Jeremiah 16:5 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 16:5
For thus saith the LORD, 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.
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֗הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Enter
תָּבוֹא֙ta.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
house
בֵּ֣יתbeit
H1004
a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular construct
mourning
מַרְזֵ֔חַmar.Ze.ach
H4798
a cry · noun, common masculine singular absolute
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
lament
לִסְפּ֔וֹדlis.Pod
H5594
properly · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
bemoan
תָּנֹ֖דta.Nod
H5110
to nod · verb, qal jussive, 2nd person masculine singular
away
אָסַ֨פְתִּי'a.Saf.ti
H622
to gather for any purpose · verb, qal perfect, 1st person common singular
peace
שְׁלוֹמִ֜יshe.lo.Mi
H7965
safe · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
people
הָעָ֤םha.'Am-
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֔הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
lovingkindness
הַחֶ֖סֶדha.Che.sed
H2617
kindness · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
mercies
הָֽרַחֲמִֽיםHa.ra.cha.Mim
H7356
compassion (in the plural) · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Ezekiel 24:16-23 Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy t…
Isaiah 27:11 When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding…
Deuteronomy 31:17 Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devou…
Jeremiah 15:1-4 Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight,…
Jeremiah 16:6-7 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor ma…
Revelation 6:4 And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they shoul…
2 Chronicles 15:5-6 And in those times there was no peace to him that went out, nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of th…
Zechariah 8:10 For before these days there was no hire for man, nor any hire for beast; neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 16:1-9
The prophet is here for a sign to the people. They would not regard what he said; let it be tried whether they will regard what he does. In general, he must conduct himself so, in every thing, as became one that expected to see his country in ruins very shortly. This he foretold, but few regarded the prediction; therefore he is to show that he is himself fully satisfied in the truth of it. Others go on in their usual course, but he, in the prospect of these sad times, is forbidden and therefore forbears marriage, mourning for the dead, and mirth. Note, Those that would convince others of and affect them with the word of God must make it appear, even in the most self-denying instances, that t…
(Eze 24:17, Eze 24:22-23).
house of mourning-- (Mar 5:38). Margin, "mourning-feast"; such feasts were usual at funerals. The Hebrew means, in Amo 6:7, the cry of joy at a banquet; here, and Lam 2:19, the cry of sorrow.
John Gill on Jeremiah 16:5
For thus saith the Lord, enter not into the house of mourning,.... On account of his dead relations or neighbours; since they were taken away from the evil to come, and therefore no occasion to mourn for them: moreover, this was to show the certainty of what is before and after said; that, at the time of the general calamity predicted, there would be no lamentation made for the dead. R. Joseph Kimchi says the word here used signifies, in the Arabic (w) language, a lifting of the voice, either for weeping, or for joy (x); and Jarchi, out of the ancient book Siphri, interprets it a "feast"; and it is rendered a "banquet" in Amos 6:7, and so may here design a mourning feast, such as were used a…
Jeremiah 16:5
5. For thus saith the LORD, 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.
5. Quia sic dicit Jehova, Ne ingrediaris domum luctus, et ne eas ad plangendum, et ne movearis propter illos; quia abstuli pacem meam a populo hoc, dicit Jehova, clementiam et miserationes.
As Jeremiah was forbidden at the beginning of the chapter to take a wife, for a dreadful devastation of the whole land was very nigh; so now God confirms what he had previously said, that so great would be the slaughter, that none would be found to perform the common office of lamenting th…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 5 onwards) For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of the feast, nor go to mourn, nor console them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, mercy and compassion. And the great and the small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, nor mourned, nor shall they make a cut in themselves, nor shall there be baldness for them. And they shall not break bread among those who mourn, to console them regarding the dead, and they shall not give them the cup of consolation for their father and mother. And do not enter the house of the feast, so that you may sit with them and eat and drink. The Apostle commands that one should not even eat with those who turn away from God (I Cor. V). Furthermore, you should not even greet such people (II John X). And the Savior prohibits the Apostles from greeting anyone on the journey (Luke X). Therefore, Elisha forbids Gehazi from greeting someone while going to heal a boy (IV Kings IV). But it is customary for those in mourning to bear food and prepare a feast, which the Greeks call 'περίδειπνα' and are commonly known as 'parentalia' by us: because they are celebrated for the parents. Scripture also says elsewhere: 'Give wine to those who are in sorrow' (Prov. XXXI, 6); so that they may forget their sorrow. Therefore, the Prophet is commanded not to console anyone from the people, not to mix with the banquets of God's enemies, and not to celebrate the rites over the funerals of the deceased. For it is one thing to forget by the common law of nature, another thing to kill by the judgement of God. 'I have taken away my peace from that people,' he says, 'and they are unworthy of mercy. I will spare no age, but both the great and the small will perish equally, so that they will even lack a burial.' 'Neither shall they shave their heads,' he says, 'nor shall there be baldness (Al. They shall make no mourning) for them.' This was the custom among the Ancients, and it still persists among some of the Jews today, that they shave their arms and make themselves bald in mourning; and we also read that Job did this (Job. 1 and 22). And it is also said of the prophets, neither shall he break bread among them, nor enter in to mourn, nor give them the cup to drink, nor go into the house of feasting, nor mix with those who are prepared for the word of God. But if this is said of those who are mourning,…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Funeral — Burying was among the Jews the only mode of disposing of corpses (Gen. 23:19; 25:9; 35:8, 9, etc.). The first traces of burning the dead are found in 1 Sam. 31:12. The burning of the body was affixed…
Idolatry · Punishment of: Dreadful judgments which end in death — Punishment of: Dreadful judgments which end in death
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The command not to go into a house of mourning (מרזח, loud crying, cry of lament for one dead, see on Amo 6:7), not to show sympathy with the survivors, is explained by the Lord in the fearfully solemn saying: I withdraw from this people my peace, grace, and mercy. שׁלום is not "the inviolateness of the relation between me and my people" (Graf), but the pace of God which rested on Judah, the source of its well-being, of its life and prosperity, and which showed itself to the sinful race in the extension to them of grace and mercy. The consequence of the withdrawal of this peace is the death of great and small in such multitudes that they can neither be buried nor mourned for (Jer 16:6). התגּ…
The ban on funerals and mourning was a parable with a message to the people of Judah. Destruction would be so great and widespread that no one would mourn properly or comfort others.
Rashi on Jeremiah 16:5
house of mourning feasting. In Sifrei, in the section dealing with Beth-peor (Balak), I saw. They returned to make feasts (מַרְזֵיחִין) for them, but our Rabbis explained מַרְזֵחַ as ‘a mourner.’
you bemoan you shall lament.
for I have gathered in My peace, etc. When their father Abraham performed charity and justice, I gave his children loving-kindness and mercy, as in Deut. 7:12: “And the Lord your God shall keep for you the covenant and the loving-kindness, etc.” Also (Deut. 13:18), “And He shall give you mercy.” They turned “justice into wormwood, and cast righteousness to the ground” (Amos 5:7). I, too, have returned and gathered in to Me My loving-kindness and My mercies.
I have gat…
