1A message from the LORD came to me. He said,2‘Jeremiah, you must not get married. You must not have any sons or daughters in this land.’3Here is the LORD’s message about the children born in this place. He says about them and their parents,4‘Some of them will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will be like human waste lying there on the ground. Others will die because of war and hunger. Their bodies will not be buried. Instead, they will become food for the birds and the wild animals.’5The LORD says, ‘Jeremiah, suppose a meal is being served because someone has died. Do not enter any house where that is happening. Do not go there to mourn or to comfort the family. I will not bless these people anymore. I have taken my love and pity away from them,’ announces the LORD.6‘Important and unimportant people alike will die in this land. Their bodies will not be buried. No one will mourn for them. No one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead.7No one will offer food or drink to comfort those who mourn for the dead. No one will do this even if someone’s father or mother has died.8‘Do not enter a house where a feast is being held. Do not sit down there to eat and drink.9I am the LORD who rules over all. I am the God of Israel. I am telling you, “In your days I will judge your people. You will see it with your own eyes. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness here in Jerusalem. The voices of brides and grooms will not be heard anymore.”10‘Tell these people all these things. They will ask you, “Why has the LORD decided to send so much trouble on us? We haven’t done anything wrong. We haven’t committed any sins against the LORD our God.”11When they say this, here is what you should tell them. “I did it because your people of long ago deserted me,” announces the LORD. “They followed other gods. They served them and worshipped them. They deserted me. They did not obey my law.12But you have done more evil things than they did. All of you are doing what your stubborn and evil hearts want you to do. You are not obeying me.13So I will throw you out of this land. I will send you away to another land. Neither you nor your people of long ago have known about it. There you will serve other gods day and night. And I will not give you any help.”14‘But a new day is coming,’ announces the LORD. ‘At that time here is what people will no longer say. “As sure as he is alive, the LORD brought the Israelites up out of Egypt.”15Instead, they will say, “The LORD brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north. He gathered them out of all the countries where he had forced them to go. And that’s just as sure as he is alive.” I will bring them back to the land I gave their people of long ago.16‘But now I will send for many fishermen,’ announces the LORD. ‘They will catch some of these people. After that, I will send for many hunters. They will hunt down the others on every mountain and hill. They will bring them out of the cracks in the rocks.17My eyes see everything these people do. What they do is not hidden from me. I always see their sin.18I will pay them back double for their sin and the evil things they have done. They have made my land “unclean”. They have set up lifeless statues of their evil gods. They have filled my land with them. I hate those gods.’19LORD, you give me strength. You are like a fort to me. When I’m in trouble, I go to you for safety. The nations will come to you from one end of the earth to the other. They will gather together and say, ‘Our people of long ago didn’t own anything except statues of gods. The statues were worthless. They didn’t do them any good.20Do human beings really make their own gods? Yes. But they aren’t really gods at all!’21The LORD says, ‘So I will teach them about myself. This time I will show them how powerful and mighty I am. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
Jeremiah 16
English Standard Version
Famine, Sword, and Death
1The word of the Lord came to me:2“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:4They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth. (Jer 7:33; Jer 8:2; Jer 14:12; Jer 15:2; Jer 22:18; Jer 25:33)5“For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. (Eze 24:16)6Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them. (Le 19:28; De 14:1; Job 1:20; Isa 3:24; Jer 16:4)7No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. (De 26:14; Isa 58:7; Eze 24:17; Ho 9:4)8You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.9For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. (Jer 7:34)10“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ (Jer 5:19)11then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, (De 29:25; 2Ki 22:17; 2Ch 34:25; Jer 5:19; Jer 13:10; Jer 22:9)12and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. (Jer 3:17; Jer 7:26)13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ (De 4:26; De 28:36; De 28:64; Isa 22:17; Jer 10:18; Jer 15:14; Jer 22:26)
The Lord Will Restore Israel
14“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ (Jer 4:2; Jer 23:7)15but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers. (Isa 43:5; Jer 3:18; Jer 16:14; Jer 24:6; Jer 30:3; Jer 32:37)16“Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. (Jer 13:4; Eze 12:13; Am 4:2; Hab 1:15)17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. (2Ch 16:9; Job 34:21; Ps 51:9; Ps 90:8; Pr 5:21; Jer 32:19)18But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” (Isa 40:2; Isa 65:4; Jer 17:18; Eze 43:7)19O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. (2Sa 22:33; Ps 28:7; Ps 31:3; Isa 9:2; Isa 25:4; Isa 49:6; Isa 49:22; Jer 17:17; Jer 18:15)20Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!” (Jer 2:11; 1Co 8:4)21“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.” (Jer 33:2)