Jeremiah 9:16

16 I will scatter them among nations^[a] that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off."

Jeremiah 9:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:16

I will scatter them also among the Heathen
Besides the bitter judgments of famine and pestilence during the siege, what remained of them should be carried captive out of their own land into foreign countries, than which nothing could be more distressing: whom neither they or their fathers have known;
a circumstance greatly aggravating their captivity: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them;
or men that kill with the sword, as the Targum: it chiefly regards such of them as were scattered among the Moabites and Ammonites, and especially that went into Egypt; see ( Jeremiah 44:27 Jeremiah 44:28 ) .

Jeremiah 9:16 In-Context

14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and the Baals, as their fathers taught them."

15 Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: "I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous waters to drink.

16 I will scatter them among nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off."

17 This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Consider, and summon the women who mourn; send for the skillful women.

18 Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us so that our eyes may overflow with tears, our eyelids soaked with weeping.

Footnotes

• [a]. Lv 26:33; Dt 4:27; 28:64