(34) Then will I cause to cease . . . the voice of mirth.—The special imagery of the picture of desolation is characteristic of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 16:9; Jeremiah 25:10; Jeremiah 33:11). No words could paint the utter break-up of the life of the nation more forcibly. Nothing is heard but wailing and lamentation, or, more terrible even than that, there is the utter silence of solitude. The capacity for joy and the occasions for rejoicing (comp. 1 Maccabees 9:39 for the bridal rejoicings of Israel) belong alike to the past.

Shall be desolate.—The same word as in the “waste places” of Isaiah 51:3; Isaiah 58:12; it is used in Ezekiel 13:4 for the haunts of the “foxes,” or rather the “jackals” of the “deserts,” but always of places that, having been once inhabited, have fallen into ruins (Leviticus 26:31).

7:29-34 In token both of sorrow and of slavery, Jerusalem must be degraded, and separated from God, as she had been separated to him. The heart is the place in which God has chosen to put his name; but if sin has the innermost and uppermost place there, we pollute the temple of the Lord. The destruction of Jerusalem appears here very terrible. The slain shall be many; they having made it the place of their sin. Evil pursues sinners, even after death. Those who will not, by the grace of God, be cured of vain mirth, shall, by the justice of God, be deprived of all mirth. How many ruin their health and property without complaining, when engaged in Satan's service! May we learn to relish holy joys, and to sit loose to all others though lawful.Silence and desolation are to settle upon the whole land. 34. Referring to the joyous songs and music with which the bride and bridegroom were escorted in the procession to the home of the latter from that of the former; a custom still prevalent in the East (Jer 16:9; Isa 24:7, 8; Re 18:23). All kind and degrees of mirth shall cease, Revelation 18:23, all places shall be filled with lamentations and woe; their singing shall be turned into sighing; they shall lay aside all things that are for the comfort of Human society, which is to be understood in this expression.

For the land shall be desolate; there shall be such an utter devastation, that there shall be neither season nor place for these things, Isaiah 64:10,11 Jer 25:10: where marrying shall cease, without which mankind cannot subsist, there must needs be desolation.

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem,.... Signifying that the devastation should not only be in and about Jerusalem, but should reach all over the land of Judea; since in all cities, towns, and villages, would cease

the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness; upon any account whatever; and, instead of that, mourning, weeping, and lamentation:

the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; no marrying, and giving in marriage, and so no expressions of joy on such occasions; and consequently no likelihood, at present, of repeopling the city of Jerusalem, and the other cities of Judah:

for the land shall be desolate; without people to dwell in it, and till it. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "the whole land".

Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.