THEN THE WORD of the LORD came to me: 2“You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” 3For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: 4“They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like refuse lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.”
5For this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the LORD. 6“Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut himself or shave his head for them. 7No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
8“And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. 9For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.
10“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?’ 11then say to them, ‘It is because your fathers forsook me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12But you have behaved more wickedly than your fathers. See how each of you is following the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying me. 13So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14“However, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.
16“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. 17My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
19O LORD, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come
from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers possessed nothing but false gods,
worthless idols that did them no good.
20Do men make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”
21“Therefore I will teach them—
this time I will teach them
my power and might.
Then they will know
that my name is the LORD.
Original Meaning
THIS CHAPTER RANGES widely over the themes of sin, judgment, and restoration. Jeremiah’s own life is to be a prophetic witness to the historical judgment soon to strike the land. As is common in the first half of the book, no regnal dates are provided by which one can set these instructions in a more particular context of the prophet’s life.
16:1–9. God commands Jeremiah not to marry or have children (v. 2), since judgment is coming soon and many parents and children in Judah will die. There are, perhaps, at least two reasons for including this command as part of the book. (1) In a society where marriages were arranged between families, celibacy was comparatively rare. Thus, Jeremiah’s celibacy might surface as a “hot-button” issue for his detractors to seize upon. They can portray him as crazed and out of touch with reality. But Jeremiah’s celibacy is not a denial of the goodness of marriage or even the voicing of his own preferences in the matter. For all we know, he may well have desired a wife and children. Yet his desires, like much about his personal circumstances, recede behind the presentation of his prophetic work.
(2) Since destruction is imminent, this is no time for marriage (vv. 3–5). His celibacy is part of his embodiment of the message he proclaims; it is a symbolic act as surely as was Hosea’s marriage of a prostitute (Hos. 1–3) or Ezekiel’s refusal to mourn publicly the death of his wife (Ezek. 24:15–27). Note Paul’s similar statement in 1 Corinthians 7:25–35.
Jeremiah is not to enter a house for feasting or celebration either (Jer. 16:8–9), for the joy of bride and groom will also be silenced in the coming devastation. Here again he bears the mark of his ministry. Perhaps the lament of 15:17–18 reflects the personal cost to the prophet of his “sitting alone.”
16:10–13. This text presupposes that Jeremiah passes on the substance of the Lord’s messages to him about constricting his social activities. Judgment is at hand. “Why such judgment?” the people ask. The answer is the familiar (to readers of the book) and crushing reply that both ancestors and the current generation have forsaken the Lord, been disobedient to his instruction, and served other deities. The current generation is particularly recalcitrant and motivated by an evil heart (cf. 17:1, 9). The punishment for “defiling” (v. 18) God’s land is to be cast from the land and humiliated in exile by worshiping other deities.1 Crime and punishment in this case are linked like sowing and reaping.
16:14–15. These verses announce an abrupt change through the rhetorical formula, “The days are coming.” God announces that the judgment of the Exile will be matched by the saving exodus from foreign territory and back to the Promised Land. Here succinctly is the same wondrous claim as given in Isaiah 40–55. These two verses predict the formation of a new proverbial saying about God: He “who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt” will bring back the banished from their exile in the north (cf. Jer. 23:7–8).
16:16–18. These verses are difficult to interpret in context. Verse 18 makes it clear that God is speaking about bringing judgment upon the failures of Judah, so that we see a return to the language of historical judgment. The announcement of fishing and hunting for offenders in foreign lands, however, is obscure. Perhaps they are a reply to the sarcasm of people who say that in exile God will not see and judge them for their sins. Certainly Jeremiah affirms that God is not limited by geography or spatial distance in bringing to pass what he desires.
16:19–21. The chapter concludes with the voice of one who prays on behalf of himself and his sinful people. Contextually this must be Jeremiah, for the concluding verse makes it clear that God is behind the sentiments expressed and that he intends to teach his people a lesson about his power. Along with the confession of the people’s sinfulness is an affirmation that “the nations will come” to God. God is the prophet’s refuge and strength—characteristics that separate him from the folly of idols. This in turn leads to the declaration that God has acted in history in order that people may know that his name is Yahweh (cf. Ex. 6:3).
Bridging Contexts
PATTERN. Jeremiah 16 contains the classical pattern of this book: God announces judgment on Jeremiah’s contemporaries as his righteous response to Judah’s spiritual corruption; the future, however, contains the promise of redemption from the land of exile, where Judeans surviving the Babylonian onslaught will be taken. For subsequent generations these words of judgment become words of instruction on what to avoid. The prophecy about redemption provides hope for Judeans in exile (one of the first groups to read/hear parts of the written collection of Jeremiah’s prophecies). For generations of God’s people after the Babylonian exile, the “second exodus” of the people from Babylonian captivity was testimony to the faithfulness and forgiveness of God. It would indeed become proverbial, as 16:14–15 indicate.
In 16:18 there is a connection with the proclamation of the prophet in Isaiah 40:1–2. The vocabulary is different but the content is similar: The Exile is a complete punishment for the sinfulness of Judah and Jerusalem, a double payment for her failure to obey. The prayer of Jer. 16:19–20 draws on the spiritual resources now preserved in the book of Psalms. God the Judge is also a Fortress and Protection to his people, who have learned the folly of idolatry and who find security in the Lord, their Redeemer.
Marriage. Marriage was a mark of adulthood in ancient Israel, and families routinely arranged the marriages of their sons and daughters. The Old Testament provides no evidence of celibacy as an institution of society, although Jesus validates it as a part of discipleship (Matt. 19:10–12). Jeremiah’s celibacy is wrapped up in his prophetic office and his call to embody his message. To hear that word in a modern context could mean foregoing marriage for the sake of ministry (as have priests and orders in the Catholic tradition and some missionaries in the Protestant tradition) or giving up something else as a sign of Christian faith. This can be taken on an individual level (as is required for marriage!) or on a corporate level, when a body of Christians “gives up” something for the sake of its ministry and witness.
God’s will. Verse 21 emphasizes God’s will to make his name known. Probably the claim is not for simple cognition, as if neither Judah nor neighboring people had previously known that God had a personal name (YHWH, usually pronounced Yahweh).2 The personal name Yahweh was first emphasized in the saving events of the Exodus (Ex. 3:1–15; 6:1–3)—events that revealed God’s commitment to his promises and his people in ways that amazed both Israelite and Egyptian. In the proclamation of Judah’s demise and the bold announcement that there is redemption beyond demise, readers encounter the claim that God’s name indicates his identity as God of the future and that the Lord’s self-manifestation in historical events is for his honor and glory.
Typology. These verses set up a typology between ancient Israel and the church, based on their respective callings as God’s people. More particularly, the expectation about the future provides a bridging mechanism for subsequent generations who find themselves in an analogous situation to the Judean remnants of Jeremiah’s day. In light of Christ’s first advent, Christians look in faith to a future revelation of God’s glory. The companionship that God provides through the Holy Spirit and the life of the church is an interim period, like that of saints in the Old Testament who lived in eschatological hope.
Contemporary Significance
TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. Interpreters can take 16:21 and find in it an angle of vision that unites the chapter. God desires to make himself known, which gives shape ultimately both to world history and the life story of an individual Christian. As noted elsewhere, knowledge of God is not mere intellectual comprehension or cognition—the devil and his minions believe that God exists (James 2:19). True knowledge of God is formed in relationship with him and in obedience to his claims of exclusive worship. God serves as a fortress and refuge to those who trust him and who humbly seek to follow his revealed will. God is also a righteous Judge, whose timing in judging iniquity should not be confused with either indifference or caprice.
John Calvin proposed in his Institutes of the Christian Religion that true knowledge of one’s self is bound together with the relational knowledge of who God is. Many subsequent interpreters have followed his viewpoint, and it is certainly consistent with the claim of Jeremiah 16. The fall of Judah and the subsequent exile of many Judeans were not simply events of power politics in the late seventh/early sixth centuries B.C.; they were part of a judging and refining process undertaken by God the Lord, who sought to make himself known to his people.
God is both Judge and Redeemer. Knowledge of him impels one to recognize our sinfulness just as knowledge of our sinfulness can—by God’s grace—lead us to know God as both Judge and Redeemer. Christians recognize a similar pattern in the events of the cross and resurrection. Through these events God made himself known as Judge of all the world and Redeemer of those who trust in him through Jesus Christ, his Son, who also bore the name Lord. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13; cf. Phil. 2:9–11).
The cost of discipleship. Jeremiah’s celibacy reminds Christians of the cost of discipleship. In certain circles of the church, the family has taken on nearly idolatrous status. The good news is that Christians are rightly concerned about the dissolution of the primary social unit of society (= the family), but marriage and family are not ultimate in the life of faith. God uses those who are widowed or never married, or even those who are married and without children, in special ministries. God’s kingdom is full of servants whose celibacy and/or childlessness have become more than a social mark; they have become occasions for God’s kingdom to grow.
Protestants can learn something from their brothers and sisters in the Catholic tradition. The call of ministry may include celibacy. Those who answer the call are in a sense “married” to the Lord and his larger family of disciples. They are whole persons who have chosen a different “symbolic act” through which to exercise their faith.
One of the most distinguished evangelical spokesmen in the twentieth century, John R. W. Stott, never married. His personal views on the goodness of marriage and family are well known. The fruit of his rich ministry as an Anglican clergyman, including valuable publications and a long series of public travels for preaching and lectures, is testimony to the use of the time he had as a single person. He continues to embody his ministry.
Calvin’s prayer at the end of his meditation on Jeremiah 16 is worth quoting and pondering.
All-powerful God, you are not content to give only one small corner of the earth to your servants; you are pleased to extend your kingdom to the ends of the earth and make your home with us through your only Son in whatever place we are. Give us the grace that we may offer ourselves to you in sacrifice. Give us the grace to arrange our lives in obedience to your Word, that your name be glorified in us and by us, until finally we are made participants in the eternal celestial glory acquired through your Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.3