Jeremiah 14:16 · Bible study
Jeremiah 14:16 Commentary: Judgment on the People Who Believed Lies
Hebrew · 10 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
Examine God's justice in punishing a deceived people and what it means for Him to 'pour their wickedness' on them.
Research Summary
- Meaning: God judges both false prophets and the people who believed their lies, leaving them dead and unburied as a sign of total rejection.
- Key words: ‘prophesying’ (H5012, Niphal participle, false activity), ‘throw out’ (H7993, Hophal, violently discarded), ‘pour’ (H8210, Qal perfect, deliberate, overwhelming judgment).
- Main debate: Does ‘their wickedness’ mean their sin or the punishment for it? The Hebrew ra’ah can mean both; Calvin prefers sin (to justify judgment), Gill and JFB prefer punishment (the consequence).
- Theological theme: Divine justice does not cancel personal responsibility, even when deception is involved. God matches judgment exactly to the deed.
- Best use: A somber warning against preferring comfortable lies over hard truth, applicable to leaders and followers alike.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.
WEB World English Bible 2000
The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them.
KJV King James Version 1769
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them—them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
And the people to whom they are prophesying, Are cast into out-places of Jerusalem, Because of the famine, and of the sword, And they have none burying them, Them, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, And I have poured out upon them this evil.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword; and there shall be none to bury them, them, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters; and I will pour their wickedness upon them.
Douay-Rheims Douay-Rheims Bible 1899
And the people to whom they prophesy, shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them: they and their wives, their sons and their daughters, and I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.
Translations in other languages (10 available)
Y el pueblo á quien profetizan, echado será en las calles de Jerusalem por hambre y por espada; y no habrá quien los entierre, ellos, y sus mujeres, y sus hijos, y sus hijas; y sobre ellos derramaré su maldad.
E o povo a quem eles profetizam será lançado fora nas ruas de Jerusalém, por causa da fome e da espada; e não haverá quem os enterre, eles, suas mulheres, seus filhos, e suas filhas; e sobre eles derramarei sua maldade.
Et ceux à qui ils prophétisent
Und die Leute, denen sie weissagen, sollen vom Schwert und Hunger auf den Gassen zu Jerusalem hin und her liegen, daß sie niemand begraben wird, also auch ihre Weiber, Söhne und Töchter; und ich will ihre Bosheit über sie schütten.
En het volk, tot hetwelk zij profeteren, zullen op de straten van Jeruzalem weggeworpen zijn vanwege den honger en het zwaard; en er zal niemand zijn, die hen begrave, hen, hun vrouwen, en hun zonen, en hun dochteren; alzo zal Ik hun boosheid over hen uitstorten.
e quelli ai quali essi profetizzano saranno gettati per le vie di Gerusalemme morti di fame e di spada, essi, le loro mogli, i loro figliuoli e le loro figliuole, né vi sarà chi dia loro sepoltura; e riverserò su loro la loro malvagità”.
A lud ten, któremu oni prorokują, rozrzucony będzie po ulicach Jeruzalemskich od głodu i od miecza, a nie będzie, ktoby ich pogrzebał, onych samych, żony ich, i synów ich, i córki ich; tak wyleję na nich złość ich.
и народ, которому они пророчествуют, разбросан будет по улицам Иерусалима от голода и меча, и некому будет хоронить их, - они и жены их, и сыновья их, и дочери их; и Я изолью на них зло их.
聽他們 說預言的 百姓 必 因 饑荒 刀劍 拋 在 耶路撒冷 的街道上，無人 葬埋。他們 連妻子 帶兒 女，都是如此。我必將 他們的惡 倒 在他們身上（或譯：我必使他們罪惡的報應臨到他們身上）。」
And the people to whom they are prophets will be pushed out dead into the streets of Jerusalem, because there is no food, and because of the sword; and they will have no one to put their bodies into the earth, them or their wives or their sons or their daughters: for I will let loose their evil-doing on them.
Verse in Context
Original Language (Biblical Hebrew)
Old Testament · Biblical Hebrew · Jeremiah 14:16
Source: STEPBible TAGNT/TEHB (CC-BY 4.0). Click or tap a morphology code to see the full parsing.
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that Jeremiah 14:16 pronounces judgment not only on the false prophets but also on the people who trusted their lies. The people are not treated as innocent victims, they share in the punishment because they preferred false promises of peace to God's hard word through Jeremiah. Calvin argues their previous impiety and ingratitude merited this severity. Gill adds that those who gave credit to the false prophecies ‘disbelieving the words of the Lord’ are cast out in the streets. The Cambridge Bible sees the verse as part of a unified judgment oracle. On the final phrase, ‘I will pour their wickedness on them,’ there is a fine distinction: some (Calvin, Barnes) read it as God bringing their own sin back on them as just punishment; others (Gill, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown) take it as the punishment their wickedness incurred. Both agree that God's judgment is proportionate and deserved.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Medium
Main views:
- Wickedness = sin poured back: Calvin argues that the word 'wickedness' (ra‘ah) means the people's own sin, which God pours on them as just punishment, thus their suffering is the natural consequence of their evil.
