Jeremiah 16:18

18 I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods."

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 The Lord says, "I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks.

17 I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight.

18 I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods."

19 Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, "Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

20 Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods."