Jeremiah 16:14-18

C. Explanation on Behalf of the Prophet Jeremiah 16:14-18

TRANSLATION

(14) Therefore behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when it shall no more be said, As the LORD lives who brought us up from the land of Egypt, (15) but, As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from the lands to which He drove them. For I will cause them to return unto the land which I gave to their fathers. (16) Behold, I am about to send for many fishers (oracle of the LORD) and they shall fish for them. And after this I will send for many hunters and they shall hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. (17) For My eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from before Me; yea their iniquity is not concealed from before My eyes. (18) First I will recompense their sin and iniquity double because they have profaned My land; with the carcasses of their abomination and their detestable things they have filled My inheritance.

COMMENTS

Jeremiah 16:14-15 plainly predict that God will in days to come bring His people home from the Exile into which He was about to hurl them. The new Exodus from Babylon would be of such magnitude and glory that it would eclipse the old Exodus from Egypt. When one used an epithet for God in an oath he would in the future make mention of this new manifestation of divine power. In the view of the Old Testament prophets the restoration from Babylon culminated in the work of the great liberator, the Messiah. When viewed in these broad terms the new Exodus did exceed the old in significance.

Jeremiah 16:14-15 serve a dual purpose in chapter 16. First, these verses provide confirmation of the coming judgment. That it is the intent of these verses to underscore the certainty of the coming judgment is indicated by the introductory word therefore. This word usually introduces a statement of judgment in the Old Testament. It is unnecessary then to follow most commentators in regarding Jeremiah 16:14-15 as an interpolation or even to regard these verses as a misplaced fragment intended to soften the threat of Jeremiah 16:11-13. While these verses do speak of restoration at the same time they underscore the fact that a total deportation of the Jews was imminent. The deportation will be so complete that the only people who will live in the promised land in the future will be those who have been brought from Babylon by God.

Jeremiah 16:14-15 have a second and no less important function. They are intended to console the prophet who was heartbroken over the ruin and destruction of his people. The deportation to Babylon while sure and certain would not be the final curtain in the history of Israel. God's people would come home. While this promise is not entirely new to Jeremiah (cf. Jeremiah 3:18-19) it needed to be reiterated at this particular time.

In Jeremiah 16:16 the threat against Judah is continued. The Chaldeans are compared to fishermen and hunters who search every nook and cranny of the land to take captives (Jeremiah 16:16). The prophet Habakkuk also compared the Chaldeans to fishermen who drag in their nets full of helpless captives (Habakkuk 1:15). The ruthless fishing and hunting is punishment for the iniquity of the men of Judah of which God has been and is constantly aware (Jeremiah 16:17). Before He can restore the Jews to their homeland He must first recompense their iniquity double. God had on numerous occasions and by a variety of means punished his people in the past. They had experienced war, famine, pestilence, plague, and invasion before. But now to the horrors of war God will add the penalty of mass deportation to a foreign land. What else can God do with these people in view of the fact that they have profaned His land with their abominations and detestable things, i.e., their idols? Their lifeless images like dead carcasses pollute and defile the land (Jeremiah 16:18).