Jeremiah 16 - Introduction

Jeremiah 16:1 to Jeremiah 17:18. Further prophecies of disaster, with passages of comfort interspersed

This section, though Jeremianic in its general character, owes to editorship such unity as it possesses, while certain passages in it (see on Jeremiah 16:14 f. repeated in Jeremiah 23:7 f.) are clearly out of place. It may be subdivided as follows.

(i) Jeremiah 16:1-9. The prophet must abstain from all domestic ties. Death and ignominy shall soon be the portion of every family of Judah. Neither must he share in the joys of others, nor in mourning rites, which shall shortly be compelled to cease in the presence of universal calamity. (ii) Jeremiah 16:10. When the people ask, What is our sin, that we are served thus? the answer is to be, that they have embraced idolatrous rites and forsaken Jehovah. Therefore shall exile be their portion, and therein they shall have opportunity to put to the test the efficacy of the service which they have paid to the gods of strange lands. (iii) Jeremiah 16:14. Yet deliverance shall come, so signal that it shall even suffice to eclipse the memory of the deliverance from Egyptian thraldom. (iv) Jeremiah 16:16. As fishes are netted in shoals, and wild animals in their scattered hiding places by huntsmen, so shall the dwellers in crowded cities and sparsely populated country parts alike be captured. The polluting rites, laid bare to God's searching gaze, shall receive a double punishment. (v) Jeremiah 16:19. Jehovah, the prophet's one hope, shall yet be sought by the nations, confessing that the gods they have hitherto served, are vain and profitless. At length they shall acknowledge fully His might. (vi) 17. Jeremiah 16:1. The sin of Judah is both ingrained and patent to all. Her cherished possessions and the seats of her idol worship shall be laid waste. She shall be driven forth from the covenant-land to a foreign soil. Jehovah's wrath is unquenchable. (vii) Jeremiah 16:5. He who relies on mere human aid shall lead a stunted life, like the juniper tree in the desert; but he who trusts in the Lord shall be as the riverside tree, vigorous and abundant in foliage. (viii) Jeremiah 16:9. The Lord's searchlight reveals unsuspected evils in the heart. As the brood which are not the partridge's own, and which soon forsake her, so shall it be with unlawfully acquired riches. Jerusalem is of old Jehovah's seat. They that forsake Him shall soon be blotted out. (ix) Jeremiah 16:14. Jeremiah appeals for deliverance from the evil thoughts towards God with which the taunts of his enemies have to his horror inspired him. He pleads that through all he has been a faithful prophet, and prays that evil may fall on his foes, not on him.