1Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2“You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” 3For Yahweh says concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became their father in this land: 4“They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”
5For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. 6Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. 7Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8“You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.” 9For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’ 11then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. 12You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. 13Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14“Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ 15but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.’ I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes. 18First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
19Yahweh, my strength, my stronghold,
and my refuge in the day of affliction,
the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth,
and will say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
vanity and things in which there is no profit.
20Should a man make to himself gods
which yet are no gods?”
21“Therefore behold, I will cause them to know,
this once I will cause them to know my hand and my might.
Then they will know that my name is Yahweh.”
4:18–20 I will make you fishers of men: This allusion to Jer 16:16 was used to call Peter and Andrew to discipleship and a life of ministry. There may be an allusion to the statement of Jeremiah 16:16 in the words of Jesus.
John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus had met them earlier in His ministry. They appear to have returned home and gone back to work in their business.
Likely, the net is a “cast net” which was used in shallow water during the daytime. This was a round net with weights around its edge. It was thrown out in such a way as to spread open and then fall into the water. The weights would go to the bottom, and unsuspecting fish would be caught under the net. The fisherman would then swim down to the bottom with an enclosed basket. He would take any fish caught and put them in the basket, and then swim back to the surface.
Jesus’ call was understood to include them giving up their occupations to follow Him. His offer to make them “fishers of men” was a play on words. It implied that their occupation had not changed, only the prize.