Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 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.
16. For the metaphor from fishing cp. Eze 12:13; Eze 29:4 f.; Amo 4:2; Hab 1:14 ff.
rocks ] See on Jer 4:29.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
16 18. See introd. summary to section.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The scattering of the people is to be like that of hunted animals, of which but few escape, the ancient method of hunting being to enclose a large space with beaters and nets, and so drive everything within it to some place where it was destroyed. The destruction of the whole male population was one of the horrible customs of ancient warfare, and the process is called in Herodotus sweeping the country with a drag-net. The same authority tells us that this method could only be effectually carried out on an island. 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 as hunters track out their game.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 16:16
I will send for many fishers;. . .I will send for many hunters.
Fishers and hunters
These refer to the successive invaders of Judea. As to hunters, see Gen 10:9. Nimrod, the mighty hunter, the first founder of an empire on conquest. The Chaldees were famous in hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were in fishing.
(1) Fishers expresses the ease of their victory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes.
(2) Hunters indicates the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It is remarkable the same image of fishers and fish is used in a good sense of the Jews restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by God to take them in hand of destruction, so the same shall be employed for their restoration (Eze 47:9-10). So, spiritually, those once enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally)
were employed by God to be the heralds of salvation, catching men for life (Mat 4:19). (A. R. Fausset, M. A.)
Verses 18. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double.
The double effect of sin
We may illustrate the evil of sin by the following comparison. Suppose I am going along a street, and were to dash my head 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 head will be cut by the glass. Yes! and so it is with sin. If you break Gods laws, you shaft be punished for breaking them; and your soul is hurt by the very act of breaking them. (F. Inglis.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. I will send for many fishers – for many hunters] I shall raise up enemies against them some of whom shall destroy them by wiles, and others shall ruin them by violence. This seems to be the meaning of these symbolical fishers and hunters.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Though some interpreters make these words a promise, either of Gods restoration of this people, and making use of Cyrus, who, as a fisherman or huntsman, by his proclamation fetched the Jews out of all parts of his dominions, to return to Jerusalem; or of the calling of Gods elect by the apostles, who were Gods fishermen, and went up and down preaching the gospel in all places; yet the next verse rather guideth us to interpret it as a threatening, and by these fishermen and huntsmen to understand all those enemies whom God made use of to destroy these Jews, hunting them out of all holes and coverts wheresoever they should fly and take sanctuary.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. send fortranslate, “Iwill send many”; “I will give the commission to many”(2Ch 17:7).
fishers . . .hunterssuccessive invaders of Judea (Amo 4:2;Hab 1:14; Hab 1:15).So “net” (Eze 12:13).As to “hunters,” see Gen 10:9;Mic 7:2. The Chaldees were famousin hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were infishing. “Fishers” expresses the ease of theirvictory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes; “hunters,”the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It isremarkable, the same image is used in a good sense of the Jews’restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by Godto take them in hand for destruction, so the same shall be employedfor their restoration (Eze 47:9;Eze 47:10). So spiritually, thoseonce enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally) wereemployed by God to be heralds of salvation, “catching men”for life (Mat 4:19; Luk 5:10;Act 2:41; Act 4:4);compare here Jer 16:19, “theGentiles shall come unto thee” (2Co12:16).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them,…. Which some understand of the Egyptians, who lived much on fish, and were much employed in catching them, to which the allusion is thought to be; but rather the Chaldeans are intended, whom God, by the secret instinct of his providence, brought up against the Jews; who besieged Jerusalem, and enclosed them in it, and took them as fishes in a net; see Hab 1:14, though some interpret this, and what follows, of the deliverance of the Jews by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus, who searched for them in all places, and sent them into their own land; or of Zerubbabel, and others with him, who used all means to persuade the Jews in the captivity to go with them, and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem; and there are not wanting others, who by the “fishers” think the apostles are meant; who were fishers by occupation, and whom Christ made fishers of men, and sent forth to cast and spread the net of the Gospel in the several parts of Judea, for the conversion of some of that people; see Mt 4:18:
and after will l send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks; either the same persons, the Chaldeans, are meant here, as before; who, as they should slay those they took in Jerusalem with the edge of the sword, as fishes taken in a net are killed, or presently die, which is the sense of the Targum, and other Jewish commentators; so those that escaped and fled to mountains, hills, and holes of the rocks, to hide themselves, should be pursued by them, and be found out, taken, and carried captive: or, the Romans e. So Nimrod, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel, being a tyrant and an oppressor, is called a mighty hunter, Ge 10:8.
e Vid. Joseph de Bello Jud. l. 7. c. 9. sect. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Further account of the punishment foretold, with the reasons for the same. – Jer 16:16. “Behold, I send for many fishers, saith Jahve, who shall fish them, and after will I send fore many hunters, who shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rock. Jer 16:17. For mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hidden from me, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes. Jer 16:18. And first, I requite double their iniquity and their sin, because they defiled my land with the carcases of their detestables, and with their abominations they have filled mine inheritance. Jer 16:19. Jahveh, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of trouble! Unto Thee shall the peoples come from the ends of the earth and say: But lies have our fathers inherited, vanity, and amidst them none profiteth at all. Jer 16:20. Shall a man make gods to himself, which are yet no gods? Jer 16:21. Therefore, behold, I make them to know this once, I make them to know my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is Jahveh.”
Jer 16:16-17 Jer 16:16-18 are a continuation of the threatening in Jer 16:13, that Judah is to be cast out, but are directly connected with Jer 16:15, and elucidate the expulsion into many lands there foretold. The figures of the fishers and hunters do not bespeak the gathering again and restoration of the scattered people, as Ven. would make out, but the carrying of Judah captive out of his land. This is clear from the second of the figures, for the hunter does not gather the animals together, but kills them; and the reference of the verses is put beyond a doubt by Jer 16:17 and Jer 16:18, and is consequently admitted by all other comm. The two figures signify various kinds of treatment at the hands of enemies. The fishers represent the enemies that gather the inhabitants of the land as in a net, and carry them wholesale into captivity (cf. Amo 4:2; Hab 1:15). The hunters, again, are those who drive out from their hiding-places, and slay or carry captive such as have escaped from the cities, and have taken refuge in the mountains and ravines; cf. Jer 4:29, Jdg 6:2 1Sa 13:6. In this the idea is visibly set forth that none shall escape the enemy. c. pers., send for one, cause him to come, as in Jer 14:3 (send for water), so that there is no call to take according to the Aram. usage as sign of the accusative, for which we can cite in Jeremiah only the case in Jer 40:2. The form ( Chet.) agrees with Eze 47:10, while the Keri, , is a formation similar to . In the second clause is, like the numerals, made to precede the noun; cf. Pro 31:29; Psa 89:51. – For the Lord knows their doings and dealings, and their transgressions are not hid from Him; cf. Jer 23:24; Jer 32:19. for , indicating the direction. Their ways are not the ways of flight, but their course of action.
Jer 16:18 The punishment foretold is but retribution for their sins. Because they have defiled the land by idolatry, they shall be driven out of it. , first, is by Jerome, Hitz., Ew., Umbr. made to refer to the salvation promised in Jer 16:15: first, i.e., before the restoration of my favour spoken of in Jer 16:15, I requite double. Against this Graf has objected, that on this view “first” would appear somewhat superfluous; and Ng. , that the manifestly intended antithesis to is left out of account. There is little force in either objection. Even Ng. ‘s paraphrase does not do full justice to the presumed antithesis; for if we render: “For the first time the double shall be requited, in the event of repetition a severer standard shall be used,” then the antithesis to “first” would not be “double,” but the supplied repetition of the offence. There is not the slightest hint in the context to lead us to supply this idea; nor is there any antithesis between “first” and “double.” It is a mere assumption of the comm., which Rashi, Kimchi, Ros., Maur., etc., have brought into the text by the interpolation of a cop. before : I requite the first of their transgressions and the repetition of them, i.e., their earlier and their repeated sins, or the sins committed by their fathers and by themselves, on a greater scale. We therefore hold the reference to Jer 16:15 to be the only true one, and regard it as corresponding both to the words before us and the context. “The double of their iniquity,” i.e., ample measure for their sins (cf. Isa 40:2; Job 11:6) by way of the horrors of war and the sufferings of the exile. The sins are more exactly defined by: because they defiled my land by the carcases of their detestables, i.e., their dead detestable idols. is formed according to , Lev 26:30, and it belongs to “they defiled,” not to “they filled,” as the Masoretic accentuation puts it; for is construed, not with of the thing, but with double accus.; cf. Eze 8:17; Eze 30:11, etc. So it is construed in the last clause: With their abominations they have filled the inheritance of Jahveh, i.e., the land of the Lord (cf. Jer 2:7). The infin. is continued by in verbo fin., as usual.
