Following the laments of the previous section (Jeremiah 14:1–15:21), this next section Jeremiah 16:1–17:27) contains a number of isolated passages from Jeremiah’s ministry that have been brought together here under the themes of judgment and restoration.
The first passage (Jeremiah 6:1–13) describes how Jeremiah’s own life and actions are to be a living example of the Lord’s message to Judah. It fits in well with the previous section because it highlights the personal isolation and loneliness Jeremiah expressed in Jeremiah 15:10–18.1
The Lord instructs Jeremiah to not take a wife
nor shall he have sons or daughters in this place.
It is common in the Old Testament for the Lord to reveal his message through events in the lives of his prophets (see Hosea 1:1–3:5;Isaiah 7:1–8:22; Ezekiel 24:15–27). What is unusual in this case is that the Lord tells Jeremiah not to get married and start a family. This instruction was probably given very early in his ministry, and for a young man like Jeremiah to remain single would have been very unusual. The Old Testament does not even have a word for a bachelor2 . Jeremiah uses the more emphatic Hebrew negative lo instead of al, indicating that this was a permanent state; he was to remain single his whole life.3
Biblical revelation is never simply an event without explanation. The Lord explains why Jeremiah is to remain single and without a family. For this says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
The fact that Jeremiah lived his life as a single man without a family amongst his people was a vivid and powerful illustration of the message he preached. To never marry and have a family was to miss out on one of the great covenant blessings that the Lord had given his people; that they would become a great nation with descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Jeremiah would have been viewed by many as cursed. But that is what lay ahead for the people of Judah. When the foreign invasion came, they would end up as Jeremiah was now. Through disease, war and famine so many would die that families would be destroyed. Those who were left alive would not be able to bury the dead because there would be too many. Added to the sorrow of losing loved ones was the humiliation of their unburied bodies being eaten by birds and wild beasts. Jeremiah’s life of singleness among the people of Judah was a constant reminder of the curse that was coming because of their stubborn refusal to repent. All of this took place in this place,
the land where Judah was supposed to experience the Lord’s blessing .4 Instead of being a land of life and fruitfulness, it would become a land of death.
1 The word of the LORD came to me: