Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 16:14
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;
14, 15. See introd. summary to section. These two verses, recurring as they do in a suitable context as Jer 23:7 f., must be considered to be here, at all events, an importation. “The context on both sides relates to Judah’s approaching exile, and Jer 16:16-18 continue the line of thought of Jer 16:10-13.” Dr. In LXX they are found, quite incongruously, after Jer 23:40 instead of in the earlier position in that ch.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
These two verses, by promising a deliverance greater than that from Egypt, implied also a chastisement more terrible than the bondage in the iron furnace there. Instead of their being placed in one land, there was to be a scattering into the north and many other countries, followed finally by a restoration.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 16:14-15
I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
Larger providences
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. 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. How often we vow not to forget our experience; yet it is stolen from us in the night time, 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. Let no man think he has sounded the whole depth of Gods 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. 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. Be not presumptuous against the Divine government; do not say, God cannot do this, or send down that judgment; if He forbear, it is because His mercy restrains, not because His judgment is impotent. 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! 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. 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. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Gods care over His people
A crew of explorers penetrate far within the Arctic circles in search of other expeditions that had gone before them–gone and never returned. Failing to find the missing men, and yet unwilling to abandon hope, they leave supplies of food carefully covered with stones, on some prominent headlands, with the necessary intimations graven for safety on plates of brass. If the original adventurers survive, and on their homeward journey, faint, yet pursuing, fall in with these treasures, at once hidden and revealed, the food, when found, will seem to those famished men the smaller blessing. The proof which the food supplies that their country cares for them is sweeter than the food. So the proof that God cares for us is placed beyond a doubt; the unspeakable gift of His Son to be our Saviour should melt any dark suspicion to the contrary from our hearts. (W. Arnot.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. The Lord liveth, that brought up] See Isa 43:18.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore; it were better translated Notwithstanding, for that is manifestly the sense. God sweeteneth the dreadful threatenings preceding with a comfortable promise of their restoration.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. ThereforeSo severe shallbe the Jews’ bondage that their deliverance from it shall be agreater benefit than that out of Egypt. The consolation is incidentalhere; the prominent thought is the severity of theirpunishment, so great that their rescue from it will be greater thanthat from Egypt [CALVIN];so the context, Jer 16:13;Jer 16:17; Jer 16:18,proves (Jer 23:7; Jer 23:8;Isa 43:18).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord,…. Or nevertheless, “notwithstanding” d their sins and iniquities, and the punishment brought upon them for them: or “surely”, verily; for Jarchi says it is an oath, with which the Lord swore he would redeem them, though they had behaved so ill unto him:
that it shall no more be said, the Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; this was the form of an oath with the Jews, when a man, as Kimchi observes, used to swear by the living God that brought Israel out of Egypt; or this was a fact which they used frequently to make mention of, and relate to their children; and observe to them the power and goodness of God in it; and so the Targum,
“there shall be no more any declaring the power of the Lord who brought up, &c.”
d So Noldius, Concord. Ebr. p. 507.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Judgment and Mercy; Restoration of the Jews; Deliverance from Babylon. | B. C. 605. |
14 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; 15 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. 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. 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. 19 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. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? 21 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.
There is a mixture of mercy and judgment in these verses, and it is hard to know to which to apply some of the passages here–they are so interwoven, and some seem to look as far forward as the times of the gospel.
