Jeremias 16:8

8 Thou shalt not enter into the banquet-house, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

Jeremias 16:8 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:8

Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting
Which it was lawful to do, and which the prophet doubtless had done at other times; but now a time of calamity coming on, it was not proper he should; and the rather he was to abstain from such places, and from pleasant conversation with his friends, to assure them that such a time was coming, and this his conduct was a sign of it; for which reason he is forbid to attend any entertainment of his friends, on account of marriage, or any other circumstance of life, for which feasts were used: to sit with them to eat and to drink:
which not only expresses the position at table, but continuance there; for at feasts men not only eat and drink for necessity, or just to satisfy nature, but for pleasure, and unto and with cheerfulness; which may lawfully be done, provided that temperance and sobriety be preserved; but the prophet is not allowed to do that now, which at other times he might do, and did; and that on purpose that his friends might take notice of it, and inquire the reason of it, the distress that was coming upon them, as the words following show.

Jeremias 16:8 In-Context

6 They shall not bewail them, nor make cuttings for them, and they shall not shave themselves :

7 and there shall be no bread broken in mourning for them for consolation over the dead: they shall not give one to drink a cup for consolation over his father or his mother.

8 Thou shalt not enter into the banquet-house, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

9 For thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I make to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt report to this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Wherefore has the Lord pronounced against us all these evils? what is our unrighteousness? and what is our sin which we have sinned before the Lord our God?