Jeremiah 16:13

13 Therefore 1I will hurl you out of this land into 2a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, 3and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'

Jeremiah 16:13 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 16:13

Therefore will I call you out of this land
By force, and against their wills, whether they would or not, and with abhorrence and contempt: it is to be understood of their captivity, which was but a just punishment for the above sins; for since they had cast off the Lord and his worship, it was but just that they should be cast off by him, and cast out of their land, which they held by their obedience to him: into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers;
a foreign country, at a great distance from them; with which they had no alliance, correspondence, or commerce; and where they had no friends to converse with, or show them any respect; and whose language they understood not; all which was an aggravation of their captivity in it: and there shall ye serve other gods day and night;
should have their fill of idolatry, even to loathsomeness; and what they had done willingly in their own land, following the imagination of their own evil hearts, now they should be forced to; and what they did for their own pleasure, and at certain times, when they thought fit, now they should be obliged to attend tonight and day. The Targum is, "and there shall ye serve people that worship idols day and night"; that as they had served idols, now they should serve the people, the worshippers of those idols; the former was their sin, the latter their punishment: where I will not show you favour;
or, "not give you grace" F2; the favour and mercy of God serve to support persons in distress; but to be denied these is an aggravation of it, and must needs make the captivity of those people the more afflicting. Some understand this of the Lord's not suffering their enemies to show them any favour or mercy; so Kimchi,

``the enemy shall have no mercy on you, but make you serve with rigour;''
and to the same purpose the Targum, connecting them with the people, the idol worshippers, and paraphrasing them thus,
``who shall not be merciful to you;''
and so the Septuagint and Arabic versions, "who shall not give you mercy"; or "rest", as the Vulgate Latin. The Jews F3 interpret this of the Messiah, whose name, they say, is Chaninah, the word here used, whom the Lord would not give them where they were.
FOOTNOTES:

F2 (hnynx Mkl Nta al) "non dabo vobis gratiam", Cocceius, Schmidt; "non dedero vobis gratiam", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.
F3 T. Bab Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 2. Echa Rabbati, fol. 50. 2.

Jeremiah 16:13 In-Context

11 then you shall say to them: 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law,
12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.
13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'
14 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
15 but 'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

Cross References 3

  • 1. Jeremiah 10:18; Jeremiah 22:26; Isaiah 22:17, 18; See Deuteronomy 4:26-28; Deuteronomy 28:64, 65
  • 2. See Jeremiah 15:14
  • 3. Deuteronomy 28:36, 64
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.