I. God will certainly execute judgment upon them for their idolatries. Let them expect it, for the decree has gone forth. 1. God sees all their sins, though they commit them ever so secretly and palliate them ever so artfully (v. 17): My eyes are upon all their ways. They have not their eye upon God, have no regard to him, stand in no awe of him; but he has his eye upon them; neither they nor their sins are hidden from his face, from his eyes. Note, None of the sins of sinners either can be concealed from God or shall be overlooked by him, Pro 5:21; Job 34:21; Psa 90:8. 2. God is highly displeased, particularly at their idolatries, v. 18. As his omniscience convicts them, so his justice condemns them: I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, not double to what it deserves, but double to what they expect and to what I have done formerly. Or I will recompense it abundantly; they shall now pay for their long reprieve and the divine patience they have abused. The sin for which God has a controversy with them is their having defiled God’s land with their idolatries, and not only alienated that which he was entitled to as his inheritance, but polluted that which he dwelt in with delight as his inheritance, and made it offensive to him with the carcases of their detestable things, the gods themselves which they worshipped, the images of which, though they were of gold and silver, were as loathsome to God as the putrid carcases of men or beasts are to us. Idols are carcases of detestable things. God hates them, and so should we. Or he might refer to the sacrifices which they offered to these idols, with which the land was filled; for they had high places in all the coasts and corners of it. This was the sin which, above any other, incensed God against them. 3. He will find out and raise up instruments of his wrath, that shall cast them out of their land, according to the sentence passed upon them (v. 16): I will send for many fishers and many hunters–the Chaldean army, that shall have many ways of ensnaring and destroying them, by fraud as fishers, by force as hunters. They shall find them out wherever they are, and shall chase and closely pursue them, to their ruin. They shall discover them wherever they are hid, in hills or mountains, or holes of the rocks, and shall drive them out. God has various ways of prosecuting a people with his judgments that avoid the convictions of his word. He has men at command fit for his purpose; he has them within call, and can send for them when he pleases. 4. Their bondage in Babylon shall be sorer and much more grievous than that in Egypt, their task-masters more cruel, and their lives made more bitter. This is implied in the promise (Jer 16:14; Jer 16:15), that their deliverance out of Babylon shall be more illustrious in itself, and more welcome to them, than that out of Egypt. Their slavery in Egypt came upon them gradually and almost insensibly; that in Babylon came upon them at once and with all the aggravating circumstances of terror. In Egypt they had a Goshen of their own, but none such in Babylon. In Egypt they were used as servants that were useful, in Babylon as captives that had been hateful. 5. They shall be warned, and God shall be glorified, by these judgments brought upon them. These judgments have a voice, and speak aloud, (1.) Instruction to them. When God chastens them he teaches them. By this rod God expostulates with them (v. 20): “Shall a man make gods to himself? Will any man be so perfectly void of all reason and consideration as to think that a god of his own making can stand him in any stead? Will you ever again be such fools as you have been, to make to yourselves gods which are no gods, when you have a God whom you may call your own, who made you, and is himself the true and living God?” (2.) Honour to God; for he will be known by the judgments which he executes. He will first recompense their iniquity (v. 18), and then he will this once (v. 21)– this once for all, not by many interruptions of their peace, but this one desolation and destruction of it. “For this once, and no more, I will cause them to know my hand, the length and weight of my punishing hand, how far it can reach and how deeply it can wound. And they shall know that my name is Jehovah, a God with whom there is no contending, who gives being to threatenings and puts life into them as well as promises.”
II. Yet he has mercy in store for them, intimations of which come in here for the encouragement of the prophet himself and of those few among them that tremble at God’s word. It was said, with an air of severity (v. 13), that God would banish them into a strange land; but, that thereby they might not be driven to despair, there follow immediately words of comfort.
1. The days will come, the joyful days, when the same hand that dispersed them shall gather them again, Jer 16:14; Jer 16:15. They are cast out, but they are not cast off, they are not cast away. They shall be brought up from the land of the north, the land of their captivity, where they are held with a strong hand, and from all the lands whither they are driven, and where they seemed to be lost and buried in the crowd; nay, I will bring them again into their own land, and settle them there. As he foregoing threatenings agreed with what was written in this law, so does this promise. Yet will I not cast them away, Lev. xxvi. 44. Thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, Deut. xxx. 4. And the following words (v. 16) may be understood as a promise; God will send for fishers and hunters, the Medes and Persians, that shall find them out in the countries where they are scattered, and send them back to their own land; or Zerubbabel, and others of their own nation, who should fish them out and hunt after them, to persuade them to return; or whatever instruments the Spirit of God made use of to stir up their spirits to go up, which at first they were backward to do. They began to nestle in Babylon; but, as an eagle stirs up her nest and flutters over her young, so God did by them, Zech. ii. 7.
