Jeremiah 16:16–17:1

PUNISHMENT OF EXILE

16 “I am about to send for many fishermen”i—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and they will fish for them. Then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and out of the clefts of the rocks, 17 for my gaze takes in all their ways.j They are not concealed from me, and their iniquity is not hidden from my sight. 18 I will first repay them double for their iniquityk and sin because they have polluted my land. They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their abhorrent and detestable idols.”

19 Lord, my strength and my stronghold,

my refuge in a time of distress,l

the nations will come to you

from the ends of the earth, and they will say,

“Our ancestors inherited only lies,

worthless idolsm of no benefit at all.”

20 Can one make gods for himself?

But they are not gods.n

21 “Therefore, I am about to inform them,

and this time I will make them know

my power and my might;

then they will know that my name is the Lord.”o

THE PERSISTENT SIN OF JUDAH

17 The sin of Judah is inscribed

with an iron stylus.p

With a diamond point

it is engraved on the tablet of their heartsq

and on the horns of theirA altars,