12 and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me:
yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and are gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing.
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn't cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way.
But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels [and] in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
Yahweh smelled the sweet savor. Yahweh said in his heart, "I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake, because the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I ever again strike everything living, as I have done.
Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; don't look to the stubbornness of this people, nor to their wickedness, nor to their sin,
Though a sinner commits crimes a hundred times, and lives long, yet surely I know that it will be better with those who fear God, who are reverent before him.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Jeremiah 16
Commentary on Jeremiah 16 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 16
In this chapter,
Jer 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 they do believe it themselves and are affected with it. If we would rouse others out of their security, and persuade them to sit loose to the world, we must ourselves be mortified to present things and show that we expect the dissolution of them.
Jer 16:10-13
Here is,
Jer 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.