when it was increasing with the growth of idolatrous practices, it was no longer to be endured. A mixed worship is dishonoring to God. He refuses to accept half a heart. It is impossible to serve him aright with divided attention and interest. Permission to worship and know him even in part is a privilege which may be withdrawn. The “idolater” would not always be able to walk on the heights of critical spiritual eclecticism. The time would come when what he thought so irksome would be taken away. God would send upon him “strong delusion to believe a lie.” And this is rather to be looked upon as a repudiation of Judah by God than as a departure from Jehovah permitted by him to his own hurt. Spiritual power and hallowed circumstance would alike be forfeited, and God would cast off the idolaters. For:
2. Sinful tendency, when let alone, confirms and strengthens itself. Daily contact with the obligations and influence of the Law and the temple was a real benefit to the Israelites. It kept them from settling down utterly into idolatrous habits. That religious observance which is so wearisome to the sinner is his safeguard; it keeps him from complete abandonment to the inner depravity of his nature. He is alarmed, warned, disturbed, whenever he is inclined to more than ordinary license; and even his ordinary lax and sinful life is constantly judged and corrected by the truth which he hears. The Spirit of God continues to plead and wrestle with him, and although he does not wholly yield himself to its influence, he is prevented from wandering quite beyond recall. But let this restraining influence of grace once be withdrawn, the natural impulse to evil, all unchecked, will begin to develop and gradually overmaster the entire nature. This is the explanation of many a life that seems to linger long upon the debatable line between duty and sinful inclinationit is the Spirit of God that has not ceased to strive with it, and not the mere power of the man over his own desires and habits.
3. The circumstances and opportunities of Divine worship, if persistently neglected and abused, will be withdrawn. Palestine under the theocracy was a breathing-space for the spiritual aspirations of man. It was a school of purest affection and the most exalted righteousness. Divine power outside of, and also working within, Israel had defended it against the most tremendous invading forces. Let that power be withdrawn, the possibility of every man worshipping God under his own vine and fig tree would be taken away. The Jews would be overpowered by the laws and customs of the idolatrous nations amongst whom they would be dispersed. How much do we owe to the political, social, and personal influences that make for righteousness around us! How slowly and at what infinite cost have they been acquired! And they depend upon unceasing effort for their support and advancement. Civilization is the product of long, manifold, and harmonious effort and growth. It is a gossamer fabric which a day might destroy. Yet is it but an outwork and coarse expression of religion. The latter is the breath and inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Let that breath be withdrawn, and it ceases to live; and its most characteristic and essential institutions gradually become obsolete and sink into a mockery and a snare. We shall probably never know how much we owe to the mere circumstance of religion that surrounds us. Freedom to worship God, encouragement to obey him, and sustaining power to give effect to our spiritual desires, all result from the favorable position in which we are placed. Let us, therefore, seek to foster the institutions and increase the social and political influence of Christianity in the world. Without its presence amongst men, and the hallowed institutions, customs, and observances that embody its spirit, we should find it infinitely more difficult to serve God with conscientious and honest service.
II. THIS SERVICE WILL AFFORD NO REAL SATISFACTION OR PEACE. The exhaustive and absorbing devotion which idolatry entails is not the sign of spontaneous enthusiasm. It arises from the nature of the idols, as senseless, helpless blocks. They, indeed, must cry loudly who would be heard by such gods. In proportion as ritual is more laborious than righteousness, so is idolatry more exacting than true religion. But “the idol is nothing,” only the representative of the lusts and ignorance of its worshippers. It is in reality the latter that receive and demand the service. All sin is idolatry in some form or other, and will prove as exacting of the attention and labor of the sinner. Who is not willing to admit that sin is a hard taskmaster? And yet, what are its rewards? The poor soul, hurried and driven by its own overmastering lusts and passions, has no rest, and no solid residuum of comfort is secured; nay, rather a sense of deepening gloom, indefinite, unquenchable craving, and a foreboding of the final wrath of him whom it has insulted and disobeyed. To the victims of wicked habit, etc; as to the devotees of a false religion, the words of Christ are addressed, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden,” etc.M.
Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15
The old deliverance forgotten in the new.
I. THE GREATER AND MORE INVETERATE THE TRANSGRESSION, THE GREATER WILL BE THE PUNISHMENT. It was not to be supposed that the past judgments of God, however great, were all that he could or would do. He has many ways of bringing transgressors to their senses; and it is impossible to conceive a limit to his power of imposing penalty. His stern, uncompromising attitude to sin has been witnessed to by many an awful judgment and destruction, even where previous calamities might seem to have exhausted his anger or his invention.
II. THE PROMISE OF GOD APPEARS SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE FIRST ANNOUNCEMENTS OF HIS JUDGMENTS. Even in the way in which it is threatened there is encouragement and hope. It will be an awful experience, but God will redeem his people. So in the beginning of the curse our first parents received an anticipatory evangel. The failures of God’s people in social and political experiment were the occasion of the most glorious predictions of Messianic times. This shows the real purpose of God’s threatenings. They are intended to produce repentance, and yet there is reality enough in them if that repentance be not forthcoming. Fear is appealed to, but freedom of choice is preserved, and spiritual power called into responsible action.
III. THE MERCIFUL POWER OF GOD WILL BE MORE GLORIOUSLY MANIFESTED IN EVERY NEW CALAMITY WHICH HIS PEOPLE BRING UPON THEMSELVES. The captivity of which the prophet speaks will but give occasion for a grand deliverance, in comparison with which the Exodus from Egypt will sink into insignificance. The judgments of God, however great they may appear, are limited with the strictest exactness, and are within his control. There is reason, therefore, to expect his interference whenever the folly or unbelief of his people imperils his cause. He will preserve a people to praise him, and raise up a generation to call him blessed. So with the backslider from gospel privileges and obligations. He whom Christ has washed in his blood will not be suffered wholly to pass into spiritual death. Grander exhibitions of the Divine grace and power will be afforded. The good Shepherd will go over the dark mountains to recover the wanderer. Those who have been entangled again in the yoke of bondage will be redelivered if they but turn with new obedience and faith to their Savior. They will be saved, if” as by fire.”M.
Jer 16:19-21
The heathen turning to the true God.
The prophet, disappointed and broken-hearted, is driven to Jehovah for his own comfort and support. We see here how much it cost him to speak the words he had to utter. Every true minister of Christ must feel in the same manner when he has to deal with hardened sinners, and to become the mouthpiece of Divine warnings and threats. The soul that stands up for righteousness will often find itself without sympathy and alone amongst unbelieving men. Prayer is the refuge that is ever open in such hours. An extremity like this is of all others God’s opportunity. Like Elijah in the wilderness, he will receive unexpected succor. He will live, not on bread, but on words and revelations of God. To Jeremiah was given this vision.
I. WHILST JEHOVAH IS DESERTED BY HIS OWN PEOPLE THE HEATHEN WILL SEEK HIM. There is a law of displacement visible in God’s dealings with his Church from age to age. Like the man in the parable, who prepared the feast and bade many, he is determined that his house shall be filled.
1. In this way God shows his people that he does not specially need them. His favor depends upon their faithfulness; if they fail he has others to supply, their place. His election is no blind favoritism or arbitrary distinction, but proceeds upon spiritual conditions.
2. Apostasy from God is due to imperfectly understanding him; but the heathen who turn to him do so with full experience of the effects of their idolatry. The vanity and nothingness of idols drives them in despair to the true God. Henceforth for them idolatry can have no power. It has been, as the Law was to Saul, a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ. Lessons acquired in so stern a school are not soon forgotten; and the haft-hearted disciple, led away of his own lusts and enticed, is supplanted by a steadfast and faithful convert. So every day is the Church of Christ being recruited from the ranks of those who have been the “chief of sinners.” We cannot tell in what depths of degradation those may now be sunk who are to shine as stars in the eternal firmament. Let the individual Christian strive, therefore, to make his calling and his election sure. Let the Church see that iris candlestick be not removed.
II. IDOLATRY IS A SYSTEM WHICH REFUTES ITSELF.
1. It disappoints the expectations which it has awakened.
2. The conscience at last revolts against the excesses to which it leads.
3. By-and-by the evident truism, that what man makes cannot be his god, is realized and acted upon. This process is going on today in the great seats of idolatrous worship, and the fiercest iconoclasts are to be found amongst those who have been brought up in heathenism. A similar process to this goes on in the lives of good men as they are gradually freed from the illusions of life and the ensnaring influences of worldly ideas and aims. The disappointments of life are so many waves casting us upon the shore of a heavenly life, and the general drift of earthly experience is in many and many an instance bringing men surely to God.
III. FAILING A BETTER REVELATION, THE JUDGMENTS OF JEHOVAH UPON HIS OWN PEOPLE WILL SHOW THE HEATHEN THAT HE IS THE ONLY REAL GOD. This is not the way in which God would prefer to show men his glory and his power. It is by his saving grace he would commend himself to them. And the saints are the appointed teachers of the world. They could tell of his power and his grace, of their own deliverance. They could exhibit the blessings of a people whose trust is Jehovah. But, failing this, they would be made examples. The justice of God will take the place of his mercy, which has been abused. In its exceptional severity, its evident connection with and suggestion of supernatural agency, etc; it will attract attention and arouse curiosity. Israel, therefore, even in its calamity and suffering, will serve God. A vicarious virtue will lurk in its captivity, its desolation, and its persecution. God is dealing thus with the unfaithful branches of his Church today. The perplexities, entanglements, and griefs that are due to worldly alliance and secular ambitions and desires are well enough understood even by worldly men. Not from Eden, but from the wilderness to which she has banished herself, will the bride, the Lamb’s wife, be brought for her new espousals, and with her shall come, as virgins in her train, many who have been taught by her judgments and disciplines.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 16:1-9
Commands countermanded.
There are three such in this section.
I. THE COMMAND TO MARRY.
1. In every way whereby the will of God can be expressedby his Word, his providence, his laws, written, moral, social, physical, God has commanded that “a man shall leave his father and mother,” etc. “A good wife is from the Lord,” her companionship is the most blessed in the world. All artificial hindrances to marriage are, therefore, to be condemned. The same enemy that destroys such myriads of souls for eternity, ruins their happiness, oftentimes, in this life also. For it is the world which frowns upon marriages, unexceptionable in other respects, in which a certain style cannot be maintained or a certain amount of income be secured; and all superstitious teachings that inculcate celibacy as a state more pleasing to God, are equally guilty both in regard to God and man. Disobedience to this command involves such frightful consequences as in themselves to clearly manifest the Divine will, that u it is not good for man to be alone.”
2. But here in these verses the prophet is distinctly forbidden to marry. (Jer 16:1, etc.) And the reasons were probably that, by his abstaining from marriage, he might more powerfully confirm his words as to the coming calamities. It would show his own belief in what he had foretold when it was seen that he would not make for himself a home under such circumstances. It would leave him more free for the arduous duty which he had to discharge. It would save him great sorrow when the evil days should come. And so now there are special eases in which God’s will seems to be that a man should not marry. The poverty-stricken ministers of religion, of whom there are so many; the missionary exposed to daily peril of climate, pestilence, savage heathendom; or any to whom it is evident that by their marriage more evil than good will result;then, just as we may be called upon to do without many other great earthly advantages, so we may be called upon to deny ourselves this. And there may be physical conditions forbidding marriage. No man has a right to transmit to others hereditary disease, whether of body or mind. And there are spiritual hindrances. A man ought to marry only “in the Lord.” But all these exceptions are rare; God’s general rule is that men should marry.
II. THE COMMAND TO “WEEP WITH THEM THAT WEEP.” That there would be no stint of sorrow, no lack of mourners, the awful declarations of this section plainly show. And generally God’s will, shown in a thousand ways, is that we should, by sympathy and condolence, “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the Law of Christ.” But here such sympathy and “weeping with them that weep” is prohibited (Jer 16:5). This does seem a stern command, and no doubt it is so. But we do not feel called on to condole with criminals on account of the penalties they have to bear; were any to do so, we should regard it as misplaced and mischievous sympathy, calculated only to do harm. And whilst those to whom the prophet was sent were hardened in their sin, sympathy with them on account of their punishment would be also mischievous and wrong. We have continually to be on our guardfor many never arelest our sympathy for the sinner’s suffering should make us forget or think lightly of the sinner’s sin. No matter how glaring the crime, there are always some who are ready to agitate for a mitigation of the penalty. Now, it is this hurtful sympathy which God here forbids the prophet to show.
III. THE COMMAND TO “REJOICE WITH THEM THAT DO REJOICE.” This also is a constant injunction of the Divine Word, as it is an instinct of the benevolent and Christian heart. Jesus was as ready to go to the marriage festival as to the graveside. And so should we be. But here again the command is countermanded (Jer 16:8). And the reason is manifest. God would not suffer his prophet to be in any wise a solace to sinful men. Too many professed Christians are. Nothing is a greater “comfort to Sodom” than the sight of the serenity and joviality of men who profess to believe that sinners are on their way to everlasting woe. The sinner arguesand it is an argument very difficult to refutethat Christians do not believe this, no matter what they say, and hence they, the ungodly, are in no such awful peril after all. The prophet of God was commanded to abstain from all festivity and all outward joy, and no doubt the reason was, lest by any sharing therein, he should throw doubt on the awful message he was charged to deliver. Are the ministers of God bound to do the like now? Our Lord did not. His apostles did not. Nowhere are we bidden to abstain from all earthly joy. Rather are we assured that God has “given us all things richly to enjoy.” And the unbeliever’s objection on the ground of the inconsistency of our calmness, and yet more of our gladness, notwithstanding the awful peril of ungodly souls, may be met by the reply that we cannot say of those whom yet we would fain see drawn much nearer to God than they to our eyes are, that they are, as those whom Jeremiah addressed, absolutely doomed. We are not forbidden to pray for them, as Jeremiah was; nor to hope that even yet they may turn to God and find mercy. The prophet had no hope; we have much, and it is on the ground of that hope which we cherish that our calmer, brighter moods are justified. Still, one shrinks from saying aught that would seem to sanction the terrible indifference we all too much manifest in regard to the spiritual condition of the world around us. But yet we may say that that condition is not such as to demandeven were it possible, which it is not, to comply with the demandthat we should all cease from joy, and clothe ourselves unceasingly in sackcloth and ashes. We cannot do that; we are not bidden to do that, nor would it be of use were we to do so. We have a gospel to proclaim, a living Savior to hope in, and a Holy Spirit’s energies to second all our prayers and endeavors to win men to God. But at the same time, the believer in God and in his righteous Law cannot and ought not to find pleasure in the rejoicings of the ungodly, or to give any countenance to their defiance of God. No; we are not to go “in the way of sinners,” not to sit “in the seat of scorners,” though it may be a scene of festivity and mirth. From all such we must turn away. We cannot rejoice with them when they rejoice; in their gladness we cannot share, but only mourn that they do not mourn. Let them turn to God, and we will dwell among them, and in their joy and in their sorrow we will gladly share. But until they do, for us as for God’s prophet, his ordinary commands as to sympathy with them are countermanded, and we must stand aside. Light cannot have fellowship with darkness, nor the children of God with the children of the wicked one.C.
Jer 16:10-13
Conscience dead.
Conscience is given us of God, to serve as a faithful sentry, warning of the approach of sin and summoning the energies of our souls to resist and reject the intruder. Or as a just judge to unhesitatingly condemn sin, let it be wrapped up in what specious disguise it may. It is the Ithuriel’s spear which, the moment it touches any moral action, compels such action to reveal itself of what sort it is. Oh, the unspeakable blessing of an enlightened, healthful conscience that will not suffer sin, any sin, even the least, without prompt and powerful protest! God help us all diligently to guard, profoundly to reverence and faithfully to obey this inward monitor, this true bearer of “the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” But these verses reveal a condition of things in which conscience is dead. It has lost all power of perception, its voice is hushed, or rather, what is worse, it sees and speaks falsely. It is a mockery of life, which would be grotesque were it not so profoundly sad. A caricature and parody of what it once was, its powers utterly perverted, bent, warped, so that they “call evil good, and good evil.” Note
I. THE FACT. How else can such a question as this of Jer 16:10 be accounted for? Was not their sin clear as the sun at noonday? Had it not been for years crying aloud to God for vengeance? Had it not been condemned by all the servants of God, by the written Law of God, by all the voices of God in long succession? And yet these people are asking, “Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us.” It is as if the convicts in our prisons were to begin to ask why they were so treated, and to profess ignorance of their having done aught amiss. But in such ease we should say they were playing the hypocrite, pretending an innocence to which they well knew they had no claim. In this case, however, there is no hypocrisy. The question, monstrous as it seems to us, is asked in all good faith. The prophet of God is bidden to give it a serious answer, not to denounce those who ask it as a set of conscious hypocrites. Just as in Mat 25:44, which is a portentous parallel indeed, the condemned there are heard asking when they had been guilty of the sins laid to their charge. It is evident in that case and in this, not that they were consciously liars, but that conscience was simply dead within them. The writer knew also of one who had cruelly defrauded a large number of people, who, believing him to be an eminently religious man, had entrusted to him their hard-earned savings, with all of which he had made away; but, when brought to justice, condemned, and imprisoned, he could not be got to confess that he had done wrong, but would keep quoting, in regard to himself, texts which tell of the afflictions of the righteous, and how “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.”
