Jeremiah 16:6

Jer 16:6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall [men] lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:

Ver. 6. Both the great and the small shall die.] Princes and peasants, lords and lowlies together.

Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.] Neque caedetur neque calvabitur. This they had learned of the heathen, and would needs use it, though flatly forbidden them. {Lev 19:27-28 Deu 14:1} Now they were told that they should have little either lust or leisure to do any such matter.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That is, should not rent their clothes in sign of mourning.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

cut themselves--indicating extravagant grief (Jer 41:5; Jer 47:5), prohibited by the law (Lev 19:28).

bald-- (Jer 7:29; Isa 22:12).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 6. Nor cut themselves] A custom of the heathen forbidden to the Jews, Le 19:28; De 14:1, and which appears now to have prevailed among them; because, having become idolaters, they conformed to all the customs of the heathen. They tore their hair, rent their garments, cut their hands, arms, and faces. These were not only signs of sorrow, but were even supposed to give ease to the dead, and appease the angry deities. The Hindoos, on the death of a relation, express their grief by loud lamentations, and not unfrequently bruise themselves in an agony of grief with whatever they can lay hold on.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He pursues the same subject: he says that all would die indiscriminately, the common people as well as the chief men, that none would be exempt from destruction; for God would make a great slaughter, both of the lower orders and also of the higher, who excelled in wealth, in honor, and dignity; Die shall the great and the small. It often happens in changes that the great are punished; and sometimes the case is that the common people perish, while the nobles are spared: but God declares, that such would be the destruction, that their enemies would make no difference between the common people and the higher ranks, and that if they escaped the hands of their enemies, the pestilence or the famine would prove their ruin.

He adds, They shall not bury them, nor beat their breast for them; and then, they shall not eat themselves, nor make themselves bald for them This is not mentioned by the Prophet to commend what the people did; nor did he consider that in this respect they observed the command of the law; for God had forbidden them to imitate the corrupt customs of the heathens. (Leviticus 21:1) We have already said, that the orientals were much given to external ceremonies, so that there was no moderation in their lamentations: therefore God intended to correct this excess. But the Prophet here has no respect to the command, that the Jews were to moderate their grief, — what then? He meant to shew, as I have already reminded you, that the slaughters would be so great, that they — would cause hardness and insensibility, being so immense as to stun the feelings of men. When any one dies, friends and neighbors meet, and shew respect to his memory; but when pestilence prevails, or when all perish by famine, the greater part become hardened and unmindful of themselves and others, and the offices of humanity are no longer observed. God then shews, that such would be the devastation of the land, that the Jews, as though callous and hardened, would no longer lament for one another. In short, he shews, that together with these dreadful slaughters, such insensibility and hardness would prevail among the Jews, that no husband would think of his wife, and no father of his children; but that all of them would be so astonied by their own evils as to become like the wild beasts.

He says further, They shall not cut themselves nor pull off their hairs, as they had used to do. These things are mentioned, as they were commonly done; it cannot be hence concluded, that they were approved by God; for God’s design was not to pronounce a judgment on their lamentation, on the tearing off of the hair, or on their incisions. It is indeed certain that these practices proceeded from the impetuous feelings of men, and were tokens of impatience; but as I have said, God does not speak here of what was lawful, but of what men were wont to do.

As to that part, where he says, that he had taken away his kindness and his mercies, he does not mean that he had changed his nature, but his object was to cut off occasion from all who might complain; for men, we know, whenever God’s hand presses hard on them, to make them to deplore rightly their miseries, are stifficiently ready to say, that God visits them with too much severity. He therefore shews that they were unworthy of kindness and mercies. At the same time he reminded them that there was no reason for hypocrites to entertain any hope, because Scripture so often commends the kindness of God and his mercy; for since they accumulated sins on sins, God could not do otherwise than come to an extremity with them.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(6) Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald.—Both practices were forbidden by the Law (Lev_19:28; Lev_21:5; Deu_14:1), probably in order to draw a line of demarcation between Israel and the nations round, among whom such practices prevailed (1Ki_18:28). Both, however, seem to have been common, and probably had gained in frequency under Ahaz and Manasseh (Jer_7:29; Jer_41:5; Eze_7:18; Amo_8:10; Mic_1:16). The “baldness” (i.e., shaving the crown of the head) seems to have been the more common of the two.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald] practices common among semi-civilized races. For both together, as here, cp. Jer_47:5; for the former, Jer_41:5, and perhaps (see C.B.) Hos_7:14; for the latter, Isa_3:24; Isa_15:2; Isa_22:12; Eze_7:18; Amo_8:10; Mic_1:16. They are forbidden Lev_19:28; Lev_21:5; Deu_14:1. The former of these practices represented the custom of human sacrifices as a propitiation to the spirit of the departed. Herodotus (IV. 71) describes the funeral rites of a Scythian king as requiring no less than six human victims.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Neither shall men tear themselves,.... Either their flesh, or their clothes: or, "stretch out" (y); that is, their hands, and clap them together, and wring them, as persons in great distress do: or "divide", or "break", or "deal unto them" (z); that is, bread, as at their funeral feasts. Thus the Septuagint version, neither shall bread be broken in their mourning; and to the same sense the Targum; so the word is used in Isa 63:7, a practice that obtained among the Heathens; see Deu 26:14 and now with the Jews, as it seems: which they did

