Jeremiah 16
16
The LORD Tells Jeremiah Not to Marry
1The Lord spoke his word to me. He said, 2“Don’t marry! Don’t have any sons or daughters in this place! 3This is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this place and about the mothers and fathers who have children in this land: 4They will die horrible deaths. No one will mourn for them or bury them. They will be like manure on the ground. Wars and famines will bring them to an end. Their bodies will be food for birds and animals.
5“This is what the Lord says: Don’t go into a house where people are grieving. Don’t go to mourn or to grieve for them. I’m taking my peace, love, and compassion away from these people,” declares the Lord. 6“Old and young alike will die in this land. No one will mourn for them or bury them. No one will cut his own body or shave his own head for them. 7No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn the dead. No one will give a consoling drink to those who have lost their fathers or mothers.
8“Don’t even go into a home where there is a banquet. Don’t sit with them to eat and drink. 9This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I’m going to put a stop to the sounds of joy and happiness and the sounds of brides and grooms in this place. This will happen in your lifetime, while you watch.
10“When you tell the people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why does the Lord threaten us with all these disasters? What have we done wrong? How have we sinned against the Lord our God?’ 11Then say to them, ‘It’s because your ancestors abandoned me, declares the Lord. They followed other gods, served them, worshiped them, and abandoned me. They didn’t obey my teachings. 12You have done worse than your ancestors. All of you are following your own stubborn, evil ways that keep you from obeying me. 13So I will throw you out of this land into a land that you and your ancestors haven’t heard of. There you will serve other gods day and night because I will no longer have pity on you.’
14“That is why the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when people will no longer begin an oath with, ‘The Lord brought the people of Israel out of Egypt. As the Lord lives….’ 15But they will say, ‘The Lord brought the people of Israel out of the land of the north and all the lands where he had scattered them. As the Lord lives….’ They will say this because I will bring them back to the land that I gave their ancestors.
16“I’m going to send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch the people of Israel. After that, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt for them on every mountain and hill and even in the cracks in the rocks. 17I see everything that they do. They can’t hide anything from me. Their wickedness can’t be hidden; I can see it. 18First, I will have them pay twice as much for their wickedness and their sin, because they have polluted my land. They have filled my property with the lifeless statues of their detestable and disgusting idols.”
19The Lord is my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in times of trouble.
Nations come to you from the most distant parts of the world
and say, “Our ancestors have inherited lies,
worthless and unprofitable gods.”
20“People can’t make gods for themselves.
They aren’t really gods.
21That is what I will teach them.
This time I will make my power and my strength known to them.
Then they will know that my name is the Lord.”
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Jeremiah 16: GW
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission 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 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.