2. Their deliverance out of Babylon should, upon some accounts, be more illustrious and memorable than their deliverance out of Egypt was. Both were the Lord’s doing and marvellous in their eyes; both were proofs that the Lord liveth and were to be kept in everlasting remembrance, to his honour, as the living God; but the fresh mercy shall be so surprising, so welcome, that it shall even abolish the memory of the former. Not but that new mercies should put us in mind of old ones, and give us occasion to renew our thanksgivings for them; yet because we are tempted to think that the former days were better than these, and to ask, Where are all the wonders that our fathers told us of? as if God’s arm had waxed short, and to cry up the age of miracles above the later ages, when mercies are wrought in a way of common providence, therefore we are allowed here comparatively to forget the bringing of Israel out of Egypt as a deliverance outdone by that out of Babylon. That was done by might and power, this by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts, Zech. iv. 6. In this there was more of pardoning mercy (the most glorious branch of divine mercy) than in that; for their captivity in Babylon had more in it of the punishment of sin than their bondage in Egypt; and therefore that which comforts Zion in her deliverance out of Babylon is this, that her iniquity is pardoned, Isa. xl. 2. Note, God glorifies himself, and we must glorify him, in those mercies that have no miracles in them, as well as in those that have. And, though the favours of God to our fathers must not be forgotten, yet those to ourselves in our own day we must especially give thanks for.
3. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be accompanied with a blessed reformation, and they shall return effectually cured of their inclination to idolatry, which will complete their deliverance and make it a mercy indeed. They had defiled their own land with their detestable things, v. 18. But, when they have smarted for so doing, they shall come and humble themselves before God, v. 19-21. (1.) They shall be brought to acknowledge that their God only is God indeed, for he is a God in need–“My strength to support and comfort me, my fortress to protect and shelter me, and my refuge to whom I may flee in the day of affliction.” Note, Need drives many to God who had set themselves at a distance from him. Those that slighted him in the day of their prosperity will be glad to flee to him in the day of their affliction. (2.) They shall be quickened to return to him by the conversion of the Gentiles: The Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the earth; and therefore shall not we come? Or, “The Jews, who had by their idolatries made themselves as Gentiles (so I rather understand it), shall come to thee by repentance and reformation, shall return to their duty and allegiance, even from the ends of the earth, from all the countries whither they were driven.” The prophet comforts himself with the hope of this, and in a transport of joy returns to God the notice he had given him of it: “O Lord! my strength and my fortress, I am now easy, since thou hast given me a prospect of multitudes that shall come to thee from the ends of the earth, both of Jewish converts and of Gentile proselytes.” Note, Those that are brought to God themselves cannot but rejoice greatly to see others coming to him, coming back to him. (3.) They shall acknowledge the folly of their ancestors, which it becomes them to do, when they were smarting for the sins of their ancestors: “Surely our fathers have inherited, not the satisfaction they promised themselves and their children, but lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. We are now sensible that our fathers were cheated in their idolatrous worship; it did not prove what it promised, and therefore what have we to do any more with it?” Note, It were well if the disappointment which some have met with in the service of sin, and the pernicious consequences of it to them, might prevail to deter others from treading in their steps. (4.) They shall reason themselves out of their idolatry; and that reformation is likely to be sincere and durable which results from a rational conviction of the gross absurdity there is in sin. They shall argue thus with themselves (and it is well argued), Should a man be such a fool, so perfectly void of the reason of a man, as to make gods to himself, the creatures of his own fancy, the work of his own hands, when they are really no gods? v. 20. Can a man be so besotted, so perfectly lost to human understanding, as to expect any divine blessing or favour from that which pretends to no divinity but what it first received from him? (5.) They shall herein give honour to God, and make it to appear that they know both his hand in his providence and his name in his word, and that they are brought to know his name by what they are made to know of his hand, v. 21. This once, now at length, they shall be made to know that which they would not be brought to know by all the pains the prophets took with them. Note, So stupid are we that nothing less than the mighty hand of divine grace, known experimentally, can make us know rightly the name of God as it is revealed to us.
