Jeremiah 16:10

10 And it hath come to pass when thou declarest to this people all these words, and they have said unto thee, `For what hath Jehovah spoken against us all this great evil? yea, what [is] our iniquity, and what our sin, that we have sinned against Jehovah 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 A house of banqueting thou dost not enter, To sit with them, to eat and to drink,

9 For thus said Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel: Lo, I am causing to cease from this place, Before your eyes, and in your days, The voice of joy, and the voice of rejoicing, The voice of bridegroom and voice of bride.

10 And it hath come to pass when thou declarest to this people all these words, and they have said unto thee, `For what hath Jehovah spoken against us all this great evil? yea, what [is] our iniquity, and what our sin, that we have sinned against Jehovah our God?'

11 Then thou hast said unto them: Because that your fathers have forsaken Me, An affirmation of Jehovah, And go after other gods, and serve them, And they bow themselves to them, And Me have forsaken, and My law not kept,

12 Ye also have done evil above your fathers, And lo, ye are walking each after the stubbornness of his evil heart, So as not to hearken unto Me.