Here the Prophet refers to other feasts, where hilarity prevailed. The meaning then is, -- that the people were given up to destruction, so that nothing was better than to depart from them as far as possible. So Jeremiah is prohibited from going at all to them, so that he might not be their associate either in joy or in sorrow; as though he had said, -- 'Have no more anything to do with this people; if they lament their dead, leave them, for they are unworthy of any act of kindness; and if they make joyful feasts, be far from them, for every intercourse with them is accursed." We now then understand why the Prophet spoke of grief, lamentation and mourning, and then mentioned joy. He afterwards adds, --