Jeremiah 16

Thou Shalt Not

The prophet is forbidden to marry, to mourn, or to feast, so that his own life says what is coming; and then, in the middle of the ruin, the Lord promises a gathering that will make Israel forget the Exodus.

No date is given in the chapter; the Bible Dictionary places chapters 7–20 in the reign of Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.) Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 16 follows chapters 14–15, a “discussion between Jeremiah and the Lord concerning a great drought,” in which Judah has reached the point where the Lord would no longer…

Chapter 16 follows chapters 14–15, a “discussion between Jeremiah and the Lord concerning a great drought,” in which Judah has reached the point where the Lord would no longer forgive them and Jeremiah pleads for himself. Here the Lord speaks to Jeremiah directly, and what He says first is about Jeremiah's own life. The chapter gives no date. The Bible Dictionary groups chapters 7–20 as “Prophecies under Jehoiakim (608–597).”

The Church's chapter heading sums up the movement: “The utter ruin of Judah is foreseen—Israel is rejected and scattered for serving false gods—Fishers and hunters will gather Israel again, and the people will serve the Lord—The gospel is to be restored.” So the chapter has three parts. In verses 1–9 the prophet is told three things he must not do. Verses 10–13 answer the question the people will ask, “what is our iniquity?” Verses 14–21 turn from exile to gathering, then back to judgment, then outward to the nations.

Latter-day Saints have read verses 14–16 as a prophecy of the gathering of Israel through missionary work, and the chapter is cited that way in general conference. The same promise is repeated in Jer. 23:7–8. The first nine verses are among the stranger commands in the book. They are symbolic acts: “Jeremiah's day was a sad one for Judah,” and “to symbolize that truth” the Lord told him three things he was not to do.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 16 asks what a prophet's life is for. His own refusals preach the sermon.

Jeremiah 16 asks what a prophet's life is for. His own refusals preach the sermon. He is told not to marry, not to mourn, and not to feast, because soon no one in Judah will be able to do any of these (Jer. 16:2–9). The sorrow is so general that the customs of grief will fail, and the joy so completely gone that the voice of bride and bridegroom will stop.

Then the people's question is answered plainly: they have done worse than their fathers (verses 10–13). The answer to “what is our iniquity?” is not one sin but a heart that will not hear.

Yet the middle of the chapter looks beyond exile. The Lord who casts them out will bring them back, and the return will be so great that men will swear by it instead of by the Exodus (verses 14–15). He sends “fishers” and “hunters” (verse 16). Judgment comes “first” (verse 18), and then, in verses 19–21, the prophet sees the nations themselves turn from their fathers' lies. The chapter's last line is its purpose: “they shall know that my name is The LORD.”

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–9

Three things the prophet may not do

In plain words

The Lord told Jeremiah not to marry or have children in this place, because those born there, and their parents, will die terrible deaths, unlamented and unburied, food for birds and beasts. He was not to enter a house of mourning or grieve with the bereaved, because the Lord had taken away His peace, lovingkindness, and mercies from this people. Great and small would die, and no one would bury them, cut themselves, shave their heads, break bread to comfort the mourners, or give them the cup of consolation. He was not to sit at feasts either. Soon the voices of mirth, of the bridegroom and the bride, would stop in this place.

1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

Context #

A prophet without a family

The command not to marry is a sign, and the reason is given in the next two verses: the sons and daughters born in Judah, and their parents, are about to die by sword and famine…

The command not to marry is a sign, and the reason is given in the next two verses: the sons and daughters born in Judah, and their parents, are about to die by sword and famine (Jer. 16:3–4). “This place” in verse 2 becomes “this land” in verse 3, so the sentence is about Judah as a whole, not just Jerusalem.

What the command meant is not settled by the text. “So universal was the calamity bearing down upon the people that God did not want children to suffer its outrage”; yet the command, like Hosea's, “may not have been a literal one.” Perhaps Jeremiah “was not to expect that his people would marry themselves to the covenant again, nor was he to expect to get spiritual children (converts) from his ministry.” The verse itself says only “Thou shalt not”; the figurative reading is offered as a possibility, not a settled meaning.

Another prophet was asked something like it. Ezekiel's wife died, and he was told not to mourn: “I did in the morning as I was commanded” (Ezek. 24:18). The Church edition links Jeremiah's verse 5 to that passage.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

4 They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

Context #

Why Jeremiah may not mourn

The prophet is told to stay away from funerals because the Lord has withdrawn the very things that give mourning its comfort: “my peace… lovingkindness and mercies.”

The prophet is told to stay away from funerals because the Lord has withdrawn the very things that give mourning its comfort: “my peace… lovingkindness and mercies.” He was not to lament those who died by sword or famine “since they brought these judgments upon themselves,” and not to feast because “feasting was a sign of celebration and eating together a symbol of fellowship.” The prophet's absence from both houses is itself the message.

