16:2 Thou shalt not take a thee a wife, neither shalt thou
have sons nor daughters in this place.
(a) Meaning that the affliction would be so horrible in
Jerusalem that a wife and children would only increase
his sorrow.
16:5 For thus saith the LORD, b 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.
(b) Signifying that the affliction would be so great that
one would not have leisure to comfort another.
16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they
shall not be buried, neither shall [men] lament for them,
c nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
(c) That is, should not tear their clothes in sign of
mourning.
16:7 Neither shall [men] tear [themselves] for them in mourning,
to comfort them for the dead; neither shall [men] give them
the d cup of consolation to drink for their father or for
their mother.
(d) For in these great extremities all consolation and
comfort will be in vain.
16:10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this
people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why
hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?
or what [is] e our iniquity? or what [is] our sin that
we have committed against the LORD our God?
(e) Because the wicked are always rebellious and conceal
their own sins and murmur against God's judgments, as
though he had no just cause to punish them, he shows
him what to answer.
16:15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and f from all the lands
where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave to their fathers.
(f) Signifying that the blessing of their deliverance out
of Babylon would be so great that it would abolish the
remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt: but he
has here chiefly respect to the spiritual deliverance
under Christ.
16:16 Behold, I will send for many g fishermen, saith the
LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterwards will I send
for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every
mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of
the rocks.
(g) By the fishers and hunters are meant the Babylonians
and Chaldeans who would destroy them in such sort,
that if they escaped the one, the other would take
them.
16:18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double; because they have defiled my land, they have
filled my inheritance with the h carcases of their
detestable and abominable things.
(h) That is, their sons and daughters, who they offered to
Molech.
16:19 O LORD, my i strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in
the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to thee
from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our
fathers have inherited k lies, vanity, and [things] in
which [there is] no profit.
(i) He wonders at the great mercy of God in this
deliverance which will not only extend to the Jews but
also to the Gentiles.
(k) Our fathers were most vile idolaters therefore it
comes only of God's mercy that he performs his promise
and has not utterly cast us off.
16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once l cause them to
know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and
they shall know that my name [is] JEHOVAH.
(l) They will once again feel my power and mercy for their
deliverance that they may learn to worship me.
