Jeremiah 16

The Lord told Jeremiah that he shall not take a wife and have children because they would die "gruesome deaths."

God told Jeremiah that He had removed His peace from the people, and that both "great and small shall die in this land." He told Jeremiah not to feast with them. 

He also told him that when they ask why God has "pronounced great disaster against them," and what sin had they committed, Jeremiah was to tell them it was because they worshiped other gods, have forsaken Him and not kept His law. They had done worse than their fathers. 

However, a day was coming when the Lord will bring His people back into the land He gave to their fathers. He will send fishers and hunters to bring back the people. 

For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My eyes. And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols. 

 I will this once cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is the Lord. 

COMMENTARY

According to McGee, chapter 16 is "within ten years of the destruction of Jerusalem..." 

God told Jeremiah not to marry or have children because of the horror that was about to come. When the Babylonians took Jerusalem, they dashed the heads of young children against stones. God spared Jeremiah this terror. 

But God also told Jeremiah that Israel will be rectified. They will come back from captivity to their own land. First, He will punish them for their sins; then He will cause them to know Him.

from Dwelling in the Word