Jeremiah 16

1. The Word of the LORD came to me, saying,

2. “You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

3. For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who begot them in this land:

4. “They shall die grievous deaths of diseases; they shall not be mourned, nor shall they be buried. But they shall be as dung on the face of the earth. And they shall be destroyed by the sword and by famine; and their bodies shall be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

5. For thus says the LORD, “Do not enter into the house of mourning; do not go to weep nor moan over them. For I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “even lovingkindness and mercies.

6. Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, nor shall men mourn for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

7. Nor shall anyone offer food to them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Nor shall anyone give them the cup of comfort to drink for their father or for their mother.

8. Also you shall not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.”

9. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will cause the voice of mirth to cease out of this place before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of gladness, and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10. And it shall come to pass, when you declare to this people all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity, or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

11. Then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD, ‘and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law.

12. And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk each one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without hearkening to Me;

13. Even I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.’

14. Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘As the LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’

15. But, ‘As the LORD lives, Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ And I will bring them again into their lands that I gave to their fathers.

16. Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they will fish them. And afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

17. For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

18. But first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin because they have defiled My land, they have filled My inheritance with the dead bodies of their abominable things.”

19. O LORD, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth, and shall say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.”

20. Shall a man make gods to himself when they are not gods?

21. “Therefore, behold, I will make them know; this time I will cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is the LORD.”