Jeremiah 14:16

16 And the people to whom they've been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied - no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I'll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

Jeremiah 14:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 14:16

And the people to whom they prophesy
That is, such of them as gave credit to their prophecies: shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine
and the sword;
they dying of the famine and of the sword, their carcasses should be cast out of their houses into the open streets, and there lie unburied, as a punishment for disbelieving the words of the Lord, and giving heed to the lies of the false prophets: and they shall have none to bury them;
either through want of ability of body or substance, or through want of affection; or rather through want of persons to do it for them, all their relations being cut off with them, as follows: them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters;
or rather, "they" ^F14, "their wives, and their sons, and their daughters"; these shall die by the famine and the sword, and shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem; so that they and their relatives all dying, there would be none to bury one another; and that all should suffer by these calamities were but just and righteous, since all were guilty both of idolatry, and of despising the prophets, and listening to the false ones; see ( Jeremiah 7:18 ) : for I will pour their wickedness upon them;
or, "their evil upon them" {o}; not the evil of sin, but the evil of punishment; the meaning is, that he would abundantly punish them for their sins, and as they deserved, though not exceeding the bounds of justice: the phrase denotes that their wickedness was great; and that in proportion to it the vials of his wrath would be poured out upon them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 (hmh) "ipsi inquam", Pagninus, Montanus, Schmidt.
F15 (Mter ta) "suum malum", Vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus.

Jeremiah 14:16 In-Context

14 Then God said, "These preachers are liars, and they use my name to cover their lies. I never sent them, I never commanded them, and I don't talk with them. The sermons they've been handing out are sheer illusion, tissues of lies, whistlings in the dark.

15 "So this is my verdict on them: All the preachers who preach using my name as their text, preachers I never sent in the first place, preachers who say, 'War and famine will never come here' - these preachers will die in war and by starvation.

16 And the people to whom they've been preaching will end up as corpses, victims of war and starvation, thrown out in the streets of Jerusalem unburied - no funerals for them or their wives or their children! I'll make sure they get the full brunt of all their evil.

17 "And you, Jeremiah, will say this to them: "'My eyes pour out tears. Day and night, the tears never quit. My dear, dear people are battered and bruised, hopelessly and cruelly wounded.

18 I walk out into the fields, shocked by the killing fields strewn with corpses. I walk into the city, shocked by the sight of starving bodies. And I watch the preachers and priests going about their business as if nothing's happened!'"