Both the great and the lowly will die in this land. No one will bury them or mourn for them. Their friends will not cut themselves in sorrow or shave their heads in sadness.
Parallel translations
- WEB Both great and 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;
- KJV 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:
- BSB “Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.
- NKJV Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
- NASB Both great people and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not mourn for them, nor will anyone make cuts on himself or have his head shaved for them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Both great and small will die in the land, unburied and unmourned, with none performing the customary acts of grief. Death will become so widespread that normal rites of mourning cease entirely.
Overview
The leveling of great and small in death shows that judgment falls on all classes alike. The absence of lament and burial customs, including the pagan practices forbidden in the law (Leviticus 19:28), reflects a society overwhelmed by calamity. Such sober realism about death's reach underscores humanity's universal need for the resurrection hope secured by Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Deut 14:1You are the children of Yahweh your God. You shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
- Jer 47:5Baldness has come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?
- Jer 41:5men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to Yahweh’s house.
- Lev 19:28“‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
- Isa 22:12In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
- Jer 48:37For every head is bald, and every beard clipped. There are cuttings on all the hands, and sackcloth on the waist.
- Ezek 9:5–6To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity.
- Isa 24:2It will be as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the creditor, so with the debtor; as with the taker of interest, so with the giver of interest.
- Jer 13:13Then tell them, ‘Yahweh says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
- Jer 16:4“They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.”
- Rev 6:15The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
- Jer 22:18–19Therefore Yahweh says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying ‘Ah lord!’ or, ‘Ah his glory!’
- Isa 9:14–17Therefore Yahweh will cut off from Israel head and tail, palm branch and reed, in one day.
- Jer 7:29Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
- Amos 6:11“For, behold, Yahweh commands, and the great house will be smashed to pieces, and the little house into bits.
- Rev 20:12I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 16:6 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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