Judah's punishment looms over the nation so starkly that the prophet receives a call to join in neither feasting nor fasting with his countrymen. Jeremiah's life is to be emotionally truncated, cutting off the highs and lows that naturally mark our human experience.
Instead of pursuing marriage and family, Jeremiah is ordered to abstain from these roles. He is to have neither wife nor children (vs. 2). The reality of his living circumstances will be an enactment against the future of the nation. It is a message that Judah's families are facing death. They will be killed by famine and sword, and there will be no joy or gladness.
In addition, Jeremiah is to refrain from joining with others in the rituals of mourning. "For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy" (vs. 5). Because of the huge amount of death coming to Judah, the Lord says that burials will cease and the rituals of grief will cease to be practiced. Jeremiah's abstinence from the "fasting" that takes place during mourning signifies there will soon be so much to mourn that the typical observances will be stopped because the people will be overwhelmed by death.
Jeremiah is told, "You shall not go to the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish you from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride" (vs. 8-9). There will be no more parties for Judah, thus there will be no more parties for the prophet.
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