Jeremiah 25:10

The voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness. — The language is mainly an echo of Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 16:9, but there are new features in the cessation of “the sound of the millstone,” i.e., of the grinding of corn by female slaves for the mid-day meal (Exodus 11:5; Matthew 24:41), and the lighting of the candle when the day’s work was done (Matthew 5:15). No words could paint more terribly the entire breaking up of family life, not only in its occasional festivities, but in its daily routine. The imagery reappears in Revelation 18:22.