Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 16:6
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:
6. nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald ] practices common among semi-civilized races. For both together, as here, cp. Jer 47:5; for the former, Jer 41:5, and perhaps (see C.B.) Hos 7:14; for the latter, Isa 3:24; Isa 15:2; Isa 22:12; Eze 7:18; Amo 8:10; Mic 1:16. They are forbidden Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5; Deu 14:1. The former of these practices represented the custom of human sacrifices as a propitiation to the spirit of the departed. Herodotus (IV. 71) describes the funeral rites of a Scythian king as requiring no less than six human victims.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Cut themselves … make themselves bald – Both these practices were strictly forbidden in the Law (marginal references) probably as being pagan customs, but they seem to have remained in common use. By making bald is meant shaving a bare patch on the front of the head.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 6. Nor cut themselves] A custom of the heathen forbidden to the Jews, Le 19:28; De 14:1, and which appears now to have prevailed among them; because, having become idolaters, they conformed to all the customs of the heathen. They tore their hair, rent their garments, cut their hands, arms, and faces. These were not only signs of sorrow, but were even supposed to give ease to the dead, and appease the angry deities. The Hindoos, on the death of a relation, express their grief by loud lamentations, and not unfrequently bruise themselves in an agony of grief with whatever they can lay hold on.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
There shall so many of all ranks and sizes die in this land, that men shall have no time to bury them, or there shall not be enough left living to bury the dead; nor shall men, for their own miseries, have leisure to lament for the miseries of other men. Cutting themselves in their flesh, and cutting off their hair, were pagan customs, which God forbade his own people; but yet it should seem they practised these barbarous customs; but saith God, I will put an end to that practice, men shall die so fast and in such multitudes, as they shall have no leisure to cut themselves for such as are dead, they shall not have such solemn mournings as they have had.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
6. cut themselvesindicatingextravagant grief (Jer 41:5;Jer 47:5), prohibited by the law(Le 19:28).
bald (Jer 7:29;Isa 22:12).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Both the great and the small shall die in this land,…. The nobles as well as the common people, high and low, rich and poor; none shall be exempted from the grievous deaths by the sword, famine, and pestilence.
They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them; as before,
Jer 16:4, this shall be the common case of them all; the great and the rich shall have no more care and notice taken of them than the poor:
nor cut themselves; their flesh, with their nails, or with knives, to show their grief for the dead, and to alleviate the sorrow of surviving friends, by bearing a part with them:
nor make themselves bald for them; by plucking off the hair of their heads, or by shaving them, and between their eyes; which though forbidden the Jews by the law of God, as being Heathenish customs, yet obtained in the times of Jeremiah, and were usually done; see De 14:1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He pursues the same subject: he says that all would die indiscriminately, the common people as well as the chief men, that none would be exempt from destruction; for God would make a great slaughter, both of the lower orders and also of the higher, who excelled in wealth, in honor, and dignity; Die shall the great and the small. It often happens in changes that the great are punished; and sometimes the case is that the common people perish, while the nobles are spared: but God declares, that such would be the destruction, that their enemies would make no difference between the common people and the higher ranks, and that if they escaped the hands of their enemies, the pestilence or the famine would prove their ruin.
He adds, They shall not bury them, nor beat their breast for them; and then, they shall not eat themselves, nor make themselves bald for them (160) This is not mentioned by the Prophet to commend what the people did; nor did he consider that in this respect they observed the command of the law; for God had forbidden them to imitate the corrupt customs of the heathens. (Lev 21:1) We have already said, that the orientals were much given to external ceremonies, so that there was no moderation in their lamentations: therefore God intended to correct this excess. But the Prophet here has no respect to the command, that the Jews were to moderate their grief, — what then? He meant to shew, as I have already reminded you, that the slaughters would be so great, that they — would cause hardness and insensibility, being so immense as to stun the feelings of men. When any one dies, friends and neighbors meet, and shew respect to his memory; but when pestilence prevails, or when all perish by famine, the greater part become hardened and unmindful of themselves and others, and the offices of humanity are no longer observed. God then shews, that such would be the devastation of the land, that the Jews, as though callous and hardened, would no longer lament for one another. In short, he shews, that together with these dreadful slaughters, such insensibility and hardness would prevail among the Jews, that no husband would think of his wife, and no father of his children; but that all of them would be so astonied by their own evils as to become like the wild beasts.
He says further, They shall not cut themselves nor pull off their hairs, as they had used to do. These things are mentioned, as they were commonly done; it cannot be hence concluded, that they were approved by God; for God’s design was not to pronounce a judgment on their lamentation, on the tearing off of the hair, or on their incisions. It is indeed certain that these practices proceeded from the impetuous feelings of men, and were tokens of impatience; but as I have said, God does not speak here of what was lawful, but of what men were wont to do.
As to that part, where he says, that he had taken away his kindness and his mercies, he does not mean that he had changed his nature, but his object was to cut off occasion from all who might complain; for men, we know, whenever God’s hand presses hard on them, to make them to deplore rightly their miseries, are stifficiently ready to say, that God visits them with too much severity. He therefore shews that they were unworthy of kindness and mercies. At the same time he reminded them that there was no reason for hypocrites to entertain any hope, because Scripture so often commends the kindness of God and his mercy; for since they accumulated sins on sins, God could not do otherwise than come to an extremity with them.
