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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 16:14-21

There is a mixture of mercy and judgment in these verses, and it is hard to know to which to apply some of the passages here?they are so interwoven, and some seem to look as far forward as the times of the gospel. I. God will certainly execute judgment upon them for their idolatries. Let them expect it, for the decree has gone forth. 1. God sees all their sins, though they commit them ever so secretly and palliate them ever so artfully (Jer. 16:17): My eyes are upon all their ways. They have... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 16:16

Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them ,.... Which some understand of the Egyptians, who lived much on fish, and were much employed in catching them, to which the allusion is thought to be; but rather the Chaldeans are intended, whom God, by the secret instinct of his providence, brought up against the Jews; who besieged Jerusalem, and enclosed them in it, and took them as fishes in a net; see Habakkuk 1:14 , though some interpret this, and what... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 16:17

For mine eyes are upon all their ways ,.... Not only which they may take to hide themselves from their enemies, and where they should be directed to find them; but their evil ways in which they walked, and which were the cause of their calamities; these, how secret soever they were, were under the eye of God, whose eyes are in every place, and upon all the ways of men, good and bad; though they might flatter themselves, as wicked men sometimes do, that the Lord sees them not, and does not... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 16:18

And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double ,.... Or, "but first I will recompense", &c.; F6 ושלמתי ראשונה "sed reddum primum". ; meaning, before he showed favour to them, and returned their captivity, Jeremiah 16:15 , he would punish them according to their sins; not double to what they deserved, but to what: they were used to have, or he was used to inflict upon them, punishing them less than their sins deserved; but now he would reward them to the full,... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 16:16

I will send for many fishers - for many hunters - I shall raise up enemies against them some of whom shall destroy them by wiles, and others shall ruin them by violence. This seems to be the meaning of these symbolical fishers and hunters. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 16:18

The carcasses of their detestable - things - Either meaning the idols themselves, which were only carcasses without life; or the sacrifices which were made to them. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 16:16

Verse 16 Some explain this of the apostles; but it is wholly foreign to the subject: they think that Jeremiah pursues here what he had begun to speak of; for they doubt not but that he had been speaking in the last verse of a future but a near deliverance, in order to raise the children of God into a cheerful confidence. But I have already rejected this meaning, for their exposition is not well founded. But if it be conceded that the Prophet had prophesied of the liberation of the people, it... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 16:17

Verse 17 The Prophet now shews that the grievous calamity of which he had spoken would be a just reward for the wickedness of the people; for we know that the prophets were endued with the Spirit of God not merely that they might foretell things to come — for that would have been very jejune; but a doctrine was connected with their predictions. Hence the prophets not only foretold what God would do, but at the same time added the causes. There is then now added a doctrine as a seasoning to the... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Jeremiah 16:18

Verse 18 Jeremiah introduces here nothing new, but proceeds with the subject we observed in the last verse, — that God would not deal with so much severity with the Jews, because extreme rigor was pleasing to him, or because he had forgotten his own nature or the covenant which he had made with Abraham, but because the Jews had become extremely obstinate in their wickedness. As, then, he had said that the eyes of God were on all their ways, so now he adds that he would recompense them as they... read more

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