Jeremiah 16

Distresses Foretold

1The word of the Lord also came to me saying, 2“You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their 1mothers who bear them, and their 2fathers who beget them in this land: 4“They will 3die of deadly diseases, they 4will not be lamented or buried; they will be as 5dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the 6birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”

5For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of 78mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have 9withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My 10lovingkindness and compassion. 6Both 11great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone 12gash himself or 13shave his head for them. 7Men will not 14break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8Moreover you shall 15not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to 1617eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

10“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘18For what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11Then you are to say to them, ‘It is 19because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed 20other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12You too have done evil, even 21more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the 22stubbornness of his own 23evil heart, without listening to Me. 13So I will 24hurl you out of this land into the 25land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will 26serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

God Will Restore Them

14“27Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who 28brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the 29land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

16“Behold, I am going to send for many 30fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will 31hunt them 32from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 1733For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, 34nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18I will first 35doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have 36polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their 37detestable idols and with their abominations.”

19O Lord, my 38strength and my stronghold, And my 39refuge in the day of distress, To You the 40nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but 41falsehood, Futility and 4243things of no profit.”20Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are 44not gods!

21“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know-- This time I will 45make them know My 46power and My might; And they shall 47know that My name is the Lord.”