New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Jeremiah 16
1
A message came to me from the Lord. He said,
2
"You must not get married. You must not have any sons or daughters in this land."
3
Here is the Lord's message about the children who are born in this place. He says about them and their parents,
4
"Some of them will die of deadly sicknesses. No one will sob over them. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will be like trash lying there on the ground. Others will die because of war and hunger. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will become food for the birds of the air and the wild animals."
Reference
5
The Lord says, "Jeremiah, do not enter a house where a meal is being served because someone has died. Do not go there to sob or to comfort the family. I will not bless these people anymore. I have taken my love and pity away from them," announces the Lord.
Reference
6
"Important and ordinary people alike will die in this land. Their bodies will not be buried. No one will sob over them. No one will cut himself or shave his head because of them.
Reference
7
No one will offer food or drink to comfort those who sob over the dead. No one will do it even if someone's father or mother has died.
Reference
8
"Do not enter a house where a big dinner party is being held. Do not sit down there to eat and drink.
Reference
9
I am the Lord who rules over all. I am the God of Israel. I am telling you, 'In your days I will judge your people. You will see it with your own eyes. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness here in Jerusalem. The voices of brides and grooms will not be heard anymore.'
Reference
10
"Tell these people all of those things. They will ask you, 'Why has the Lord decided to send so much trouble on us? We haven't done anything wrong. We haven't committed any sins against the Lord our God.'
Reference
11
"When they say that, tell them, 'I did it because your people of long ago deserted me,' announces the Lord. 'They followed other gods. They served them and worshiped them. They deserted me. They did not obey my law.
Reference
Parallel theme
1 Peter 4:3
References God
Ezekiel 11:21
Worship
Jeremiah 8:2
Jeremiah 22:9
1 Kings 9:9
12
" 'But you have done more evil things than they did. All of you are doing what your stubborn and evil hearts want you to do. You are not obeying me.
Reference
Evil
Jeremiah 13:10
Ecclesiastes 9:3
Jeremiah 7:24
Mark 7:21
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 7:26
Jeremiah 9:14
1 Samuel 15:23
Judges 2:19
13
" 'So I will throw you out of this land. I will send you away to a land that you and your people have not had anything to do with before. There you will serve other gods day and night. And I will not show you any favor.'
Reference
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 15:14
Jeremiah 17:4
2 Chronicles 7:20
Psalm 81:12
Jeremiah 22:28
Jeremiah 14:8
Jeremiah 6:15
Jeremiah 15:4
References God
Deuteronomy 28:36
Jeremiah 5:19
14
"But a new day is coming," announces the Lord. "At that time people will no longer say, 'The Lord brought the people of Israel up out of Egypt. And that's just as sure as he is alive.'
Reference
15
"Instead, they will say, 'The Lord brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north. He gathered them out of all of the countries where he had forced them to go. And that's just as sure as he is alive.' I will bring them back to the land I gave their people long ago.
Reference
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 24:6
Jeremiah 32:37
Ezekiel 36:24
References Israel
Jeremiah 3:18
Amos 9:14
References Lord
Psalm 106:47
Ezekiel 39:28
Isaiah 14:1
Jeremiah 30:10
Jeremiah 30:3
16
"But now I will send for many fishermen," announces the Lord. "They will catch some of these people. After that, I will send for many hunters. They will hunt the others down on every mountain and hill. They will bring them out of the cracks in the rocks.
Reference
17
My eyes see everything these people do. What they do is not hidden from me. I always see their sin.
Reference
18
I will pay them back double for their sin and the evil things they have done. They have made my land 'unclean.' They have set up lifeless statues of their evil gods. They have filled my land with them. I hate those gods."
Reference
Parallel theme
Revelation 18:6
Jeremiah 17:18
Ezekiel 11:21
Isaiah 61:7
Jeremiah 2:7
Jeremiah 3:9
Ezekiel 11:18
Sin
Isaiah 40:2
19
Lord, you give me strength. You are like a fort to me. When I'm in trouble, I go to you for safety. The nations will come to you from one end of the earth to the other. They will gather together and say, "Our people of long ago didn't own anything except statues of gods. The statues were worthless. They didn't do them any good.
Reference
Parallel theme
Isaiah 25:4
Jeremiah 17:17
Isaiah 44:10
Isaiah 49:6
References Lord
Nahum 1:7
Psalm 86:9
Zechariah 2:11
Malachi 1:11
21
The Lord says, "So I will teach them about myself. This time I will show them how powerful and mighty I am. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
Reference
Parallel theme
Psalm 83:18
References Lord
Psalm 9:16
Jeremiah 33:2
Amos 5:8
Isaiah 43:3
Exodus 15:3
Summary of Jeremiah 16
Jeremiah 16 is unusual because God makes Jeremiah's personal life part of the prophetic message.
Jeremiah is told not to marry and not to have children in the land.
This was not simply a personal preference.
It was a symbolic warning.
Judah was approaching a period of such severe warfare, famine, death, and exile that normal family life would be devastated.
Jeremiah's unmarried state would therefore communicate something to the people without him even speaking.
The chapter then describes the consequences of the coming disaster.
People will die from disease, warfare, and famine.
Many will not receive proper burial.
The normal customs surrounding death will disappear because the scale of suffering will be overwhelming.
Normally, families and communities would mourn together, prepare food for grieving relatives, and provide comfort.
Jeremiah is told not to participate in these ordinary mourning activities.
This absence becomes another sign that normal life in Judah is about to come to an end.
The same applies to celebrations.
