God is about to judge Judah and so he commands Jeremiah not to marry, not to go to funerals and not to take part in celebrations as a symbolic demonstration of being ready for the impending demonstration of the wrath of God. Then when the people ask the reason for such impending judgement Jeremiah is told to tell them it is because their fathers forsook him and followed and served other gods. However the current generation is worse still following the stubbornness of their hearts. So as punishment God will throw them out of their land and send them into exile where they can serve foreign gods as much as they like, but God will show them no favour. Despite the pronouncement of ruthless exile the chapter progresses to a more positive note with God promising to send out fishermen and hunters to find his scattered people and bring them to justice because "their sin is not concealed from my eyes... I will repay them double for their wickedness... and detestable idols". There ensues however still a promise of deliverance of God's people so much so that they will remember more the deliverance from Babylon than the deliverance from Egypt, and the nations will realize that their hand-made gods are not gods at all.
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