Jeremiah 16

VIN^{(i) 1} The word of the LORD came to me: ² You, neither take a woman nor have sons or daughters in this place: ³ For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters who are born in this place, about their mothers who give birth to them, and about their fathers who father them in this land: ⁴ "They will die of lethal diseases. They will not be mourned or buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground and die by sword and famine (war and starvation). Their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth." ⁵ For so says the LORD, Do not enter into the house of mourning. Do not go to weep or moan for them. For I have taken away My peace with loving-kindness and compassions from this people says the LORD. ⁶ "Both great and small men will die in this land. They will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. ⁷ No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their mother. ⁸ And do not thou go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, and to eat and drink: ⁹ For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, before your eyes and in your days I will put an end in this place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride. ¹⁰ "When you tell the people all these things, they will ask you: 'Why does the LORD threaten us with all these disasters? What have we done wrong? How have we sinned against the LORD our God?'" ¹¹ Then say to them, 'It is because your ancestors abandoned me,' declares the LORD. 'They followed other gods, served them, worshipped them, abandoned me, and didn't keep my Law. ¹² And you have done more evil than your fathers. For, behold, you each one walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to Me. ¹³ I'll throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, and I'll show you no favor.' ¹⁴ "Therefore, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when it will no longer be said, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought up the Israelites from the land of Egypt.' ¹⁵ Rather it will be said, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up from the land of the north and from all the lands to which the LORD had banished them.' I'll bring them back to their land, which I gave to their ancestors. ¹⁶ "I'm about to send many fishermen, declares the LORD, and they'll catch them. Afterwards, I'll send for many hunters and they'll hunt for them on every mountain and hill and in the crevices of the rocks. ¹⁷ For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ First I'll repay them double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the dead bodies of their detestable images, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations." ¹⁹ O LORD, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and will say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, even vanity and things in which there is no profit. ²⁰ Can a man make gods to himself? But 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.