4. Their deliverance out of captivity shall be a type and figure of this great salvation to be wrought out by the Messiah, who shall gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. And this is that which so far outshines the deliverance out of Egypt as even to eclipse the lustre of it, and make it even to be forgotten. To this some apply that of the many fishers and hunters, the preachers of the gospel, who were fishers of men, to enclose souls with the gospel net, to find them out in every mountain and hill, and secure them for Christ. Then the Gentiles came to God, some from the ends of the earth, and turned to the worship of him from the service of dumb idols.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 14-21: THE DESTINY OF JUDAH: JUDGMENT AND REDEMPTION
1. Wedged between threatenings of imminent judgment is one brief, shining ray of hope: here is the promise of a New Exodus, (vs. 14-15).
a. It was not unusual for pre-exilic prophets, in their denunciations of national sins and threatenings of inescapable judgment, to intersperse some ray of hope for a brighter future, (comp., Joe 3:18-21; Amo 9:11-15).
b. The deliverance from Egypt will be eclipsed by a more astounding Exodus from Babylon.
2. Like fishermen and hunters, the Chaldeans will catch them and take them captive to Babylon, (vs. 16-18; Amo 9:1-4; Hab 1:15; Eze 12:13).
a. This judgment is of the Lord, from whose eyes Judah has not concealed her iniquity, (vs. 17).
b. Judah will receive, from the Lord’s hand, ADEQUATE (better than “double”) recompense for her pollution of His land and inheritance with the carcasses of her lifeless and detestable idols that are an abomination to Jehovah, (vs. 18; comp. Lev 11:24-40).
3. The power of God will yet be revealed, (vs. 19-21).
a. Jeremiah looks to Jehovah as his “strength, fortress, and refuge” in the day of distress, (vs. 19a; 15:11; comp. Psa 18:1-2; Isa 25:4).
b. He sees a coming day (evidently in Messianic times) when the nations will acknowledge the bankruptcy of their idols and turn to Jehovah, (vs. 19b; see Jer 3:17; Jer 4:2).
c. The “no-gods” which the fathers have inherited, to “no profit,” will soon be revealed as “lies,” (vs. 19c-20; Jer 2:11; Jer 5:7; Psa 115:48; Isa 37:18-19; Jer 10:14; Isa 44:20; Hab 2:18-20).
d. The judgment about to be executed will not be futile or meaningless; it will result in a universal recognition of the authority of Jehovah – the self-existent, ever-living and sovereign LORD OF ALL! (vs. 21; Psa 9:16; Psa 83:17-18; Amo 5:4-9).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jeremiah seems here to promise a return to the Jews; and so the passage is commonly expounded, as though a consolation is interposed, in which the faithful alone are concerned. But I consider the passage as mixed, that the Prophet, in part, speaks in severe terms of the dreadful exile which he foretells, and that he in part blends some consolation; but the latter subject seems to me to he indirectly referred to by the Prophet. I therefore think this to be an amplification of what he had said. This is to be kept in mind. He had said, “I will expel you from this land, and will send you to a land unknown to you and to your fathers.” Now follows a circumstance which increased the grievousness of exile: they knew how cruel was that servitude from which God had delivered their fathers. Their condition was worse than hundred deaths, when they were driven to their servile works; and also, when all justice was denied them, and when their offspring were from the womb put to death. As then they knew how cruelly their fathers had been treated by the Egyptians, the comparison he states more fully shewed what a dreadful punishment awaited them, for their redemption would be much more incredible.