II. THE CAUSE. Conscience is starved by neglect of that seeking of God’s grace which is its nutriment and strength. And it is stunned by repeated acts of sin. Men can and do nibble, if we may so speak, at conscience, and gradually rid themselves of it. The clamor of sin drowns the still, small voice, and its protests, perpetually unheeded, are at last withdrawn. So that at length men find themselves able to do evil and think nothing of it; the little rift that sin first made has widened and widened until the whole torrent of waters bursts through, for the faithful dyke that held them back has been gradually destroyed, and so now the whole nature of the man is overwhelmed, submerged beneath the deluge of sin. And, what is most sad, the man feels, no more than do the sunken cities and towns that tie at the bottom of the Zuyder Zee, the rush of the waves that for centuries have rolled over them.
III. THE CURE. Thank God there is one. The sharp surgery of God’s judgments arouse the deadened conscience. The rags, the hunger, the degradation of the prodigal woke up his conscience and brought him “to himself.” And so it was with the Jewish people. God’s judgments made them hate and abhor, as they have done ever since, the idolatries which brought those judgments upon them. It would be dreadful to think that God had no resources whereby, in full harmony with its freedom, he could bring into due subjection and order “the unruly wills of sinful men.” Can we conceive of God having created a force greater than himself, which can forever defy him, and ever maintain, as Milton’s Satan in hell, a rebellious though wretched rule? God knew how to convert Israel, Saul, the penitent thief, ourselves, and we may trust him to find means whereby at length to Jesus every knee shall be made to bow. Mat 25:14 and Mat 25:15 contemplate a converted Israel (cf. also Isa 30:18; Mat 27:33-39). But let a man tremble at the thought of compelling God to deal with him thus. Let him beware how he wastes his conscience, lest it turn against him and suffer him to sin unrestrained.C.
Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15
Great mercies the forerunners of greater still.
At first reading of these verses their truth is hardly apparent to the ordinary reader of the Bible. The deliverance from Egypt was so magnificent an event, accompanied by such manifestations of the Divine glory, that the quiet return of but a comparatively few of the exiles from Babylon pales into insignificance. Hence it is the latter event that seems not worthy to be spoken of in comparison with the former, and not the former in comparison with the latter. The second temple was so greatly inferior to the first that old men who had seen the first wept when they thought of those glories which to the second were quite unattainable; and so the return from Babylon seems to fall far short in glory of the redemption from Egypt. But these verses affirm that the glory of the return from Babylon was to be far the greater. Now, how could this be? It may be said:
1. That in this return there was a display of the moral power of God rather than his physical might. That which was needed to bring this about was the exercise of the Divine power on men’s hearts rather than any material force. It was by mighty miracles that Israel was brought out of Egypt; it was by the action of God’s Spirit on his people’s hearts that those who returned from Babylon were induced so to do. For their lot was happy, prosperous, peaceful, so far as this world was concerned. The Books of Esther, Nehemiah, and Daniel show this. Hence it was a strong religious yearning that led to the return of those who returned. The mass of the nation were content to remain, and did remain, and formed “those of the Dispersion,” of whom in so many ways we hear in after ages. Hence, as Zechariah says (Zec 4:6), it was “not by might, nor by power, but,” etc.
2. Then, also, in this return there was a display of God‘s pardoning love. Israel was a forgiven people. They had received at the Lord’s hand double for all their sins. But God is ever more glorified in the display of pardoning love than in any manifestations of mere power.
3. And there was in it such a fulfillment of prophecy, such a demonstration of the overruling power of God in and through all the movements of different nations and ages, as proclaimed God’s glory more than power alone could ever do. For these reasons the return of the exiles was a more glorious event than the deliverance from Egypt.
4. And this will be seen yet more if we take the verses as pointing on to the ultimate restoration of Israel. Zechariah (Zec 13:1-9; Zec 14:1-21.) speaks of this, as do many other Scriptures. It was the “hope of Israel” of which Paul told, and he places it in connection with the second advent and the resurrection.
5. And still more if we understand by Israel the spiritual Israel, and regard all these promises as predicting the triumph of the Church. Thus regarded, the deliverance from Egypt was by comparison a very little thing. But when that great triumph comes, where shall we be? God grant that it be amongst those whom on that day he will confess before his Father and the holy angels. But this notable instance in which past mercies promise greater ones to come is only one out of many more. Apply the principle declared
I. TO THE CHURCH AT LARGE. What mercies in the past, what deliverances, the Church has enjoyed: from persecutors, “grievous wolves” superstition, infidelity, etc.! But all these are to be regarded as pledges of yet greater ones when they shall be needed.
II. TO INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF THAT CHURCH. Who of us cannot recount, in the course of our lives, temporal deliverances: from sickness, poverty, perplexity, sorrow, death, etc.? We are to take them all as reasons to anticipate greater things still, more to follow. And especially spiritual deliverances: from living on in disregard of God, from the power of the world, temptation, sorrow. But there are greater ones still. The Church in its full redemption shall prove the truth of this, and so shall separate members of the Church. All shall confess that the Lord hath “kept the good wine until now.”
CONCLUSION.
1. Be not dismayed at the troubles of the present; do not think God’s grace is exhausted.
2. See to it that you share in the first deliverancethat from guilt and sin. Unless we have known the first, we cannot know the second and greaterthat final deliverance from all guilt, all sin, all sorrow, all death, in the presence of God forever.C.
Jer 16:16-21
Sin found out.
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.
I. MEN DOUBT THIS. Reasons are:
1. Long impunity has made them bold.
2. 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.
3. They see others go on in sin unpunished.
4. The power which we all have to believe what we wish to believe.
5. The direct agency of the devil in fostering such false belief.
II. BUT THE DECLARATION OF GOD ON THIS MATTER IS NEVERTHELESS TRUE.
1. The Scriptures affirm it (cf. all those which teach the omniscience and omnipresence of God).
2. Conscience attests it.
3. There is nothing in sin to show wherefore it should not be.
4. The revelation of the future life distinctly provides for it.
5. And even now it is continually being proved true. A man’s sin finds him out in many waysin body, mind, estate, reputation, etc. And in one or more of these sin does ever find a man out, even now.
6. The apparent exceptions are accounted for on the ground of
(1) God’s long-suffering to the sinful;
(2) God’s purpose to test and exercise the faith of his own people.
III. A DEEP AND ABIDING CONVICTION OF THIS TO BE GREATLY DESIRED.
1. What restraint it would exercise on the will! (cf. “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”).
2. How exceeding sinful it would make sin appear!
3. What force it would lend to all endeavors after the reclamation and reformation of the sinful!
IV. 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.
V. BECAUSE SIN IS SURE TO FIND US, LET US AT ONCE SEEK AND FIND CHRIST.C.
Jer 16:19
Jer 17:3
The accusers of the ungodly.
The prophet appeals to
I. THE ANTICIPATED CONVERSION OF THE HEATHEN. Jer 17:19, “The Gentiles shall come,” etc. These heathen peoples will declare the vanity of those idols in which Judah is now trusting (cf. Mat 11:20-24).
II. CONSCIENCE. Their sin was “written as with,” etc; “on the table of their heart,” (Jer 17:1). Nothing could erase the memories they all had of their own grievous sin. It was written as if in rock, and as with a pen of iron and a point of diamond (allusion, probably, to the inscriptions on rocks, so frequent in the East,). What a witness is conscience! It cannot be silenced nor sophisticated. It keeps a man’s sins “ever before” him. “My sin is ever before me,” said David. The writing of our sin on the heart’s tablets is so deep, so incisive, so clear, that nothing can destroy it. No storms will wash them out; no lapse of time obliterate and decay; no rush of business and occupation will fill up and conceal those deep engravings; no rough contact with the events of life will break them. There they stand, clearly legible, written on the tablets of our heartsour conscienceas letters written by an iron or diamond pen on rock. To this evidence the prophet appeals (cf. our Savior’s appeal to conscience in the case of the accusers of the woman taken in adultery, Joh 8:1-59.).
III. THEIR WORSHIP. Not alone their conscience, but the horns of their altars, testified against them. These horns, smeared with the blood of their idolatrous sacrifices, blackened with the smoke of their altar fires, reeking continually with the fumes and smoke of their offered victims,these also were witnesses whose testimony could not be set aside. And what a witness against a man will the worship he offersthe horns of his altaroften be: its coldness, its carelessness, its infrequency, its insincerity, its formality, and sometimes its hypocrisy! Yes; the horns of the altar will prove swift witnesses against all who worship God otherwise than “in spirit and in truth.”
IV. THEIR CHILDREN. (Jer 17:2.) “They would never lose the impression of that horrible idolatry which had snatched so many from their midst. So deep was this impression that the mere sight of green trees and high hills was sufficient to refresh the hideous memory continually.” Or it may mean that their children, retaining and practicing the idolatry of their fathers, are witnesses against those fathers such as none can set aside. Children may become the means of their fathers’ condemnation. They cannot held testifying against them. In their memories, their habits, their very bodies, their sins, they will declare what their fathers were. Thank God, they can and do testify for the godly and righteous parents, as Timothy did of hits mother and hers. But how awful to think of having one’s own children brought forward as witnesses against us! Let ungodly parents ponder this.
CONCLUSION. With such weight of evidence against Judah, what wonder that her punishment was so severe! The sin of Judah, however, too much resembles, in its aggravation and in the evidence brought against it, sin of which we may be all too conscious. What can we do but turn to him who has said, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,” etc.; and whose blood “cleanseth from all sin?” Blessed be God that we may do this; but “how shall we escape if we neglect,” etc.?C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 16:1-4
Domestic relations become a curse.
It is evidently implied that, even in the present deplorable state of Israel, there was much that appeared attractive and profitable in domestic relations. Jesus reminded his servants that, in the days before the Flood, there was “marrying and giving in marriage until the day that, Noah entered into the ark;” and so we may conclude that in the time of Jeremiah there was also marrying and giving in marriage, clown to the very coming of the invader on the land. Individuals would go on, following out the promptings of their affections, unable to discern the signs of the times, and the approach of a calamity such as would overwhelm every family existing when it came. When society is in its ordinary state, marriages ending in misery are believed to be exceptional but here there is a trouble which is to come upon every household. Every family is to be smitten, and Jeremiah, in. his loneliness, is called to notice how, though deprived of domestic relations, he is to gain a compensation in other ways: Perhaps at times he was inclined to murmur that hea man of strife and contention to the whole landhad no home where he might turn and find some refuge and relief, if only for a short interval Even in these apostate days there must surely have been a few homes at least where there was fidelity to Jehovah; where the parents taught his truth to the children, and the children reverenced the parents according to his commandment. But Jeremiah’s way was closed up, so that he had no opportunity of forming such a household for himself. His celibate life did not come by his own selfish resolution, but by the will of God, clearly expressed, and based on certain necessities of Jeremiah’s prophetic mission. The prophet, therefore, while he lost some things, was spared some great sorrows when the long-predicted blow at last came on the nation. The external circumstances of life are wonderfully equalized, when the sum of them is able to be calculated. We can only be robbed of the best possessions by our own fault. Jeremiah, however lonely his path may have been, however like to that of him who had “not where to lay his head,” was advancing to the state where “they neither marry nor are given in marriage.”Y.
Jer 16:5-9
The house of mourning and the house of feasting alike forbidden.
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. This commanded attitude towards the house of mourning and the house of feasting indicates to us the spirit in which those who may have to make such visits should pay their visits. We must not go to fall in with the wishes of those who are visited, but rather to do the will of God, at whatever cost, and with whatever difficulty. Consider this
I. WITH REGARD TO THE HOUSE OF MOURNING. One feels that the prophet must have been exposed to much misapprehension in carrying out this command with the symbolic prophecy involved in it. It would be said that he was not only an unpatriotic man but an unfeeling one. Happily we have abundant proof that, whatever the imperfections of Jeremiah, a cold indifference to the griefs of others was not one of them. He may often have had to do violence to his own impulses in keeping away from the homes where the dead were lying; and yet he only did by command what we should sometimes like to do by preference, if it were only possible to do it without wounding the feelings of others. Think of the houses of mourning where little or nothing can be said that is comforting. What could have been done to comfort stricken parents that night when there was one dead in every Egyptian household? There is a way of offering sympathy which, well intended as it is, only exacerbates instead of mollifying. What false consolations, what hackneyed commonplaces, are made use of in the house of mourning! There is a falling back on what is called the good moral character of the dead. Deathbed repentances may be made too much of. The chamber of mourning is the stronghold of an immense amount of very dangerous error in the attitude of man towards God. The temporary pain of the freshly wounded heart of man is more considered than the abiding truth of God. Then what censurable regrets there are! What utter and unconcealed selfishness on the part of survivors! It is not a feeling of pain for what the departed may have lost, but rebellious wrath for what the survivor may have lost. And so we may say that, to enter into a house of mourning where there is the right and Christian spirit, is a matter for joy and not for grief, because indeed the peace and the loving-kindness and mercies of God are there. Let us aim so to live, in such unworldliness and heavenliness of life, that survivors shall not be tempted into vain consolations when we are gone.
II. WITH REGARD TO THE HOUSE OF FEASTING. The absence of Jeremiah from festive gatherings would be as a most significant presence; seeing that he was absent, not by accident, not from any personal feeling, not from any ascetic dislike to such gatherings, but by the special command of God. Not only was he forbidden to become himself a bridegroom, he could not even congratulate any other. It will be noticed that the marriage-feast in particular is referred to. The wedding was a time for a special gathering, and invited guests would make special efforts to be present. Jesus, for instance, at the wedding-feast at Cana. Mere rioting and reveling, and the laughter of fools and such merry-making as cost the Baptist his life, were at all times forbidden. There is much of rebuke to us in this command of the prophet here. He did not take part even in an innocent festive gathering. It jarred on him as he thought of the future, so different and yet so near. And possibly, if we thought more as we ought to think on what has yet to come in the way of judgment and destruction, we should walk through the world feeling that we had no heart even for what is reckoned innocent merriment. We can never be sufficiently serious when the burden of human life, with all its vast and varied trials, comes to lie upon our thoughts.Y.
Jer 16:14, Jer 16:15
Two great recollections.
Here once again we come upon the evangelical element in Jeremiah’s prophecies; and once 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. We have to consider
I. THE INDICATION OF WHAT HAD BEES ONE OF THE MOST CUSTOMARY FORMS OF OATH HITHERTO. On important occasions, when a promise had to be made or an assertion verified, it was the Israelite’s habit to make a solemn appeal to the living Jehovah. “As Jehovah liveth” was the general formula, to be combined with more particular references, agreeing with the occasion, as to what this living Jehovah had done in the past. The reference might be to something that had happened in the experience of the individual, and probably still more frequently to greater events in the larger experience of the nation. To give such an appeal all possible solemnity it was needful to think of Jehovah in the most magnifying way; and what could magnify him more than a recollection of the great deliverance from Egypt, which he had wrought out for Israel? That deliverance gave Israel its great chance of service and glory as the people of God. Up to that time a nation of helpless slaves and sufferershelpless, that is, for anything they could dothey nevertheless became in a very few days a nation of free men, travelling towards a land of their own. And all this was by direct Divine intervention; and not only was it a great deliverance in itself, but all the circumstances made it doubly memorable. The narrative of what had been done needed no embellishments to grave it indelibly on the memory of each generation. Moreover, Jehovah himself had made provision for the continued recollection of the deliverance by the institution of the Passover. tie wished it to be remembered. We may well conclude that such a form of oath as appealed to him in his character as the Deliverer of Israel from Egyptian bondage, was peculiarly agreeable; it being always presumed, of course, that the oath was uttered sincerely.
