Jeremiah 16
16
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 "You shall not take a wife, and there shall be no sons or daughters for you in this place.
3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are conceived in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and concerning their fathers, from whose stock they have been born in this land:
4 They will die from grievous mortal illnesses. They will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure on the face of the earth. And they will be consumed by sword and by famine. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the land."
5 For thus says the Lord: "You shall not enter the house of feasting, and you shall not go to mourn or to console them. For I have taken away from this people, says the Lord, my peace, my mercy, and my pity.
6 Both the great and the small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not be mourned. And no one will cut themselves or make themselves bald on their behalf.
7 And they will not break bread among themselves for the sake of him who mourns, so as to console him over the dead. And they will not give them a chalice to drink, so as to console them over their father and mother.
8 And so, you shall not enter the house of feasting, so as to sit with them, and to eat and drink."
9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will take away from this place, in your sight and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
10 And when you announce all these words to this people, they will say to you: 'Why would the Lord pronounce all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?'
11 And you shall say to them: It is because your fathers abandoned me, says the Lord. And they went after strange gods, and they served them and adored them. And they abandoned me, and they did not keep my law.
12 But you have acted even worse than your fathers. For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his own evil heart, so that he does not listen to me.
13 And so, I will cast you out of this land, into a land that you do not know, and that your fathers did not know. And in that place, you will serve, day and night, strange gods who will not give you rest.
14 Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, 'As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,'
15 but instead, 'As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of the north,' and from all the lands to which I have cast them out. And I will lead them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish for them. And after this, I will send many hunters to them, and they will hunt for them on every mountain, and on every hilltop, and in the caverns of the rocks.
17 For my eyes are upon all their ways. They have not been hidden from my face, and their iniquity has not been concealed from my eyes.
18 But first, I will repay their double iniquities and their sins. For they have defiled my land with the dead bodies of their idols, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations."
19 "O Lord, my strength, and my health, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: the Gentiles will approach you from the ends of the earth, and they will say: 'Truly, our fathers possessed a lie, an emptiness that has not benefited them.'
20 How can man make gods for himself, though these are not gods?"
21 "Concerning this, behold: I will make it clear to them, in this turn. I will reveal to them my hand and my virtue. And they will know that the Lord is my name."
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Jeremiah 16
16
The Day of Disaster
1The Lord’s message came to me: 2“Jeremiah, you must not get married. You must not have sons or daughters in this place.”
3This is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters who are born in the land of Judah and about their mothers and fathers: 4“They will die from terrible disease. And no one will cry for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie on the ground like dung. Or they will die in war or starve to death. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth.”
5So the Lord says, “Jeremiah, don’t go into a house where people are eating a funeral meal. Don’t go there to cry for the dead or to show your sorrow. Don’t do these things, because I have taken back my blessing. I will not be kind to the people of Judah. I will not feel sorry for them.” This message is from the Lord.
6“Important people and common people will die in the land of Judah. No one will bury them or cry for them. No one will cut himself or shave his head to show sorrow for them. 7No one will bring food to those who are crying for the dead. No one will comfort those whose mother or father has died. No one will offer a drink to comfort those who are crying for the dead.
8“Jeremiah, don’t go into a house where the people are having a party. Don’t go into that house and sit down to eat and drink. 9This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel says: I will soon stop the sounds of people having fun. I will stop the happy sounds of people enjoying a wedding party. This will happen during your lifetime. I will do these things very soon.
10“Jeremiah, you will tell the people of Judah these things, and the people will ask you, ‘Why has the Lord said these terrible things to us? What have we done wrong? What sin have we done against the Lord our God?’ 11You must tell them: ‘Terrible things will happen to you because your ancestors stopped following me.’ This message is from the Lord. ‘They stopped following me and began to follow and serve other gods. They worshiped those other gods. Your ancestors left me and stopped obeying my law. 12But you people have sinned more than your ancestors. You are very stubborn, and you are doing only what you want to do. You are not obeying me. Because you do only what you want to do, 13I will throw you out of this country. I will force you to go to a foreign land. You will go to a land that you and your ancestors never knew. There you can serve false gods all you want to. I will not help you or show you any favors.’
14“People make promises and say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives—the Lord who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt ….’ But the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when people will not say that. 15They will say something new. They will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives—the Lord who brought the Israelites out of the northern land, who brought them out of all the countries where he had sent them ….’ Why will they say that? Because I will bring the Israelites back to the land that I gave to their ancestors.
16“I will soon send for many fishermen to come to this land.” This message is from the Lord. “They will catch the people of Judah. After that happens, I will send for many hunters#16:16 fishermen … hunters This means the enemy soldiers from Babylon. to come to this land. They will hunt the people of Judah on every mountain and hill and in the cracks of the rocks. 17I see everything they do. The people of Judah cannot hide the things they do. Their sin is not hidden from me. 18I will pay the people of Judah back for the evil things they did—I will punish them two times for every sin. I will do this because they have made my land ‘dirty.’ They made my land ‘dirty’ with their terrible idols. I hate those idols, but they have filled my country with their idols.”
19Lord, you are my strength and my protection.
You are a safe place to run to in time of trouble.
The nations will come to you from all around the world.
They will say, “Our fathers had false gods.
They worshiped those worthless idols,
but the idols did not help them.
20Can people make real gods for themselves?
No, they can only make statues that are not really gods.”
21“So I will teach those who make idols.
Right now I will teach them about my power and my strength.
Then they will know that I am God.
They will know that I am the Lord.
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