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 cl... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou shall not take thee a wife_ Marriage was a state of life in special favour with the Jews. By his act of self-denial therefore Jeremiah was to shew his full submission to the will of God, while it would at the same time be a forcible mode of conveying the message of coming woes which he was cha... [ Continue Reading ]
_and concerning their mothers … this land_ Possibly these words are a gloss, as being apparently irrelevant, but not (as Co.) the whole _v_., for then we should have no fitting reference for "they" of Jeremiah 16:4.... [ Continue Reading ]
_grievous deaths_ lit. as mg. _deaths of sicknesses_. _they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried_ We may compare the condition of things in the plague at Athens b.c. 430: "Such was the state of dismay and sorrow, that even the nearest relatives neglected the sepulchral duties … the d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Enter not_ The prophet's abstinence from the accustomed marks of respect to the dead and sympathy with the relatives is to be a forecast of the time when such abstinence shall become general on account of the universal prevalence of suffering and death. _mourning_ lit. _a cry_, found elsewhere onl... [ Continue Reading ]
_nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald_ practices common among semi-civilized races. For both together, as here, cp. Jeremiah 47:5; for the former, Jeremiah 41:5, and perhaps (see C.B.) Hosea 7:14; for the latter, Isaiah 3:24; Isaiah 15:2; Isaiah 22:12; Ezekiel 7:18; Amos 8:10;... [ Continue Reading ]
_break_bread _for them_ The same verb as in Isaiah 58:7 ("deal"). There the word for bread (_leḥem_) stands in MT., and a very slight change here would convert "for them" (Heb. _lahem_) into the same word. If on the other hand we keep _lahem_, _leḥem_must have dropped out after it. The reference is... [ Continue Reading ]
Co. omits the _v_., but on inadequate grounds.... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Jeremiah 7:34.... [ Continue Reading ]
Du. rejects all these _vv_. Co. omits 9 13, suspects the genuineness of 14, 15 both here and in Jeremiah 23:7 f., and rejects 16, as well as portions of 17 21. Gi. retains of the whole series only Jeremiah 16:19, while admitting (_Metrik_) that 20, 21 _may_be genuine. Schmidt denies the genuineness... [ Continue Reading ]
Cp. Jeremiah 5:19; Jeremiah 13:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_stubbornness_ Cp. ch. Jeremiah 3:17.... [ Continue Reading ]
_there shall ye serve other gods_ The original thought of Jehovah as a national Deity led to the feeling that change of country involved a loss of His protection. Cp. Judges 11:24; 1 Samuel 26:19. "Large numbers of the exiles probably felt that the destruction of the State had snapped the tie which... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section. These two verses, recurring as they do in a suitable context as Jeremiah 23:7 f., must be considered to be here, at all events, an importation. "The context on both sides relates to Judah's approaching exile, and Jeremiah 16:16 continue the line of thought of Jeremiah... [ Continue Reading ]
For the metaphor from fishing cp. Ezekiel 12:13; Ezekiel 29:4 f.; Amos 4:2; Habakkuk 1:14 ff. _rocks_ See on Jeremiah 4:29.... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section.... [ Continue Reading ]
_first_ The word (_rî"shônah_) is not found in LXX, and was probably inserted after Jeremiah 16:14 f. had been introduced into the text. Co. however thinks it is a corruption of the frequent expression (e.g. Judges 9:57) _-al ro'shâm, upon their head_. _double_ Cp. Isaiah 40:2. _because they have... [ Continue Reading ]
_my strength, and my strong hold_ The two Hebrew substantives are derivatives of the same root. _vanity … no profit_ See on Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 2:8.... [ Continue Reading ]
See introd. summary to section. For the thought in Jeremiah 16:19 cp. Jeremiah 12:15 f. and for the interest felt by Jeremiah in the religious life of the heathen, Jeremiah 2:11 _a_. Hence Co. with Gi. accepts the _v_. as genuine.... [ Continue Reading ]
Gi. considers this _v_. to be late, as being in the style of the second Is. (cp. Isaiah 42:6) and Ezek. (Ezekiel 36:23).... [ Continue Reading ]