Jeremiah Chapter 16
Jeremiah 16
Living Signs of Coming Judgment
Jeremiah 16:1-4, Jeremiah Commanded Not to Take a Wife or Father Children
Jeremiah 16:1-4, “The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land, They shall die of grievous deaths, they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.”
Jeremiah 16 begins with a command that would have been shocking in ancient Judah. The LORD tells Jeremiah not to take a wife and not to have sons or daughters in that place. Marriage and children were normally understood as blessings from God, and among the Jews, marriage and family were expected marks of ordinary adult life. For Jeremiah to remain unmarried and childless would make him stand out. His life itself would become a sermon.
This command was not because marriage was evil. Scripture honors marriage as God’s creation ordinance.
Genesis 2:18, “And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone, I will make him an help meet for him.”
The command was unique to Jeremiah’s prophetic calling and the coming judgment on Judah. God was using Jeremiah’s unmarried life as a living sign. The normal joys of marriage, childbirth, family celebration, and generational hope were about to be shattered in the land.
The reason is given plainly, the sons and daughters born in that place would die grievous deaths. Their mothers and fathers would suffer under the same disaster. They would not be lamented or buried. Their bodies would be like dung on the face of the earth, consumed by sword and famine, and left as food for birds and beasts.
This language continues the severe judgment themes of the earlier chapters. Lack of burial was a terrible disgrace in Israelite thought. It signified utter devastation, social collapse, and covenant curse.
Deuteronomy 28:25-26, “The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies, thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.”
Jeremiah’s personal sacrifice was therefore prophetic. He would not build a household in a land where households were about to be destroyed. His obedience became a visible warning that the ordinary future of Judah had been interrupted by judgment.
Under the New Covenant, the unmarried state is also treated with honor when it is received as a calling from God. Paul teaches that marriage is good, but singleness can also serve undistracted devotion in certain circumstances.
1 Corinthians 7:7-9, “For I would that all men were even as I myself. But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that. I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to burn.”
Jeremiah’s case was not ordinary singleness. It was prophetic singleness, a painful sign of coming destruction.
Jeremiah 16:5-7, Jeremiah Commanded Not to Mourn with Others
Jeremiah 16:5-7, “For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies. Both the great and the small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them, Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.”
The LORD next commands Jeremiah not to enter the house of mourning. This was also shocking. Mourning with the bereaved was a normal expression of compassion and community duty. To refuse to join mourning would appear cold or socially offensive. Yet Jeremiah’s absence from mourning was also a sign.
The reason is severe, “for I have taken away my peace from this people.” God had withdrawn peace, lovingkindness, and mercies from that generation in the sense of temporal protection from judgment. They had rejected His word, loved idols, followed their evil hearts, and listened to lies. Now the covenant blessings they presumed upon would be removed.
Both great and small would die in the land. No class would escape. Royalty, leaders, priests, prophets, common people, the rich, and the poor would all be touched by judgment. Death would become so widespread that normal funeral practices would collapse. They would not be buried, and men would not lament for them.
Some mourning customs were ordinary and compassionate, such as sharing food and drink with the grieving. Others, such as cutting themselves or making themselves bald in pagan imitation, were forbidden by the law.
Leviticus 19:28, “Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you, I am the LORD.”
Deuteronomy 14:1-2, “Ye are the children of the LORD your God, ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.”
The coming judgment would be so overwhelming that neither lawful mourning nor unlawful mourning would be carried out. Jeremiah’s refusal to enter mourning houses preached this message before the disaster arrived.
Jeremiah 16:8-9, Jeremiah Commanded Not to Feast with Others
Jeremiah 16:8-9, “Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.”
Jeremiah is also forbidden from entering the house of feasting. He is cut off from the ordinary joys of community life, not only marriage and mourning, but also celebration. His life is marked by separation because Judah’s future is marked by judgment.
Feasting, laughter, weddings, music, and gladness would soon cease. God says this would happen “in your eyes, and in your days.” Jeremiah would not merely speak of distant judgment. He would live to see much of the sorrow unfold.
The phrase “the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride” represents one of the happiest sounds in a society. Weddings signify hope, family continuity, covenant joy, and future generations. God says those voices will cease. The judgment will reach into the deepest places of human happiness.
