Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 16:13
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 favor.
13. there shall ye serve other gods ] The original thought of Jehovah as a national Deity led to the feeling that change of country involved a loss of His protection. Cp. Jdg 11:24; 1Sa 26:19. “Large numbers of the exiles probably felt that the destruction of the State had snapped the tie which bound them to Yahweh.” Pe.
for ] perhaps as mg. where.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And there shall ye … – Ironical, and there ye may serve other gods day and night, since I will shew you no favor.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. Will I cast you out of this land] See Jer 7:15; Jer 9:15.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
You would not hearken to me to obey my voice in that good land which I gave you, and which you have known and inherited now many years; therefore I will throw you out into a land which you know not, and which your fathers knew not. You would not serve me in this land, but chose to serve other gods in my land; you shall serve other gods in a strange land, you shall there have no such opportunities as you have here-at Jerusalem to worship me the true God, according to the prescription and direction of my word; ye shall there have no gods else but idols to worship, and what is now matter of choice to you shall then be forced upon you, the governors of those countries into which you shall be carried shall force you to fall down and to worship their idols, which was verified afterward by Nebuchadnezzar, Da 3, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. serve other godsThatwhich was their sin in their own land was their punishment in exile.Retribution in kind. They voluntarily forsook God for idols athome; they were not allowed to serve God, if they wished it,in captivity (Dan 3:12; Dan 6:7).
day and nightirony.You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even tosatiety, and without intermission.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore will I call you out of this land,…. By force, and against their wills, whether they would or not, and with abhorrence and contempt: it is to be understood of their captivity, which was but a just punishment for the above sins; for since they had cast off the Lord and his worship, it was but just that they should be cast off by him, and cast out of their land, which they held by their obedience to him:
into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; a foreign country, at a great distance from them; with which they had no alliance, correspondence, or commerce; and where they had no friends to converse with, or show them any respect; and whose language they understood not; all which was an aggravation of their captivity in it:
and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; should have their fill of idolatry, even to loathsomeness; and what they had done willingly in their own land, following the imagination of their own evil hearts, now they should be forced to; and what they did for their own pleasure, and at certain times, when they thought fit, now they should be obliged to attend tonight and day. The Targum is, “and there shall ye serve people that worship idols day and night”; that as they had served idols, now they should serve the people, the worshippers of those idols; the former was their sin, the latter their punishment:
where I will not show you favour; or, “not give you grace” b; the favour and mercy of God serve to support persons in distress; but to be denied these is an aggravation of it, and must needs make the captivity of those people the more afflicting. Some understand this of the Lord’s not suffering their enemies to show them any favour or mercy; so Kimchi,
“the enemy shall have no mercy on you, but make you serve with rigour;”
and to the same purpose the Targum, connecting them with the people, the idol worshippers, and paraphrasing them thus,
“who shall not be merciful to you;”
and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, “who shall not give you mercy”; or “rest”, as the Vulgate Latin. The Jews c interpret this of the Messiah, whose name, they say, is Chaninah, the word here used, whom the Lord would not give them where they were.
b “non dabo vobis gratiam”, Cocceius, Schmidt; “non dedero vobis gratiam”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. c T. Bab Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 2. Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then follows a commination, I will eject you, he says, or remove you, from this land to a land which ye know not, nor your fathers, for they had followed unknown gods, and went after inventions of their own and of others. God now declares that he would be the vindicator of his own glory, by driving them to a land unknown to them and to their fathers. He immediately adds, There shall ye serve other gods day and night We must take notice of this kind of punishment, for nothing could have happened worse to the Jews than to be constrained to adopt false and corrupt forms of worship, as it was a denial of God and of true religion. As this appears at the first view hard, some mitigate it, as though the worship of strange gods would be that servitude into which they were reduced when they became subject to idolators: but this is too remote. I therefore do not doubt but that God abandoned them, because they had violated true and pure worship, and had gone after the many abominations of the heathens; and thus he shews that they were worthy to be thus dealt with, who had in every way contaminated themselves, and as it were plunged themselves into the depth of every thing abominable: and it is certainly probable that they were led by constraint into ungodly ceremonies, when the Chaldeans had the power to treat them, as they usually did, as slaves, without any measure of humanity. It is then hence a probable conjecture that they were drawn to superstitions, and that interminably; so that they were not only forced to worship false gods, but were also constrained to do so by way of sport, as they daily triumphed over them as their conquerors.
And he confirms this clause by what follows, For I will not, etc., for the relative אשר asher, is here to be taken for a causative particle, For I will not shew you favor, or mercy; that is, I will not turn the hearts of your enemies so as to be propitious or kind to you. (164) By these words God shews that he would not only punish them by subjecting them to their enemies, or by suffering them to be driven into exile; but that there would be an additional punishment by rendering their enemies cruel to them; for God can either tame the ferocity of men, or, when he pleases, can rouse them to greater rage and cruelty, when it is his purpose to use them as scourges.
We now then understand the whole design of what the Prophet says, that the Jews who had refused to worship God in their own land would be led away to Chaldea, where they would be constrained, wining or unwining, to worship strange gods, and that without end or limits. It now follows —
(164) The Targum and the versions, except the Syriac, apply this clause to their enemies, “who will not shew you favor,” or mercy; and no doubt this reads better; and the verb in that case would be יתנו but there is no MS. in its favor. The relative may be regarded in the same way as at the second verse of the first chapter, (To whom the word, etc.,) “To whom I will not shew favor.” This kind of idiom evidently exists in Hebrew. However the sense is the same as given in the ancient versions, only according to the Hebrew reading the original cause of the favor is expressly mentioned. The denial of favor proceeded from God’s providence, though it was through the instrumentality of their enemies. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) There shall ye serve other gods day and night.The words are spoken in the bitterness of irony: You have chosen to serve the gods of other nations here in your own land; therefore, by a righteous retribution, you shall serve them in another sense, as being in bondage to their worshippers, and neither night nor day shall give you respite.
Where I will not shew you favour.Better, since, or for, I will not shew you favour.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 16:13. Where I will not shew you favour Neither will I give you any favour with them there. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 16:13 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 shew you favour.
Ver. 13. Therefore I will cast you. ] Jer 10:18 . Because ye have sinned wilfully and willingly, ye shall be cast out of this land, though full sore against your wills.
And there shall ye serve other gods.
Where I will not show you favour.
a Notatur poena talionis.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
serve other gods. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 4:26-28; Deu 28:36). App-92.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
will I: Jer 6:15, Jer 15:4, Jer 15:14, Jer 17:4, Lev 18:27, Lev 18:28, Deu 4:26-28, Deu 28:36, Deu 28:63-65, Deu 29:28, Deu 30:17, Deu 30:18, Jos 23:15, Jos 23:16, 2Ch 7:20
into a: Jer 14:8, Jer 17:4, Jer 22:28
and: Deu 4:28, Deu 28:36, Psa 81:12
Reciprocal: Deu 28:64 – scatter Jer 10:18 – I will Jer 39:9 – carried Hos 8:11 – altars
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 16:13. This verse is one of the direct predictions of the captivity. Land that ye know not was said because none of these people had ever been in the land of Babylon. Serve other gods was literally fulfilled because the nation as a whole was not suffered to cease its idolatrous practices even after being taken into Babylon. See the note on this subject at 2Ki 22:17 in Vol. 2 of this Commentary.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 16:13. There shall ye serve other gods day and night The opportunities of frequenting the public worship of the true God shall be taken from you, as a just judgment upon you for your neglect of his service in your own country; and you shall be exposed to the peril of being seduced by the Chaldeans to the worship of idols: see Deu 4:28; Deu 28:36, where Moses utters a similar prediction. Compare also 1Sa 26:19.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Therefore the Lord would hurl (Heb. tul) them out of the land and into a land that they and their forefathers had not known before. There they would have their fill of idolatry, and the Lord would show them no mercy. Obviously Abraham knew Mesopotamia, but none of the more recent ancestors of Jeremiah’s generation had lived there.