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
The LORD's Will for Jeremiah's Life
1Again the LORD spoke to me and said, 2“Do not marry or have children in a place like this. 3I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents. 4They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.
5“You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy. 6The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. No one will gash himself or shave his head to show his grief. 7No one will eat or drink with anyone to comfort him when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost his father or mother.
8“Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink. 9#Jer 7.34; 25.10; Rev 18.23Listen to what I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen.
10“When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against the LORD their God. 11Then tell them that the LORD has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshipped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings. 12But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me. 13So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’ ”
The Return from Exile
14The LORD says, “The time is coming when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 15Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, the LORD, have spoken.”
The Coming Punishment
16The LORD says, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks. 17I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight. 18I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.”
Jeremiah's Prayer of Confidence in the LORD
19 LORD, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols. 20Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”
21“So then,” says the LORD, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am the LORD.”
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.