We now perceive what the Prophet meant, as though he had said, “Ye know from what your fathers came forth, even from a brazen furnace, as it is said elsewhere, and as it were from the depth of death, so that that redemption ought to be remembered to the end of the world; but God will now cast you into an abyss deeper than that of Egypt from which your fathers were delivered; and when from thence he will redeem you, it will be a miracle far more wonderful to your posterity, so that it will almost extinguish, or at least obscure the memory of the first redemption: It will not then be said any more, Live does Jehovah, who brought the children of Israel from Egypt, for that Egyptian captivity was far more endurable than what this latter shall be; for ye shall be plunged as it were into the infernal regions; and when God shall rescue you from thence, it will be a work far more wonderful.” This I consider to be the real meaning of the Prophet. (165)
Yet his object was at the same time indirectly to give them some hope of their future redemption; but this he did not do avowedly. We ought then to regard what the Prophet had in view, even to strike the Jews, as I have said, with terror, so that they might know that there was an evil nigh at hand more grievous than what their fathers suffered in Egypt, who yet had been most cruelly oppressed. Then their former liberation would be rendered obscure and not celebrated as before, though it was nevertheless an evidence of the wonderful power of God.
(165) No particular notice is taken of לכן rendered “therefore,” at the beginning of the verse. Gataker renders it “notwithstanding;” Lowth, “nevertheless,” and Blayney, “after this.” What suits the passage best is “nevertheless.” The verse appears to be parenthetic, introduced for the purpose of keeping the people from despair under their sufferings. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
C. Explanation on Behalf of the Prophet Jer. 16:14-18
TRANSLATION
(14) Therefore behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when it shall no more be said, As the LORD lives who brought us up from the land of Egypt, (15) but, As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from the lands to which He drove them. For I will cause them to return unto the land which I gave to their fathers. (16) Behold, I am about to send for many fishers (oracle of the LORD) and they shall fish for them. And after this I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. (17) For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from before Me; yea their iniquity is not concealed from before My eyes. (18) First I will recompense their sin and iniquity double because they have profaned My land; with the carcasses of their abomination and their detestable things they have filled My inheritance.
COMMENTS
Jer. 16:14-15 plainly predict that God will in days to come bring His people home from the Exile into which He was about to hurl them. The new Exodus from Babylon would be of such magnitude and glory that it would eclipse the old Exodus from Egypt. When one used an epithet for God in an oath he would in the future make mention of this new manifestation of divine power. In the view of the Old Testament prophets the restoration from Babylon culminated in the work of the great liberator, the Messiah. When viewed in these broad terms the new Exodus did exceed the old in significance.
Jer. 16:14-15 serve a dual purpose in chapter 16. First, these verses provide confirmation of the coming judgment. That it is the intent of these verses to underscore the certainty of the coming judgment is indicated by the introductory word therefore. This word usually introduces a statement of judgment in the Old Testament. It is unnecessary then to follow most commentators in regarding Jer. 16:14-15 as an interpolation or even to regard these verses as a misplaced fragment intended to soften the threat of Jer. 16:11-13. While these verses do speak of restoration at the same time they underscore the fact that a total deportation of the Jews was imminent. The deportation will be so complete that the only people who will live in the promised land in the future will be those who have been brought from Babylon by God.
Jer. 16:14-15 have a second and no less important function. They are intended to console the prophet who was heartbroken over the ruin and destruction of his people. The deportation to Babylon while sure and certain would not be the final curtain in the history of Israel. Gods people would come home. While this promise is not entirely new to Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 3:18-19) it needed to be reiterated at this particular time.
In Jer. 16:16 the threat against Judah is continued. The Chaldeans are compared to fishermen and hunters who search every nook and cranny of the land to take captives (Jer. 16:16). The prophet Habakkuk also compared the Chaldeans to fishermen who drag in their nets full of helpless captives (Hab. 1:15). The ruthless fishing and hunting is punishment for the iniquity of the men of Judah of which God has been and is constantly aware (Jer. 16:17). Before He can restore the Jews to their homeland He must first recompense their iniquity double. God had on numerous occasions and by a variety of means punished his people in the past. They had experienced war, famine, pestilence, plague, and invasion before. But now to the horrors of war God will add the penalty of mass deportation to a foreign land. What else can God do with these people in view of the fact that they have profaned His land with their abominations and detestable things, i.e., their idols? Their lifeless images like dead carcasses pollute and defile the land (Jer. 16:18).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14, 15) Behold, the days come . . .Judgment and mercy are tempered in the promise. Here the former is predominant. Afterwards, in Jer. 23:5-8, where it is connected with the hope of a personal Deliverer, the latter gains the ascendant. As yet the main thought is that the Egyptian bondage shall be as a light thing compared with that which the people will endure in the land of the north, i.e., in that of the Chaldans; so that, when they return, their minds will turn to their deliverance from it, rather than to the Exodus from Egypt, as an example of the mercy and might of Jehovah. Then once again, and in a yet higher degree, it should be seen that mans extremity is Gods opportunity.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14, 15. From the land of the north A ray of light falls suddenly on the darkness, but only to make it more intense and awful. For the greatness of the deliverance measures the greatness of the calamity. A redemption which shall so rise up as to shut off from view even the birth deliverances of the nation implies an impending evil the memory of which would displace that of the Egyptian bondage.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 16:14. Therefore, behold, the days come, &c. Besides, lo! the days come, saith the Lord, &c. Houbigant. It may hence seem, that God’s intent was, not only that they should consider their last deliverance by Cyrus to have been as much the effect of his providence, as was the rescuing of their fathers from the power of Pharaoh; but likewise that they were to consider the law of Moses, according to the interpretation which he had put upon it, and the alteration that he had made by the prophets, as preparatory to the introduction of a better covenant. See Durell’s Parallel Prophecies, p. 226.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Whether from the divine pleasure, which the Lord took in delivering his people in those instances, which most strongly represented their spiritual deliverance from sin and hell, by the Lord Jesus: or whether in the repeating that deliverance, in the case from Babylon, as the time drew nearer, when the thing represented in type, should be accomplished in reality; or whether from any other cause, which we know not, the Lord thought proper so to do; but the fact is so, that the Lord upon many occasions, speaks of a greater mercy in the Church’s emancipation from Babylon than from Egypt. That both were eminently typical, is too plain to be doubted. But it is our duty to accept what the Lord hath said with implicit faith. See Jer 23:7-8 . I cannot doubt, but that the pre-eminency in the case of being delivered from Babylon, arose from the nearness to which that event stood, to the glorious salvation by Jesus, compared to the distant age of Egypt.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 16:14 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;
Ver. 14. Therefore. behold. ] Or, Notwithstanding, scil., these grievous threatenings and extreme desolations. Thus the Lord still remembereth his remnant, and the covenant made with them. Ministers also must comfort the precious, as well as threaten the vile and vicious. Evangelizatum, non maledictum missus es: laudo zelum, modo non desideretur mansuetudo, said Oecolampadius to Farellus in a certain epistle – Thou wert sent to preach gospel, and not law only; to pour off as well as wine into wounded consciences. I commend thy zeal, so it be tempered with “meekness of wisdom.”
That it shall no more be said,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 16:14-15
14Therefore behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
Jer 16:14-15 This is the first of four brief strophes that deal with YHWH’s promise of restoration! It is so common in the prophetic literature for judgment oracles to be matched with promise oracles.
