Глава 16

1–9. God's judgment on the Jewish people. 10–13. Explanation of the cause of God's wrath. 24–21. Future salvation and previous punishment of the people. Jeremiah 16:1–9. As a sign of the sad fate of the Jewish people, Jeremiah should not start a family for himself. He must also break off the friendly ties that he had among the people, because Jehovah takes His friendship away from the people. Jeremiah 16:2. do not take yourself a wife, and let you have neither sons nor daughters in this place. Family life could bring consolation to the prophet, hated in Israeli society, but he, by God’s determination, must refuse this consolation. Jer.16:6. And great and small will die on this earth; and they will not be buried, and they will not mourn for them, nor torment themselves, nor have their hair cut for their sake. “Great and small” - that is, nobles and commoners. – “To cut your hair” – more precisely, from the Hebrew: to make cuts on the body (cf. Jer. 41:5, 47:5) and then shave the head (Jer. 47.5; Is. 22.12). Both were prohibited by the Law of Moses (Lev. 19.27 et seq.; Lev. 21.5), but were nevertheless practiced among the Jews. – The Prophet is prohibited from taking part in the lamentation of one or another family on the occasion of the death of any member of this family. This will be a symbol of the fact that soon they will no longer mourn the dead and even bury them due to the impossibility of doing this: the Jews who survived will have to think only about themselves. Jer.16:7. And they will not break bread for them in sorrow, as a consolation for the dead; and they will not be given a cup of consolation to drink after their father and their mother. To an orphaned family, after the funeral of the father of the family, friends sent bread and wine to strengthen the strength of those who buried the deceased and at that time, of course, did not eat food (Proverbs 31.6). Jeremiah 16:10. When you tell this people all these words, and they say to you: “Why did the Lord pronounce all this great disaster on us, and what is our unrighteousness, and what is our sin that we have sinned against the Lord our God?” – Jeremiah 16:11. Then say to them: Because your fathers forsook Me, says the Lord, and went after other gods, and served them, and worshiped them, but forsook Me, and did not keep My law. Jeremiah 16:12. But you act even worse than your fathers and each live according to the stubbornness of his evil heart, so as not to listen to Me. Jeremiah 16:13. For this I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers knew, and there you will serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no mercy. The reason for God's wrath against the people is the people's betrayal of Jehovah. Jeremiah's contemporaries acted even worse towards God than their ancestors, and for this the Lord will drive them out of Palestine to a distant country. But the more painful the fate now awaiting the Jews, the greater the salvation that they will subsequently receive from Jehovah. At the sight of this salvation, even the pagans will turn to the true God! But now, for now, the Jewish people will have to drink the cup of punishment to the dregs. Jeremiah 16:14. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they will no longer say: “As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt”; Once upon a time, the extrication of Israel from Egyptian captivity had such an effect on the souls of the Jews that they swore by the name of the One who performed this great miracle. Jeremiah 16:15. but, “As the LORD liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of the north, and out of all the lands wherein he had driven them,” for I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers. Over time, a new miracle - leading the Jews out of Babylonian captivity - will have an even stronger effect on the Jews and they will mention in their oaths the One who will lead them out of this Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah 16:16. Behold, I will send a multitude of fishermen, says the Lord, and they will catch them; and then I will send a multitude of hunters, and they will chase them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the rocks. Fishermen and hunters are Chaldeans, who sometimes took away the population of the Jewish state in whole masses, like fishermen dragging fish with nets, or hunted for individual Jews hiding in the mountains (cf. Hab 1.15). Jeremiah 16:18. And I will repay them first of all for their iniquity and for their deep sin, because they have desecrated My land, filled My inheritance with the corpses of their vile ones and with their abominations. “First of all” – more precisely from the Hebrew: before (cf. Isa 65.7), i.e. before the promises of the 14th–15th art. - “For their deep sin.” The sin of the Jews is called compound or double in order to indicate the strength of this sin (cf. Is 40.2). "The Corpses of the Vile". Idols are called corpses in order to indicate their uncleanness, since a corpse was the greatest uncleanness in the eyes of the Jew. Special notes - see after the 17th chapter. You might be interested in: