Jeremiah 16:18

18 I will pay back the people of Judah twice for every one of their sins, because they have made my land unclean. They have filled my country with their hateful idols."

Jeremiah 16:18 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:18

And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double
Or, "but first I will recompense", &c. ^F6; meaning, before he showed favour to them, and returned their captivity, ( Jeremiah 16:15 ) , he would punish them according to their sins; not double to what they deserved, but to what: they were used to have, or he was used to inflict upon them, punishing them less than their sins deserved; but now he would reward them to the full, though not beyond the measure of justice, yet largely and abundantly, and with rigour and severity. Some understand this of God's gathering together all their sins and iniquities "from the beginning" ^F7, as they render the word; the sins of their fathers and their own, and punishing them for them all at once; or first their fathers' sins, and then their own, in which they imitated their fathers, and filled up the measure of their iniquity. So the Targum,

``and I will render to the second as to the first, for everyone of both, their iniquities and their sins.''

Because they have defiled my land;
out of which he cast the Canaanites for the same reason; and which he chose for the place of his residence and worship, and settled the people of Israel for that purpose in it: that they might serve him in it, and not do as the Heathens before them had done, and which yet they did; and this was what was provoking to him. They have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their
detestable and abominable things;
with their idols, which were not only lifeless, but stinking, loathsome, and abominable; or unclean creatures, which were sacrificed unto them; and some think human sacrifices, the bodies of men, are meant: places of idolatrous worship were set up everywhere in the land, and therefore it is said to be filled therewith; and it was an aggravation of their wickedness, that this was done in a land which the Lord had chosen for his own possession, and had given to Israel as an inheritance.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (hnwvar ytmlvw) "sed reddum primum".
F7 (hnwvar) "ab initio" Calvin; "initio", Montanus.

Jeremiah 16:18 In-Context

16 "I will soon send for many fishermen to come to this land," says the Lord. "And they will catch the people of Judah. After that, I will send for many hunters to come to this land. And they will hunt the people of Judah on every mountain and hill and in the cracks of the rocks.

17 I see everything they do. They cannot hide from me the things they do; their sin is not hidden from my eyes.

18 I will pay back the people of Judah twice for every one of their sins, because they have made my land unclean. They have filled my country with their hateful idols."

19 Lord, you are my strength and my protection, my safe place in times of trouble. The nations will come to you from all over the world and say, "Our ancestors had only false gods, useless idols that didn't help them.

20 Can people make gods for themselves? They will not really be gods!"