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Jeremiah 16:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Jeremiah 16:1-3
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 16[a]
Warning to Jeremiah. 1 The following word of the Lord then came to me: 2 You shall not take to yourself a wife or have sons and daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and about the mothers who give birth to them and the fathers who beget them in this land:
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Jeremiah 16:1 Like Hosea’s marriage (see Hos 1:3), Jeremiah’s celibacy had fed the public’s curiosity. The prophet lived alone and took part in neither funerals nor festivities. He wanted to make it understood that this was no longer a time for establishing families or for gathering for feasts. In order to temper the severity of this oracle, an editor has introduced a more comforting passage regarding the return of those who would be scattered (v. 14f); these verses have their more appropriate setting in Jer 23:7-8. And in order to end on an optimistic note, three verses have been added (vv. 19-21) that foretell the conversion of the nations and are inspired by Isa 45:14.