Jeremiah is not to participate in houses where people are eating, drinking, or celebrating.
The sounds of weddings and joyful gatherings will eventually disappear from Jerusalem.
This is an extremely powerful picture of judgment because God is not merely describing the destruction of buildings.
He is describing the destruction of ordinary human life.
Families, marriages, celebrations, mourning customs, community meals, and daily routines will all be disrupted.
The people will naturally ask why God has allowed such terrible things to happen.
The answer is that Judah has abandoned God.
Earlier generations had worshiped other gods and refused to obey Him.
But the present generation has gone even further.
They have deliberately followed their own desires and stubbornly refused correction.
The exile therefore becomes the consequence of a long pattern of rebellion.
God says He will remove them from their land and send them to a foreign country.
This clearly points toward the Babylonian exile, especially the deportations associated with 597 BC and 586 BC.
But Jeremiah 16 does not end with judgment.
One of its most important themes is future restoration.
God promises that a future generation will remember Him not only as the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but also as the God who brought His people back from the countries where they had been scattered.
This is significant.
The Exodus was Israel's foundational story of deliverance.
Jeremiah says there will eventually be another great act of deliverance: return from exile.
God compares the gathering of the scattered people to fishermen and hunters searching carefully throughout the land.
No one will be hidden from Him.
The same God who sees their sins also knows where His scattered people are.
The chapter then moves beyond Israel.
Jeremiah looks toward a future in which nations will recognize the Lord.
People from outside Israel will acknowledge that their ancestors followed worthless gods.
They will recognize that human beings cannot truly manufacture their own gods.
This returns to a major theme from earlier chapters: the difference between the living Creator and powerless idols.
The chapter therefore contains a remarkable movement:
rebellion ? judgment ? exile ? remembrance ? restoration ? recognition of God by the nations.
Judgment is severe, but it is not the final word.
God's purpose ultimately includes restoration and the revelation of His power beyond Judah.
The central message is that Jeremiah's unusual personal life becomes a living warning that Judah's rebellion will destroy ordinary family life, mourning, celebration, and national security, while the coming exile will be the consequence of generations of abandoning God and following other gods; yet the chapter does not end in despair, because God promises that He will eventually gather His scattered people from many nations and bring them back to their land, turning the memory of the Exodus into a new story of deliverance, while also revealing His power to the nations so that they can recognize that the gods created by human hands are worthless and that the Lord alone is the true and living God.
Jeremiah is told not to marry and not to have children in the land.
This was not simply a personal preference.
It was a symbolic warning.
Judah was approaching a period of such severe warfare, famine, death, and exile that normal family life would be devastated.
Jeremiah's unmarried state would therefore communicate something to the people without him even speaking.
The chapter then describes the consequences of the coming disaster.
People will die from disease, warfare, and famine.
Many will not receive proper burial.
The normal customs surrounding death will disappear because the scale of suffering will be overwhelming.
Normally, families and communities would mourn together, prepare food for grieving relatives, and provide comfort.
Jeremiah is told not to participate in these ordinary mourning activities.
This absence becomes another sign that normal life in Judah is about to come to an end.
The same applies to celebrations.
Jeremiah is not to participate in houses where people are eating, drinking, or celebrating.
The sounds of weddings and joyful gatherings will eventually disappear from Jerusalem.
This is an extremely powerful picture of judgment because God is not merely describing the destruction of buildings.
He is describing the destruction of ordinary human life.
Families, marriages, celebrations, mourning customs, community meals, and daily routines will all be disrupted.
The people will naturally ask why God has allowed such terrible things to happen.
The answer is that Judah has abandoned God.
Earlier generations had worshiped other gods and refused to obey Him.
But the present generation has gone even further.
They have deliberately followed their own desires and stubbornly refused correction.
The exile therefore becomes the consequence of a long pattern of rebellion.
God says He will remove them from their land and send them to a foreign country.
This clearly points toward the Babylonian exile, especially the deportations associated with 597 BC and 586 BC.
But Jeremiah 16 does not end with judgment.
One of its most important themes is future restoration.
God promises that a future generation will remember Him not only as the God who brought Israel out of Egypt, but also as the God who brought His people back from the countries where they had been scattered.
This is significant.
The Exodus was Israel's foundational story of deliverance.
Jeremiah says there will eventually be another great act of deliverance: return from exile.
God compares the gathering of the scattered people to fishermen and hunters searching carefully throughout the land.
No one will be hidden from Him.
The same God who sees their sins also knows where His scattered people are.
The chapter then moves beyond Israel.
Jeremiah looks toward a future in which nations will recognize the Lord.
People from outside Israel will acknowledge that their ancestors followed worthless gods.
They will recognize that human beings cannot truly manufacture their own gods.
This returns to a major theme from earlier chapters: the difference between the living Creator and powerless idols.
The chapter therefore contains a remarkable movement:
rebellion ? judgment ? exile ? remembrance ? restoration ? recognition of God by the nations.
Judgment is severe, but it is not the final word.
God's purpose ultimately includes restoration and the revelation of His power beyond Judah.
The central message is that Jeremiah's unusual personal life becomes a living warning that Judah's rebellion will destroy ordinary family life, mourning, celebration, and national security, while the coming exile will be the consequence of generations of abandoning God and following other gods; yet the chapter does not end in despair, because God promises that He will eventually gather His scattered people from many nations and bring them back to their land, turning the memory of the Exodus into a new story of deliverance, while also revealing His power to the nations so that they can recognize that the gods created by human hands are worthless and that the Lord alone is the true and living God.