Chapter 16
Jr 16:1-21. Continuation of the Previous Prophecy
2. in this place--in Judea. The direction to remain single was (whether literally obeyed, or only in prophetic vision) to symbolize the coming calamities of the Jews ([Eze 24:15-27]) as so severe that the single state would be then (contrary to the ordinary course of things) preferable to the married (compare [1Co 7:8], 26, 29; [Mt 24:19]; [Lu 23:29]).
4. grievous deaths--rather, "deadly diseases" ([Jr 15:2]).
not ... lamented--so many shall be the slain ([Jr 22:18]).
dung--([Psa 83:10]).
5. ([Eze 24:17], [22, 23]).
house of mourning--([Mr 5:38]). Margin, "mourning-feast"; such feasts were usual at funerals. The Hebrew means, in [Am 6:7], the cry of joy at a banquet; here, and [La 2:19], the cry of sorrow.
6. cut themselves--indicating extravagant grief ([Jr 41:5]; ), prohibited by the law ([Le 19:28]).
bald--([Jr 7:29]; [Is 22:12]).
7. tear themselves--rather, "break bread," namely, that eaten at the funeral-feast ([De 26:14]; [Job 42:11]; [Eze 24:17]; [Ho 9:4]). "Bread" is to be supplied, as in [La 4:4]; compare "take" (food) ([Ge 42:33]).
give ... cup of consolation ... for ... father--It was the Oriental custom for friends to send viands and wine (the "cup of consolation") to console relatives in mourning-feasts, for example, to children upon the death of a "father" or "mother."
8. house of feasting--joyous: as distinguished from mourning-feasts. Have no more to do with this people whether in mourning or joyous feasts.
9. ([Jr 7:34]; ; [Eze 26:13]).
10. ([De 29:24]; [1Ki 9:8], ).
11. ([Jr 5:19]; ; , ).
12. ye--emphatic: so far from avoiding your fathers' bad example, ye have done worse ([Jr 7:26]; [1Ki 14:9]).
imagination--rather, "stubborn perversity."
that they may not hearken--rather, connected with "ye"; "ye have walked ... so as not to hearken to Me."
13. serve other gods--That which was their sin in their own land was their punishment in exile. Retribution in kind. They voluntarily forsook God for idols at home; they were not allowed to serve God, if they wished it, in captivity ([Da 3:12]; ).
day and night--irony. You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even to satiety, and without intermission.
14. Therefore--So severe shall be the Jews' bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a greater benefit than that out of Egypt. The consolation is incidental here; the prominent thought is the severity of their punishment, so great that their rescue from it will be greater than that from Egypt [Calvin]; so the context, [Jr 16:13], [17, 18], proves ([Jr 23:7], ; [Is 43:18]).
15. the north--Chaldea. But while the return from Babylon is primarily meant, the return hereafter is the full and final accomplishment contemplated, as "from all the lands" proves. "Israel" was not, save in a very limited sense, "gathered from all the lands" at the return from Babylon (see on [Jr 24:6]; [Jr 30:3]; [Jr 32:15]).
16. send for--translate, "I will send many"; "I will give the commission to many" ([2Ch 17:7]).
fishers ... hunters--successive invaders of Judea ([Am 4:2]; [Ha 1:14], ). So "net" ([Eze 12:13]). As to "hunters," see [Ge 10:9]; [Mi 7:2]. The Chaldees were famous in hunting, as the Egyptians, the other enemy of Judea, were in fishing. "Fishers" expresses the ease of their victory over the Jews as that of the angler over fishes; "hunters," the keenness of their pursuit of them into every cave and nook. It is remarkable, the same image is used in a good sense of the Jews' restoration, implying that just as their enemies were employed by God to take them in hand for destruction, so the same shall be employed for their restoration ([Eze 47:9], ). So spiritually, those once enemies by nature (fishermen many of them literally) were employed by God to be heralds of salvation, "catching men" for life ([Mt 4:19]; [Lu 5:10]; [Ac 2:41]; ); compare here [Jr 16:19], "the Gentiles shall come unto thee" ([2Co 12:16]).
17. ([Jr 32:19]; [Pr 5:21]; ).
their iniquity--the cause of God's judgments on them.
