John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 16:1-4

"The word of Jehovah came also unto me, saying, Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters, in this place. For thus saith Jehovah 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: They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth." — Jeremiah 16:1-4 (ASV)

This is a new discourse, which still is not unlike many others, except in this particular, that the Prophet was not to marry a wife nor beget children in the land. But as to the general subject, he now repeats what he had often said before and confirmed in many places. But the prohibition to marry was full of meaning; it was to show that the people were wholly given up to destruction. The law of man’s creation, we know, was this:

“Increase and multiply.” (Genesis 1:22; Genesis 8:17; Genesis 9:1, 7)

As then mankind are perpetuated by marriage, here on the contrary God shows that that land was unworthy of this common and even general blessing enjoyed by the whole race of man. It is the same as if He had said, “They indeed still live, but a quick destruction awaits them, for I will deprive them of the universal favor which I have until now shown to all mankind.”

Marriage is the preservation of the human race: Take not to you a wife and beget no children. We therefore see that in the person of Jeremiah God intended to show the Jews that they deserved to be exterminated from the earth. This is the import of this prophecy.

It may however be asked, whether the Prophet was unmarried? But this has nothing to do with the subject, for he received this command in a vision. And though he might not have been unmarried, he might still have proclaimed this prophecy: that God had forbidden him to marry and to beget children.

At the same time, I think it was probable that the Prophet was not married. For as he walked naked and carried a yoke on his neck, so also his celibacy might have been intended to be, as it were, a living representation to produce an effect on the Jews.

But, as I have already said, we need not contend about this matter. Everyone then is at liberty to judge as he pleases; I only suggest what I deem most probable.

But the reason why God forbade his Prophet to marry follows: because they were all consigned to destruction. We therefore learn that celibacy is not here commended, as some foolish men have imagined from what is here said; but it is the same as though God had said, “There is no reason for anyone to set his mind on begetting an offspring, or to think that this would be to his advantage: whoever is wise will abstain from marriage, as he has death before his eyes, and is as it were near to his grave.” The destruction then of the whole people, and the desolation and solitude of the whole land, are the things which God in these words sets forth.

At the same time, they are not threatened with a common kind of death, for he says that they were to die by the deaths of sicknesses. He then denounces on them continual languor, which would cause them to pine away with the greatest pain: sudden death would have been more tolerable. Therefore David says, while complaining of the prosperity of the ungodly, that there

“were no bands in their death.” (Psalms 73:4)

And the same thing is found in the book of Job, that in a moment of time they descend to the grave; that is, that they flourish and prosper during life, and then die without any pain (Job 21:13). Therefore Julius Caesar, shortly before he was killed, called this kind a happy death (εὐθανασίαν), for he thought it a happy thing to expire suddenly. And this is what is implanted in men by nature. Therefore Jeremiah, in order to amplify God’s vengeance, says that they would die by the deaths of sicknesses; that is, that they would be worn out by daily pains, and pine away until they died.

He adds, They shall not be lamented nor buried. We have seen elsewhere, and we shall hereafter see (Jeremiah 22), that it is a proof of a curse when the dead are not buried, and when no one laments their death: for it is the common duty of humanity for relations and friends who survive, to mourn for the dead and to bury them.

But the Prophet seems to mean also something further. I do not indeed exclude this, that God would deprive them of the honor of burial and of mourning; but he seems also to intimate, that the destruction of men would be so great that there would be none to perform these offices of humanity.

For we lament the dead when leisure is allowed us; but when many are slain in war they are not individually lamented, and then their carcasses lie confused, and one grave is not sufficient for such a number. The Prophet therefore means, that so great would be the slaughter in Judea, that none would be buried, that none would be lamented.

The verb which he uses means properly to lament, which is more than to weep: and we have said elsewhere, that in those countries there were more ceremonies than with us; for all the orientals were much given to various gesticulations. Therefore they were not satisfied with tears, but they added lamentation, as though they were in despair.

But the Prophet speaks according to the customs of the age, without approving of this excess of grief. As they were accustomed not simply to bewail the dead, but also to show their grief by lamentation, he says, “Their offices shall now cease, for there will not be graves enough for so many thousands; and then if anyone wished to mourn, where would he begin?”

We also know that men’s hearts become hardened when many die in this way through pestilence or war. The import of the whole is that God’s wrath would not be moderate, for He would, in a manner, empty the land by driving them all away, so that there would be none remaining.

God did indeed preserve the elect, though as it were by a miracle; and He afterwards preserved them in exile as in a grave, when they were removed from their own country.

He then adds, That they would be as dung on the face of the land. He speaks reproachfully of their carcasses, as though he had said, “They shall be the putridity of the land.” As then they had by their faith contaminated the land during life, God declares that after death they would become fetid like dung.

Therefore we learn, as I have before said, that it was an evidence of God’s curse, when carcasses were left unburied; for as God has created us in His own image, so in death He would have some evidence of the dignity and excellence with which He has favored us beyond brute animals, still to remain.

We however know that temporal punishments happen even to the faithful, but they are turned to their good, for the Psalmist complains that the bodies of the godly were cast forth and became food to the birds of heaven (Psalms 79:2). Though this is true, yet these two things are by no means inconsistent: that it is a sign of God’s wrath when the dead are not buried, and that a temporal punishment does no harm to God’s elect; for all evils, as it is well known, turn out to them for good.

It is added, By the sword and by famine shall they be consumed; that is, some shall perish by the sword, and some by famine, according to what we have seen before:

“Those for the sword, to the sword;
those for the famine, to the famine.” (Jeremiah 15:2)

Then he mentions what we have already referred to, Their carcasses shall be for food to the beasts of the earth and to the birds of heaven. He here intimates, that it would be a manifest sign of His vengeance, when the Jews pined away in their miseries, when the sword consumed some of them, and famine destroyed others, and not only so, but when another curse after death followed them, for the Lord would inflict judgment on their carcasses by not allowing them to be buried.

How this is to be understood I have already stated; for God’s judgments as to the reprobate are evident; but when the godly and the righteous fall under similar punishment, God turns to good what seems in itself to be the sign of a curse. Though famine is a sign of a curse, and also the sword, yet we know that many of God’s children perish by famine and by the sword.

But in temporal punishments this modification is ever to be remembered—that God shows Himself to be a righteous Judge as to the ungodly and wicked; and that while He humbles His own people, He is not yet angry with them, but consults their benefit, so that what is in itself adverse to them is turned to their advantage.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You anticipate us by Your word, so that we may not experience Your eternal severity—O grant, that we may become teachable, and be so displeased with our vices, that we may not provoke Your vengeance more and more, but hasten to seek reconciliation with You. And that relying on the Mediator whom You have given us, we may flee to Your mercy, until having been cleansed from all our filth, we shall at length be received into Your celestial kingdom, and there appear before You in that parity from which we are still very distant, and shall enjoy that glory which Your only-begotten Son has obtained for us by His own blood.—Amen.