- Wickedness = punishment for sin: Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown interpret 'their wickedness' as the evil of punishment, not the sin itself, citing parallels like Jeremiah 2:19 where 'your own wickedness will correct you'.
- Wickedness = both sin and its consequence: Some readers understand the Hebrew term to encompass both ideas, so that God's pouring out is a single act of just recompense that includes the inner experience of sin and the outer calamity.
What is clear: God's judgment on the people is just and directly tied to their own choices; they are not innocent victims of false prophecy but accountable participants.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Responsibility of the deceived | All commentators agree that the people are not innocent; they share in judgment because they chose to believe the false prophets over Jeremiah. | Some (Calvin, Clarke) emphasize the people's prior wickedness as making them deserving; others (Gill) stress that they were complicit in the false prophets' lies by giving them credence. |
| Meaning of 'pour their wickedness on them' | The phrase refers to God's just retribution on the people. | Calvin reads it as God pouring out their sin itself upon them, so that the punishment is simply the outworking of their own evil. Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown take it as the punishment for their wickedness (i.e., calamity). The same Hebrew word <em>ra’ah</em> can mean both 'wickedness' and 'evil/disaster'. |
| Justice of God in punishing the deceived | God's judgment is not arbitrary but corresponds to human choices and actions. | No debate, this is universally affirmed by the supplied sources. The disagreement is only over the precise mechanics of how the people are held accountable. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Jeremiah 14:16 sits within a bitter exchange between the prophet and God during the final years of Judah's independence (roughly 605, 597 BC). The nation faces the looming threat of Babylon. Yet a group of prophets counters Jeremiah's warnings with a message of ‘assured peace’ (v.13). These prophets claim divine authority, but God says they speak a ‘lying vision, divination, a thing of nothing’ (v.14). In the ancient Near East, a proper burial was essential for honor and rest. To be left unburied, ‘cast out in the streets’, was the ultimate curse, a sign of utter abandonment both by God and community. The list of ‘them, their wives, their sons, their daughters’ emphasizes the completeness of the devastation: no one remains to perform the basic duty of burial. The people have rejected the true word in favor of comfortable lies, and the consequences touch every generation. Jeremiah's tearful intercession in v.17 shows his anguish, but the damage is done. The famine and sword are not random disasters; they are God's deliberate judgment, poured out like a bowl of wrath. Understanding this context shows why the verse carries such force, it attacks the deepest cultural horror of the time, making visible the spiritual reality of separation from God.
Textual Notes
The consulted sources note no significant manuscript variants for Jeremiah 14:16. The Cambridge Bible mentions that Griesbach (a source-critical scholar, not a textual critic) considers verses 15, 16 metrically irregular and omits them in his reconstruction, but this is a literary judgment, not a text-critical one. The standard Hebrew text (MT) is stable here; the verse is well-attested in Qumran manuscripts of Jeremiah (though not specifically cited in the supplied excerpts).
Reception History
Jeremiah 14:16 has been read in various traditions as a sobering warning about the seduction of false teaching and the accountability of those who embrace it. In the early church, it was sometimes cited in debates about whether those led into heresy by their leaders could claim ignorance. In the medieval period, commentators like Aquinas used it to illustrate the principle that sin merits proportionate punishment. During the Reformation, Calvin pointed to this verse to show that God's severity against both false prophets and their followers was just, because the people had refused the truth. In modern evangelical contexts, the verse is often preached in series on false teachers, emphasising that believers must test all prophecy by Scripture. The image of unburied bodies remains one of the most haunting in the Old Testament, used across traditions to convey the finality of divine rejection.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- False leaders bring ruin on themselves and their followers. The prophets who promised ‘no sword’ will die by the sword. Their hearers, who wanted to hear that lie, will share their fate. Deceived people are not automatically innocent.
- No one to bury them, the horror of absolute loss. In the ancient world, burial was a family and community duty. Having ‘none to bury’ means everyone is dead, or everyone has abandoned the dead. Judgment erases not just life but also the memory and honor that burial provides.
- ‘I will pour their wickedness on them’, sin as its own punishment. God does not send a foreign punishment; He gives the people exactly what their choices deserve. Their own wickedness becomes the cup they must drink.
Five-point outline
- The false prophets' message was popular: peace without repentance.
- The people chose to believe the lie because it was easier than the truth.
- God holds everyone accountable, those who lead astray and those who follow.
- The shame of being unburied was total social and spiritual rejection.
- God's justice is not arbitrary; it is a perfect matching of deed and consequence.
Illustration hooks
- The health-and-wealth preacher. A congregation hears only success and comfort, ignoring calls to repentance. When a scandal breaks, the leaders fall, and the members are left exposed, wondering why their faith didn't protect them.
