Jeremiah;- No wife from this place (ch16), page 1

In Jeremiah ch16, the Lord highlights his sense of detachment from the people of Judah.

The Lord says to Jeremiah “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place” (v2).This is not the only place in the Bible (see Hosea, see Ezekiel) where he interferes with the marriage arrangements of a prophet for the sake of making a point, by setting up an image which will be used in presenting a message.

In this case, the message is that “the sons and daughters of this place” do not have a future, nor do their mothers and fathers. They will die of disease, the sword, famine, they will not be mourned, and they will not be buried properly.

Again, the Lord tells Jeremiah not to go into a “house of mourning” to take part in the mourning for any death (v5). This is meant to show that the Lord has lost the sense of unity and sympathy with his people which would cause him to mourn their deaths. It is also a prophecy that there will be so many deaths that there won’t be enough time for people to be mourned or buried properly. No time to make loud lamentations, to cut off hair, to join the mourners in the ceremonial eating of bread, or to offer the bereaved party a “cup of consolation”.

Nor, for that matter, should Jeremiah go “into the house of feasting” with people (v8). This is not part of the avoidance of mourning, but a third instruction which should have been given a fresh paragraph. The reason for this instruction is that the Lord “will cause to cease… the voice of mirth and the voice of sadness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride”. This warning is echoed in Revelation ch18 v23 (“the voice of bride and bridegroom shall be heard in thee no more”), which is part of the great “lament” on the fall of Babylon.

Naturally the people will ask why they are receiving these harsh messages, so Jeremiah will tell them. It is because their fathers have forsaken him and gone after gods of their own. It is because they themselves have done worse, “every one of you follows his stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me.”

V13 Therefore the Lord will turn them out and send them to a land which they have not known, where they will be obliged to serve other gods day and night.

The second half of the chapter has alternative “Therefore” statements, which relate to the first half of the chapter to various degrees.

Vv16-18 expand on the theme of “sending the people into exile”. The Lord will do a thorough job of this, by sending out fishers and hunters who will extract each and every individual from the land, so that nobody is left behind. For the usual reasons; “They have polluted my land with the carcasses of [that is, sacrificed to] their detestable idols.

V21 is also very apposite. The Lord will be doing this because he wants them to “know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord”. “You shall know/they shall know that I am the Lord” is one of the refrains of Ezekiel.

But the chapter also includes two promises for the future, which make a more rounded overall message, but look a little incongruous in the immediate context.

Vv14-15 are a promise of “return to the land”. The exile will have a time-limit. The Lord will bring Israel out of the various countries where he has sent them. He will bring them back to the land which he gave to their fathers. This will be such an important event that “the Return from exile” will take the place of “the Exodus” as the most important act of salvation in the relationship between God and Israel. They will no longer swear by “the Lord who brought us out of the land of Egypt”. Instead, they will swear by “the Lord who brought us out of the north country”. In the geography of the prophets, “the north” means “all the lands outside Israel apart from Egypt and the desert”. So you need to think carefully before you try to apply a prophetic “north” to any particular place.

And vv19-20 are a promise for the conversion of the gentiles. In the opening words, the prophet calls the Lord “my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble”. Then he promises that the nations in general will come to the Lord from the ends of the earth and make this confession; that the gods worshipped by their own forefathers were lies and worthless things. If a man makes gods for himself, then such gods are “no gods”.