Jeremias 16

¹ The word of LORD came also to me, saying,

² Thou shall not take thee a wife, nor shall thou have sons or daughters, in this place.

³ For thus says LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who begot them in this land:

⁴ They shall die grievous deaths. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground. And they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine. And their dead bodies shall be food fo

⁵ For thus says LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, nor go to lament, nor bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, says LORD, even loving kindness and tender mercies.

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, nor shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them,

⁷ nor shall men break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead, nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

⁸ And thou shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

⁹ For thus says LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the brid

¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, when thou shall show this people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why has LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed aga

¹¹ Then thou shall say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.

¹² And ye have done evil more than your fathers, for, behold, ye walk each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not to me.

¹³ Therefore I will cast you forth out of this land into the land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers, and there ye shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, the days come, says LORD, that it shall no more be said, As LORD lives who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,

¹⁵ but, As LORD lives who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says LORD, and they shall fish them up. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

¹⁷ For my eyes are upon all their ways. They are not hid from my face, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.

¹⁸ And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

¹⁹ O LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to thee the nations shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in whic

²⁰ Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?

²¹ Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once I will cause them to know my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is LORD.