II. THE INDICATION OF HOW THIS VENERATED OATH WAS TO BE SUPERSEDED. Probably at the time of the deliverance from Egypt many Israelites may have said to themselves, “Nothing can ever happen in the history of our nation more memorable than this. Whatever Our vicissitudes, whatever our perils, we cannot be more in need of Jehovah’s intervention than we have lately been.” But when either nations or individuals speak thus, it is in utter ignorance of how deep and terrible human need may become. There was a worse bondage than that of Egypt; it came with no external inconveniences, it was invisible to the outward eye, and, worst of all, it was heedlessly accepted by the bondman himself. The Israelites had fallen into the bodily slavery of Egypt by no fault of their own; there was no point at which it was possible for them to stop the process. But the spiritual enslavement to idols and to every sort of consequent evil came by their own act. They had stooped to the yoke. It is a greater thing that has to be done now, so far as the result to the Israelite is concerned, than was done when he was taken out of Egypt. Then he was delivered from Pharaoh and his hosta simple matter comparatively, for the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in the Red Sea did all that needed to be done. But now the Israelite has to be delivered from himself. There has to be some sort of change within him, and this we may well believe was brought about by the exile in Babylon. It is not enough to say that, after a time of exile, God brought them back to Jerusalem. The mere transport from one place to another would have been no whit more memorable than the deliverance from Egypt. Surely there must have been a state of heart in the returning generation which made them very different from the generation going away into captivity seventy years before. That they came back to a true, spiritual, steadfast service of Jehovah is not to be supposed; but neither would they come back to the old idolatry. The sin into which they were hereafter to fail was a formal service of the true God, mere ceremonialism and Pharisaism, not apostasy to idols. The great effect of the exile in Babylon was deliverance from formal idolatry, evidently a matter to be more celebrated than the deliverance, centuries before, from bondage in Egypt. But in the future beyond there was something greater still to be looked for. There was a possibility of yet another form of oath, if Jesus had not recommended his disciples to dispense with all additions to the simple, veracious “Yes” and “No.” Israel needed to be delivered, not only from formal connection with false gods, but from a mere formal connection with the true God. The Lord lives, who brought Israel out of Egypt. The Lord lives, who further delivered Israel from temptation to fabricate idols and grovel before them in licentiousness and cruelty. And we may also add that the Lord lives, who makes individuals of every nation his children by the accepted indwelling of his Spirit; makes them partakers of the Divine nature, with all the glorious consequences thereof. Further, we may say that Jesus lives, who made the blind to see and who raised the dead. But it is a still greater thing to say, Jesus lives, who died to restore men to his Father, and rose again to bring life and immortality to light.Y.
Jer 16:19-21
The confession of the idolatrous Gentiles.
I. THE PROPHET‘S DESCRIPTION OF JEHOVAH. God, he says, is his Strength, his Fortress, and his Refuge.
1. The way in which the deserter individualizes himself. To the prophet individually Jehovah has a satisfactory relation. So far as external sufferings and losses are concerned, the prophet cannot escape some share; but so far as concerns his most important interests, he is effectually separated from his fellow-countrymen. When the invader comes they lose everything; but just then the prophet will be able to say more than ever that Jehovah is his Strength, Fortress, and Refuge. What he has learned to value most cannot be spoiled by any human hand whatever, and so it is seen that each one of us may be in the midst of a perishing multitude and yet not of them. These people had long boasted of their resources, their securities, and their satisfaction in life. They had virtually said to the prophet, “What better are you than us? Though you speak differently and live differently, your end will be the same.” But the end was not the same. The invaders took from the people all that was precious to them, and then it was made evident that what was most precious to the prophet remained secure and uninjured with him.
2. The necessity that the prophet should be able to say this. Strength, defense, and security for the individualeven in the midst of a nation having none of these thingswas not only possible but necessary. In the last resort, no amount of strength in the community in which we live will do us any good. There may be strength of a certain kind all around, but that may only emphasize our own weakness. Suppose the position of Jeremiah reversed. Actually he was living almost a solitary believer amid a nation of unbelievers; and yet this was far better than to have been an unbeliever amid a nation of believers. There is no way to make God our Strength, Fortress, and Refuge, save by personal trust and obedience.
3. The sufficiency of that in which the prophet here expresses his confident. It is when we really address Jehovah, thinking of what we need and of what he is, that the feeling of an inexhaustible sufficiency will come to us. And this is the way one may come to speak who knows history, who has had somewhat in personal experience both of need and supply, and, above all, who looks heavenward, assured by a feeling of the heart which rises above all reasoning, that he is connected with One able to do exceeding abundantly beyond any conceivable need of man.
II. THE ANTICIPATED CONFESSION OF THE GENTILES. The words here are words of strong contrast. The Gentile is openly mentioned, but the children of Israel are thought of at the same time.
1. 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 center from which light and truth in their great historical manifestations nave gone out. But God can make his center of spiritual light anywhere, according to the necessities of the individual and of the time.
2. When these Gentiles come they have a confession to make. They have to confess the utter emptiness and falsehood of their idolatries. They have, indeed, been taught all these things; sucked them in with their mothers’ milk; but this makes their own turning from them all the more remarkable, for what a man is taught he too often clings to, just because he has been taught. It is to be further noticed that these idolatries have always had the same character. The conception is not of gods who once were strong and true, but who have at last come into dotage and are unable to help their worshippers. The lies that tend to deceive and ruin the present generation have actually deceived and ruined many generations before. And yet those things which the Gentiles show signs of forsaking Israel clings to with a mad persistency. Israel has chosen lying, vanity, and loss, and forsaken that great Jehovah whom their fathers inherited. The lesson is, not to value tradition for its own sake, seeing it may only hand down lies. A tradition is nothing unless it is something more than a tradition. There must be the personal experience of God, the personal reception of truth. Every man must come out of Egypt, cross the flood, and come to Sinai for himself. To every such one tradition will become invaluable; for of the things handed down he will know which to receive and transmit, and which to reject. Each of us who comes to rejectintelligently and decidedly, courageously and openlya lying and empty tradition, at the same time weakens the force of that tradition just as far as our individual influence may extend.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 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?
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
CHAPTER 16
3. Instructions as to the conduct of the Lords servant among the people who have incurred judgment
Jer 16:1-9
1The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying,
2Thou shalt not take to thee a wife,
Nor shalt thou have sons and daughters in this place:
3For thus saith Jehovah of the sons and of the daughters born in this place,
And of their mothers that bare them,
And of their fathers that begat them in this land:
4Miserable deaths1 shall they die,
They shall not be mourned nor buried;
They shall become dung on the surface of the earth;
And by sword and famine shall they perish;
And their carcases shall serve for food to the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth.
5For thus saith Jehovah: Enter not into the house of mourning,2
And go not to bewail them or to commiserate them;
For I have taken my peace from this people, saith Jehovah,
The loving-kindness and the mercy.
6Both great and small shall die in this land;
They shall not be buried and men will not mourn them,
Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
7Nor will men break bread3 for them in mourning,
To console them concerning the dead;
Nor will they present them the cup of consolation,
Concerning father or mother.
8And also thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, [lit. drinking],
To sit with them to drink and to eat.
9For thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel:
Behold, I take away from this place before your eyes and in your days,
The voice of joy and the voice of gladness,
The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophet (in Jer 15:10) had cried to his mother in complaint: Why hast thou borne me? He had explained in Jer 16:17 that he lived alone and far from all society of cheerful men. The Lord had thereupon in Jer 16:19-21 consoled him and promised him protection and deliverance. But the great national calamities should nevertheless continue. Hence both the complaint of the prophet in Jer 16:10 and his separation in Jer 16:17 are approved. Yea, it is added in confirmation that he is not even to take a wife and beget children (Jer 16:2), for these would not escape the universal calamity of death (Jer 16:3-4),further that he is not to go into any house of mourning or give any token of sympathy in the cases of death, in order to indicate that the dead will remain without burial or mourning;finally that he is not to go into any house of feasting, in order to indicate that all joy, especially all nuptial rejoicing, will cease.
Jer 16:1-4. The word beasts of the earth. The probibition to marry is closely connected with the complaint of the prophet in Jer 16:10 : let it not be that thy children charge thee as thou hast charged thy mother. Comp. Jer 8:2; Jer 26:33.With the sword, comp. Jer 14:12; Jer 14:15; Jer 44:12; Jer 44:27.Become food. Comp. Jer 7:33; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20.
Jer 16:5-7. For thus saith father or mother. The connection of Jer 16:4, with Jer 16:5 sqq., is as follows: the inhabitants shall perish miserably and lie unburied, for it is the command of the Lord that the prophet go into no house of mourning, i.e., it is the divine purpose to decree that punishment of which the command to the prophet is only the outward sign. The ground of this purpose is that God has withdrawn His favor from the people. (For I have taken, etc.).Commiserate. Comp. Jer 15:5; Jer 22:10; Job 2:11; Job 42:11.For I have taken, etc. Comp. Joel 2:10; 4:15; Gen 30:23.Loving-kindness Comp. Hos 2:21; Zec 7:9.Cut make bald, customs forbidden by the law (Vid. Lev 19:28; Deu 14:1), but which were, however, practised. Comp. Jer 41:5 (Jer 48:37). [baldness] is mentioned with especial frequency: Isa 22:12; Eze 7:18; Amo 8:10; Mic 1:16. Comp. Ewald, Alterthmer d. V. Isr. [Jewish Antiquities] S. 225; Saalschuetz, Mos. Recht., S. 380.They shall not break bread [A. V., tear themselves. Comp. Textual Notes].The cup of consolation, comp. Pro 31:6-7.
Jer 16:8-9. And also thou shalt not voice of the bride. In this relation also the absence of the prophet is to indicate that joyful festivals are things denied by the Lord.Before your eyes. This calamity will not just come upon a later generation, but upon the present.Voice of the bridegroom. Comp. Jer 7:34; Jer 25:10.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 16:4. [literally, deaths of diseases], different kinds of death in torment. Comp. Jer 14:18 [the sick (pining) of famine]. here only and in Eze 28:9; comp. , Eze 28:10.
[2]Jer 16:5. occurs besides only in Amo 6:7 (in the construct state, . Comp. Olsh. 198, a. b. S. 376, 7), in the latter place with the meaning of jubilation. The root , which does not occur in the Hebrew, has according to the dialects (Arab. marsih, vox vehemens) the meaning of loud crying, be it for joy or sorrow.
[3]Jer 16:7. interchangeably with (Lam 4:4)=frangere, dividere. With Isa 58:7. Here is wanting, but is found in some codd. of Kennicott. The LXX. and Jerome also express it. At any rate the bread, corresponding to the cup of consolation, is intended, which in Eze 24:17; Eze 24:22 is called ; Hos 9:4 . The suffixes in as in and refer to the idea present, not in the words but in the mind of the mourner (Comp. Ewald, 318 a).
THIRD MAIN DIVISION
Reason Of The Rejection And Announcement Of The Captivity (Jer 16:10 to Jer 17:4)
1. Idolatry the cause of the removal into exile
Jer 16:10-15
10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew [declarest to] this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath [doth] the Lord [Jehovah] pronounced [denounce] all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed4 against the Lord [Jehovah] our God?
11Then shalt thou say unto them:
Therefore, because your fathers have forsaken me. saith Jehovah,
And went after other gods, and served them and worshipped them,
And have forsaken me and not kept my law;
12And ye have done still worse5 than your fathers,
Since ye walk6 every one according to the hardness of his evil heart,
That ye hearken not unto me;
13Therefore I cast you away out of this land
Into the land that ye have not known, ye and your fathers;
And there ye shall serve the7 other gods day and night,
Because8 I will shew you no favour.9
14Therefore behold, the days come, saith Jehovah,
When it shall no more be said: As Jehovah liveth,
Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15But: As Jehovah liveth,
Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North,
And from all lands whither he had driven them:
And I bring them back into their land, that I gave to their fathers.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The grounds of the punitive judgment described in the previous context are stated in this way, that the prophet is commanded to answer the people when, assuming an air of innocence, they inquire into these grounds (Jer 16:10): because your fathers forsook me and served other gods (Jer 16:11), and ye moreover have done worse (Jer 16:12), therefore I cast you forth into a strange land, where you may serve those gods; and will show you no more favor (Jer 16:13). To this are added two verses repeated in Jer 23:7-8, in which it is declared that the oath by Jehovah who brought Israel out of Egypt, will be changed into the oath by Jehovah who brought Israel out of the north country. If these verses are genuine here, their object must be a double one: 1. Confirmation of the threatening pronounced in Jer 13:2. Mitigation of the harsh utterance at the close of Jer 16:13, by the prospect of future deliverance. This strophe, moreover, forms the argument of the third division, for the three following strophes serve only to describe more in detail, and to elucidate some points in the first.
Jer 16:10-13. And it shall come to pass shew you no favour. This mode of speech, viz., the hypothesis of a question of the people and answer to it is found Jer 5:19; Jer 13:22.Therefore that your fathers, etc. Comp. Jer 7:24-28; Jer 9:11-15; Jer 11:7, sqq.Hardness. Comp. Jer 3:17; Jer 9:13; Jer 18:12.that ye hearkened not. Comp. Jer 17:23; Jer 18:10; Jer 19:15; Jer 43:13.Therefore I cast, etc., comp. Jer 22:26; Jer 22:28.Into the land. The article is explained by the prophets reference to what has been already said (Jer 15:14).And ye shall serve. What was before sin is now punishment. The prophet has in view Deu 4:28; Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64.Day and night. The servants toil consists in this, that they must attend to their service day and night.Because I will shew. This causal sentence refers not to the first clause of the verse, which is circumstantially founded on the preceding context from Jer 16:10, but on the second. Because Jehovah has withdrawn His favor, they have to seek help of their idols.
Jer 16:14-15. Therefore behold gave to your fathers. , therefore, at the beginning of Jer 16:14 is entirely in place. On this very account, because Israel, according to Jer 16:13, were to be cast away into a foreign land, the form of oath is to be correspondingly altered. Accordingly the purport of Jer 16:14-15 is primarily not consolatory, but sad. It confirms the declaration concerning the captivity. In so far, and because Jeremiah frequently quotes himself, as well as because interruptions of a prophecy of sorrowful import by consolatory prospects also frequently occur (comp. Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18), these verses may well be genuine here. I bring back is then connected with I cast away in Jer 16:13. Moreover that the words, even if transferred by Jeremiah himself, are in their original position in Jer 23:7, is clear from the connection, as well as from the more peculiar and concrete form of the text (Hitzig) of this passage.
Footnotes:
[4]Jer 16:10. . The nota relationis may be regarded as a pronoun in the accusative, because it is said , Exo 32:31; comp. Lev 4:3; Deu 19:15.
[5]Jer 16:12. . Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 95, e.
[6]Jer 16:12. , causal sentence. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 110, 1, e.
[7]Jer 16:13.The before in this passage may have this reason, that the word may be regarded as determinate in itself. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 68,1. Anm. 1.
[8]Jer 16:13. is causal here as in Jer 13:25. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 110, 1.
[9]Jer 16:13 . .
MORE PARTICULAR DESCRIPTION OF THE REMOVAL ANNOUNCED IN Jer 16:13
Jer 16:16-18
16Behold I send for10 many fishers,11 saith Jehovah, who shall fish them.12
After that I send for many hunters, who shall hunt them
Down from every mountain, and from every hill,
And from out of the clefts of the rocks.
17For my eyes overlook all their ways; they are not hidden from me,
Nor is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes.
18And I recompense the first time double their iniquity and sin,
Because they have desecrated my land with the carcases of their monsters,
And have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.13
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe serves only to describe more fully the facts announced in Jer 16:13, Therefore I cast you, etc. The deportation is to take place, as it were, according to the rules of art. The enemies are therefore compared to fishermen who fish out a lake, and with hunters who exterminate the wild animals from a hunting-district, even from the most effectual covers (Jer 16:16). So also the hiding of the Israelites will not avail, for all their ways are so manifest to the Lord that their iniquity lies displayed before His eyes (Jer 16:17). And so He recompenses to them for the first time double their sin by banishment from the land which they have desecrated by their idolatries. In this it is implied that in case of a second provocation, Gods punitive justice will apply a still higher measure than that of double retribution.
Jer 16:16-18. Behold abominations.Many hunters. The reason why the adjective many is used, is that the prophet means to say: then again I send for many, viz., hunters.Hunters is, therefore, epexegetical. That is here used as a numeral (as in Psa 89:51; Pro 31:29; 1Ch 28:5; Neh 9:28), is less probable. From Jer 16:17-18 it is evident that fisher and hunter were not to bring together the Israelites out of exile, but to drive them out of their own land.As it follows from , Jer 16:17, the figure declares that no concealment will profit them. As fishers and hunters, who proceed according to the rules of their art, know how to drive out the animals from all their hiding-places, so will the enemies do with the Israelites. The former will see through all the plans and measures of the latter and defeat them, for they are revealed to them by God. before whose sight those measures equally with the sins of Israel lie bare and exposed. Comp. Jer 23:24; Jer 32:19., first time. [Henderson, following Hitzig, etc., renders previously.S. R. A.] The explanation according to which this word is referred to Jer 16:15 (Hitzig, Ewald, Umbreit), would be perfectly satisfactory if it did not leave unregarded the evidently intended antithesis to double. This requirement can be met satisfactorily without any alteration of the text (as attempted by Graf, according to Isa 56:7), if we recognize that the prophet assumes the possibility of a second visitation. Then he would say: for this first time double will be recompensed (Isa 61:7; Zec 9:12), but in case of repetition a much severer measure will be rendered:as in reality the second destruction by the Romans was total in comparison with the first merely partial one.Because, etc. The punishment has an inner relation to the sin: they have desecrated the land and rendered it uninhabitable, they must therefore leave it.