- The company that wanted good news. A CEO fires the analyst who warns of risk and promotes the one who says everything is fine. The company collapses, and the blame falls equally on the leaders who lied and the board that preferred the lie.
- The guilt of preferring comfort over truth. A person knows a relationship is toxic but listens to friends who say, ‘It will get better.’ The collapse leaves them isolated and ashamed, realizing they were complicit in their own deception.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Does God really punish people who were genuinely deceived by false teachers? How is that fair?
- What does it look like to ‘pour out wickedness on someone’ in everyday life?
- How can I tell if I am listening to a false prophet or a true one before it's too late?
Leading a Discussion
This verse confronts us with a hard truth: being deceived does not automatically excuse us. The people heard both Jeremiah and the false prophets; they chose the voice that told them what they wanted to hear. As a group, sit with the tension between God's justice and mercy. The passage does not let anyone off the hook.
Discussion questions
- Read Jeremiah 14:13, 16 aloud. What do you notice about the relationship between the false prophets and the people?
- Why does God include the people in the punishment, when they are the victims of lying prophets?
- In verse 16, God says, ‘I will pour their wickedness on them.’ Does this refer to their sin, or the punishment for it? How does each reading change the meaning?
- Unburied bodies in the street would be the ultimate shame in ancient Israel. What does this image tell us about the seriousness of choosing to believe a lie about God?
- How can we guard ourselves against wanting to hear messages that make us comfortable rather than messages that are true?
- Are there modern ‘false prophets’ (people or voices) that promise peace without calling for change? How do we resist them?
- If you were a Jew living in Jerusalem at that time, hearing both Jeremiah and the false prophets, which one would you have been tempted to believe? Why?
Word Study
The key original-language words in this verse. Select any word for its full lexicon entry — meaning, every occurrence in Scripture, and related words.
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Psalms 79:2 | They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth. |
| Psalms 79:3 | They have shed their blood like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them. |
| Proverbs 1:31 | Therefore they will eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own schemes. |
| Isaiah 9:16 | For those who lead this people lead them astray; and those who are led by them are destroyed. |
| Jeremiah 2:17 | “Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way? |
| Jeremiah 2:19 | “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies. |
| Jeremiah 4:18 | “Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness, for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart.” |
| Jeremiah 5:31 | The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it? |
Interlinear and lexical data from STEPBible (CC BY 4.0). Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
10 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
And the people - shall be cast out - They shall be destroyed, because they preferred their lying words to my truth, proclaimed by thee.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes interprets the pouring as a divine act of poetic justice: God brings the consequences of a person's own sin back upon them. The punishment is not arbitrary but is the natural fruit of their wickedness returning to rest on their own heads.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin stresses that God's severe judgment on the Jews was not arbitrary but a just reward for their impiety and ingratitude. God pours their own wickedness back on them to silence any complaint of unfairness. The punishment fits the sin, showing that God does not act without cause.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentator notes that the word "wickedness" here refers to the punishment itself, not just the sin. The people's own evil deeds will turn around and become the means of their suffering, a point echoed in Jeremiah.The commentator notes that "their wickedness" refers to the punishment itself, not merely the sin. The people's own evil deeds will become their suffering, a point echoed in Jeremiah.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
The Geneva Notes stress the total severity of the judgment: the prophets and their hearers alike will die by famine and sword, and no one will remain to bury them, even their own families. This complete lack of burial is a mark of utter disgrace, showing that God will pour their own wickedness back on them.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill emphasizes that the punishment falls on entire families, not just individuals. Because all were guilty of idolatry and following false prophets, husbands, wives, sons and daughters die together, leaving no one to bury them. The phrase "I will pour their wickedness upon them" means God pours out just punishment in proportion to their sin.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB notes that "none to bury" refers to the shame of unburied corpses, as in Psalm 79:3. He explains that "pour their wickedness" means the punishment that results from their wickedness, not the wickedness itself, citing Jeremiah 2:19
Keil & Delitzsch OT Commentary Protestant 1876
Keil-Delitzsch stresses that God rejects Jeremiah's prayer because the people "loved to wander" after other gods, a persistent idolatry that hollows out their fasting and sacrifices. The false prophets' lies do not excuse the people, since they willingly believed flattering deceptions that matched their own sinful passions.
Lange's Commentary Reformed 1857
Lange reads this passage as a carefully unified discourse built around the prophet's two intercessions about the drought and God's two rejections. He argues that the entire section belongs to a single period before the fourth year of Jehoiakim, since the enemy is not yet mentioned and the prophet has clearly reached a mature age in his ministry.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry draws a parallel between this passage and the parable of the barren fig tree: God's justice condemns a fruitless people to judgment, while the prophet Jeremiah intercedes for mercy. But here God overrules the intercession, showing that the people's persistent love of wandering has made further pleading pointless.