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
No Marriage for Jeremiah
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place. 3For this is what the Lord says concerning sons and daughters born in this place as well as concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who father them in this land: 4They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like manure on the face of the earth. # Jr 8:2; 9:22; 25:33 They will be finished off by sword and famine. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. # Dt 28:26; Is 18:6; Jr 7:33
5“For this is what the Lord says: Don’t enter a house where a mourning feast is taking place. # Lit house of mourning Don’t go to lament or sympathize with them, for I have removed My peace from these people” — this is the Lord’s declaration — “as well as My faithful love and compassion. # Ps 25:6; 40:11; 69:16 6Both great and small will die in this land without burial. No lament will be made for them, nor will anyone cut himself or # Dt 14:1 shave his head for them. # This custom demonstrated pagan mourning rituals. 7Food won’t be provided for the mourner # Dt 26:14; Ezk 24:17; Hs 9:4 to comfort him because of the dead. A cup of consolation won’t be given him because of the loss of his father or mother. 8You must not enter the house where feasting is taking place to sit with them to eat and drink. 9For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am about to eliminate from this place, before your very eyes and in your time, the sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride. # Jr 7:34; 25:10; 33:11
Abandoning the Lord and His Law
10“When you tell these people all these things, they will say to you, ‘Why has the Lord declared all this great disaster against us? # Jr 5:19 What is our guilt? What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God? ’ 11Then you will answer them: Because your fathers abandoned Me” # Dt 29:25; Jr 1:16; 2:13,17,19; 5:19; 17:13; 22:9 — this is the Lord’s declaration — “and followed other gods, served them, and worshiped them. # Dt 29:26 Indeed, they abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction. 12You did more evil than your fathers. # Jr 7:26 Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying Me. 13So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your fathers are not familiar with. # Jr 15:14; 17:4; 22:26 There you will worship other gods # Dt 4:28; 28:36,64 both day and night, for I will not grant you grace. # Or compassion
14“However, take note! The days are coming” # Jr 7:32; 19:6; 23:5; 48:12; 49:2; 51:47,52 — the Lord’s declaration — “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’ # Jr 23:7-8 15but rather, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of the north # Jr 3:18 and from all the other lands where He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their ancestors. # Jr 23:8
Punishment of Exile
16“I am about to send for many fishermen” # Am 4:2; Hab 1:14-15 — this is the Lord’s declaration — “and they will fish for them. Then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and out of the clefts of the rocks, 17for My gaze takes in all their ways. # Jr 32:19; 2Ch 16:9; Jb 34:21; Ps 90:8; Pr 5:21 They are not concealed from Me, and their guilt is not hidden from My sight. 18I will first repay them double for their guilt # Jr 17:18 and sin because they have polluted My land. They have filled My inheritance with the lifelessness of their detestable and abhorrent idols.”
19Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in a time of distress, # Ps 37:39; Nah 1:7
the nations will come to You
from the ends of the earth, and they will say,
“Our fathers inherited only lies,
worthless idols # Jr 8:19; 10:8,15; 14:22 of no benefit at all.”
20Can one make gods for himself?
But they are not gods. # Gn 1:26; Jr 2:11
21“Therefore, I am about to inform them,
and this time I will make them know
My power and My might;
then they will know that My name is Yahweh.” # Jr 33:2
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