The verse's own reason is simpler. With the Lord's peace withdrawn, the dead of verse 6, great and small, will lie unburied and unmourned.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

Related Scriptures #

Cutting and baldness

Cutting the body and shaving a patch of the head were mourning customs the law had forbidden to Israel: “Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor…

Cutting the body and shaving a patch of the head were mourning customs the law had forbidden to Israel: “Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead” (Deut. 14:1). The Church edition links verse 6 to that verse. The people kept the customs anyway, which is why Jeremiah can speak of them as expected.

The point of the verse is not that Judah will finally obey the law. Grief will be so widespread that even these customs will no longer be practiced.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

Language #

Bread and the cup of consolation

Verse 7 describes comforting the bereaved with food and drink. The Church edition notes that the Hebrew behind “tear themselves” is “break bread.”

Verse 7 describes comforting the bereaved with food and drink. The Church edition notes that the Hebrew behind “tear themselves” is “break bread.” One reading takes “break bread” to mean giving bread, not holding a meal, so that the custom is sending bread and wine “into the house of the surviving relatives of one dead, to comfort them in their sorrow,” and not a funeral banquet. “The cup of consolation” is that cup. The verse says there will be no one left to offer it.

8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

9 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

Related Scriptures #

The voice of the bridegroom

The silence of weddings is the end of ordinary life in Judah. The same words are spoken in the temple sermon: “Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the…

The silence of weddings is the end of ordinary life in Judah. The same words are spoken in the temple sermon: “Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate” (Jer. 7:34). The Church edition links verse 9 to that verse and to Jer. 25:10.

Here the line is said “in your eyes, and in your days,” so the people addressed will see it. The prohibition on feasting in verse 8 is a rehearsal of this, enacted by the prophet before it happens.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Verses 10–13

The people's question

In plain words

When the people ask what they have done to deserve such evil, Jeremiah is to say: your fathers forsook the Lord for other gods and did not keep His law, and you have done worse, each following his own stubborn heart. So the Lord will throw them out of the land into one that neither they nor their fathers knew, where they may serve other gods day and night, and where He will show them no favor.

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

Context #

The question the people ask

The Lord expects the people to ask what they have done, and gives Jeremiah the answer in advance.

The Lord expects the people to ask what they have done, and gives Jeremiah the answer in advance. It has two parts: “your fathers have forsaken me… and have not kept my law,” and “ye have done worse than your fathers” (Jer. 16:11–12). The Church edition's footnote links verse 12 to the Lord's earlier charge that earlier generations “hearkened not unto me” (Jer. 7:26), and renders “imagination of his evil heart” as “stubbornness.” The charge is not that Judah has a single new sin. It has inherited its fathers' idolatry and added a heart set against hearing.

Jeremiah was to “explain clearly to the people the reasons for his actions as well as the reasons for their coming punishment,” so the strange commands of verses 1–9 and this answer belong together.

11 Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12 And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.

Language #

Serve other gods day and night

“Serve other gods day and night” is irony. On one reading the Lord is saying, in effect, “there ye may serve, as long as ye will, the gods whom ye have so longed after.”

“Serve other gods day and night” is irony. On one reading the Lord is saying, in effect, “there ye may serve, as long as ye will, the gods whom ye have so longed after.” The people had longed after other gods; in exile they may have their fill of them, and the Lord's favor will be gone.

The last words of the verse, “where I will not shew you favour,” translate a Hebrew word the Church edition renders “grant you amnesty or clemency.”

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 14–15

A greater deliverance

In plain words

But the days are coming, says the Lord, when no one will say “As the Lord lives who brought Israel out of Egypt,” but “As the Lord lives who brought Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.” He will bring them back to the land He gave their fathers.

14 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Latter-day Prophets #

Greater than the Exodus

The gathering of Israel in the last days will be so great that it will replace the Exodus as the deliverance Israel remembers.

The gathering of Israel in the last days will be so great that it will replace the Exodus as the deliverance Israel remembers. Bringing Israel “from the north and from other lands” means that “the Lord will gather the descendants of Israel, bringing them to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to membership in His Church.” Elder LeGrand Richards said of these verses that “in the latter days they shall no more remember that, but how God has gathered scattered Israel from the lands whither he had driven them.”

The same promise stands in Jer. 23:7–8, where it ends “and they shall dwell in their own land.” The Church edition ties “the land of the north” here to the ten tribes and to Jer. 3:18. In D&C 110:11, Moses appears in the Kirtland Temple and commits “the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north.”