Footnotes:
[10]Jer 16:16. is used here with the meaning of to send for, cause to be brought, exactly as in Jer 14:3 in the expression . It is, therefore, quite a mistake to assume an Aramaism here as in Jer 40:2 (comp. 2Ch 17:7; Ezr 8:16), or, to refer to entirely different passages, as 1Ki 20:7. Even Num 22:40, cannot be compared.
[11]Jer 16:16.. The word occurs besides only in Isa 19:8 and Eze 47:10, in the former place in the form , in the second , without any proposed alteration of reading in the Keri. In the present passage the Keri probably proceeds from the endeavor to produce uniformity with .
[12]Jer 16:16. .Fuerst and Ewald ( 127, a) would explain as an abbreviation of . But why should there not be a root with a weak as middle radical? Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 37; Olsh. 233 d, S. 486.
[13]Jer 16:18.As is not construed with , we must connect with only (comp. Jer 2:7; Jer 44:22).
3. REFUTATION OF THE OBJECTION (Jer 16:10) THAT THE PEOPLE HAD COMMITTED NO SIN BY THEIR IDOLATRY
Jer 16:19-21
19O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress,
And my refuge in the day of distress!
To thee will the heathen come from the ends of the earth, and will say:
Falsehood only have our fathers inherited,
Vapour, and there is none among them that profiteth.
20Should a man make himself gods? And they are not gods!
21Therefore behold I teach them this once,
And teach them to know my hand and my might,
And they shall know that my name [is] Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Having in Jer 16:14-18 given a confirmation and further description of the judgment threatened in Jer 16:13, the prophet in the two following strophes, Jer 16:19-21, and Jer 17:1-4 goes back to Jer 16:10, where it is said that the people deny having sinned against Jehovah. This denial may have a double meaning. First it may be intended to declare that it is not a sin to serve other gods, together with Jehovah. Secondly, the meaning may be that the fact itself that Israel served other gods is disputed. To this denial in the first sense the prophet replies by directing his glance into the proximate future, in which the heathen will perceive what Israel has failed to perceive, viz., that the gods are vanity, that Jehovah is alone God, and that therefore idolatry is sin (Jer 16:19-20). Now since Israel might and should long ago have perceived that which even the heathen will perceive at last, but did not do so, Jehovah will bring this truth to their knowledge by a thoroughly incisive lesson (Jer 16:21).
Jer 16:19-20. O Jehovah my strength not gods. Since the prophet addresses the Lord as my strength, etc., and then says that the heathen, after they have perceived the nothingness of the idols, will all come to this Lord, he includes himself, as it were, together with the heathen, among the believers in Jehovah, but excludes Israel from this communion, until instructed by the judgments they recognize their errors, and obtain the same saving knowledge.My strength. Comp. Psa 28:7-8; Psa 59:17; 2Sa 22:3.Heathen [lit., nations.S. R. A.] Even this word shows that it is not the tribes of Israel that are meant. (Meier).Falsehood only. Comp. Jer 10:14; Jer 51:17.Our fathers inherited. The expression is still stronger than if it had been we inherited. The tradition is false from the very beginning.Profiteth. Comp. Isa 44:10; Jer 2:8; Jer 2:11.Should a man. The words of the heathen in which they themselves set forth the vanity of the idols. Manufactured gods are on this very account no gods. The sentence and they are not gods is to be taken in a causal sense. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 109, 4.
Jer 16:21. Therefore behold my name Jehovah. From the connection the prophets object cannot be to give instruction concerning the future conversion of the heathen. He only wishes, by the good which he says of the heathen, to set the folly of Israel in a clearer light. We are therefore after the sentences I come to thee, and the heathen will come to thee to supply: but Israel comes not to thee. There is a reference to this thought in therefore. Because Israel has not the knowledge which he might long have had, as well as, or better than the heathen will have it in the future, the Lord will this once impart it to them.This once (comp. Jer 10:18) like the first time in Jer 16:18, refers to the impending first catastrophe of the theocracy by the Chaldeans. Israel is to feel the hand of the Lord, and thus learn to understand the significance of His name. The prophet evidently alludes to Exo 3:14. We perceive in what sense the understanding of the name is meant, from the words I will teach them to know (i. e., to experience, to feel) My hand and My might, in comparison with the expression , which is used of the idols in Jer 16:19. By that visitation, namely, will Jehovah manifest Himself as the Really Existent (this point from the connection is evidently here brought into the foreground) in opposition to the non-existent deities, and thus bring Israel to the consciousness that he has certainly sinned in worshipping other gods together with Jehovah. Comp. Isa 52:6, coll. Jer 23:27; Exo 6:3.
[This passage (Jer 16:19 to Jer 17:14) is appointed as the Haphtorah, or Proper Prophetical Lesson, to Lev 26:3 to Lev 27:34, where God declares the vanity of idols, and the blessings of faith, repentance and obedience. Wordsworth.S. R. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 14:7. Medicina erranti confessio, qua de re Psa 32:3-4 et Ambrosius eleganter: Confessio verecunda suffragatur Deo, et pnam, quam defensione vitare non possumus, pudore revelamus (lib. de Joseph., c. 36), et alibi idem: Cessat vindicta divina, si confessio prcurat humana. Etsi enim confessio non est causa meritoria remissionis peccatorum, est tamen necessarium quoddam antecedens. Frster.
2. In earnest and hearty prayer there is a conflict between the spirit and the flesh. The flesh regards the greatness of the sins, and conceives of God as a severe Judge and morose being, who either will not help further or cannot. The spirit, on the other hand, adheres to the name of God, i. e., to His promise; he apprehends God by faith as his true comfort and aid, and depends upon Him. Cramer.
3. On Jer 14:9 a. Ideo non vult Deus cito dare, ut discas ardentius orare. Augustine.
4. On Jer 14:9 b. Quia in baptismo nomen Domini, i. e., totius SS. et individu Trinitatis super nos quoque invocatum est, eo et ipso nos in fdus Dei recepti sumus et inde populus Dei salutamur. Frster.
5. On Jer 14:10. So long as the sinner remains unchanged and uncontrite God cannot remove the punishment of the sin (Jer 26:13). Starke.Quotidie crescit pna, quia quotidie crescit et culpa. Augustine.
6. On Jer 14:11-12. [We further gather from this passage that fasting is not in itself a religious duty or exercise, but that it refers to another end. Except then they who fast have a regard to what is thereby intendedthat there may be a greater alacrity in prayerthat it may be an evidence of humility in confessing their sins,and that they may also strive to subdue all their lusts;except these things be regarded, fasting becomes a frivolous exercise, nay, a profanation of Gods worship, it being only superstitious. We hence see that fastings are not only without benefit except when prayers are added, and those objects which I have stated are regarded, but that they provoke the wrath of God as all superstitions do, for His worship is polluted. Calvin.S. R. A.] Unbelief is a mortal sin, so that by it the good is turned into evil. For fasting or praying is good; but when the man who does it has no faith it becomes sin (Psa 109:7). Cramer.
7. On Jer 14:14. He who would be a preacher must have a regular appointment. In like form for all parts of divine worship we must have Gods word and command for our support. If we have it not all is lost. Cramer.
8. On Jer 14:14 (I have not sent them). This does not come at all into the account now-a-days; and I do not know, whether to such a preacher, let him have obtained his office as he may, in preaching, absolution, marrying and exorcising, or on any other occasion, when he appeals to his calling before the congregation or against the devil, the thought once occurs, whether he is truly sent by God. Thus the example of the sons of Sceva (Act 19:14; Act 19:16) is no longer considered, and it appears that the devil is not yet disposed by such frightful occurrences to interrupt the atheistical carelessness of the teachers. Zinzendorf.
9. On Jer 14:15. The example of Pashur and others shortly afterwards confirms this discourse. This is an important point. One should however, with that modesty and prudence, which Dr. Wiesmann (Prof. of Theol. in Tbingen), who seems called of God to be a writer of church history, in his Introd. in Memorabilia histori sacr N. T. (1731 and 1745) which I could wish were in the hands of all teachers, repeatedly recommends, have regard to this also, when so-called judgments on the wicked are spoken of, that when the Lord in His wisdom and omnipotence exercises justice on such transgressors by temporal judgments, these are often a blessing to them and the yet remaining means of their salvation. It is related that a certain clergyman in a Saxon village, about the year 1730, felt such a judgment upon himself and his careless ministry, and after happy and humble preparation on a usual day of fasting and prayer, presented himself before his church as an example, and exercised on himself what is called church discipline, whereupon he is said to have fallen down dead with the words,
My sin is deep and very great,
And fills my heart with grief.
O for thy agony and death,
Grant me, I pray, relief.
He is no doubt more blessed, and his remembrance more honorable, than thousands of others, who are praised by their colleagues in funeral discourses as faithful pastors, and at the same time, or already before, are condemned in the first but invisible judgment as dumb dogs, wolves or hirelings. Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer 14:16. Although preachers lead their hearers astray, yet the hearers are not thus excused. But when they allow themselves to be led astray, the blind and those who guide them fall together into the ditch (Luk 6:39). Cramer. [When sinners are overwhelmed with trouble, they must in it see their own wickedness poured upon them. This refers to the wickedness both of the false prophets and the people; the blind lead the blind, and both fall together into the ditch, where they will be miserable comforters one to another. Henry.S. R. A.]
11. On Jer 14:19. Chrysostom refers to Rom 11:1 sqq., where the answer to the prophets question is to be found.
12. On Jer 14:21. Satan has his seat here and there (Rev 2:13). I should like to know why the Saviour may not also have His cathedral. Assuredly He has, and where one stands He knows how to maintain it, and to preserve the honor of the academy. Zinzendorf.
[Good men lay the credit of religion, and its profession in the world, nearer their hearts than any private interest or concern of their own; and those are powerful pleas in prayer which are fetched from thence, and great supports to faith. We may be sure that God will not disgrace the throne of His glory, on earth; nor will He eclipse the glory of His throne by one providence, without soon making it shine forth, and more brightly than before, by another. God will be no loser in His honor in the long run. Henry.S. R. A.]
13. On Jer 14:22. Testimony to the omnipotence of God, for His are both counsel and deed (Pro 8:14). Use it for consolation in every distress and for the true apodictica [demonstration] of all articles of Christian faith, however impossible they may appear. Cramer.[The sovereignty of God should engage, and His all-sufficiency encourage, our attendance on Him, and our expectations from Him, at all times. Henry.Hence may be learned a useful doctrinethat there is no reason why punishments, which are signs of Gods wrath, should discourage us so as to prevent us from venturing to seek pardon from Him; but on the contrary a form of prayer is here prescribed for us; for if we are convinced that we have been chastised by Gods hand, we are on this very account encouraged to hope for salvation; for it belongs to Him who wounds to heal, and to Him who kills to restore to life. Calvin.S. R. A.]
14. On Jer 15:1. On the part of the Catholics it is maintained that hoc loco refellitur hreticorum error orationes defunctorum sanctorum nihil prodesse vivis. Contrarium enim potius ex hisce arguendum suggeritur, nempe istiusmodi sanctorum mortuorum orationes et fieri coram Deo solere pro viventibus, et quando viventes ipsi non posuerint ex semet obicem, illas esse iis maxime proficuas. Ghisl. Tom. II. p. 296). To this it is replied on the part of the Protestants. 1. Enuntiatio isthc plane est hypothetica. 2. Eo tantum spectat, ut si Moses et Samuel in vivis adhuc essent, adeoque in his terris pro populo preces interponerent suas, perinde ut ille, Exodus 32. hic vero 1 Samuel 7. (Frster, S. 86). He also adds two testimonies of the fathers against the invocation of saints. One from Augustine, who (contra Maximin., L. 1), calls such invocation sacrilegium, the other from Epiphanius who (Hres 2) names it an error seductorum, and adds non sanctos colimus, sed sanctorum dominum.That the intercession of the living for each other is effective, Cramer testifies, saying Intercession is powerful, and is not without fruit, when he who prays and he for whom he prays are of like spirit. Comp. Rom 15:30; 2Co 1:11; Eph 6:18-19; 1Ti 2:1-2; 1Jn 5:16. [To the same effect also Calvin and Henry.S. R. A.]
15. On Jer 15:4 b. Scilicet in vulgus manant exempla regentum, utque ducum lituos, sic mores castra sequuntur.Non sic inflectere sensus humanos edicta valent ut vita regentum.Qualis rex talis grex. Frster.
16. God keeps an exact protocol [register] of sins, and visits them to the third and fourth generation. Cramer. [See what uncertain comforts children are; and let us therefore rejoice in them as though we rejoiced not. Henry.S. R. A]
17. On Jer 15:5. When God abandons us we are abandoned also by the holy angels, and all creatures. For as at court when two eyes are turned away the whole court turns away; so when the Lord turns away all His hosts turn away also. Cramer.
18. On Jer 15:7. God as a faithful husbandman has all kinds of instruments for cleaning His grain. He has two kinds of besoms and two kinds of winnowing-fan. With one He cleanses, winnows the grain and sweeps the floor, so that the chaff may be separated from the good wheat. This is done by the Fatherly cross. But if this does not avail He takes in hand the besom of destruction. Cramer.
19. On Jer 15:10. The witnesses of Jesus have the name among others of being hard and rough people, from whom they cannot escape without quarreling. It is not only a reproach which Ahab and such like make to Elijah, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? (1Ki 19:17). But even true-hearted people like Obadiah do not thoroughly trust to them; every one has the thought, if they would only behave more gently it would be just as well and make less noise. Meanwhile the poor Elijah is sitting there, knowing not what to do; a Jeremiah laments the day of his birth why am I then such a monster? Why such an apple of discord? What manner have I? How do I speak? For when I speak, they are for war (Psa 120:7). He does not at once remember that they called the master Beelzebub, and persecuted all the prophets before him; that his greatest sin is that he cares for the interests of Jesus in opposition to Satan. Zinzendorf. [Even those who are most quiet and peaceable, if they serve God faithfully, are often made men of strife. We can but follow peace; we have the making only of one side of the bargain, and therefore can but, as much as in us lies, live peaceably. Henry.S. R. A.]
20. On Jer 15:10 b. (I have neither lent nor borrowed at usury). My dear Jeremiah! Thou mightest have done that; that is according to the custom of the country, there would be no such noise about that. There is no instance of a preacher being persecuted because he cared for his household. But to take payment in such natural products as human souls, that is ground of distrust, that is going too far, that thou carriest too high, and thou must be more remiss therein, otherwise all will rise up against thee; thou wilt be suspended, removed, imprisoned or in some way made an end of, for that is pure disorder and innovation, that smacks of spiritual revolutionary movements. Zinzendorf.
21. On Jer 15:15 a. (Thou knowest that for thy sake I have suffered reproach). This is the only thing that a servant of the Lamb of God should care for, that he does indeed suffer not the least in that he has disguised and disfigured the doctrine of God and his Saviour. It might be wished that no servant of the Lord, especially in small cities and villages, would now and then make a quarrel to relieve the tedium, which will occupy the half of his life, and of which it may be said in the end: vinco vel vincor, semper ego maculor. Zinzendorf.
22. On Jer 15:16. The sovereign sign of a little flock depending on Christ is such a hearty, spiritual tender disposition towards the Holy Scriptures, that they find no greater pleasure than in their simple but heart-searching truths. I, poor child, if I but look into the Bible, am happy for several hours after. I know not what misery I could not alleviate at once with a little Scripture. Zinzendorf. [On Jer 17:17. It is the folly and infirmity of some good people that they lose much of the pleasantness of their religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they humor and indulge instead of mortifying it. Henry.S. R. A.]
23. On Jer 15:19, a. (And thou shalt stand before me: [Luther: thou shalt remain my preacher]) Hear ye this, ye servants of the Lord! Ye may be suspended, removed, lose your income and your office, suffer loss of house and home, but ye will again be preachers. This is the word of promise. * * * And if one is dismissed from twelve places, and again gets a new place, he is a preacher to thirteen congregations. For in all the preceding his innocence, his cross, his faith preach more powerfully than if he himself were there. Zinzendorf.
Note.On this it may be remarked that in order to be the mouth of the Lord it is not necessary to have a church.
24. On Jer 15:19 b. (Before thou return to them) We can get no better comfort than this, that our faithful Lord Himself assures us against ourselves. I will make thee so steady, so discreet, so well-founded, so immovable, that, hard as the human heart is, and dead and opposed, yet it will be rather possible that they all yield to thee, than that thou shouldest be feeble or slack and go over to them. Zinzendorf.
