Jeremiah 16

CHAPTER 16

Yahweh Withdraws His Favor

¹The word of Yahweh also came to me saying,

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

³For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and daughters born in this place and concerning their ^amothers who bear them and their ^bfathers who beget them in this land:

⁴“They will ^adie of deadly diseases; they ^bwill not be lamented or buried; they will be as ^cdung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the ^dbirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵For thus says Yahweh, “Do not enter the house of the ^afuneral meal, or go to lament or to console them; for I have ^bwithdrawn My peace from this people,” declares Yahweh, “My ^clovingkindness and compassion.

⁶“Both ^agreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried; they will not be lamented, nor will anyone ^bgash himself or ^cshave his head for them.

⁷“Men will not ^abreak bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of comforting to drink for anyone’s father or mother.

⁸“Moreover you shall ^anot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.”

⁹For thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to ^acause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘^aFor what reason has Yahweh declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against Yahweh our God?’

¹¹“Then you are to say to them, ‘It is ^abecause your fathers have forsaken Me,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and have walked after ^bother gods and served them and worshiped them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.

¹²‘You too have done evil, even ^amore than your fathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the ^bstubbornness of his own ^cevil heart, without listening to Me.

¹³‘So I will ^ahurl you out of this land into the ^bland which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will ^cserve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

They Shall Know My Name Is Yahweh

¹⁴“^aTherefore behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who ^bbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

¹⁵but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the ^aland of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, I am going to send for many ^afishermen,” declares Yahweh, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will ^bhunt them ^cfrom every mountain and every hill and from the crevices of the rocks.

¹⁷“^aFor My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, ^bnor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.

¹⁸“I will first ^adoubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have ^bprofaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their ^cdetestable idols and with their abominations.”

¹⁹O Yahweh, my ^astrength and my strong defense,

And my ^brefuge in the day of distress,

To You the ^cnations will come

From the ends of the earth and say,

“Our fathers have inherited nothing but ^dlies,

Futility and ^1ethings of no profit.”

²⁰Can man make gods for himself?

Yet they are ^anot gods!

²¹“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—

This time I will ^amake them know

My ¹power and My might;

And they shall ^bknow that My name is Yahweh.”