Jeremiah 16:10

10 And when thou shalt tell all these words to this people, and they shall say to thee, Why spake the Lord all this great evil on us? what is our wickedness, either what is our sin which we sinned to our Lord God? (And when thou shalt tell all these things to this people, and they shall say to thee, Why spoke the Lord all this great evil against us? what is our wickedness, or what is our sin which we sinned against the Lord our God?)

Jeremiah 16:10 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:10

And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this people
all these words
Or, "all these things" ^F1; which he was forbid to do; as marrying and having children, going into the house of mourning or feasting, with the reasons of all, because of the calamities coming upon them: and they shall say unto thee, wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all
this great evil against us?
as if they were quite innocent, and were not conscious of anything they had done deserving such punishment, especially so great as this was threatened to be inflicted on them; as their dying grievous deaths, parents and children, great and small, and be unlamented, and unburied: or "what is our iniquity?" or "what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?" supposing we have been guilty of some weaknesses and frailties; or of some few faults; which though they cannot be justified, yet surely are not to be reckoned of such a nature as to deserve and require so great a punishment: thus would they either deny or lessen the sins they had been guilty of, and suggest that the Lord was very hard and severe upon them.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 (hlah Myrbdh lk) "omnes res hasce", Gataker, Piscator.

Jeremiah 16:10 In-Context

8 And thou shalt not enter into the house of (the) feast, that thou sit with them, and eat, and drink.

9 For why the Lord of hosts, God of Israel, saith these things, Lo! I shall take away from this place, before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness (and the voice of happiness), the voice of the spouse, and the voice of spousess.

10 And when thou shalt tell all these words to this people, and they shall say to thee, Why spake the Lord all this great evil on us? what is our wickedness, either what is our sin which we sinned to our Lord God? (And when thou shalt tell all these things to this people, and they shall say to thee, Why spoke the Lord all this great evil against us? what is our wickedness, or what is our sin which we sinned against the Lord our God?)

11 thou shalt say to them, For your fathers forsook me, saith the Lord, and went after alien gods, and served them, and worshipped them, and they forsook me, and kept not my law. (thou shalt say to them, For your forefathers deserted me, saith the Lord, and went after strange, or foreign, gods, and served them, and worshipped them, yea, they deserted me, and did not keep, or obey, my law.)

12 But also ye wrought worse than your fathers; for lo! each man goeth after the shrewdness of his evil heart, that he hear not me. (And ye have wrought worse than your forefathers; for lo! each person goeth after the depravity of his own evil heart, so that they do not listen to, or obey, me.)