Jeremiah 16:18

18 And I shall yield first the double wickednesses and [the] sins of them, for they defouled my land in the slain beasts of their idols, and filled mine heritage with their abominations. (And first I shall make them yield double for their wickednesses and their sins, for they defiled my land with the slain beasts for their idols, and filled my inheritance with their abominations.)

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 Lo! I shall send many fishers to them, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after these things I shall send many hunters to them, and they shall hunt them from each mountain, and from each little hill, and from the caves of stones.

17 For mine eyes be on all the ways of them; those ways be not hid from my face, and the wickedness of them was not privy from mine eyes.

18 And I shall yield first the double wickednesses and [the] sins of them, for they defouled my land in the slain beasts of their idols, and filled mine heritage with their abominations. (And first I shall make them yield double for their wickednesses and their sins, for they defiled my land with the slain beasts for their idols, and filled my inheritance with their abominations.)

19 Lord, my strength, and my stalworthness, and my refuge in the day of tribulation, heathen men shall come to thee from the farthest places of (the) earth, and shall say, Verily our fathers held a leasing in possession, vanity that profited not to them. (Lord, my strength, and my stalwartness, and my refuge in the day of trouble, the heathen shall come to thee from the farthest places of the earth, and shall say, Truly our forefathers inherited only lies, yea, vain, or useless, idols that profited them nothing.)

20 Whether a man shall make gods to himself? (Can a man make gods for himself?) and those be no gods.