Verses 16–18

Fishers, hunters, and a double repayment

In plain words

The Lord will send for many fishers to fish for them, and afterward many hunters to hunt them from every mountain, hill, and rock crevice. His eyes are on all their ways; nothing is hidden. First He will repay their sin twice over, because they defiled His land with the lifeless things of their idols and filled His inheritance with their abominations.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Latter-day Prophets #

Fishers and hunters

Latter-day Saint teachers identify the “fishers” and “hunters” as missionaries: “they refer to those who help gather Israel through missionary work,” and the Church edition links…

Latter-day Saint teachers identify the “fishers” and “hunters” as missionaries: “they refer to those who help gather Israel through missionary work,” and the Church edition links the verse to Missionary Work. Elder LeGrand Richards put it directly: “They are these 14,000 missionaries of this church, and those who have preceded them from the time that the Prophet Joseph Smith received the truth.” President Russell M. Nelson says that “our missionaries have searched for those of scattered Israel; they have hunted for them ‘out of the holes of the rocks’; and they have fished for them as in ancient days.”

Because verses 17–18, which follow, speak of the Lord's eyes on their ways and of repayment, one reading takes the fishers and hunters as enemies who carry Judah away. The Church's teachers read the verse together with verses 14–15, as the gathering. The sending is in the Lord's hands in either case: “I will send for.”

Sources: Lesson 133: Jeremiah 7–16, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Russell M. Nelson, “The Gathering of Scattered Israel”, general conference, Oct. 2006. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.

Language #

Double, and first

On one reading, “double” means a full measure, and “first” puts the repayment before the return of verse 15.

On one reading, “double” means a full measure, and “first” puts the repayment before the return of verse 15. That reading takes the phrase as “ample measure for their sins,” and compares Isa. 40:2, where Jerusalem “hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins.” “First” is then read as “before” the restoration the Lord has just promised: the repayment comes first, then the gathering. The Church edition links the verse to Isaiah 40:2.

Verse 18 names the offense: they have “defiled my land.” The Church edition links the phrase to Jer. 2:7. On one reading the “carcases” are the lifeless idols, so that the land is defiled by what is dead.

Verses 19–21

The nations and the name

In plain words

Jeremiah calls the Lord his strength, fortress, and refuge in the day of trouble, and says that nations will come to the Lord from the ends of the earth, saying that their fathers inherited only lies and empty things. “Can a man make gods for himself? They are no gods.” The Lord answers that this once He will make them know His hand and His might, and they will know that His name is the Lord.

19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Related Scriptures #

Gentiles from the ends of the earth

The nations will come to the Lord and renounce what they inherited. Verses 19–21 are Jeremiah's prophecy “that in the last days the Gentiles would seek to know the truth about God…

The nations will come to the Lord and renounce what they inherited. Verses 19–21 are Jeremiah's prophecy “that in the last days the Gentiles would seek to know the truth about God and would be gathered along with the descendants of Israel.” The Church edition notes that “Gentiles” may be rendered “nations.”

Their confession, “our fathers have inherited lies,” echoes the Lord's own account of how truth is lost: the wicked one “taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of men, and because of the tradition of their fathers” (D&C 93:39, the passage the Church edition links here). The verse is spoken by Jeremiah as a prayer: the Lord is his strength, fortress, and refuge, and from that refuge he sees the nations come.

Sources: Lesson 133: Jeremiah 7–16, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

Witness of Christ #

My name is The LORD

The chapter ends with the Lord making Himself known by name, and in Latter-day Saint teaching that name is Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ.

The chapter ends with the Lord making Himself known by name, and in Latter-day Saint teaching that name is Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ. The Church edition's footnote links the verse to Ex. 6:3, Ex. 15:3, Abr. 1:16, and Abr. 2:8. In Exodus 6:3 the Lord says that by “my name Jehovah was I not known to them,” but on that point “latter-day revelation tells us otherwise”: the Joseph Smith Translation of that verse, and Abraham 1:16, where the Lord says to Abraham, “my name is Jehovah… I have come down to deliver thee.”

The footnote thus sets the chapter's last line beside the Exodus, as verses 14–15 already did: the God who brought Israel out of Egypt is the God who will gather them again.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 16

Jehovah, “the premortal Jesus Christ,” is the speaker who says “my name is The LORD” (Jer. 16:21); the Church edition links that line to Abraham 1:16, where Jehovah says He has “come down to deliver.” The same Lord who withdraws His peace in verse 5 promises, in verses 14–15, a gathering greater than the Exodus, so the God who judges is also the God who delivers. Exodus 15:3 gives the name at the Red Sea: “The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name” (Ex. 15:3).

Worth exploring next

Jer. 23:7–8: the same promise of a gathering greater than the Exodus.
D&C 110:11: Moses commits the keys of the gathering.
Jer. 9:23–24: the knowledge of the Lord that Jer. 16:21 promises.
Ezek. 24:15–27: another prophet forbidden to mourn as a sign.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Lesson 133: Jeremiah 7–16, Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual.
Russell M. Nelson, “The Gathering of Scattered Israel”, general conference, Oct. 2006.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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