In Jer 16:19-21 we have more as to the necessity of the threatened punishment. The prophet turns to the Lord as his defence and fortress in time of need, and utters the hope that even the heathen may some time turn to the Lord and confess the vanity of idolatry, since the gods which men make are no gods. To this the Lord answers in Jer 16:21, that just therefore He must punish His idolatrous people, so that they shall feel His power and learn to know His name.
Jer 16:19-21 In his cry to the Lord: My strength…in the day of trouble, which agrees closely with Psa 28:8; Psa 59:17; Psa 18:3, Jeremiah utters not merely his own feelings, but those which would animate every member of his people. In the time of need the powerlessness of the idols to help, and so their vanity, becomes apparent. Trouble therefore drives to God, the Almighty Lord and Ruler of the world, and forces to bend under His power. The coming tribulation is to have this fruit not only in the case of the Israelites, but also in that of the heathen nations, so that they shall see the vanity of the idolatry they have inherited from their fathers, and be converted to the Lord, the only true God. How this knowledge is to be awakened in the heathen, Jeremiah does not disclose; but it may be gathered from Jer 16:15, from the deliverance of Israel, there announced, out of the heathen lands into which they had been cast forth. By this deliverance the heathen will be made aware both of the almighty power of the God of Israel and of the nothingness of their own gods. On cf. Jer 2:5; and with “none that profiteth,” cf. Jer 2:8; Jer 14:22. In Jer 16:20 the prophet confirms what the heathen have been saying. The question has a negative force, as is clear from the second clause. In Jer 16:21 we have the Lord’s answer to the prophets’ confession in Jer 16:19. Since the Jews are so blinded that they prefer vain idols to the living God, He will this time so show them His hand and His strength in that foretold chastisement, that they shall know His name, i.e., know that He alone is God in deed and in truth. Cf. Eze 12:15; Exo 3:14.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Some explain this of the apostles; but it is wholly foreign to the subject: they think that Jeremiah pursues here what he had begun to speak of; for they doubt not but that he had been speaking in the last verse of a future but a near deliverance, in order to raise the children of God into a cheerful confidence. But I have already rejected this meaning, for their exposition is not well founded. But if it be conceded that the Prophet had prophesied of the liberation of the people, it does not follow that God goes on with the same subject, for he immediately returns to threatenings, as ye will see; and the allegory also is too remote when he speaks of hunters and fishers; and as mention is made of ‘hills and mountains, it appears still more clearly that the Prophet is threatening the Jews, and not promising them any alleviation in their miseries. I therefore connect all these things together in a plain manner; for, having said that the evil which the Jews would shortly have to endure would be more grievous than the Egyptian bondage, he now adds a reason as a confirmation, —
Behold, he says, I will send to them many fishers, that they may gather them together on every side. He mentions fishers, as they would draw the children of Israel from every quarter to their nets. He then compares the Chaldeans to fishers, who would so proceed through the whole land as to leave none except some of the most ignoble, whom also they afterwards took away; and to fishers he adds hunters. Some understand by fishers armed enemies, who by the sword slew the conquered; and they consider that the hunters were those who were disposed to spare the life of the many, and to drive them into exile; but this appears too refined. Simple is the view which I have stated, that the Chaldeans were called fishers, because they would empty the whole land of its inhabitants, and that they were called hunters, because the Jews, having been scattered here and there, and become fugitives, would yet be found out in the recesses of hins and rocks.
