Jeremiah 16

1The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor shall sons or daughters be yours in this place.

3For this is what Yahweh says about the sons and daughters born in this place, and about their mothers who bore them, and about their fathers who fathered them in this land.

4They will die from mortal sicknesses; no one will mourn them or bury them, but they will become dung on the face of the ground, consumed by the sword and famine, and their carcasses will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

5For thus says Yahweh: Do not enter a house of mourning, nor go to mourn, nor bemoan them, for I have removed my peace from this people, declares Yahweh—the favor and the mercies.

6Great and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will anyone wail for them, nor gash themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

7Neither will bread be broken for them in mourning to comfort them for the dead, nor will the cup of consolations be given them to drink for their father or their mother.

8You shall not go into a house of banqueting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

9For thus says Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel: Behold, I will silence from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10When you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, “Why has Yahweh spoken all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have sinned against Yahweh our God?”

11You shall tell them: Because your fathers deserted me, declares Yahweh, they followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them, while deserting me and disregarding my law.

12You have acted more wickedly than your fathers; look, each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart, refusing to listen to me.

13I will thrust you from this land into a land you and your fathers never knew, and there you will serve other gods day and night, where I will grant you no favor.

14Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares Yahweh, when it will no longer be said, “As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt.”

16See, I am sending many fishermen, declares Yahweh, and they will fish them; afterward I will send many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and the clefts of the rocks.

17For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight.

18First I will repay their iniquity and their sin doubly because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their detestable things and filled my inheritance with their abominations.

19Yahweh, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in the day of distress—to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, "Our fathers inherited only lies, vanity, and things offering no benefit."

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

21Therefore, behold, I will make them know; this time I will make my hand and my might known to them, and they will know that my name is Yahweh.