(160) The first clause of the verse, as well as the last of the preceding, is omitted in the Septuagint, but retained in the Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum. The verbs in the next clause ought to be rendered as transitives, —
They shall not bury them nor lament for them.
Then the two concluding verbs are to he rendered as impersonals, —
And there shall be no cutting nor making bald for them.
The Welsh is a literal version of the Hebrew, —
(lang. cy) Ac nid ymdorrir ac nid ymfoelir drostynt.
Nothing can be much more literal. The first verb is in Hithpael, and so the Welsh is; for like Hebrew it has a reciprocal form for its verbs. The last verb is also in Welsh in this form; but it needs not be so, for it might be, (lang. cy) ac ni foelir — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(6) Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.Both practices were forbidden by the Law (Lev. 19:28; Lev. 21:5; Deu. 14:1), probably in order to draw a line of demarcation between Israel and the nations round, among whom such practices prevailed (1Ki. 18:28). Both, however, seem to have been common, and probably had gained in frequency under Ahaz and Manasseh (Jer. 7:29; Jer. 41:5; Eze. 7:18; Amo. 8:10; Mic. 1:16). The baldness (i.e., shaving the crown of the head) seems to have been the more common of the two.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
6. Nor cut themselves make themselves bald Forms of mourning strictly forbidden in the law, (see Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5; Deu 14:1,) but, as it would seem, much practised. See Jer 7:29; Jer 41:5; Isa 22:12; Eze 7:18, etc., etc.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 16:6. Nor cut themselves The cutting of their own flesh, as a mark of grief for their deceased friends and relations, though expressly forbidden to the Jews by the law, Lev 19:28. Deu 14:1 appears from hence to have been still in use among them as well as among their neighbours, on this and other occasions of great mourning and affliction. See ch. Jer 41:5 and compare chap. Jer 47:5 Jer 48:37. The like practice attendant on funeral obsequies has been found among people lately discovered in the South Seas. “The New Zealanders have deep furrows marked on their foreheads. These were cut, in the frenzy of their grief, with a sharp shell, for the loss of their friends and relations. The Otaheitan women wound the crown of the head under the hair with a shark’s tooth, to prove the sincerity of their grief: and the ancient Huns wounded their cheeks, on all occasions, where they wanted to testify their grief for the loss of a great man or a relation.” Forster’s Observations, p. 588. It is curious to remark, and to investigate the cause of such corresponding usages in nations so widely distant from each other.
Nor make themselves bald for them Cutting off the hair was a still more general practice among mankind as a token of mourning. See Bishop Lowth’s Note on Isa 15:2. Forster, in his Observations, p. 560 speaks of “the hair cut off, and thrown on the bier” at Otaheite. And at the Friendly Islands, it is expressly said, that “cutting off the hair is one of their mourning ceremonies.” Narrative of Cook’s and Clarke’s Voyage, vol. 1: p. 112.This also was forbidden by the Mosaic law, at the same time and on the same principles as the foregoing one. The hair is the natural ornament of the head, and the loss of it a considerable defect in the human figure. It was, therefore, not to be voluntarily assumed by those whose profession obliged them to “worship JEHOVAH in the beauty of holiness.” At what time the observance of the law in these particulars began to be relaxed, does not appear; but I do not recollect any traces of such customs among God’s chosen people, earlier than those which are alluded to in the prophetical books properly so called.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 16:6 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:
Ver. 6. Both the great and the small shall die. ] Princes and peasants, lords and lowlies together.
Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
cut themselves . . . make . . . bald. Reference to Pentateuch (Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5. Deu 14:1). Compare Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the great: Jer 13:13, Isa 9:14-17, Isa 24:2, Eze 9:5, Eze 9:6, Amo 6:11, Rev 6:15, Rev 20:12
they: Jer 16:4, Jer 22:18, Jer 22:19
nor cut: Jer 7:29, Jer 41:5, Jer 47:5, Jer 48:37, Lev 19:28, Deu 14:1, Isa 22:12
Reciprocal: Lev 19:27 – General Lev 21:5 – not make baldness Num 6:6 – he shall come 1Ki 22:31 – small nor great Isa 14:19 – thou Jer 4:16 – watchers Jer 16:5 – Enter Lam 1:17 – commanded Eze 7:11 – neither Eze 27:31 – they shall make Amo 6:10 – that burneth Mic 1:16 – bald
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 16:6. The strange conduct mentioned in this verse referred to the performances that people practiced in ancient times on occasions of grief and anxiety. The reference to that subject as it is here was a prediction that not only would the peopie of that community be punished severely, but God would see to it that they would not even have the satisfaction of the sympathy of their friends.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall [men] lament for them, {c} nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
(c) That is, should not tear their clothes in sign of mourning.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
In the coming invasion, all classes of people would die and no one would bury them or lament their passing in traditional ways. Even though cutting themselves and making themselves bald were contrary to the Mosaic Law (Lev 19:28; Lev 21:5; Deu 14:1), the Israelites practiced these customs (cf. Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5; Eze 7:18; Amo 8:10; Mic 1:16). Another tradition was eating a meal that friends of the mourners provided after the funeral (cf. 2Sa 3:35; Eze 24:17; Hos 9:4). [Note: See de Vaux, 1:59-61, for funeral customs.]
"A consoling cup in later Judaism was a special cup of wine drunk by the chief mourner. This practice is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture." [Note: Harrison, Jeremiah and . . ., p. 105.]