Jeremiah 16

CHAPTER 16

Day of Disaster (16:1–21)

1–4 The Lord told Jeremiah not to marry (verse 2); He was, in effect, making Jeremiah a “sign” that the destruction of Judah was near. There was no use in having a family when the blessing of family life was about to end. Why would one want to raise children who would soon be lying dead like refuse on the ground? (verse 4).

5–9 The Lord also told Jeremiah not to attend a funeral meal or mourn for the dead (verse 5); when the day of disaster comes there will be so many deaths that the common rituals of mourning will be impossible to carry out.⁵⁸ Neither should Jeremiah engage in feasting; the present crisis is no time to rejoice (verses 8–9). The Lord is about to bring an end to all joy and gladness (see Jeremiah 7:34).

Basically the Lord had determined to cancel His covenant with Judah’s people because of their disobedience; He had withdrawn from them His blessing, love and pity (verse 5). However, He did not cancel the covenant completely; the day would come when He would bless the faithful remnant of His people once again (see verses 14–15 and comment).

10–13 The people, meanwhile, were slow to understand Jeremiah’s message. They asked: “Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us?” (verse 10). Jeremiah was told to give them the same answer he had given them before (Jeremiah 5:19; 9:12–16): they had forsaken God, and now He was forsaking them (verses 11–13).

14–15 But He was not forsaking them completely: He would preserve a remnant (Isaiah 10:20–23). Just as the Lord had delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt, so He would deliver His exiled people from the land of the north (Babylon) and from wherever else they had been scattered. Though God had canceled His covenant with this present generation, in due time He would again be merciful to the faithful remnant who survived.

16–18 But for now, says the Lord, the fishermen and hunters (the invading Babylonians) will seek out every one of Judah’s disobedient people; no one will be able to hide or escape. God will repay Judah’s people double—in full—for their sin.

19–21 In verse 19, Jeremiah praises the Lord for His promise that Israel will one day be restored and that nations (Gentiles) will come from the ends of the earth to serve Israel’s God—a picture of the Messianic age (see Isaiah 2:1–4 and comment). The nations will acknowledge that the idols worshiped by earlier generations of Israelites were false and worthless.

In verse 21, the Lord assures Jeremiah that He will teach them—both Jews and Gentiles—that He is the Lord, that His name is the LORD.⁵⁹