Jeremiah 16
1 The word of the LORD came to me:
2 “Do not take a wife for yourself, and do not have sons or daughters in this place.
3 For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this place, about the mothers who give birth to them and the fathers who beget them in this land:
4 They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried; they will become manure on the face of the ground. They will be consumed by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.
5 For this is what the LORD says: Do not enter a house of mourning; do not go to mourn or show them compassion, for I have withdrawn my peace from this people—declares the LORD—as well as my faithful love and compassion.
6 Great and small alike will die in this land. They will not be buried, and no one will mourn for them; no one will cut themselves or shave their heads for them.
7 No one will share food with them in mourning to comfort anyone over the dead, and no one will give them the cup of consolation for their father or mother.
8 And you must not enter a house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.
9 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 When you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘Why has the LORD spoken this great disaster against us? What is our guilt, and what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’
11 Then you will say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors abandoned me—declares the LORD—and followed other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They abandoned me and did not keep my law.’”
12 “‘And you have done worse than your ancestors: each of you follows the stubbornness of your own evil heart, without listening to me.
13 So I will drive you out of this land into a land unknown to you or your ancestors. There you will serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no mercy.’”
14 Therefore, the days are coming—declares the LORD—when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up from the land of Egypt.’
15 Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up from the land of the north and from all the lands where he had driven them.’ I will bring them back to their own soil, the soil I gave to their ancestors.
16 I am about to summon many fishermen—declares the LORD—and they will fish for them. After that I will summon many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, every hill, and the clefts of the rocks.
17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, and their guilt is not concealed from my sight.
18 First I will repay them double for their guilt and sin, because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and filled my inheritance with their repulsive practices.
19 LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of distress, nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, ‘Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, empty things that have no benefit.’
20 Can a person make gods for themselves? They are not gods!
21 Therefore, this time I will make them know; I will make them know my hand and my power, and they will know that my name is the LORD.
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