Jeremiah 16:1–17:27
Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message
16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4 “They shall die agruesome deaths; they shall not be blamented nor shall they be cburied, but they shall be dlike refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their ecorpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says the Lord: f“Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies. 6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; gneither shall men lament for them, hcut themselves, nor imake themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to jdrink for their father or their mother. 8 Also you shall not go into 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, kI will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of 1mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, l‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them, m‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law. 12 And you have done nworse than your fathers, for behold, oeach one 2follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me. 13 pTherefore I will cast you out of this land qinto a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
14 “Therefore behold, the rdays are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the snorth and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For tI will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I will send for many ufishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For My veyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes. 18 And first I will repay wdouble for their iniquity and their sin, because xthey have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”
19 O Lord, ymy strength and my fortress,
zMy refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
Worthlessness and aunprofitable things.”
20 Will a man make gods for himself,
bWhich are not gods?
21 “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know
My hand and My might;
And they shall know that cMy name is the Lord.
17 “The sin of Judah is awritten with a bpen of iron;
With the point of a diamond it is cengraved
On the tablet of their heart,
And on the horns of your altars,
2 While their children remember
Their altars and their dwooden 1images
By the green trees on the high hills.
I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures,
And your high places of sin within all your borders.
Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you;
And I will cause you to serve your enemies
In ethe land which you do not know;
For fyou have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
g“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes hflesh his 2strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be ilike a shrub in the desert,
And jshall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
kIn a salt land which is not inhabited.
7 “Blessed lis the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8 For he shall be mlike a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not 3fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
9 “The nheart is deceitful above all things,
And 4desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10 I, the Lord, osearch the heart,
I test the 5mind,
pEven to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.
11 “As a partridge that 6broods but does not hatch,
So is he who gets riches, but not by right;
It qwill leave him in the midst of his days,
And at his end he will be ra fool.”
12 A glorious high throne from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, sthe hope of Israel,
tAll who forsake You shall be ashamed.
“Those who depart from Me
Shall be uwritten in the earth,
Because they have forsaken the Lord,
The vfountain of living waters.”
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
Save me, and I shall be saved,
For wYou are my praise.
x“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come now!”
16 As for me, yI have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You,
Nor have I desired the woeful day;
You know what came out of my lips;
It was right there before You.
zYou are my hope in the day of doom.
18 aLet them be ashamed who persecute me,
But bdo not let me be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed,
But do not let me be dismayed.
Bring on them the day of doom,
And cdestroy 7them with double destruction!
19 Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say to them, d‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. 21 Thus says the Lord: e“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; 22 nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I fcommanded your fathers. 23 gBut they did not obey nor incline their ear, but 8made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
24 “And it shall be, hif you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the iSabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, 25 jthen shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from kthe places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from lthe 9lowland, from the mountains and from mthe 1South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing nsacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.
27 “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then oI will kindle a fire in its gates, pand it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be qquenched.” ’ ”