Jeremiah 16
16
Jeremiah Must Live His Message
1The Lord said to me:
2Jeremiah, don't get married and have children—Judah is no place to raise a family. 3I'll tell you what's going to happen to children and their parents here. 4They will die of horrible diseases and of war and starvation. No one will give them a funeral or bury them, and their bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals. And what's left will lie on the ground like manure.
5When someone dies, don't visit the family or show any sorrow. I will no longer love or bless or have any pity on the people of Judah. 6Rich and poor alike will die and be left unburied. No one will mourn and show their sorrow by cutting themselves or shaving their heads.#16.6 mourn and show their sorrow by cutting themselves or shaving their heads: A custom in some Canaanite religions. 7No one will bring food and wine to help comfort those who are mourning the death of their father or mother.
8Don't even set foot in a house where there is eating and drinking and celebrating. 9#Jr 7.34; 25.10; Rev 18.23. Warn the people of Judah that I, the Lord All-Powerful, will put an end to all their parties and wedding celebrations. 10They will ask, “Why has the Lord our God threatened us with so many disasters? Have we done something wrong or sinned against him?”
11Then tell them I have said:
People of Judah, your ancestors turned away from me; they rejected my laws and teachings and started worshiping other gods. 12And you have done even worse! You are stubborn, and instead of obeying me, you do whatever evil comes to your mind. 13So I will throw you into a land that you and your ancestors know nothing about, a place where you will have to worship other gods both day and night. And I won't feel the least bit sorry for you.
14A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living Lord who rescued Israel from Egypt. 15Instead, you will call me the Living Lord who rescued you from that country in the north and from the other countries where I had forced you to go.
Someday I will bring you back to this land that I gave your ancestors. 16But for now, I am sending enemies who will catch you like fish and hunt you down like wild animals in the hills and the caves.
17I can see everything you are doing, even if you try to hide your sins from me. 18I will punish you double for your sins, because you have polluted my own land. You have filled it with lifeless idols that remind me of dead bodies.
The Lord Gives Strength
I prayed to the Lord:
19Our Lord, you are the one
who gives me strength
and protects me like a fortress
when I am in trouble.
People will come to you
from distant nations and say,
“Our ancestors worshiped
false and useless gods,
20worthless idols
made by human hands.”
21Then the Lord replied,
“That's why I will teach them
about my power,
and they will know that I
truly am the Lord.”
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Jeremiah 16: CEVDCI
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 16
16
1The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying, 2Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land: 4They shall die of grievous deaths; they shalt not be lamented, neither 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 carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 5For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and tender mercies. 6Both great and small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them: 7neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. 8And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. 9For thus saith the 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 bride.
10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? 11Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the 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; 12and ye have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto me: 13therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; for I will shew you no favour.
14Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15but, As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. 16Behold, I will send for many fishers saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from mine eyes. 18And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have polluted my land with the carcases of their detestable things, and have filled mine inheritance with their abominations. 19O LORD, my strength, and my strong hold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, even vanity and things wherein there is no profit. 20Shall a man make unto himself gods, which yet are no gods? 21Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.
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historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society