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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Jeremiah 16: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. 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.
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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