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Disaster Predicted
Jeremiah 16:1–13 records Yahweh’s words to Jeremiah about severe judgement. The passage explains three unusual commands to the prophet and then gives the stated reason for the disaster that is coming.
Understanding the passage
The setting of this message
In these verses, Yahweh speaks directly to Jeremiah. He tells him not to marry, not to enter mourning, and not to join feasting. Each command points to the collapse of ordinary family and community life, and the passage itself explains why this judgement is being announced.
Jeremiah 16:1–13Main takeaway
Jeremiah 16:1–13 teaches that Yahweh’s judgement is linked in this passage to forsaking him, serving other gods, and not listening to him.
Explore the message
Open a card to explore the full explanation and its Bible references.
01Jeremiah’s family life becomes a signYahweh tells Jeremiah not to take a wife or have children in that place. The reason follows at once: sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers in the land face grievous deaths.
Explanation
Yahweh tells Jeremiah not to take a wife or have children in that place. The reason follows at once: sons, daughters, mothers, and fathers in the land face grievous deaths. The command is part of the prophecy itself, showing that normal hopes for family life are being cut off.
02Mourning will not happen in the usual wayJeremiah must not enter a house of mourning, lament, or bemoan the dead. Yahweh says he has taken away his peace from this people, even loving kindness and tender mercies.
Explanation
Jeremiah must not enter a house of mourning, lament, or bemoan the dead. Yahweh says he has taken away his peace from this people, even loving kindness and tender mercies. The passage also says many will die without burial, lament, or the usual acts of comfort for bereaved families.
03Feasting and wedding joy will ceaseJeremiah is also told not to go into a house of feasting to eat and drink. Yahweh says that mirth, gladness, and the voices of bridegroom and bride will cease from this place in Jeremiah’s days.
Explanation
Jeremiah is also told not to go into a house of feasting to eat and drink. Yahweh says that mirth, gladness, and the voices of bridegroom and bride will cease from this place in Jeremiah’s days. The judgement reaches both grief and celebration, not only one part of life.
04The reason given and the outcomeWhen the people ask why this great evil has been pronounced, Jeremiah is told to answer plainly.
Explanation
When the people ask why this great evil has been pronounced, Jeremiah is told to answer plainly. Their fathers forsook Yahweh, walked after other gods, served and worshipped them, and did not keep his law. The present people have also done evil and not listened, so Yahweh will cast them out of the land.
Questions to explore
Pause, look back at the verses and talk together.
01How does the passage explain Yahweh’s command that Jeremiah must not marry or have children?
Read the command and then the reason that follows about what will happen to families in that place.
02What ordinary practices of sorrow and joy are said to stop in this passage?
Notice the details about mourning customs, comfort for the dead, feasting, and wedding voices.
03What reasons does Yahweh give for the announced judgement?
Look for the repeated ideas in the answer Jeremiah must give: forsaking Yahweh, serving other gods, and not listening to him.
Read the Bible passage
World English Bible ClassicScripture quotation · Public domain
Jeremiah 16:1–13
1Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2“You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.”
3For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land:
4“They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”
5For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies.
6Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them.
7Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8“You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.”
9For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before 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.
10It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’
11then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.
12You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.
13Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’