25. On Jer 15:20. A preacher must be like a bone, outwardly hard, inwardly full of marrow. Frster. [Ministers must take those whom they see to be precious into their bosoms, and not sit alone, as Jeremiah did, but keep up conversation with those they do good to, and get good by. Henry.S. R. A.]
26. On Jer 16:2. It is well-known that in no condition is celibacy attended by so many evils as in that of the clergy and that this condition entails in a certain measure a present necessity of marrying. For if any one needs a helpmeet to be by his side, it is the man who must be sacrificed to so many different men of all classes. But all this must be arranged according to circumstances. Ye preachers! Is it made out that ye marry only for Jesus? that you have the church alone as your object? and that you subject yourselves to all the hardships of this condition with its tribulations only for the profit of many? First, then, examine maturely in your offices, whether there is no word of the Lord, whether circumstances do not show, whether there is not an exception from the rule in your case, that you are to take no wife; whether Paul does not call to you in spirit, I would that thou wert as I. May it not sometimes be said? Take no wife at this time or at this place! or Take not another! How does the matter look on closer examination? The rather, as it is known to the servants of Christ to be no hyperbolical speech, when it is said, The minister has slain his thousands, but the ministers wife her ten thousands. He that loves anything more than Christ is not worthy of Him. If it cannot be cured endure it. But see to it the more, that those who have wives be as those who have them not (1Co 7:29). Lead your wife in prayer diligently and plainly, as Moses with Zipporah (Exo 4:25, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me). If they would not have you dead they must leave you your Lord. I know not when anything was so pleasing to me as when I saw a certain ministers wife weeping sorely from apprehension that her husband would not endure a certain trial. She saw clearly that he would retain his charge, but she feared the Saviour would make it hard to him.Zinzendorf.
27. On Jer 16:2. Ridiculi sunt Papicol, qui ex hoc typo articulum religionis su de clibatu saceraotum exstruere conantur. Nam. 1. tota hc res fuit typica. Typica autem et symbolica theologia non est argumentativa juxta axioma Thom. 2. Non simpliciter interdicitur conjugium prophet in omni loco, sed tantum in hoc loco. Frster.
28. On Jer 16:7. This passage (as also Isa 58:7) is used by the Lutheran theologians to prove that panem frangere may be equivalent to panem distribuere, as also Luther translates: They will not distribute bread among them. This is admitted by the Reformed, who, however, remark that it does not follow from this that frangere et distribuere also in Sacramento quipollere, quod esset a particulari ad particulare argumentari. Comp. Turretin., Inst. Theol. Elencht. Tom. III., p. 499.
29. On Jer 16:8. When people are desperately bad and will not be told so, they must be regarded as heathen and publicans (Mat 17:18; Tit 3:10; 1Co 5:9). Cramer.
30. On Jer 16:19. The calling of the heathen is very consolatory. For as children are rejoiced at heart when they see that their parents are greatly honored and obtain renown and praise in all lands, so do all true children of God rejoice when they see that Gods name is honored and His glory more widely extended. Cramer.This passage is one of those which predict the extension of the true religion among all nations, and are therefore significant as giving impulse and comfort in the work of missions. Comp. Deu 32:21; Hos. 2:1, 25; Joe 3:5; Isa 49:6; Isa 65:1; Rom 10:12 sqq.
31. On Jer 16:21. Nothing can be learned from God without God. God instructs the people by His mouth and His hand, verbis et verberibus. Cramer.
32. On Jer 17:1. Scripta est et fides tua, scripta est et culpa tua, sicut Jeremias dixit: scripta est Juda culpa tua graphio ferreo et ungue adamantino. Et scripta est, inquit, in pectore et in corde tuo. Ibi igitur culpa est ubi gratia; sed culpa graphio scribitur, gratia spiritu designatur. Ambros. de Sp. s. III. 2.
33. On Jer 17:1. The devil is Gods ape. For when he sees that God by the writing of His prophets and apostles propagates His works and wonders to posterity, he sets his own pulpiteers to work, who labor with still greater zeal, and write not only with pens and ink, but also with diamonds, that such false religion may have the greater respect and not go down. Cramer.
34. On Jer 17:5.
O man in human help and favor
Trust not, for all is vanity,
The curse is on it,happy he,
Who trusts alone in Christ the Saviour.
[When water is blended with fire, both perish; so when one seeks in part to trust in God and in part to trust in men, it is the same as though he wished to mix heaven and earth together, and to throw all things into confusion. It is then to confound the order of nature, when men imagine that they have two objects of trust, and ascribe half their salvation to God and the other half to themselves or to other men. Calvin.S. R. A.]
35. On Jer 17:5. A teacher is commanded to be the first to honor the authorities, to pray for them and be subject to them as Gods servants But since the authorities, in all which pertains to the concerns of the soul, have part only as members, there is great occasion for this cursed dependence on flesh when one from the hope of good personal protection gives up the work of the Lord to the powers of the earth. It is true the church is to have foster-parents who are kings. But nevertheless neither kings nor princes are its tutelar deities, much less lords and commanders of the church, but one is our Master, one our Judge, one our King, the Crucified. Zinzendorf.
36. On Jer 17:5. Reformed theologians, ex. gr., Lambertus Danus (ob. 1596) have applied this passage in the sense of Joh 6:63, in their controversies against the Lutheran doctrine of the Supper. But as Calvin declared, it is not the flesh of Christ, but only earthly flesh and that per contemtum which is here spoken of Comp. Frster, S. 97.
37. On Jer 17:7. Blessed are those teachers, who have betaken themselves, to His protection, who once promised His Church, that even the gates of hell should not prevail against it Who has ever been put to shame who trusted in Him? Zinzendorf.
38. On Jer 17:9. This is a spiritual anatomy of the heart. Examples: Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33.); Hezekiah (38:39); the children of Israel (Numbers 14.). Alii sumus dum ltamur et omnia in vita nobis secundo vento succedunt; alii vero in temporibus calamitosis, ubi quid prter sententiam acciderit. Comp. Ser. Jer 11:27. (MS. note in my copy of Cramers Bibel).
39. On Jer 17:9. . This applies with respect to ourselves and others. For the defiant it avails as an extinguisher (Rom 12:3); but the despairing may be reassured by it (1Jn 3:19-20).
40. On Jer 17:14. (Thou art my praise) When a teacher confines himself to the praise of the cross and lets all other matters of praise go, which might adorn a theologian of these times, and adheres immovably to this: I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ the crucified (1Co 2:2),amid all the shame of His cross He is victorious over the rest. Zinzendorf.
41. On Jer 17:16. (That which I have preached was right before thee). It is not difficult to know in these times what is right before the Lord. There is His word; he who adheres to this strictly, knows in thesi that he is right In all this it is the teachers chief maxim, not to make use of the application without need, but to make the truth so plain in his public discourse, that the hearers must necessarily make the application to themselves. Thus saying, thou reproachest us also, said the lawyer (Luk 11:45). Others went away convicted in their consciences. Zinzendorf.
42. On Jer 17:17. That is a period which straitens the hearts of witnesses, when their rock, their protection, their consolation, their trust is a terror to them. But under this we must bow and faithfully endure, and we shall have a peaceable fruit of righteousness. Discipline always ends gloriously. Zinzendorf.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
On Jer 14:7-9. Jeremiah a second Israel, who wrestles with the Lord in prayer. 1. In what the Lord is strong against the prophet: the sin of the people. 2. In what the prophet is strong against the Lord: the Name of the Lord (a) in itself. This compels him to show that He is not a desperate hero, or giant, who cannot help; (b) in that His name is borne by Israel. Thus the Lord is bound to show Himself as He who is in Israel (not a guest or stranger), and consequently the Comforter and Helper of Israel.Heim und Hoffmann, The Major Prophets (Winnenden, 1839). As Daniel (Jer 9:6) prayed, We have sinned and committed iniquity, etc., so Jeremiah took his share in the sin and guilt of his people.This is true penitence, when one no longer wishes to contend with God in tribulation, but confesses his sin and condemnation, when he sees that if God should treat us according to our misdeeds, He could find no ground for grace. But for His names sake He can show us favor. He Himself is the cause of the forgiveness of sin.Calwer Handbuch [Manual]. Notwithstanding the ungodliness of the people the prophet may still say, Thou art among us, because the temple of the Lord and His word were still in the land, and the pious have never all died out. [On Jer 14:7-9. Prayer hath within itself its own reward. The prayer of the prophet consists of confession and petition. 1. Confession fitly begins. It is the testimony of iniquity, and that this iniquity is against God. When we are to encounter any enemy or difficulty, it is sin weakens us. Now confession weakens it, takes off the power of accusation, etc. 2. Petition: For Thy names sake. This is the unfailing argument which abides always the same and hath always the same force. The children of God are much beholden to their troubles for clear experiences of themselves and God. Though thou art not clear in thy interest as a believer, yet plead thy interest as a sinner, which thou art sure of. Leighton.S. R. A.]
2. On Jer 14:13-16. Against false prophets. 1. They tell the world what it likes to hear (Jer 17:13); 2. The Lord denies them (Jer 17:14); 3. The Lord punishes them (Jer 17:15); 4. The Lord also punishes those who allow themselves to be deceived by them (Jer 17:16).Tb. Bibelw.: To enter the preachers office without divine calling, what an abomination is that! But mark this, ye hirelings! the sentence of condemnation is already pronounced over you (Jer 23:21; Mat 7:15).Osiander Bibl.: God avenges the deception of false teachers most severely, if not in this world in the next (Act 13:10-11).Starke: God punishes both deceivers and deceived, the latter cannot then lay all the guilt on the former (Jer 27:45).
3. On Jer 14:19-22. The churchs distress and consolation. 1. The distress is (a) outward (Jer 17:19), (b) inward (Jer 17:20, the reason of the outward, confession). 2. The consolation (a). The Lords Name, [] It is called and is One (Jer 17:22): [] His glory and that of the church (throne of glory) are one; (b) the Lords covenant (Jer 17:21).What in the present circumstances should be our position towards God? 1. The divine providence, in which we are at present: 2. Our confession, which we make before God: 3. Our petition, which we should address to Him. Voelter in Palmers Ev. Casual-Reden. [Occasional Discourses], 4th Ed., 1865.
4. On Jer 15:16. Sermon on a Reformation or Bible-Anniversary. The candlestick of the Gospel has been rejected by more than one church. We therefore pray: Preserve to us Thy word (Ps. 109:43). 1. Why we thus pray (Thy Word is our hearts joy and comfort); 2. Why we hope to be heard (for we are named by Thy name).
5. On Jer 15:19. Caspari (Installation-sermon at Munich, Adv., 1855). These words treat; 1, of the firm endurance; 2, of the holy zeal; 3, of the joyful confidence, with which a preacher of God must come to an evangelical church.
6. Homilies of Origen are extant on Jer 15:5-6; (Hom. XII., Ed. Lommatzsch); Jer 15:10-19 (Hom. XIV.); Jer 15:10; Jer 17:5 (Hom. XV.). [On Jer 15:20. I. Gods qualification to be an overseer of the church. The metaphor of a wall implies, (1) courage, (2) innocence and integrity, (3) authority. II. The opposition a church-governor will be sure to meet with, (1) by seditious preaching and praying, (2) by railing and libels; (3) perhaps by open force. III. The issue and success of such opposition (they shall not prevail). South.S. R. A.]
7. On Jer 16:19-21. Missionary Sermon. The true knowledge of God. 1. It is to be had in Christianity (Jer 17:19, a). 2. It will also make its way to the heathen, for (a) It is Gods will that they should be instructed (Jer 17:21); (b) they are ready to be instructed (Jer 17:19 b. 20).
8. On Jer 17:5-8. The blessing of faith and the curse of unbelief (comp. Ebal und Gerizim). 1. Why does the curse come upon the unbeliever? (He departs in his heart from the Lord). 2. Wherein this curse consists (Jer 17:6). 3. Why must blessing be the portion of the believer? (Jer 17:7). 4. Wherein this blessing consists (Jer 17:8).
9. On Jer 17:5-8, and Jer 18:7-10. Schleiermacher (Sermon on 28 Mar., 1813, in Berlin): We regard the great change (brought about by the events of the period) on the side of our worthiness before God. 1. What in this respect is its peculiar import and true nature. 2. To what we must then feel ourselves summoned.
10. On Jer 17:9-10. The human heart and its Judges 1. The antithesis in the human heart. 2. The impossibility of fathoming it with human eyes. 3. The omniscient God alone sees through it; and 4, judges it with justice. [The heart is deceitfulit always has some trick or other by which to shuffle off conviction. Henry.It is extremely difficult for sinners to know their hearts. I. What is implied in their knowing their own hearts. 1. It implies a knowledge of their selfishness. 2. Of their desperate incurable wickedness. 3. Of their extreme deceitfulness. II. Why it is so extremely difficult for them to know their own hearts. 1. They are unwilling to know them. 2. Because of the deceitfulness of sin. They love or hate, as they appear friendly or unfriendly to them: (a) God, (b) Christ, (c) good men, (d) one another, (e) the world, (f) their own hearts, (g) the means of grace, (h) their convictions, (i) heavenImprovement. The only way to know the heart is to inquire whether it loves God or not, etc. 2. Saints can more easily ascertain their true character than sinners Song of Solomon 3. All changes in life are trials of the heart, etc., etc. Emmons.I. The human heart exhibits great fraud and treachery. 1. We are changeable by that connection which the soul has with the body. 2. By its connection with external objects by our senses. 3. By its love of novelty and variety. 4. By its hasty resolutions. 5. By its self-love. II. Its excessive malice is seen in history and experience. III. Its deep dissimulation and hypocrisy render it inscrutable. Inferences: 1. We should entertain a sober diffidence of ourselves. 2. We should not be surprised when men use us ill or disappoint us. 3. We should take care and give good principles and a good example to those young persons under our guidance. 4. We should be ready to confess our offences to God. 5. We should bear in mind that we are under the inspection of one who searcheth the hearts, etc. Jortin.See also two Sermons by Jer. Taylor.S. R. A.].
11. Rud. Kgel (Court and Cathedral preacher at Berlin, 1865). Sermon on Jer 17:9; Jer 17:19, and Heb 13:9 : Two pictures: 1, the unregenerate; 2, the regenerate heart.
12. On Jer 17:12-13. Sermon for the dedication of a church, the anniversary of the Reformation, or on Whitsunday. The church of the Lord. 1. What it is in itself (place of sanctuary, throne of divine glory, house of Him, who is Israels hope). 2. What it will be (it will ever remain firm, Mat 16:18): 3. What they find who forsake it (Jer 17:19).
13. On Jer 17:14-18. Cry for help of a preacher tempted on account of the truth. 1. The temptation (Jer 17:15). 2. The demonstration of innocence (Jer 17:16). 3. The cry for help, (a) negative (Jer 17:17-18), (b) positive (Jer 17:19). [On Jer 17:14. The penitents prayer. 1. The words express an earnest desire for salvation. 2. He applies to Almighty God for it. 3. Through the medium of prayer. 4. With confidence that he will be heard. Dr. A. Thomson of Edinburgh.S. R. A.].
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This is a short, but interesting Chapter; in which, the Lord commands his servant the Prophet, in looking forward to the times of the Captivity, to keep himself unconnected because of his judgments. The Lord pronounceth great evils; but the Chapter closeth in sweet promises, concerning the deliverance of his people; which he promiseth shall be even greater than that from Egypt.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I venture to read this precept given to Jeremiah concerning marriage while in Babylon, both with a national and spiritual view. No alliances were to be made by the people of God, with their idolatrous neighbours. And this, not only to keep them from idolatry; but to preserve the holy seed pure, distinct, and uncorrupt; and specially with an eye to Christ. Hence we find the genealogy of Christ, is so faithfully recorded by the Evangelists, Mat 1 , and Luk 3:23 to the end. Whether my views in this passage be right or not, still the Reader will not find it unsuitable to the general idea of scripture; for the Lord hath himself dwelt largely upon the subject, in several places. Hos 2 ; Isa 54:5-6 ; Jer 3:14 . And I confess, that I am the more inclined to this view of the subject, in a spiritual point, from that solemn expression which is in the midst of it; in which the Lord saith, I have taken away my peace from this people: perhaps (for I do not presume to determine) it means, that the Lord hath taken away his people’s views of peace in Christ, the promised seed, when they found themselves in captivity; and for a while their hopes were cut off. They had lost the faith of that peace, and joy in believing, which their fathers had in seeing, the day of Christ afar off. And of course it made their bondage yet more grievous. Hence the Church cried out; thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity: And I said, my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord, Lam 3:17-18 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Larger Providences
Jer 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 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 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. 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 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, for one is promised by name ( Jer 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 Man, 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, 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 is, 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 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 mat, 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 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.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VII
THE BROKEN COVENANT OF JUDAH AND GOD’S DECREE TO PUNISH
Jeremiah 11-17
These prophecies were doubtless uttered during the reign of Jehoiakim, sometime between 608 and 603 B.C. They were written first by Baruch, as dictated by Jeremiah in 604 B.C., but cut to pieces and burned by Jehoiakim and then rewritten 603 B.C. They are also a report of Jeremiah’s preaching during the reign of this king, Jehoiakim.