This shows the seriousness of sin. Sin does not only bring private guilt. It destroys public joy. It silences weddings, homes, songs, and celebration. Judah’s refusal to hear the LORD would turn houses of feasting into places of emptiness.
Jeremiah 16:10-13, Explaining God’s Judgment to the People of Judah
Jeremiah 16:10-13, “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law, And ye have done worse than your fathers, for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me, Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers, and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not shew you favour.”
God anticipates the people’s question. When Jeremiah shows them these words, they will ask why the LORD has pronounced such great evil against them. They will ask what sin they have committed. This question reveals their blindness. After repeated warnings, they still act as though judgment is unreasonable.
The LORD wants them to understand that judgment is not bad luck, political misfortune, or random tragedy. It is the just response to covenant rebellion.
God first points to the sins of their fathers. Previous generations forsook the LORD, walked after other gods, served them, worshiped them, forsook God, and did not keep His law. Judah’s crisis was not the result of one bad week or one isolated generation. It was the accumulation of hardened rebellion over time.
Yet the current generation was not innocent. God says, “ye have done worse than your fathers.” They added their own guilt to inherited corruption. Each one walked after the imagination of his evil heart. This phrase appears repeatedly in Jeremiah because it exposes the root. They refused God’s word and followed the self directed corruption of the heart.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”
The consequence would be exile. God would cast them out of the land into a land unknown to them and their fathers. There they would serve other gods day and night, and God would show them no favor. This is bitter irony. Since Judah wanted idols, God would give them over to a land filled with idols. They pursued false worship in the promised land, and now they would experience the misery of false worship in exile.
This also shows the justice of God. He gives sinners over to the thing they choose, exposing its bitterness.
Jeremiah 16:14-15, The Wonderful Promise of Restoration from Exile
Jeremiah 16:14-15, “Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them, and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.”
After one of the darkest warnings, God gives a stunning promise. “Therefore, behold, the days come.” Judgment is not the end of God’s covenant purpose. Exile will come, but restoration will also come.
The Exodus from Egypt was the central Old Testament act of redemption. Israel knew God as the One who brought them out of the land of Egypt. The Passover, the law, the wilderness journey, and the entrance into the land all flowed from that deliverance.
But God says a day will come when another act of restoration will become so great that people will speak of the LORD as the One who brought Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them. This is restoration from exile and dispersion. God will bring them back into the land He gave to their fathers.
This promise preserves both judgment and covenant faithfulness. God drove them out because of sin, but He would bring them back because of promise. The land remains “their land” because God gave it to their fathers. Exile disciplines the people, but it does not erase God’s oath.
Deuteronomy 30:3-5, “That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee, And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it, and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.”
Jeremiah 16 echoes this covenant promise. God’s discipline is real, but so is His restoration.
Jeremiah 16:16-18, The Zeal of God in Pursuing the People Ripe for Judgment
Jeremiah 16:16-18, “Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them, and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. For mine eyes are upon all their ways, they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes. And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.”
God now returns to the certainty of judgment. He will send many fishers and hunters. This is not the positive fishing for men seen in the ministry of Christ. Here the imagery is negative. The fishers and hunters represent forces God will use to capture Judah for judgment and exile.
The fishers will gather them broadly, and the hunters will pursue those who try to hide. They will be hunted from every mountain, hill, and hole of the rocks. No hiding place will protect them because God says, “mine eyes are upon all their ways.” Their ways are not hidden from His face, and their iniquity is not hidden from His eyes.
Judah may hide from men, but not from God. The coming judgment will be thorough because divine knowledge is thorough.
Hebrews 4:13, “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
God says He will recompense their iniquity and sin double. The sense is not injustice or excessive punishment, but full and fitting repayment. The punishment corresponds to the seriousness of their sin.
The stated reason is that they defiled God’s land. The land was not ultimately theirs to pollute. God calls it “my land” and “mine inheritance.” They filled it with the carcasses of detestable and abominable things, meaning idols and the pollutions connected with idol worship. Because they defiled the land, they would be removed from it.
Leviticus 18:24-28, “Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things, for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you, And the land is defiled, therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you, That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.”
Judah’s exile is the covenant logic of Leviticus fulfilled. The land would vomit out those who defiled it.
Jeremiah 16:19-21, Yahweh Glorified among the Gentiles
Jeremiah 16:19-21, “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit. Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods? Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is The LORD.”
