The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 394

EXPOSITION. latter part of it will enable us to fi.x it more CHAPTER XVI. precisely (see on eh. xviL 1-18). With this chapter should be ta.ken the Ver. 2.-Thon shalt not take thee a wife. first eighteen verses of eh. xvii. The head- So St. Paul, "I think therefore that this ing of the Authorized Version well ex- is good by reason of the present distress, presses the contents of vers. 1-9, provided namely, that it is good for a man to be as he is" (1 Cor. vii. 26, Revised Version); and that "the types" are understood to be typi- Hosea bas alrendy drawn an awful picture cal nctions of the prophet himself. "The of" Ephraim bringing forth his children to prophet, under the types of o.bstaining from the murderer" (ix. 9). In ordinary times marriage, from houses of mourning 1md it was a kind of unwritten law among the feosting, foresboweth the utter ruin of the Israelites to marry and beget children. Jews." To the inquiry, why these cnlo.mi- Most of the prophets (e.g. lsainb) appear to hnve been married. In this place; i.e. in ties should come upon them, the old nnd the land of Judah. A Jeremia.nio ph.ro.se well-known nnswer is to be given (vers. 10- (comp. eh. vii. 3). 12), nccompnnied by a definite prediction of Yer. 4.-Grievous deaths; literally, deaths cnptivity (ver. 13). Then, to relieve the of sic/messes; i.e. nil kinds of pninfol denths, picture, o. glimpse of n happier future is including (ns eh. xiv. 18 shows) denth by stnrvntion. They shall not be lamented. The introduced (vers. 14, 15); but only a absence of sepulture hns already been glimpse, for nlready the Chnldeans, like so pointed to several times as e. feature of the manv fishermen nnd bunters, nre on the horror of the times (eh. viii. 2; JI.iv. 16; tre.ck of the J owe, for a "double" retri- comp. eh. vii. 33), but this is a new and bution must precede the Messianic promise affecting touch. Dr. Payne Smith aptly (vers. 16-18). Strange contrast-the hea- refers to the plagues of Athens and London, in which the gentler elements of hnman tben coming to the truth and the Jews nature were for the time almost extin- (those of the present, not of the future time) guished. deserting it (vers. 19-21) I We will take Ver. 5.-Compnro this prohibition with up the thrend of thought ngnin nt the open- tbnt given to Ezekiel (u:lv. 15-27). The ing of the next chapter. -'.1.'he date of this house of mourning j literally, of screaming (nn uncommon word, only occurring ngain- prophecy would appear to be nearly the of banquetters-ln Amos vl. 7). lt is, no sarue as thnt of the preceding one, the cir- doubt, the we.ii of mourning reh1tives which c·.unstuuces of which are similar. The is wcant,  THE BOOK m' THE PROPHE'r JEllEMIAH. [cu. xvi. 1-21,