The first two chapters (Jeremiah 11-12) deal with the broken covenant; Jer 13 , with the rotten girdle and the lessons drawn from it; the Jeremiah 14-15 set forth the prophecies relating to the drought that came upon the country at that time; Jer 16 gives the story of Jeremiah’s personal life and the lessons to be derived from it; Jer 17 deals with the impending evils that are threatened upon Jerusalem and exhorts them to keep the sabbath. This is the general outline of these chapters.
The occasion for the utterance of the prophecies of Jeremiah 11-12 was a lapse of the people from the reformation under Josiah into the sins under Jehoiakim. Under that wicked king they broke the covenant that they made with good King Josiah, and lapsed into idolatry again. In the opening words of chapter II the prophet pleads with them to remember their covenant and to suffer no backsliding. That was the real occasion. There had been a great reformation under Josiah; they had broken their covenant in going back into idolatry and the prophet pleads with them to remember their covenant so recently made. We know that Jeremiah helped Josiah and we also know that he preached during the reign of Jehoiakim.
He says, “The word of Jehovah came unto me saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say thou unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man that heareth not the words of this covenant, which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God.”
We find almost these identical words in Deu 27:16-26 .
Jeremiah receives those words from the Lord and, like a true Israelite, he replies, Jer 11:5 , “Amen, O Jehovah.” That expression reminds us of the scene that was enacted soon after Israel entered Palestine when the nation was gathered together and the law was read, the blessings and curses, and the people all answered each time, “Amen.” Over and over again this is repeated. Here he hears the words of the covenant as uttered to him by Jehovah, and he answers, “Amen.” He answered for the people of Judah and Jerusalem, that is, he answered, “Amen,” and he wanted them to answer likewise. But they did not.
The charge against the people in Jer 11:6-8 is that of a violation of the covenant. He says, Jer 11:6 : “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant and do them. For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.” In these three mighty words Jeremiah sums up the substance of the great covenant made at Sinai: “Obey my voice.” “Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.”
The people are charged with a conspiracy against the Lord, Jer 11:9-13 : “And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers.” This statement shows the occasion of this prophecy. The people had had an understanding about this, and had agreed among themselves that they would not do as Josiah had commanded them to do; they would not worship Jehovah. Jeremiah calls that a conspiracy against God. They forsook Jehovah and made a covenant with other gods. The breaking of one covenant means the entering into another covenant with other gods.
The doom of the nation is indicated in the fact that Jeremiah is forbidden to pray for them Jer 11:14 : “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me because of their trouble.” The nation is doomed. We have here a full description of the doom that is to come upon this nation, the details of which we need to study very carefully. Jer 11:15 presents a great difficulty for the textual critics. There are three ways it may be rendered: “What hath my beloved to do in my house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness?” The Septuagint renders this as in the margin: “Why hath my beloved wrought abominations in my house? Shall vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy wickedness, or shalt thou escape by these?” Ball, in the “Expositor’s Bible” renders it, “What hast my beloved to do in mine house? Shall her many altars and holy flesh take away her sin from her?” The text, as we have it, is obscure. We will pass it with the reminder that the general subject of the section is that the nation is doomed and woes are pronounced against her; that Judah cannot be saved by her formal religion.
The result was a plot against Jeremiah, who was commanded to stop prophesying or lose his life. This was the first crisis in Jeremiah’s life. He returned from Jerusalem to Anathoth and found that there was a conspiracy, a plot against him among his own friends. He must stop preaching or lose his life. This is how he puts it, Jer 11:18-20 : “And Jehovah gave me knowledge of it, and I knew it: then thou showedst me their doings. But I was like a gentle lamb that is led to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me.” That expression reminds us of Jesus’ words when he was plotted against and killed. He means to say, “I was Just doing my duty; I knew not that they were plotting against me; I knew not that they devised devices against me.” This is what they devised, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.” After that discovery the prophet commits his case to Jehovah for vengeance. This shows that he had risen to a high plane of abiding faith. Jeremiah says, “I shall see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.” The next three verses (Jer 11:21-23 ) contain the record of what Jehovah said regarding the manner in which these wicked conspirators should be punished: that their sons and daughters should perish.
The prophet raises a question in Jer 12:1-4 and Jehovah answers it in Jer 12:5-6 . We studied this passage in the chapter on “The Personal Life of Jeremiah.” I will not go into details here. The occasion of this marvelous passage was the plot against Jeremiah. He saw that these men who plotted to destroy him were living in plenty and prospered while he suffered. So he raised the great question as to why it is possible for the wicked to prosper and the righteous to suffer. Then he received his answer: “If thou hast run with the footmen, and they wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses?” That means, If you are going to give up before this little opposition that is but a trifle, what will you do when the great test and the real crisis comes?
The captivity is described. Here the prophet pictures these evils as having already taken place, Jer 12:7-13 : “I have forsaken my house, I have cast off my heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. My heritage is become unto me as a lion in the forest; . . . Is my heritage unto me as a speckled bird of prey? . . . Then go and assemble all the beasts of the field and come upon her to devour her.” Then he accuses the shepherds of destroying the vineyard: “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. . . They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns.” They must perish. In this we have a bare outline of the judgment to come. This is doubtless the substance of the sermons he preached.
Judah’s evil neighbors are referred to in Jer 12:14-17 . This doubtless means Edom, Ammon, and the enemies on the south. They harassed Judah in the time of Jehoiakim. What about these evil neighbors? Well, he says, “I will pluck them up from off their land, and I will pluck up the house of Judah; and after I pluck them up I will return and have compassion on them as I will have on Judah.” That reminds us of the magnificent prophecy of Isaiah: “All the nations shall come up to Jerusalem to worship; all the peoples shall flow to Mount Zion, for the word of Jehovah shall go forth from Zion.”
In Jer 13:1-7 the prophet employs a symbolic action, and the interpretation of it is found in Jer 13:8-11 . By a command of Jehovah he buys a beautiful girdle, a common element of clothing in the East, and wears it for a time. Then the Lord commands him to take it and go to the river Euphrates and hide it in the cleft of a rock. He does so, and after many days the Lord said to him, “Go thou to the river Euphrates and take the girdle which I commanded thee to hide there. And I did so and went and digged up the girdle and behold it was marred and good for nothing.” Now, that was an object lesson to the people. Thus he says, Jer 13:11 : “For as the girdle cleaves to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah that they might be unto me for a people, but they would not hear.” That is a remarkable figure. The Lord chose the people of Judah and Israel as a man chooses a girdle and wears it about him. Judah had been a girdle for Jehovah, and he desired that they remain as a beautiful girdle forever, but they would not.
The prophet uses another symbol, that of a bottle, Jer 13:12-14 : “Every bottle shall be filled with wine: . . . Do not we know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land with drunkenness.” That bottle is a symbol of drunkenness, the drunkenness that is come upon the people. The symbol means that they shall be destroyed, as drunken men are destroyed.
There is an exhortation in Jer 13:15-17 , a command to the queen mother in Jer 13:18-19 , a curse announced in Jer 13:20-27 , and a great text in Jer 13:23 . In verse Jer 13:16 : “Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains,” is one of the most beautiful figures in all the Scriptures. That is like Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep. In Jer 13:18 , he speaks thus: “Say thus to the king and queen mother.” He probably refers to the wife of Josiah, whose son, Jehoiachim, sat upon the throne. He said to the queen mother and the king, “Humble yourselves.” Then he addresses the shepherds and the princes: “Where is the flock that I gave you, the beautiful flock?” Where is it, thou king, and queen mother, and ye princes and prophets? Where is my beautiful flock that I gave you to care for? Then comes that classic passage: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Thus Jeremiah reaches the conclusion that man has to be changed before he can obey the word of God, and he cannot change himself.
A drought is pictured in Jer 14:1-6 . A drought in that land was terrible: “Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish, they sit in black upon the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty.” That is a pathetic picture. We can almost see those children in their thirst and distress.
We have the prophet’s plea for the people in Jer 14:7-9 and Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:10-12 . Here we have Jeremiah’s first intercession and its answer, Jer 14:7-17 . See how he pleads in verse Jer 14:7 : “Work thou for thy name’s sake, O Jehovah; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee, O thou hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a sojourner in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man affrighted, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Jehovah, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not.” Sinners treat God as if he were a stranger, a sojourner, a man who is helpless to save. In verse Jer 14:11 : “Plead not for this people.” That is the answer to his prayer. “Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. . . I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.” So it is possible for people to go so far that God himself must give them up.
Jeremiah assails the priests and the prophets (Jer 14:13-22 ). He says (Jer 14:13 ), “The prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, nor the famine.” Then the Lord said unto him, “These prophets are) liars. They shall perish. These people that believe them shall perish, too. There is no hope for them.” But he will not give up. He begs God to spare the city and the people. Verse Jer 14:19 : “Hast thou utterly rejected Judah? . . . Why hast thou smitten us, and is there no healing for us?” Thus he speaks for the people out of his heart: “We acknowledge, O Jehovah, our wickedness . . . we have sinned against thee. Do not abhor us, for thy names sake; do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.” It is said of Joseph Parker, the great preacher of London, that upon one occasion he prayed, “O Lord, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory.” Some of his stiff-backed hearers received a distinct shock when they heard it. One Presbyterian brother said, “Blasphemy!” but Dr. Parker was simply quoting Jeremiah. That shows that some preachers do not know everything in the Bible. “Do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,” that is, “do not disgrace Judah and Zion,” but he did; they were destroyed.
The impending danger is described in Jer 15:1-9 . We cannot go into detail here. It is not necessary. Read the passage. One point, verse Jer 15:9 : “Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.” That is another classical expression. Note also, verse Jer 15:1 : “Though Moses and Samuel plead for these people I could not save them.” Moses pleaded for the people when they broke the covenant at Sinai. He begged God to blot him out of the book rather than destroy the people. God did hear him and saved them. Samuel was a man of much prayer. Samuel saved Israel by his prayers in the time of Eli. “Though these mighty men of prayer, Moses and Samuel, were to pray to me I would not save these people.” How far can people wander away? There is a limit to God’s grace and mercy.
There are several thoughts in the paragraphs of Jer 15:10-21 . The prophet complains again and receives a reply. We had this in the chapter on “The Life and Character of Jeremiah,” and will not go into details here. It is sufficient to say that God answered him and maintained that the doom of the people was inevitable. Now we have the prophet’s last pleadings with God (Jer 15:15-21 ). We also studied this in the same chapter. Study carefully the text.
Then came the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah (Jer 16:1-9 ). We discussed that in a former chapter. Sufficient to say that he is commanded not to marry, not to have a family, not to mingle with merrymakers, not to have the joys or pleasures of social and family life. He is to be separated, a living example of warning to the people, for destruction is coming. No Jew would refuse to marry or have a family if there were not sufficient reasons for it.
Some questions are raised by the people in Jer 16:10-13 , viz: “Why are these calamities to come? What are the iniquities that we have done?” The answer is that they have forsaken Jehovah and walked after other gods.
There is a comparison in Jer 16:14-21 . The punishment of the captivity shall be most severe and terrible, therefore their return to their own land shall be even more wonderful than the deliverance from Egypt: “The day shall come that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth that brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.” That fact would sink into insignificance in the face of the evils that were to be when Israel was scattered, and when God would gather them again from among the nations; that would be more wonderful than bringing them up out of the land of Egypt. The deliverance would be great because the punishment would be so terrible.
The nature of Judah’s sin and punishment is indicated in Jer 17:1-4 . Their sins are deep and indelible and therefore their punishment is severe: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, graven on their hearts and on the horns of their altars.” Spurgeon, in a sermon on this text, discussed how sin can be graven into the human heart and cannot be erased by human power. It is written with a pen of iron, written in the very soul and nature. No stronger figure could be used to show the permanent effects of sin. As a result, punishment is certain.
A striking contrast is found in Jer 17:5-11 . Faith in man leads to destruction; faith in God leads to security. Verse Jer 17:5 : “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah.” In Jer 17:7-8 , we have the substance of Psa 1 : “Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah . . . he shall be as a tree planted by the waters; he shall not fear when the heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; he shall not be careful in the year of drought, but his tree shall continue yielding fruit.” Jer 17:9 is one of the profoundest descriptions of the human heart to be found in the Scriptures. It came to Jeremiah out of his experience.
The import of Jer 17:12-18 is that Jehovah is a sure source of strength. Few remarks are needed on this passage. Jeremiah’s faith in God shines very brightly here. Some expressions are very rich and suggestive, such as Jer 17:12-14 ; Jer 17:17 .
The prophecy of Jer 17:19-27 is a prophecy concerning the keeping of the sabbath. This was the great problem of Nehemiah. He had to meet it, and here it is in Jeremiah’s day also: “Go, stand in the gate and say unto the people, Ye shall bear no burdens on the sabbath day.” Verse Jer 17:25 : “Then shall there enter into this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, . . . The men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall remain forever,” this is, if they keep the sabbath day. Then the text shows how the nations will come upon them if they do not keep the sabbath day: “If you will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day and not to bear burdens and enter into the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” This is one of the most significant passages on the sabbath question in all the Bible. This paragraph furnishes the basis for God’s chastisement in the Babylonian captivity. It is specifically stated that this captivity was the penalty for the disregard of the sabbath law.
QUESTIONS
1. What the date of this group of prophecies?
2. Give a general outline of the group of chapters.
3. What the occasion of the prophecies of Jeremiah 11-12?
4. What the reply of the prophet to the words of Jehovah in Jer 11:1-5 and what the application?
5. What the charge against the people in Jer 11:6-8 ?
6. What the charge against the people in Jer 11:8-13 and what the result?
7. How is the doom of the nation indicated (Jer 11:14-17 ) and what the difficulties of the text?
8. What the result as it pertained to the prophet, how did he meet it and what Jehovah’s responses? (Jer 11:18-23 .)
9. What question does the prophet raise in Jer 12:1-4 and what Jehovah’s reply in Jer 12:5-6 ?
10. How is the captivity described in Jer 12:7-13 ?
11. Who Judah’s “evil neighbors” referred to in Jer 12:14-17 , what the threat against them and what hope held out to them?
12. What the symbolic action of Jer 13:1-7 , and what its interpretation (Jer 13:8-11 )?
13. What other symbol used by the prophet here (Jer 13:12-14 ) and what its interpretation?
14. What the exhortation in Jer 13:15-17 , what command to the queen mother in Jer 13:18-19 , what curse announced in Jer 13:20-27 , and what great text in Jer 13:23 ?
15. Describe the drought as pictured in Jer 14:1-6 .
16. What the prophet’s plea for the people in Jer 14:7-9 and what Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:10-12 ?
17. What Jeremiah’s complaint and Jehovah’s reply in Jer 14:13-22 ?
18. Describe the impending danger (Jer 15:1-9 ).
19. What the thoughts in the paragraphs of Jer 15:10-21 ?
20. What the word of Jehovah to Jeremiah in Jer 16:1-9 , and what its lesson?
21. What questions are raised by the people in Jer 16:10-13 , and what the reply?
22. What the comparison in Jer 16:14-21 and what great hope is therein expressed?
23. How is the nature of Judah’s sin and punishment indicated in Jer 17:1-4 ?
24. What contrast in Jer 17:5-11 and in what other scripture do we find the same thought?
25. What the import of Jer 17:12-18 , and what suggestive passages in this paragraph?
26. What the prophecy of Jer 17:19-27 and what can you Bay of its importance?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 16
The prophet has, in this section, a new picture of the excessive evil of the people and of the impending judgments and woes.
“The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take to 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; 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. 1-4. ) No relationship was to be contracted in the land, no longer were sons or daughters to be desired as a heritage from Jehovah. Children and parents alike were devoted to a sorrowful end, without lamentation or even burial, consumed by sword and famine, left as dung on the ground, or meat for birds and beasts of prey. And this was Jehovah’s decree about His people!
This is followed up in verses 5-7, where every sign of sympathy in their bereavement is forbidden. “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 loving-kindness and mercies. 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: 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.” I would here remark that the marginal rendering gives the best sense in the beginning of the last verse; for there is no connection between men tearing themselves for those in mourning and comforting them for the dead; whereas to break bread as a sign is natural, especially as followed up by giving the cup of consolation. This, which was customary on occasions of mourning, was a sort of transition between the paschal feast and the Lord’s Supper, wherein the Lord would have us remember Him and thus show forth His death.
