NOTES for Jer 16:1-21
By refusing family life and children, Jeremiah plainly shows the people that the people, having turned away from the Giver of life, have chosen the path of death and have thereby doomed themselves to destruction. Accordingly, those who have turned away from the One who led the people out of bondage in Egyptian exile condemn themselves to a new bondage in a foreign land.
Jeremiah's readiness to give up the continuation of his family line on earth gives us a glimpse into his inner world. The prophet is capable not only of denouncing, but also of sharing the bitter lot of the people; he is ready to accept sufferings that he personally has not deserved, but that have fallen to the share of his wandering brothers. No, the prophet does not denounce sinners from above or from the sidelines, but from the very midst of those who remain dear to him.
And now, in the midst of denunciations, the Lord says that in time He will bring the children of Israel out of the lands into which He drove them from the land of their fathers. And we see that He is still the same One, merciful and caring for people, as other pages of Scripture show Him to be. Healing the land from defilement, He cuts the body like a surgeon in order to remove the source of disease. He performs actions that cause pain so that the people will not perish completely.
By cleansing the world from defilement, He gives not only the Israelites but all nations the opportunity to reject the falsehood and death that have saturated the life of many generations of their ancestors and have been inherited by them as "tradition." But dead "traditions" cannot stand before the Source of life.