The two similitudes are exceedingly suitable; for the Prophet shews that the Chaldeans would not have much trouble in taking the Jews, inasmuch as fishers only spread their nets; they do not arm themselves against fishes, nor is there any need; and then all the fish they take they easily take possession of them, for there is no resistance. Thus, then, he shews that the Chaldeans would gain an easy victory, for they would take the Jews as fishes which are drawn into nets. This is one thing. Then, in the second place, he says, that if they betook themselves into recesses of mountains, that if they hid themselves in caverns or holes, their enemies would be like hunters who follow the wild beasts in forests and in other unfrequented places; no brambles, nor thorns, nor any obstructions prevent them from advancing, being led on by a strong impulse; so in like manner no recesses of mountains would be concealed from the Chaldeans, no caverns where the Jews might hide themselves, for they would all be taken. We hence see that he confirms by two similitudes, what he had said in a preceding verse. He afterwards adds —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) I will send for many fishers . . .The words refer to the threat, not to the promise. The fishers, as in Amo. 4:2; Hab. 1:15, are the invading nations, surrounding Judah and Jerusalem as with a drag-net, and allowing none to escape. The process is described under this very name of drag-netting the country by Herodotus (iii. 149, 6:31), as applied by the army of Xerxes to Samos, Chios, Tenedos, and other islands. The application of the words either to the gathering of the people after their dispersion or to the later work of the preachers of the Gospel is an after-thought, having its source in our Lords words, I will make you fishers of men (Mat. 4:19). It is, of course, possible enough that those words may have been suggested by Jeremiahs, the same image being used, as in the parable of Mat. 13:47, to describe the blessing which had before presented its darker aspect of punishment.
Hunters.Another aspect of the same thought, pointing, so far as we can trace the distinction between the two, to the work of the irregular skirmisher as the former image did to that of the main body of the army: men might take refuge, as hunted beasts might do, in the caves of the rocks, but they should be driven forth even from these.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
SOME DETAILS OF THE EXILE, Jer 16:16-21.
16. Fishers hunters They shall be treated like hunted animals. Means adapted to their capture shall be employed. The “fishers” will gather into their nets all that can be so reached, and then the “hunters” will pursue the fugitives on the mountains, and in the caves and ravines.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 16:16. Behold, I will send for many fishers It is common with the sacred writers to represent enemies and oppressors under the metaphor of fishers and hunters, because they use all the methods of open force and secret stratagem, to make men their prey. These two similitudes imply, that the Chaldeans should make an entire conquest of their whole land, and strip it of its riches and inhabitants. Nothing can be more absurd than the imagination of some, that by these fishermen are meant the apostles of Christ.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Are not those fishers in allusion to what Christ said of his Apostles, Mat 4:19-20 . And is not the recompense the Lord is here said to make to their sin, that wound of the spirit, which the Holy Ghost when convincing of sin, makes in the heart, in order to lead to Jesus? Joh 16:8 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
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.
Ver. 16. Behold, I will send for many fishers, &c. ] scil., To enclose in their , large and capacious nets, whole shoals of them together. These were the Chaldees, whom God sent for, arcano instinctu cordium, by putting it into their hearts to come up against Jerusalem. Howbeit, some by fishers understand the Egyptians, who lived much by fishing, and by hunters the Chaldeans. as Gen 10:8-9
And they shall hunt them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 16:16-18
16Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.
Jer 16:16-18 YHWH (emphatic in Jer 16:16) uses several metaphors to describe the return of all His exiled people.
1.fishermen (opposite of Amo 4:2)
2. hunters (opposite of Isa 2:21)
It is surely possible that Jer 16:16-18 refers to judgment, while Jer 16:14-15 and Jer 16:19-21 refer to restoration. It seems to me that Jer 16:17 is saying YHWH has not overlooked their sin. He has fairly and proportionally punished them, but now He is bringing them back (i.e., a new exodus)!
Jer 16:18 Before YHWH restores, He punishes them for their sin, especially idolatry. The phrase doubly repay is an idiom used in the sense of fully (cf. Isa 40:2) or complete judgment.
My inheritance The NET Bible (p. 1337) has a good note on how this word is used in Jeremiah.
