Jeremiah 16

¹The word of the Lord

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

³For thus says the Lord

⁴“They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵For thus says the Lord

⁶Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

⁷Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.

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

⁹For thus says the Lord

¹⁰“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord

¹¹then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord

¹²And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.

¹³Therefore 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 are coming,” says the Lord

¹⁵but, ‘The Lord

¹⁶“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord

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

¹⁸And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

¹⁹O Lord My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”

²⁰Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods?

²¹“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the Lord