Jeremiah 16:18

18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

Jeremiah 16:18 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
English Standard Version (ESV)
18 But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations."
New Living Translation (NLT)
18 I will double their punishment for all their sins, because they have defiled my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods and have filled my territory with their evil deeds.”
The Message Bible (MSG)
18 "They won't get by with a thing. They'll pay double for everything they did wrong. They've made a complete mess of things, littering their lives with their obscene no-gods, leaving piles of stinking god-junk all over the place."
American Standard Version (ASV)
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
18 First, I will have them pay twice as much for their wickedness and their sin, because they have polluted my land. They have filled my property with the lifeless statues of their detestable and disgusting idols."
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
18 I will first repay them double for their guilt and sin because they have polluted My land. They have filled My inheritance with the lifelessness of their detestable and abhorrent idols."
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
18 I will pay them back double for their sin and the evil things they have done. They have made my land 'unclean.' They have set up lifeless statues of their evil gods. They have filled my land with them. I hate those 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.
FOOTNOTES:

F6 (hnwvar ytmlvw) "sed reddum primum".
F7 (hnwvar) "ab initio" Calvin; "initio", Montanus.

Jeremiah 16:18 In-Context

16 “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.
17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.
18 I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
19 LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.
20 Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!”

Cross References 6

  • 1. S Isaiah 65:6
  • 2. S Isaiah 40:2; S Jeremiah 12:3; Revelation 18:6
  • 3. Numbers 35:34; Jeremiah 2:7
  • 4. S Psalms 101:3
  • 5. S 1 Kings 14:24
  • 6. S Jeremiah 2:7; S Jeremiah 4:1; Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 8:10
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