Thus, as every token of loving sympathy was now interdicted to the prophet; so was equally every form of congratulation. “Thou shalt not also 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, 1 will cause to cease out of this place in 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.” (Ver. 8, 9.) God should cause all festive occasions to vanish away from the land of His delight on which His eyes rest continually.
Thus did He compass His people round with accumulated proofs of His displeasure to the uttermost, if peradventure they might still repent. At least the warnings, thus given and despised by the rebellious people, would instruct those who might have ears to hear in their midst. “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show 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 worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: 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 show you favour.” (Ver. 10-13.)
It would be sad indeed, were this all. But it is not; sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. “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; 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. 14, 15.) The bright future would eclipse the most magnificent deliverance of the past, and with so much the more solidity as being the fruit of a faithful God’s mercy, after all the experience of their evil ways. Nor should it be like the single act in the days of Moses. “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. For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.” (Ver. 16, 17.)
But grace in their case, as in ours, in no way sets aside the governmental dealings of God; and in theirs especially, as having a covenant character under law, before they are placed under Messiah and the new covenant. “And first 1 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.” (Ver. 18.) This drew before the prophet the picture of Israel’s idolatries, and extorts from him the apostrophe, with the Lord’s answer, which closes the chapter. “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. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 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. 19-21.)
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 16:1-4
1The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land: 4They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.
Jer 16:2 Jeremiah is restricted by YHWH from taking a wife (very unusual for a Jewish man) or having children (cf. Lev 26:22). The reason given is that families will soon die in YHWH’s judgment (cf. Jer 15:2-3) for their idolatry.
1. deadly diseases (cf. Lev 26:16)
2. sword (cf. Lev 26:25)
3. famine
Their bodies will be unburied (no one left to bury them, cf. Psa 79:2-3) and will be food for birds and animals (cf. Jer 16:4; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20).
YHWH surprisingly restricts Jeremiah from all societal comforts. He must be comforted by his service to YHWH, who would be his hope, comfort, and peace (cf. Jer 16:19)!
Jer 16:3 Notice the three uses of the root for having children.
1. born – BDB 409, KB 411, ADJECTIVE
2. bore – BDB 408, KB 411, Qal PARTICIPLE
3. begot – BDB 408, KB 411, Hiphil PARTICIPLE
The next generation, along with the current generation of Judeans, will be destroyed!
Jer 16:4 Notice the IMPERFECT VERBS.
1. die – BDB 559, KB 562, Qal IMPERFECT
2. lamented – BDB 704, KB 763, Niphal IMPERFECT (negated)
3. buried – BDB 868, IB 1064, Niphal IMPERFECT (negated)
4. will be as dung – BDB 224, KB 243, Qal IMPERFECT
5. come to an end – BDB 477, KB 476, Qal IMPERFECT
Being unmourned, unburied, and devoured by animals was a great fear and curse for ANE people (cf. Jer 7:33; Jer 8:2; Jer 9:22; Jer 15:3; Jer 19:7; Jer 34:20; Deu 28:26).
NASB, NRSV,
NJB, NIVdeadly diseases
NKJV, JPSOAgruesome deaths
LXXa sickly death
REBa horrible death
This is a CONSTRUCT of BDB 560 (i.e., deadly, cf. Eze 28:8) and BDB 316 (i.e., diseases, cf. Jer 14:18; 2Ch 21:19; Psa 103:3). These were the result of covenant disobedience (cf. Deu 29:14-28, esp. Deu 16:22).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Jeremiah’s Eleventh prophecy (see book comments for Jeremiah).
the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall we turn now to Jer 16:1-21 .
Now you remember that Jeremiah was just a young man when God called him to this prophetic ministry. And so in chapter 16:
The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place ( Jer 16:1-2 ).
So Jeremiah is commanded by God not to marry, and the reason for the commandment not to marry or not to have children was to be a sign to the people of the terrible times that were coming. They were going to really be facing hard times and it was no time to be having children. Because if you have children, they’re going to die of starvation; they’re going to be killed in the siege. It’s just not a time to be having children or to be getting married and all. So it was to be a sign, his bachelorhood was to be a sign unto the people.
Now it is interesting that God spoke to Hosea and told him to marry. And God directed him concerning his marriage. And with Hosea his marriage was to be a sign unto the people. With Isaiah he was to name his children as signs to the people. And so their names meant certain things that were, again, a sign to the people. So with Jeremiah God called him to bachelorhood.
For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and 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 will 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 the 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 nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even loving-kindness and mercies. 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 ( Jer 16:3-6 ):
Now in Israel they have customs when a family member dies; you’re not to shave for thirty days. And then when you shave you take the hair that has grown in that thirty days and offer it unto the Lord as sort of a sacrifice. But it was a sign; it is a sign of mourning. And even to the present day the Jews observe this sign of mourning at a death. So the shaving was after the thirty days that they had died. But he’s saying there’s not going to be any kind of a memorial or cutting of yourself, shaving of yourself or whatever for those who have died.
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning ( Jer 16:7 ),
And, of course, these people sought to show their great love for the deceased and the more wailing that went on in the house indicated to everybody how much you loved them. So when someone died that was very close to you, you wanted everybody to know how deeply you loved them and so you would hire wailers to come into your house. And they were professionals that would really wail. And they would come in and go through this wailing process. And, of course, you would join in with them and there was this lamenting, the wailing that they did for the dead. And so he’s saying that that’s not going to even be going on. The tearing of themselves of this 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 ( Jer 16:7 ).
So don’t get married. Don’t have children, because the people that are here, the children that are now being born are going to suffer fearful, awful deaths as their bodies won’t even be buried. There will be no one around to mourn their deaths. And he’s just telling of that hard, hard times that are coming and because of that, as a sign to the people, he was not to marry nor to have children.
Now the Lord gave him a second commandment in verse Jer 16:8 .
Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink ( Jer 16:8 ).
Now, of course, the feasts were great occasions. It was really their… They didn’t have television, radios and movie theaters. And so their entertainment was at these feasts. And these feasts would be great occasions, not only of dining, but also of entertainment. And so there was great laughter as you had all kinds of entertainment during these feasts and all. And they were just times of entertainment and celebration. But the prophet is told not to go to these feasts.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of merriment, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride ( Jer 16:9 ).
During your time, during this generation, these things are all going to cease in this land. So as a sign to the people that the end has come, don’t go into the house of feasting. Don’t join in that merriment.
And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Why has 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 you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me ( Jer 16:10-12 ):
So there was anarchy. Everyone was following the imagination of his own evil heart. God’s law was forsaken and thus the judgments of God were coming upon them.
Now the Jew was immensely proud of his heritage. They were always talking about our fathers. And Jesus brings out the fact, how they are always saying, “Well, our fathers,” and, “in the days of our fathers.” So you remember when Stephen was called in before the Sanhedrin. As he started to sort of rehearse for them their… what they felt, illustrious history. He got caught up as he was rehearsing their history with the whole hypocrisy of the thing. For remembering their history he remembered how they had treated the prophets of God. Now here is Jeremiah and he’s saying, “Hey, this is all happening to you because your fathers have forsaken God. They are worshipping these other gods. But you are even worse than your fathers. Everyone is doing after the imagination of his own wicked heart. And for this cause God is pronouncing this judgment that is coming.
Now their reaction to Jeremiah was to put him in prison when he brought this message to them. So as Stephen is rehearsing to the Sanhedrin who, you know, “our fathers.” And you remember Jesus in talking with them, they said, they kept talking about “our fathers” and Jesus said, “Look, if Abraham was your father, then you’d believe in me. For Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he saw it.” And they were arguing with Jesus about that. And they said, “We have Abraham as our father.” And Jesus said, “You’re of your father the devil. And his works are the works that you’re doing.” Well, Stephen got carried away and he said, “Which of the prophets have you not stoned?” And He started really laying on them what their fathers had done. That they weren’t these glorious, illustrious kind of men of faith; that they had actually turned away from God and reminded them of that fact.
Therefore [God said,] will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor. 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; 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 to their fathers ( Jer 16:13-15 ).
Now he’s speaking about this dark period of history that they are facing. “During your time the land is going to be laid desolate. During your time you’re going to be carried away captive. Because of your evil in turning against God; it’s all going to happen in your time.” And yet though he’s pronouncing this judgment he goes ahead and speaks of that glorious day when God will gather them back again into the land. After the seventy-year captivity, the Lord will bring them back into the land and the day will come when they will say, “The God who brought us out of our captivity,” rather than, “The God who brought our fathers out of Egypt.” They’ll be talking about, “God who brought us back from captivity and put us back in the land.”
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. For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things ( Jer 16:16-18 ).
Jeremiah cried out in response to what God had said.
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. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 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 Jehovah ( Jer 16:19-21 ).
So Jeremiah cries out. It’s almost as the psalm. In fact, there are psalms, “The Lord is my strength,” ( Psa 118:14 ). “My refuge, my fortress” ( Psa 91:2 ). And he is perhaps thinking of that psalm when he cries out, “O Lord, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction.” And then the prophecy of the Gentiles coming from the ends of the earth. And Paul makes mention of prophecies concerning the Gentiles’ salvation in the book to the Romans.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 16:1-2
Jer 16:1-2
FAMILY, FUNERALS, AND FESTIVITIES — FORBIDDEN TO JEREMIAH
The following chapter divisions were suggested by Henderson: (1) Jeremiah forbidden to marry and have a family (Jer 16:1-2); (2) God’s explanation for this prohibition (Jer 16:2-4); (3) funeral celebrations also forbidden (Jer 16:5-7); (4) festival celebrations likewise prohibited (Jer 16:8-9); (5) God’s further elaboration of the reasons for such penalties (Jer 16:10-13); (6) a prophecy of Israel’s restoration (Jer 16:14-15); (7) the metaphor of the hunters and the fishers (Jer 16:16-18); (8) prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles (Jer 16:19-20); (9) a reiteration of the certainty of impending doom for Judah (Jer 16:21).
First, we wish to notice a classical example of the critical fembu which radical critics 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.
“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.”
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.”
Kuist mentioned the “patchwork construction of the chapter which puzzles readers and interpreters”; 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.
Jer 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.
“Undoubtedly the Lord’s command for Jeremiah not to marry was an emotional shock to him.” 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.” 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.”
God at once gave the reasons for such an unusual order to Jeremiah.
Jer 16:3-4
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 their 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 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?”
In this place. in this land …..
(Jer 16:3). This is not a reference to Anathoth nor to Jerusalem, but to the whole land of Judah.
Jer 16:5-7
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 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.
I have taken away my peace…
(Jer 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.
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 …..
(Jer 16:6). This is a reference to pagan customs which were strictly forbidden in Israel (Lev 19:28; Lev 2:5; Deu 14:1). However, it appears that such practices were widely prevalent anyway (Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5; Eze 7:18; Amo 8:10; and Mic 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…
(Jer 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.
The cup of consolation…
(Jer 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.
Jer 16:8-9
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…
(Jer 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 Rev 18:23).
Before your eyes and in your days…
(Jer 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!
Jeremiah came through his personal crisis. He repented and God took him back. Now that the rebellious prophet was humble and contrite, God gives him further instructions concerning his personal conduct (Jer 16:1-9) and his message (Jer 16:10-13). God pulls back the curtain to reveal to His prophet the purpose and reason for the forthcoming judgment (Jer 16:14-18). To all of this the prophet responds with a ringing affirmation of faith and vision (Jer 16:19-21).
Directions to the Prophet Jer 16:1-9
A minister must live a life that is consistent with the message he brings else he will be charged with hypocrisy and insincerity. Jeremiah had for the most part been preaching a message of doom and judgment. His life must reflect the gloomy prospects of the nation. A man preaches by what he does and does not do as well as by his words. There is a great deal of truth in the old adage what you are speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say. In order to bring the life of Jeremiah into harmony with the message he was to deliver, God laid down three prohibitions for His prophet.
In the first prohibition Jeremiah is commanded not to marry and father children (Jer 16:2). Hosea was married as was Isaiah and Ezekiel. Probably most of the prophets had helpmates. But Jeremiah was denied wifely companionship. He had complained of his pain and loneliness and now a greater burden was laid upon him. But it was necessary that he abstain from marriage in order to get across to his contemporaries the message of how terribly desperate were the times. In Old Testament times marriage was regarded as the natural state. To remain unmarried would cause the people to realize how serious the times really were. Jeremiahs non-marriage was a symbolic act with predictive overtones. Shortly the time would come when there would be no more marriage. Furthermore the nation was about to go through a period of brutal warfare. Children as well as their parents would die painful deaths (literally, deaths of sickness), including starvation (Jer 16:3). Those who died of sword and famine would be left as dung upon the ground, their corpses being eaten by bird and beast alike (Jer 16:4). This was no kind of a world in which to rear a child. While, therefore, it may seem harsh to disallow marriage for Jeremiah, the prohibition is fundamentally beneficent. Jeremiah was spared the added agony of seeing wife and little ones destroyed. One thinks immediately of the attitude of the Apostle Paul toward marriage in similar circumstances (1Co 7:26).
In the second prohibition Jeremiah is forbidden to attend funerals (Jer 16:5). How difficult it must have been for the prophet to abstain from the customary extension of sympathy to the family of those who were near and dear to him. Again Jeremiahs action would have predictive significance. His abstinence from the normal visitation to homes where there had been a death would provide an opportunity for him to describe the great slaughter which would shortly take place in Judah. So many would die in that day of famine, pestilence and warfare that the few survivors would not be able nor inclined to conduct the normal funeral service. Nobles and commoners will die but no one will bury them or take up a lament over them. The pagan rites of showing remorse by cutting oneself or shaving the head would not be performed (Jer 16:6). Both of these latter customs were forbidden in the law of Moses (Deu 14:1; Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5). The funeral feast normally conducted in the home of the bereaved after the burial will be dispensed with (Jer 16:7). This meal no doubt was accompanied by lamentation and prayers for comfort (cf. 2Sa 3:35; Eze 24:17; Hos 9:4). These formalities would have to be abandoned. Death would be so common that men could not participate in such observances even if they wanted to do so. All of this will befall Judah because God had withdrawn His peace, loving-kindness and compassion from the nation (Jer 16:5). Judah is forsaken by her God. She is helpless and hopeless. A third prohibition forbade Jeremiah to attend joyous feasts and festivals as, for example, a wedding meal (Jer 16:8). Jeremiah was no recluse. In fact in his previous prayer he complains that he has been excluded from the assemblies of merrymakers (Jer 15:17). Again Jeremiahs abstinence is to have a didactic purpose, it is intended to be an object lesson to the people of that generation. The nation was crumbling to destruction. This was no time for feasting and rejoicing. In the very near future all joyous activities would cease (cf. Jer 7:34). When faced with extermination men would no longer think of feasting and banqueting (Jer 16:9). While the prohibition had a valid and useful objective it nonetheless added to the burden which Jeremiah had to bear.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
The controversy was immediately followed by a new charge to the prophet. Jehovah called him to a life of personal asceticism, commanding that he abstain from both mourning and mirth. That is to say, he was to stand aloof from the people in order to deliver to them the messages of his God. His messages of judgment would provoke inquiry among the people concerning the reason of God’s dealings with them. The prophet was charged to make clear to them that these things resulted from their own sin. Yet immediately Jehovah declared to His servant that His purpose in judgment was the ultimate deliverance of the people.
This final word the prophet answered with an affirmation of his confidence in Jehovah, first as to his own personal safety, and then as to the ultimate issue.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER EIGHT
SIN WHERE THE BLOOD SHOULD BE!
(Chaps. 16, 17)
In the portion of the “Word of the Lord” which now claims our attention, we no longer hear the tender supplication of the seer on behalf of Judah. He pleaded unweariedly while there seemed to be hope of averting the threatened disaster. But there was no repentance on the part of the people, and the holiness of GOD’s character demanded that sin, in those so closely linked with His Name, be not passed over lightly.
The present section is a solemn indictment on His part showing why His hand must be against them, however much His heart may still be for them.
The prophet is bidden to refrain from marriage, for connubial bliss was not to be thought of under the present sad conditions. Children born in such circumstances were only being introduced into a scene of sorrow and grief, with the prospect of an unlamented death before them (Jer 16:1-4). Parents and offspring alike would be involved in the general ruin.
He is neither to go to the house of mourning nor to the house of feasting.
In neither are GOD’s judgments owned, nor His Word bowed to. Why should he go to join the general lamentation when the mind of the Lord had been clearly revealed? “For I have taken away My peace from this people, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies” (Jer 16:5). To seek to comfort them in their hardness of heart would be but to turn aside the keenness of the chastisement. He must leave them severely alone. They were in the hand of GOD.
The same thing comes out in the New Testament in connection with discipline in the assembly. Wicked persons are to be withdrawn from and put away from the company of the saints.
The moment there is brokenness of spirit manifested, the compassions of those who are spiritually-minded will at once flow forth; but in any way to condone or encourage persons persisting in ungodliness, and under the Lord’s discipline, is only to hinder restoration and blessing.
It is evident from Jer 16:6 that many heathen customs were being regularly practiced by the people of Judah. The announcement that none should “cut themselves, nor make themselves bald” for the dead, would not have been made had it not been practiced; that was a plain defiance of Deu 14:1-2 :
“Ye are children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
Alas, that the Lord’s “peculiar people” should have so far corrupted themselves as to have fallen into the most degrading practices of the pagan nations about them! So true is it that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” The cutting themselves and making baldness were in honor of heathen deities, notably Baal, the sun-god, who was worshiped under various names.
“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” (Jer 16:7) This is the first mention in sacred Scripture of drinking a cup of consolation in remembrance of the departed. The Lord JESUS instituted such a feast on that “same night in which He was betrayed.” (1Co 11:23) He gave new significance to the breaking of bread by declaring that it set forth the bruising of His precious body for our sin upon the cross of shame; while the cup became to us “the cup of blessing,” even “the communion of the blood of Christ,” (1Co 10:16) “shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Mat 26:28)
It is clear that to have had no one break bread nor drink the cup of consolation in memory of one who had died would have betokened utter forgetfulness .. So our Lord has said, “This do, for the keeping of Me in mind” (literal rendering). Well may our hearts respond –
“With joy and sorrow mingling,
We will remember Thee.”
Jeremiah is to join in no memorial feasts, nor yet in seasons of mirth. In the grief and the joy of the people he can have no part. He is forbidden to 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 in 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” (Jer 16:8-9). So stupefied and insensate had they become that, like their children in the days of Messiah, though mourned unto, they lamented not; though piped unto, they danced not. Neither their joy nor their sorrow led to a recognition of the One who was dealing with them in these various ways; hence their grief should only become deeper, and their laughter be turned into anguish of heart.
It was quite to be expected that, when “all these words” (Jer 16:10) were proclaimed, so seared would be their consciences, that they would ask, “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?” (Jer 16:10).
The hardening effect of sin is one of its appalling results. Even “when the Son of Man shall come in His glory,” and “shall sit upon the throne of His glory,” (Mat 25:31) and all nations be gathered before Him, there will be those who, with amazing effrontery, shall ask, “When saw we Thee ahungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto Thee?” (Mat 25:44) while conscious of the fact that they had neglected His servants and His Word all their days.
Jeremiah’s reply to the gainsayers is that their fathers had ever been characterized by disobedience to GOD, and they had outdone them by far; therefore they were to be cast out of their land. They had walked after other gods in Canaan: now they should be carried away to the countries where these false deities were especially recognized, and there they should “serve other gods day and night” (Jer 16:11-13).
Their casting off, however, shall not be forever. “He that scattered Israel shall gather him.” (Jer 31:10) Just as He of old brought them up from the land of Egypt, so shall it be said in the near future, “The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.” and He adds, “I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers” (Jer 16:14-15).
For centuries “the tribe of the wandering foot” have proved the truth of His Word in regard to their dispersion; and the prophecies relating to their return and restoration shall be as literally carried out. The going up from Babylon, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in no complete sense fulfilled this promise. A few thousand, a mere handful, were brought back at that time, only to be scattered again with their rejection of CHRIST.
When the “times of restitution of all things, spoken of by the prophets” (Act 3:21) shall have come, Israel shall then be saved; as it is written, “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Rom 11:26-27). Meantime it is the “times of the Gentiles;” (Luk 21:24) the “holy city” is trodden by the Gentiles; blindness is fallen upon Israel “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Rom 11:25)
This is the universal testimony of the prophets, strangely overlooked by multitudes who, it is to be feared, read their Bibles to find confirmation for theories of their own, in place of reading in the fear of GOD, to get His mind.
It is interesting to notice how complete the ingathering is to be in the latter day – yet only after the people have passed through the last and great tribulation by which the godly and faithful ones are manifested, and the unrepentant apostate part of the nation cut off.
Jer 16:16-18 tell of this:
“Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after 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 hid from Mine eyes. 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.”
From every corner of the earth GOD will seek out His “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat 15:24) and bring them back to their land. Many return in unbelief, and judgment will be visited accordingly; but the result will be the reestablishment of the repentant remnant in the home of their fathers, and the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David. During all their wanderings His “eyes are upon all their ways.” (Jer 16:17) This is most strikingly brought out in the little book of Esther, where He is found watching over and caring for them even though unrecognized and unsought. *
* For an exposition of this interesting and instructive portion of Scripture the reader is referred to “Notes on the Book of Esther,” by the same writer.
Do these lines meet the eye of a tried and distressed saint who has been tempted by Satan to believe that GOD has forgotten and cares not for him? Surely the words are as true of every Christian as of every Israelite, “Mine eyes are Upon all their ways.” (Jer 16:17)
Oh, look up, dear doubting one, and faint not beneath the chastening of the Lord! for His eyes never lose sight of you for one moment, and His heart is ever concerned about you. He is taking careful note of all your circumstances, and “He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” (Heb 13:5) Sweet it is to trust where all is dark, and to sing with childlike faith, “My times are in Thy hand!” (Psa 31:15)
Israel’s enlargement shall result in blessing for the nations too:
“For if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?” and “if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?” (Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15).
So we are told in Jer 16:19-21 that the Gentiles shall come to restored Israel and to Israel’s GOD saying, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein is no profit.” (Jer 16:19)
Turning to the only true GOD in confession and repentance, He will make them to know Himself.
The prophet gets but a glimpse of that day of glory, as if the Lord would cheer the weak heart of His servant by rolling back the dark clouds for a moment and giving him a sight of Messiah’s reign when He shall, as the Sun of Righteousness, arise with healing in His wings. Jeremiah must now return to the sterner business of showing the people their iniquity.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
The Coming Calamities: Restoration Promised, Ruin Imminent on Account of Judahs Sin and Concerning the Sabbath (16-17)
CHAPTER 16
1. The coming calamities (Jer 16:1-13)
2. The coming days of restoration and blessing (Jer 16:14-21)
Jer 16:1-13. In view of the coming calamities Jeremiah is bidden to remain unmarried and not to raise a family. The verses which describe the coming calamities need no further annotations.
Jer 16:14-21. The great dispersion was announced by the Lord in the preceding verse: Therefore will I cast you out of this land, into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there ye shall serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor. But is this to last forever? Is this dispersion permanent? Will they always be homeless wanderers? The next verse gives the answer: I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. They will be brought back from the land of the north and from all lands where they had been driven. It will be a greater deliverance than the deliverance out of Egypt. Critics have found fault with these verses: They are out of place here, but whether inserted by accident, or whether to modify the painful impression of the prophecy of judgment in which they are inserted, we cannot say (Prof. A.S. Peake). They are not out of place, nor inserted by some unknown hand. The Lord declares His gracious purposes which will yet be accomplished. That these verses were not fulfilled in the return of the small remnant from Babylon is obvious. They will be fulfilled in the future, when the house of Israel and the house of Judah will be re-established in the land. Then the so-called lost tribes will be found again by Him for whom they were never lost, For Mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hid from My face neither is their iniquity hid from Mine eyes. He will send fishers and hunters to bring them forth. It is the same of which our Lord speaks in Mat 24:31. The elect of whom the Lord speaks are not a spiritual Israel, but the elect nation Israel. Then the voice of the prophet is heard in Jer 16:19 with a blessed prophetic declaration: 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. It denotes the conversion of the world, which–in prophecy never precedes the restoration of Israel, but always follows that great coming event. (See Rom 11:12; Rom 11:15; Act 15:14-41) .
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
saying
The sign of the unmarried prophet is interpreted by the context. The whole social life of Judah was about to be disrupted and cease from the land. But note the promises of verses Jer 16:14-16; Jer 17:7; Jer 17:8.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
The word: Jer 1:2, Jer 1:4, Jer 2:1
Reciprocal: Jer 47:5 – how
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1
Jer 16:1. This verse announces that the Lord has another inspired installment to give the prophet for his book.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 16:1-4. The word of the Lord came, &c. Here begins a new discourse, wherein God forbids Jeremiah to marry, principally with a view to show the miseries of parents, and the confused and ruinous state of things in Judea. Fruitfulness was promised as a blessing under the law, Deu 28:4, but ceased to be so in such difficult times as were coming upon the Jewish nation. For parents could not promise to themselves any comfort in their children, who must be exposed to the many miseries that attend a hostile invasion and a conquering army. Lowth. They shall die of grievous deaths Hebrew , mortibus gritudinum, id est, gerrimis, Buxtorf. Literally, of deaths of sicknesses, that is, very sorrowful deaths; meaning, Blaney thinks, epidemical disorders, (such as the pestilence,) terminating in death. It, no doubt, however, also includes death by the sword and by famine.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 16:2. Thou shalt not take thee a wifein this place. The prohibition implies the honour of the state of matrimony, because it respects the sentence against a devoted nation. Our Saviour gives the like intimation when the Romans were about to destroy Jerusalem. Blessed is the womb that never bare, and the paps that never gave suck. St. Paul, during the Neronean persecution, gives much the same advice. 1Co 7:26. If a minister at home, or a missionary abroad, shall see his call to a temporary celibacy, or a single life, let it be a consecration of himself to the Lord, and let him regard such a choice as sacred. The jesuits cite this text, but without a shadow of foundation, in favour of their chains. What has celibacy done for either Italy or Spain, where we see great nations covered with gloom, and destitute of strength.
Jer 16:6-7. Nor cut themselvesfor the dead. This custom was carried to great excess among oriental nations. 1Ki 18:28. Neither was the Jew allowed to attend the funeral feasts, which attracted a vast crowd when a great man died. Of course provision must be proportioned to the company, and these feasts were usually attended with great excess.
Jer 16:16. Behold, I will send for many fishers. The Chaldeans, skilled in the arts of war, shall draw you out of the holes where Jordan after Easter overflows his banks. After that, I will send for many hunters, to intercept the fugitives on the mountains. The wicked ever sin in hopes of escape; but who can hide from an omnipresent God? Isaiah has a similar remark on the fugitives falling into a pit: Isa 24:17-18.
REFLECTIONS.
In this book we are frequently taught to view Jeremiahs ministry as a long and arduous fight with incorrigible men. God strengthened him for the struggle as a brazen wall, fenced with ditches and towers; and it adds no small lustre to his character, that we see him in this chapter grow stronger and more terrible in the fight. He supported his doctrine by the vigour of his own example. Announcing death to three fourths of the nation by pestilence, (called death, Jer 15:2) by famine and by sword, he abstained from marriage, because he would not involve a helpless progeny in the dire calamities of his country. It imposes silence on the gainsayers, and adds to the weight of divine truth when a minister lives in the spirit, and acts in the belief of his own doctrine.
The judgments of an avenging God are terrible in their character. The men who had feasted on the mountains, in the worship of strange gods, and committed all sorts of wickedness, must now fall on those mountains, and their sinful flesh must be a feast to the fowls of heaven. Gods eye was on all their secret ways, and he was resolved to punish them publicly, that he might be sanctified as Judge of all the earth, and that all nations might learn purity from his high example.
Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness. Jeremiah saw nothing but darkness, for the present; but his faith launching into futurity, he saw a blooming hope for the remnant whom the Lord would spare, as through the fire. He saw the Lord engaged to bring them back from all the lands whither he had driven them, and restoring them to their own land. But faith does not look at temporal mercies only; these are to spiritual blessings but as the shell to the kernel; and the land in Babylonia was as rich as the land of Judea. Therefore Jeremiah looked at all the good which the Lord would do to his people by the Messiah, the hope of Israel, and the Saviour thereof in the time of trouble: Jer 14:7. The gospel hope especially can comfort the church at the worst of times, and cause Zion to rejoice even when she is compelled to weep.
Jeremiah not only saw Israel restored, but the heathen converted. Oh Lord, my strengththe gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, surely our fathers have inherited lies, and the vanity of idols. This was in part accomplished by proselytes to judaism, whose number in our Saviours time was about one fifth of the Hebrew nation. It shall be more fully accomplished in the latter day, by the conversion of all nations to the Messiah, as is largely illustrated in the thirteen last chapters of Isaiah. Thus while anguish and despair await the wicked, hope and the perfection of glory attend the righteous.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 16:1 to Jer 17:18. The Coming Distress a Penalty for Sin.The prophet is forbidden to found a family, because of the coming sorrows (cf. 1Co 7:29 ff.), in which death will be too common even for due mourning and burial. He is to stand aloof from the ordinary expressions of grief (Jer 16:5-7) or social joy (Jer 16:8 f.; cf. Jer 7:34), as a sign that Yahweh will make both to cease in the universal disaster. The reason for this great suffering is the sin of disloyalty to Yahweh, who will fling out His people (like a javelin, 1Sa 20:33) to a land of other gods (Jer 16:13; cf. 1Sa 26:19). The two following verses (Jer 16:14 f.), which promise a future restoration, are inserted from Jer 23:7 f., and interrupt the present context. The fishers and the hunters whom Yahweh will send, to net in shoals or hunt down singly, are Judahs invaders, from whom there is no escape. The heavy penalty (double as in Isa 40:2) has been provoked by the peculiar insult to Yahweh of the sin of idolatry (Jer 16:18). The prophet breaks off to anticipate the day when Yahweh shall be known by all the peoples, who will abandon their no-gods (Jer 16:19-21). Judahs sin is ineffaceably written on her heart; the projections at the corner of their (mg.) altars (Exo 27:2) bear the blood of heathen sacrifice; therefore shall Judah be spoiled and her people become exiles (Jer 17:1-4). The rest of this section (Jer 17:5-18) is an editorial collection of more or less disconnected sayings, probably by Jeremiah. The fine contrast in Jer 17:5-8 is probably the source of Psalms 13 f. The confession of inner weakness in Jer 17:9 may belong to the prophets prayer for healing in Jer 17:14 ff. (with Jer 17:10 cf. Jer 11:20, Jer 32:19). Jer 17:11 is a proverb based on the alleged habits of the partridge, the point being that the adopted brood at last forsakes its pretended mother. Unbroken confidence in Yahweh is expressed in Jer 17:12 f., and the prophet prays that he be not forsaken in his prophetic task; he disclaims any malicious joy in his prophecies of evil, but asks to be justified (Jer 17:14-18).
Jer 16:5. On mourning the dead, see p. 110, HDB, Mourning, EBi., Mourning Customs, and cf. Jer 41:5, Jer 47:5, Deu 14:1, etc.
Jer 16:13. For such tacit recognition of heathen deities, combined with practical monotheism, see the contemporary Deu 6:4; Deu 6:14.
Jer 16:18. carcases: a term of contempt for idols; omit first with LXX.
Jer 17:1. pen of iron: i.e. an iron instrument used for carving on rock; cf. Job 19:24.
Jer 17:2. whilst . . . Asherim: probably a gloss, after which we should proceed, upon the spreading (green) trees, upon the high hills, the mountain in the field. As it stands, the last phrase must be taken as a title of Jerusalem (but see on Jer 21:13).
Jer 17:3 f.: partly found as an insertion, Jer 15:13 f.
Jer 17:4. thou . . . discontinue is not the Hebrew; a slight emendation gives, Thou shalt let thy hand fall.
Jer 17:6. heath: supposed to be the dwarf juniper tree.
Jer 17:11. fool: denoting moral rather than intellectual inferiority.
Jer 17:12, hardly likely to be Jeremiahs, refers to the Temple.
Jer 17:13. written in earth: i.e. transient, in contrast with what is carved on rock.living waters: Jer 2:13.
Jer 17:15. cf. Isa 5:19.
Jer 16:16. A slight vowel change (with some VSS) would turn from being a shepherd into because of evil, a parallel to the following clause.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
The special conditions of Jeremiah’s life 16:1-13
Sometimes God used the events in the lives of His prophets to speak to the people, in addition to their messages.
"Hosea’s unhappy marriage (Hosea 1-3), Isaiah’s family (Isaiah 7-8), the death of Ezekiel’s wife (Eze 24:15-27), and Jeremiah’s call to remain unmarried are all examples of the proclamation of the word through family events." [Note: Thompson, p. 403. See also Isaiah 20.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord commanded His prophet never (Heb. lo’) to marry and rear children. In contrast, God commanded Hosea to marry and have children (Hos 1:2). This difference reflects God’s sovereignty over His servants. His will for one may not be the same as His will for another in amoral matters.
The Israelites and ancient Near Easterners in general regarded the unmarried state and childlessness as divine curses (cf. Mat 24:19; 1Co 7:26), but here God overruled what was normal (cf. Gen 1:28; Gen 2:18; Deu 7:14) for a special reason. Bachelors were so rare in Israel that there is no word for "bachelor" in the Hebrew language. As an unmarried man, Jeremiah would have been the object of much derision and scorn.