for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; they used to carry or send food to the surviving relations, and went and ate with them, in order to comfort them for the loss of their friends; but this now would not be done, not because an Heathenish custom, but because they would have no heart nor leisure for it: see Eze 24:17.

Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother: not give them a cup of good liquor to comfort and cheer their spirits, overwhelmed with sorrow, on account of the death of a father or mother; which was wont to be done, but now should be omitted; the calamity would be so great, and so universal, that there would be none to do such offices as these; see Pro 31:6.

(y) "et non expandent, sub. manus suas", Vatablus, Montanus; "extendent", Pagninus, Calvin. So Kimchi and Ben Melech. (z) "Non divident", Tigurine version; "neque impertientur, sub. cibum", Junius & Tremellius; "partientur panem", Piscator; "neque cibum dabunt", Schmidt. So Jarchi, Joseph Kimchi, and Abarbinel.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Cut themselves ... make themselves bald - Both these practices were strictly forbidden in the Law (marginal references) probably as being pagan customs, but they seem to have remained in common use. By “making bald” is meant shaving a bare patch on the front of the head.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Cut. Moses prohibited this being done in honour of Adonis, Leviticus xix. 27., Deuteronomy xiv. 1., and Ezechiel xxvii. 31. "The custom of cutting the arms and hair still subsists in Judea," says St. Jerome; and in other countries. (Plut.[Plutarch?] Herodotus iv. 71.)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

There shall so many of all ranks and sizes die in this land, that men shall have no time to bury them, or there shall not be enough left living to bury the dead; nor shall men, for their own miseries, have leisure to lament for the miseries of other men. Cutting themselves in their flesh, and cutting off their hair, were pagan customs, which God forbade his own people; but yet it should seem they practised these barbarous customs; but saith God, I will put an end to that practice, men shall die so fast and in such multitudes, as they shall have no leisure to cut themselves for such as are dead, they shall not have such solemn mournings as they have had.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

6. Nor cut themselves… make themselves bald — Forms of mourning strictly forbidden in the law, (see Lev_19:28; Lev_21:5; Deu_14:1,) but, as it would seem, much practised. See Jer_7:29; Jer_41:5; Isa_22:12; Eze_7:18, etc., etc.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald. Both practices are forbidden in the Law, (Deu_14:1 Lev_19:28 Lev_21:5) but the prohibition was at any rate unknown to the masses. (see, for the former, Jer_41:5 Jer_47:5; and for the latter, Jer_47:5 Isa_22:12, "The Lord Jehovah called... to baldness;" Amo_8:10 Mic_1:16 Eze_7:18) St. Jerome remarks, and incidentally gives a valuable evidence of the tenacity of primitive customs, "Mos hic fuit apud veteres, et usque hodie in quibusdam permanet Judaerum, ut in luctibus incidant lacertos," etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Nor cut - Cutting themselves and cutting off their hair, were Pagan customs, which God forbad his own people; but yet it seemed they practiced them: but saith God, Men shall die so fast that they shall have no leisure to cut themselves.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

And large and small shall die And since everyone will die, why should you lament?

and they shall not cut their flesh nor shall they tear their hair for them It is the custom of mourners to cut and tear their flesh and to tear their hair our of their head. In any case, it is forbidden for Jews, but he mentions it here only as an example of mourning.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.