Jeremiah 16:8

Jer 16:8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

Ver. 8. Thou shall not also go into the house of feasting.] Ministers may lawfully go to feasts, {Joh 2:1-2} but not in times of common calamity. See Isa 22:12-14. Pliny {a} telleth us that when in the time of the second Punic war, one Fulvius Argentarius was seen at Rome looking out at a window with a rose garland on his head, the senate sent for him, laid him in prison, and would not suffer him to come forth till the war was at an end.

{a} Lib. ii. cap. 7.

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.

Jer 16:8-9. Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting — God not only forbade his prophet to go into houses of mourning, but forbade him also to go into houses where people were wont to eat and drink on joyful occasions, because it would be unseasonable, and would not agree with the afflictive dispensations of Providence that were coming on the land and nation. God called aloud for weeping, mourning, and fasting, because he was coming forth against them in his judgments, and it was time for them to humble themselves before him. And it well became the prophet, who gave them the warning, to give them an example of taking the warning himself, and complying with it; and so to make it appear that he did himself believe what he declared to them. For, behold I will cause to cease the voice of mirth, &c. — In the approaching time of general desolation, all the solemn seasons of mirth and gladness shall cease, as well public as private. The solemn feasts, which were always observed with great expressions of joy, shall be no more celebrated, nor shall nuptial solemnities and other private occasions of rejoicing be any longer observed.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16:8-9 The ban on attending feasts and parties isolated Jeremiah from meaningful social contact, but the Lord gave it special importance. The entire nation and its social interaction would soon cease to exist.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

house of feasting--joyous: as distinguished from mourning-feasts. Have no more to do with this people whether in mourning or joyous feasts.

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 8. Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting] Funeral banquets were made to commemorate the dead, and comfort the surviving relatives; and the cup of consolation, strong mingled wine, was given to those who were deepest in distress, to divert their minds and to soothe their sorrows. These kinds of ceremonies were common among almost all the nations of the world on funeral occasions. The Canaanites, the Jews, the Persians, Arabians, New Zealanders, Huns, &c., &c.

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

Here the Prophet refers to other feasts, where hilarity prevailed. The meaning then is, — that the people were given up to destruction, so that nothing was better than to depart from them as far as possible. So Jeremiah is prohibited from going at all to them, so that he might not be their associate either in joy or in sorrow; as though he had said, — ‘Have no more anything to do with this people; if they lament their dead, leave them, for they are unworthy of any act of kindness; and if they make joyful feasts, be far from them, for every intercourse with them is accursed.” We now then understand why the Prophet spoke of grief, lamentation and mourning, and then mentioned joy. He afterwards adds, —

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.

(8) Into the house of feasting.—Literally, the house of drinking, i.e., in this case, as interpreted by the next verse, of festive and mirthful gathering. This prohibition follows à fortiori from the other. If it was unmeet for the prophet to enter into the house of mourning, much more was he to hold himself aloof from mirth. He was to stand apart, in the awful consciousness of his solitary mission. The words of Ecc_7:2 come to our thoughts as teaching that it was better even so.

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

8. Co. omits the v., but on inadequate grounds.

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.

For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,.... Who is able to do what he here threatens he will, and which he will do, notwithstanding his being the God of Israel; their hearts not being right with him, nor they steadfast in his covenant.

Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness: upon any account whatsoever, civil or religious; and that out of Jerusalem, where their religious feasts were kept, as well as where were often expressions of joy made on civil accounts; and this should be in their sight, it should be notorious and remarkable, that they could not but observe it; and it should be in a short time, in their days, though they were very desirous of putting these evil days far from them, and were not willing to believe they should be at all, or, however, not in their days:

the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; the epithalamiums, or marriage songs, sung at the celebration of nuptials; these should cease, marrying and giving in marriage being over; the consequence of which must be ruin to the nation, a lawful succession of mankind being not otherwise to be kept up.

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

Feasting. Hebrew, "of drinking," in times of joy.

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).

God did not only forbade his prophet to go into houses of mourning, to eat and to drink according to their custom, to comfort those who had lost their friends; but he forbade him also to go into houses where they were wont to eat and to drink upon a more cheerful account.

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

8. Feasting — Literally, drinking: showing that even in very ancient times drinking practices were prominent in such assemblies.

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

Go - God did not only forbid his prophet to go into houses of mourning, but forbad him to go into houses, where they were wont to eat and drink upon a more chearful account.

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

The prophet is to withdraw from all participation in mirthful meals and feasts, in token that God will take away all joy from the people. בּית־משׁתּה, house in which a feast is given. אותם, for אתּם, refers, taken ad sensum, to the others who take part in the feast. On Jer 16:9, cf. Jer 7:34.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

And to a house of feasting that I said to you above, “You shall not go,” this is the reason: Behold, I will cut off from this place, etc.

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.