The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 16 Prediction of the Captivity and Deliverance of Israel

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 16

Prediction of the Captivity and Deliverance of Israel

1 The word of the Lord came to me:

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

3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, concerning their mothers who bear them, and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land:

4 They shall die of grievous diseases, and they shall not be mourned or buried; they shall be like dung on the ground; they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus says the Lord: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament, nor show them any pity, for from this people,” says the Lord, “I have withdrawn my peace, my kindness, and my mercy.”

6 Great and small shall die in this land, and they shall not be buried, nor shall they mourn, nor shall they make incisions for them, nor shall they shave their heads.

7 And no one shall give them any sorrow, to comfort them because of death; nor shall they give them the cup of consolation to drink, for anyone’s father or for anyone’s mother.

8 Do not enter the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and drink.

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

10 And it shall come to pass, when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, “Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? And what is our iniquity, and what is our sin, that we have sinned against the Lord our God?” 

11 Then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have gone after other gods and served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and not kept my law.’

12 And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each of you walks after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so as not to listen to me.

13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.

14 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,’

15 but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them,’ Because I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish for them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them down on every mountain and on every hill, and even in the clefts of the rocks.

17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, nor is their wickedness concealed from my eyes.

18 And first I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

19 O Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble! To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols, in which there is no profit.”

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

21Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this time I will make them know my hand and my power, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.