18. first ... double--Horsley translates, "I will recompense ... once and again"; literally, "the first time repeated": alluding to the two captivities--the Babylonian and the Roman. Maurer, "I will recompense their former iniquities (those long ago committed by their fathers) and their (own) repeated sins" ([Jr 16:11], ). English Version gives a good sense, "First (before 'I bring them again into their land'), I will doubly (that is, fully and amply, [Jr 17:18]; [Is 40:2]) recompense."
carcasses--not sweet-smelling sacrifices acceptable to God, but "carcasses" offered to idols, an offensive odor to God: human victims ([Jr 19:5]; [Eze 16:20]), and unclean animals ([Is 65:4]; ). Maurer explains it, "the carcasses" of the idols: their images void of sense and life. Compare [Jr 16:19], . [Le 26:30] favors this.
19-20. The result of God's judgments on the Jews will be that both the Jews when restored, and the Gentiles who have witnessed those judgments, shall renounce idolatry for the worship of Jehovah. Fulfilled partly at the return from Babylon, after which the Jews entirely renounced idols, and many proselytes were gathered in from the Gentiles, but not to be realized in its fulness till the final restoration of Israel ([Is 2:1-17]).
21. Therefore--In order that all may be turned from idols to Jehovah, He will now give awful proof of His divine power in the judgments He will inflict.
this once--If the punishments I have heretofore inflicted have not been severe enough to teach them.
my name ... Lord--Jehovah ([Psa 83:18]): God's incommunicable name, to apply which to idols would be blasphemy. Keeping His threats and promises ([Ex 6:3]).
Chapter 17
Jr 17:1-27. The Jews' Inveterate Love of Idolatry
The the Septuagint omits the first four verses, but other Greek versions have them.
1. The first of the four clauses relates to the third, the second to the fourth, by alternate parallelism. The sense is: They are as keen after idols as if their propensity was "graven with an iron pen ([Job 19:24]) on their hearts," or as if it were sanctioned by a law "inscribed with a diamond point" on their altars. The names of their gods used to be written on "the horns of the altars" ([Ac 17:23]). As the clause "on their hearts" refers to their inward propensity, so "on ... altars," the outward exhibition of it. Others refer "on the horns of ... altars" to their staining them with the blood of victims, in imitation of the Levitical precept ([Ex 29:12]; [Le 4:7], ), but "written ... graven," would thus be inappropriate.
table of ... heart--which God intended to be inscribed very differently, namely, with His truths ([Pr 3:3]; [2Co 3:3]).
your--Though "their" preceded, He directly addresses them to charge the guilt home to them in particular.
2. children remember--Instead of forsaking the idolatries of their fathers, they keep them up ([Jr 7:18]). This is given as proof that their sin is "graven upon ... altars" ([Jr 17:1]), that is, is not merely temporary. They corrupt their posterity after them. Castalio less probably translates, "They remember their altars as (fondly as) they do their children."
groves--rather, "images of Astarte," the goddess of the heavenly hosts, represented as a sacred tree, such as is seen in the Assyrian sculptures ([2Ki 21:7]; [2Ch 24:18]). "Image of the grove." The Hebrew for "grove" is Asherah, that is, Assarak, Astarte, or Ashtaroth.
by the green trees--that is, near them: the sacred trees (idol symbols) of Astarte being placed in the midst of natural trees: "green trees" is thus distinguished from "groves," artificial trees. Henderson, to avoid taking the same Hebrew particle in the same sentence differently, "by ... upon" translates "images of Astarte on the green trees." But it is not probable that images, in the form of a sacred tree, should be hung on trees, rather than near them.
3. mountain--Jerusalem, and especially Zion and the temple.
in the field--As Jerusalem was surrounded by mountains ([Psa 125:2]), the sense probably is, Ye rely on your mountainous position ([Jr 3:23]), but I will make "My mountain" to become as if it were in a plain (field), so as to give thy substance an easy prey to the enemy [Calvin]. "Field" may, however, mean all Judea; it and "My mountain" will thus express the country and its capital. (Gesenius translates, "together with," instead of "in"; as the Hebrew is translated in [Jr 11:19]; [Ho 5:6]; but this is not absolutely needed), "the substance" of both of which God "will give to the spoil."
thy high places--corresponding in parallelism to "My mountain" (compare [Is 11:9]), as "all thy borders," to "the field" (which confirms the view that "field" means all Judea).
for sin--connected with high places" in English Version, namely, frequented for sin, that is, for idolatrous sacrifices. But [Jr 15:13] makes the rendering probable, "I will give thy substance ... to ... spoil ... on account of thy sin throughout all thy borders."
4. even thyself--rather, "owing to thyself," that is, by thy own fault ([Jr 15:13]).