These verses reappear in Jer 23:7-8. The book of Jeremiah is an anthology of his poems!
days are coming Usually phrases like this refer to Judgment Day (cf. Jer 7:32, see Special Topic: That Day ), but here it refers to restoration (i.e., a new exodus) day. The same living God (in contrast to the lifeless idols) who fulfilled His promise to Abraham (cf. Gen 15:12-21) will do it again, but instead of Egypt, it will be out of Mesopotamia.
The reason for the restoration is not stated. YHWH chooses to act based on His character, will, and actions not His fallen, disabled, covenant people (cf. Jer 16:17-18). A new covenant is present (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:22-38).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
children = sons.
out of. Egypt. Reference to Pentateuch (Ex. Jer 12:15).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 16:14-18
Jer 16:14-15
ISRAEL’S RESTORATION PROPHESIED
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but, As Jehovah liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
This wonderful promise of the restoration of Israel belongs right here where it stands in the Bible. We reject Ash’s statement that, “There is good reason to believe that this oracle was inserted by an editor.” The alleged reason for this opinion was given as follows, “It is intrusive in subject matter and flow of thought”; but this is no sufficient reason for denying the authorship of Jeremiah in the giving of this prophecy.
As Dummelow pointed out, this device of throwing in a bright and encouraging prophecy right in the middle of very discouraging and gloomy prophecies corresponds exactly with Jeremiah’s pattern of writing throughout the prophecy. “See Jer 3:14; Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18; Jer 27:22; Jer 30:3; Jer 32:27.”
The thing that confuses some writers is the foolish critical rule that denies the authenticity of this sacred pattern; but the pattern is not only found throughout the Old Testament, but likewise in the New Testament, where Jesus prophesied heaven and hell in the same breath.
As the Dean of Canterbury put it, “There is no reason for regarding these verses as an interpolation.”
Harrison likewise declared that it is not necessary to regard these verses as displaced. “All of the pre-exilic prophets interspersed their denunciations with expectations of a brighter future. See Joe 3:18-21; Amo 9:11-15, etc.”
That brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north…
(Jer 16:15). This implies that the second bringing up of Israel from captivity will outshine God’s bringing them up from Egypt. But just as this promised deliverance will excel the earlier one, so much greater will the affliction of Israel be in the projected second captivity.
That something more than a mere return of captives from Babylon is meant here was discerned by Jamieson: “Although the return from Babylon is primarily meant, the ‘gathering from all lands’ shows that the return from Babylon was the salvation of Israel in only a limited sense.” It appears to this writer that there are overtones in the passage of the conversion of the Gentiles. See under Jer 16:20.
Jer 16:16-18
METAPHOR OF THE FISHERS AND THE HUNTERS
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.
The fishers and hunters in this passage are metaphors used to describe the thoroughness and completeness of the Babylonian destruction of apostate Israel. All of the sinful people will be flushed out of their hiding places, and none shall escape.
Explanation on Behalf of the Prophet Jer 16:14-18
Jer 16:14-15 plainly predict that God will in days to come bring His people home from the Exile into which He was about to hurl them. The new Exodus from Babylon would be of such magnitude and glory that it would eclipse the old Exodus from Egypt. When one used an epithet for God in an oath he would in the future make mention of this new manifestation of divine power. In the view of the Old Testament prophets the restoration from Babylon culminated in the work of the great liberator, the Messiah. When viewed in these broad terms the new Exodus did exceed the old in significance.
Jer 16:14-15 serve a dual purpose in chapter 16. First, these verses provide confirmation of the coming judgment. That it is the intent of these verses to underscore the certainty of the coming judgment is indicated by the introductory word therefore. This word usually introduces a statement of judgment in the Old Testament. It is unnecessary then to follow most commentators in regarding Jer 16:14-15 as an interpolation or even to regard these verses as a misplaced fragment intended to soften the threat of Jer 16:11-13. While these verses do speak of restoration at the same time they underscore the fact that a total deportation of the Jews was imminent. The deportation will be so complete that the only people who will live in the promised land in the future will be those who have been brought from Babylon by God.
