Jer 16:13, 17-18 | JFB | STEP | 13. serve other gods —That which was their sin in their own land was their punishment in exile. Retribution in kind. They voluntarily forsook God for idols at home; they were not allowed to serve God, if they wished it, in captivity ( ). day and night —irony. You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even to satiety, and without intermission.

Jeremiah 16:13

13. serve other gods—That which was their sin in their own land was their punishment in exile. Retribution in kind. They voluntarily forsook God for idols at home; they were not allowed to serve God, if they wished it, in captivity (Da 3:12; 6:7).

day and night—irony. You may there serve idols, which ye are so mad after, even to satiety, and without intermission.

Jeremiah 16:17-18

17. (Jer 32:19; Pr 5:21; 15:3).

their iniquity—the cause of God's judgments on them.

18. first . . . double—HORSLEY translates, "I will recompense . . . once and again"; literally, "the first time repeated": alluding to the two captivities—the Babylonian and the Roman. MAURER, "I will recompense their former iniquities (those long ago committed by their fathers) and their (own) repeated sins" (Jer 16:11, 12). English Version gives a good sense, "First (before 'I bring them again into their land'), I will doubly (that is, fully and amply, Jer 17:18; Isa 40:2) recompense."

carcasses—not sweet-smelling sacrifices acceptable to God, but "carcasses" offered to idols, an offensive odor to God: human victims (Jer 19:5; Eze 16:20), and unclean animals (Isa 65:4; 66:17). MAURER explains it, "the carcasses" of the idols: their images void of sense and life. Compare Jer 16:19, 20. Le 26:30 favors this.