1. the Promised Land (Palestine), Jer 2:7
2. the covenant people themselves, Jer 10:16; Jer 12:8-9
3. the temple in Jerusalem, Jer 12:7
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
many fishers . . . hunters. Reference to Judah’s enemies. Compare Jer 16:18. Amo 4:2. Eze 12:13. Hab 1:14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I will send: I will raise up enemies against them, some of whom shall destroy them by wiles, and others shall ruin them by violence. The Chaldeans shall make an entire conquest of the whole land, and strip it of its riches and inhabitants; and those who may escape one party shall fall into the hands of another. Jer 25:9, Amo 4:2, Hab 1:14, Hab 1:15
hunters: Gen 10:9, 1Sa 24:11, 1Sa 26:20, Mic 7:2
every mountain: Isa 24:17, Isa 24:18, Amo 5:19, Amo 9:1-3, Luk 17:34-37, Rev 6:15-17
Reciprocal: 2Ki 15:37 – to send Isa 2:19 – And they Isa 7:19 – in the holes Jer 6:9 – They shall Jer 7:11 – even Jer 48:44 – that fleeth Lam 1:3 – all Lam 4:18 – hunt Eze 32:3 – General Eze 33:28 – I will lay Hos 7:12 – I will spread Hos 10:10 – and the Amo 9:3 – hid Mic 7:17 – move Zep 1:12 – that I Zec 8:10 – neither Mat 24:28 – General Rev 6:8 – kill
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 16:16. The unchronological style of the prophetical books of the Bible has been mentioned a number of times, and the matter should be kept in mind to avoid confusion in the studies. The preceding verse predicts the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. Those conditions of national cor-ruption were so extreme that the Lord decreed the capture and enslavement of his people by a foreign foe or foes which is the subject of this verse. The capture of the people is predicted in figurative language, the fishers and banters referring to the Babylonian Empire and its able military men. The illustration is very appropriate because a practical fisherman or hunter does not merely wish for a place to fish or hunt, but he will search for such a spot. Likewise the army of Babylon was to make a “clean sweep” of the affair and Bee that none of the people of Judah would be missed by the dragnet. (See 2 Kings 24; 2 Kings 10-16; 2Ki 25:4-12.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 16:16-18. Behold, I will send, &c. This may be better rendered, But now I will send, &c. Because here the prophet returns to denounce threatenings; many fishers, and they shall fish them It is common with the sacred writers to represent enemies and oppressors under the metaphors of fishers and hunters, because they use all the methods of open force and secret stratagem to make men their prey. By these two characters the same enemies are probably meant, namely, the Chaldeans, who should take different methods, one after another, to destroy them; besieging them in their cities, and taking them like fish, enclosed in a net; and afterward pursuing the scattered parties from place to place, till they got them into their hands; so that one way or other, few, if any, would be suffered to escape. Compare Isa 24:17-18, where it is in like manner foretold, that those who escaped from one danger should fall by another. See Blaney. For mine eyes are upon all their ways I mark all their sins, though they commit them never so secretly, and palliate them never so artfully. They have not their eyes upon me; have no regard to me, stand in no awe of me: but I have mine eye upon them, and neither they nor any of their ways are hid from me. I will recompense their iniquity 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; because they have defiled my land By their idolatry, blood, cruelty, and other sins; have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable things Their idols, which are elsewhere called carcasses, not only because they were without life, but also because of their filthiness and hatefulness in the sight of God: see Lev 26:30; Eze 43:7; Eze 43:9. Or the words may be explained of the human sacrifices which were offered to idols.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:16 Behold, I will send for many {g} fishermen, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterwards will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
(g) By the fishers and hunters are meant the Babylonians and Chaldeans who would destroy them in such sort, that if they escaped the one, the other would take them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord was going to summon fishermen (cf. Eze 12:13; Eze 29:4-5; Amo 4:2; Hab 1:14-17) and hunters (cf. Amo 9:1-4) to round up His people and take them as prey, even those who were in hiding. These agents would be the Babylonian invaders.
"When Jesus used the metaphor of fishermen to describe the mission of his disciples (see Mar 1:17; Mat 4:19), he was reversing its meaning from that intended by Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s fishers caught men for judgment; Jesus’ fishers caught them for salvation." [Note: Kelley, p. 219.]