Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 16

Verse 2

16:2 Thou shalt not take {a} thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons nor daughters in this place.

(a) Meaning that the affliction would be so horrible in Jerusalem that a wife and children would only increase his sorrow.

Verse 5

16:5 For thus saith the LORD, {b} Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, [even] lovingkindness and mercies.

(b) Signifying that the affliction would be so great that one would not have leisure to comfort another.

Verse 6

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.

Verse 7

16:7 Neither shall [men] tear [themselves] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall [men] give them the {d} cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

(d) For in these great extremities all consolation and comfort will be in vain.

Verse 10

16:10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what [is] {e} our iniquity? or what [is] our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

(e) Because the wicked are always rebellious and conceal their own sins and murmur against God’s judgments, as though he had no just cause to punish them, he shows him what to answer.

Verse 15

16:15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel from the land of the north, and {f} from all the lands where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

(f) Signifying that the blessing of their deliverance out of Babylon would be so great that it would abolish the remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt: but he has here chiefly respect to the spiritual deliverance under Christ.

Verse 16

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.

Verse 18

16:18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my inheritance with the {h} carcases of their detestable and abominable things.

(h) That is, their sons and daughters, who they offered to Molech.

Verse 19

16:19 O LORD, my {i} strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited {k} lies, vanity, and [things] in which [there is] no profit.

(i) He wonders at the great mercy of God in this deliverance which will not only extend to the Jews but also to the Gentiles.

(k) Our fathers were most vile idolaters therefore it comes only of God’s mercy that he performs his promise and has not utterly cast us off.

Verse 21

16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once {l} cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name [is] JEHOVAH.

(l) They will once again feel my power and mercy for their deliverance that they may learn to worship me.