Back to Jeremiah 16

Jeremiah 16:21

“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.”

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    “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.”

  • KJV King James Version

    Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

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

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Cross-references (12)

Passages linked to Jeremiah 16:21 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Psalms 9:16 Yahweh has made himself known. He has executed judgment. The wicked is snared by the work of his own hands.
  • Psalms 83:18 that they may know that you alone, whose name is Yahweh, are the Most High over all the earth.
  • Jeremiah 33:2 “Yahweh who does it, Yahweh who forms it to establish it—Yahweh is his name, says:
  • Amos 5:8 seek him who made the Pleiades and Orion, and turns the shadow of death into the morning, and makes the day dark with night; who calls for the waters of the sea, and pours them out on the surface of the earth, Yahweh is his name,
  • Exodus 15:3 Yahweh is a man of war. Yahweh is his name.
  • Isaiah 43:3 For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I have given Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place.
  • Exodus 9:14-18 For this time I will send all my plagues against your heart, against your officials, and against your people; that you may know that there is no one like me in all the earth. For now I would have stretched out my hand, and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth; but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth, because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as has not been in Egypt since the day it was founded even until now.
  • Exodus 14:4 I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will follow after them; and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh.” They did so.
  • Ezekiel 6:7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am Yahweh.
  • Ezekiel 24:24 Thus Ezekiel will be a sign to you; according to all that he has done, you will do. When this comes, then you will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.’ ” ’ ”
  • Ezekiel 24:27 In that day your mouth will be opened to him who has escaped, and you will speak, and be no more mute. So you will be a sign to them. Then they will know that I am Yahweh.”
  • Ezekiel 25:14 I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath. Then they will know my vengeance,” says the Lord Yahweh.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet again threatens the Jews, because their impiety…

The Prophet again threatens the Jews, because their impiety was inexcusable, especially when attended with so great an obstinacy, he therefore says that God was already present as a judge: Behold I, he says — the demonstrative particle shews the near approach of vengeance — I will shew at this time: the words are emphatical, for God indirectly intimates that the Babylonian exile would be an extraordinary event, far exceeding every other which had preceded it. At this time, he says — that is, if ye have hitherto been tardy and insensible, or, if the punishments I have already inflicted have not been sufficiently severe — I will at this time shew to them my hand and my power; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah

This way of speaking often occurs in Scripture; but God here, no doubt, reproves the false sentiments with which the Jews were imbued, and by which they were led astray from true religion — for they had devised for themselves many gods; hence he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, that is, that my name is sacred, and ought not to be given to others. But at the same time he intimates that he would shew to them his power by destroying them, which they had refused to acknowledge in the preservation promised to them. They would indeed have ever found the God of Abraham to be the same, had they not deprived themselves of his favor. As then they had wandered after their own delusions and inventions, God says now, I will shew to them my hand, that is, for their ruin; and they shall now know for their own misery what they had refused to acknowledge for their own safety — that I am the only true God.

Read full note →

Here let us first learn that it was wholly a diabolical madness, when men dared to devise for themselves a god; for had they regarded their own beginning and their own end, doubtless they could not have betrayed so much presumption and audacity as to invent a god for themselves. If this only came to the mind of an idolater, “What art thou? whence is thine origin? where goest thou, and what end awaits thee?” all his false imaginations would have instantly fallen to the ground; he would no longer think of forming a god for himself, nor of worshipping anything he might invent. How then does it happen that men proceed to such a madness as to devise gods for themselves, according to their own fancies, except that they know not themselves? It is then no wonder that men are blind in seeking God, when they do not consider nor examine themselves. It hence follows that God cannot be rightly worshipped except men are made humble. And humility is the best preparation for faith, that there may be a submission to the word of God. Idolaters do indeed pretend some kind of humility, but they afterwards involve themselves in such stupidity, that they are unwining to make any enquiry, so as to make any difference between light and darkness. But true humility leads us to seek God in his word.

But when the Prophet asks this question, “Shall man make a god for himself?” he does not mean, that either the Egyptians or the Assyrians were so ignorant as to think that they could give divinity to wood or stone; but that whatever men dared to invent for themselves as to divine worship, was nothing else but the creation of a god. As soon then as we allow ourselves the liberty to worship God in this or in that way, or to imagine God to be such and such a being, we create gods for ourselves. And as to that point where he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, we must observe, that what is his own is taken away from God, except we acquiesce in him alone, so as to allow no other divinities to creep in and to be received; for God does not retain his own right or his own glory, except he be regarded as the only true God. Now follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain They shall once again feel my power and mercy…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 16:21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Because all the goodness and mercy that I have…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Therefore - Because all the mercy I have shewed…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 21. Therefore, behold, I will this once] I…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 16:21. Therefore I will this once — Or,…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain This once - Whether we consider the greatness of…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Power, in taking vengeance on idolatry. --- Lord. "He…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Therefore--In order that all may be turned from idols…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 21. This once — There is here most significant…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 21. Gi. considers this v. to be late, as…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (21) I will this once cause them to know…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The final answer of Jehovah. There will be no…
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain The Lord
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:21 The Lord will require all people to know…

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