You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
All Commentaries on Jeremiah 16:2 Go To Jeremiah 16
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Place. It was going to be destroyed, and the cares of a family might interrupt the prophet. The Fathers believe that Jeremias never married, (see St. Jerome in chap. xxiii. Isidor.) which was then a rare example. (Calmet)
He always lived a single life, and not only in time of tribulation. (St. Jerome, contra Jov. 1.) (Worthington)
The Church enforces this law of God for her sacred ministers, in sub deacons and the higher orders. St. Paul shows the propriety of such a regulation, (1 Corinthians vii.) which innovators deem unnatural and tyrannical. How then could God enforce it once? With his grace we may observe celibacy like Jeremias. (Haydock)