Jeremiah responds with worship. In the middle of judgment, exile, loneliness, and national collapse, he confesses the LORD as his strength, fortress, and refuge in the day of affliction. The prophet’s circumstances are dark, but God remains his stronghold.
Then Jeremiah sees beyond Judah to the nations. “The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth.” This is a remarkable vision. The same nations associated with idolatry and opposition will one day come to the LORD. They will confess that their fathers inherited lies, vanity, and unprofitable things.
This is repentance from inherited false religion. The Gentiles will recognize that their ancestral idols were not merely different cultural expressions. They were lies. They were vanity. They had no profit. This confession is the reversal of idolatry.
They will ask, “Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?” The question exposes the absurdity of idolatry. A man cannot manufacture deity. If a man makes his god, then his god is beneath him and cannot save him. A made god is no god.
Psalm 135:15-18, “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not, They have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them.”
God then declares that He will cause them to know His hand and His might, and they shall know that His name is The LORD. This applies to both Jews and Gentiles in the wider purpose of God. The LORD will reveal His power, His saving authority, His covenant name, and His exclusive glory.
This points forward to the gospel going to the nations through Jesus Christ. The Gentiles come from the ends of the earth not through idols, but through the revelation of the LORD’s salvation.
Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
Jeremiah 16 therefore contains both judgment and mission. Judah will be judged for idolatry, but the nations will one day confess the emptiness of idols and come to the LORD.
Doctrinal and Practical Notes
Jeremiah 16 teaches that a prophet’s life can become part of his message. Jeremiah’s singleness, refusal to mourn publicly, and refusal to feast publicly were living signs of coming judgment.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that lawful blessings may be denied for a higher calling. Marriage and children are good, but Jeremiah was called to surrender them because of the prophetic burden God placed on him.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that sin destroys ordinary life. Judgment would silence marriage, family, mourning, feasting, gladness, and public comfort. Sin does not produce freedom. It ruins the basic joys of human life.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that God wants His people to understand why judgment comes. The LORD anticipates their question and explains the cause, generational idolatry, forsaking His law, and following the imagination of the evil heart.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that each generation bears responsibility for its own rebellion. Judah’s fathers sinned, but the current generation did worse. Inherited corruption does not remove personal guilt.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that exile was both punishment and exposure. Since Judah wanted other gods, they would be sent into a land where they would serve other gods day and night.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that judgment does not cancel God’s covenant faithfulness. After the warning of exile, God promises a restoration so great that it will be compared with, and even spoken of beyond, the Exodus.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that no sinner can hide from God. The fishers and hunters picture the certainty of judgment. God’s eyes are on all their ways, and their iniquity is not hidden.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that the land belongs to God. Judah defiled His land and His inheritance with idols, therefore they would be cast out of it.
Jeremiah 16 teaches that God’s purpose extends to the Gentiles. The nations will come from the ends of the earth and confess that their fathers inherited lies. The LORD will cause them to know His hand, His might, and His name.
Jeremiah 16 ultimately points forward to the gospel mission. The Gentiles coming to the LORD finds its fullest expression in Christ sending His disciples to teach all nations.
Summary
Jeremiah 16 presents Jeremiah himself as a living sign of coming judgment. He is commanded not to take a wife or have children because sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers in Judah will die grievous deaths, without lamentation or burial. He is commanded not to enter the house of mourning because God has taken away peace, lovingkindness, and mercies from the people. He is also commanded not to enter the house of feasting because the voice of mirth, gladness, bridegroom, and bride will cease from the land.
When the people ask why the LORD has pronounced such disaster, Jeremiah is to explain that their fathers forsook God, served other gods, and did not keep His law, and that the present generation has done worse by following the imagination of the evil heart. Therefore God will cast them into a foreign land where they will serve other gods day and night.
Yet the chapter also gives a great promise of restoration. A day will come when Israel will no longer speak only of the LORD who brought them from Egypt, but of the LORD who brought them from the north and from all lands where He had driven them. God will bring them again into the land He gave their fathers.
The chapter then returns to judgment, describing fishers and hunters sent to find and capture the people because God’s eyes are upon all their ways and their iniquity is not hidden. They have defiled God’s land with detestable idols. Finally, Jeremiah confesses the LORD as his strength, fortress, and refuge, and sees a future day when Gentiles will come from the ends of the earth, confess that their fathers inherited lies, and know the hand, might, and name of the LORD.