Jer 16:14-15 have a second and no less important function. They are intended to console the prophet who was heartbroken over the ruin and destruction of his people. The deportation to Babylon while sure and certain would not be the final curtain in the history of Israel. Gods people would come home. While this promise is not entirely new to Jeremiah (cf. Jer 3:18-19) it needed to be reiterated at this particular time.
In Jer 16:16 the threat against Judah is continued. The Chaldeans are compared to fishermen and hunters who search every nook and cranny of the land to take captives (Jer 16:16). The prophet Habakkuk also compared the Chaldeans to fishermen who drag in their nets full of helpless captives (Hab 1:15). The ruthless fishing and hunting is punishment for the iniquity of the men of Judah of which God has been and is constantly aware (Jer 16:17). Before He can restore the Jews to their homeland He must first recompense their iniquity double. God had on numerous occasions and by a variety of means punished his people in the past. They had experienced war, famine, pestilence, plague, and invasion before. But now to the horrors of war God will add the penalty of mass deportation to a foreign land. What else can God do with these people in view of the fact that they have profaned His land with their abominations and detestable things, i.e., their idols? Their lifeless images like dead carcasses pollute and defile the land (Jer 16:18).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
behold: Jer 23:7, Jer 23:8, Isa 43:18, Isa 43:19, Hos 3:4, Hos 3:5
that brought: Exo 20:2, Deu 15:15, Mic 6:4
Reciprocal: Jer 29:14 – and I will turn Hos 2:14 – Therefore
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 16:14. It is a usual thing in literature or oral conversation to identify certain facts by their relation to historical dates. For instance, for many years people could be heard to say that such and such an event happened before the Civil War, Later the saying was changed and it wouid be dated by the World War, Likewise it was a long-standing saying to identify the Lord by his connection with the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage. This was because it was the most important event, that had taken place with the descendants of Abraham since their origin. Tnis verse announces that a change will be made in the practice and another event will be referred to.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 16:14-15. Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, &c. The particle seems to be very improperly rendered therefore here. It evidently sometimes signifies notwithstanding, or nevertheless; see note on Isa 30:18, and sometimes, yet surely, as Jer 5:2, of this prophecy; which sense agrees well with the scope of this place, and connects this verse with the words foregoing. And so it seems it should be rendered, Jer 30:16; Jer 32:36. Blaney, however, thinks that both in this verse and in all these passages, as also Jer 23:7, and Hos 2:14, it more properly signifies, after this. Accordingly, he translates this clause, after this, behold the days come, saith Jehovah, &c., observing, that this notice of a future restoration was here inserted on purpose to guard the people, during their exile, from falling into idolatry through despair, by letting them see they had still a prospect of recovering Gods wonted favour and protection. To which may be added, that he probably intended also, in thus sweetening the dreadful threatenings preceding with this comfortable promise, to prevent such as were pious among them, or should be brought to repentance by these terrible calamities, from being swallowed up of overmuch sorrow. It shall no more be said, &c. The bringing of Israel out of the Egyptian bondage shall not be so much spoken of and celebrated as their deliverance from their captivity in Babylon. In fact, the latter was in several respects more remarkable than the former. Their deliverance from the power of the king of Egypt was extorted from him by terrifying miracles, which scarcely brought him to a compliance; but their deliverance from their captivity in Babylon was voluntarily granted them by Cyrus, a far greater king than the king of Egypt, and attended by a decree extremely honourable to them.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Future blessings following imminent judgment 16:14-21
The following three pericopes bracket the assurance of imminent judgment for Judah with promises of distant blessing for Israel and the nations. This passage promises deliverance from the captivity for the Israelites. It appears again later in Jeremiah almost verbatim (Jer 23:7-8).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord announced that the time would come when the chosen people would no longer look back on the Exodus as the great demonstration of His preservation and deliverance.