Jeremiah 16:1–9

Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message

16The 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.” ³For 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.”

⁵For 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. ⁶Both 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. ⁷Nor 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. ⁸Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

⁹For 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.