Jeremiah 16:7 - Exposition

Tear themselves for them . The verb is used in Isaiah 58:7 of breaking bread (the accusative is there expressed), and there is no doubt that this is the meaning here. The only question is whether lahem , for them, should not rather be lekhem , bread. St. Jerome sees here an allusion to the funeral feasts (comp. the parentalia ), and surely he is right. The Jews had a conception of the nature of the life of the other world only less distinct than that of their Egyptian neighbors. The funeral feast was not merely for the living, but for the dead. Indeed, it was primarily intended for the spiritual nourish-merit of those who had gone before to the unseen world. Chardin, the old traveler, asserts that "the Oriental Christians still make banquets of this kind by a custom derived from the Jews." The cup of consolation . It would seem as if the funeral feasts had dwindled among the Jews into little more than a refection for the benefit of the mourners.