Jeremiah 16

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

The word of Jehovah came to me, saying:

2 “You shall not take a wife, and there shall be no sons or daughters for you in this place.

Take thee not a wife; Have no sons or daughters in this place!

3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are conceived in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and concerning their fathers, from whose stock they have been born in this land:

For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and the daughters That are born in this place, And concerning their mothers that bore them, And concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

4 They will die from grievous mortal illnesses. They will not be mourned, and they will not be buried. They will be like manure on the face of the earth. And they will be consumed by sword and by famine. And their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the land.”

By deadly diseases shall they die; They shall not be lamented nor buried; They shall become dung upon the face of the earth; By the sword also and by famine shall they be consumed, And their carcasses shall be food for the birds of heaven And the beasts of the earth.

5 For thus says the Lord: “You shall not enter the house of feasting, and you shall not go to mourn or to console them. For I have taken away from this people, says the Lord, my peace, my mercy, and my pity.

For thus saith Jehovah: Enter not into the house of wailing; Go not to lament; Comfort them not! For I have taken away my peace from this people, saith Jehovah, My kindness and mercy.

6 Both the great and the small will die in this land. They will not be buried, and they will not be mourned. And no one will cut themselves or make themselves bald on their behalf.

The great and the small in this land shall die; They shall not be buried nor lamented; No one shall cut himself for them, Nor shall any one make himself bald for them.

7 And they will not break bread among themselves for the sake of him who mourns, so as to console him over the dead. And they will not give them a chalice to drink, so as to console them over their father and mother.

Men shall not break bread for them in their grief, To comfort them for the dead, Nor give them the cup of consolation to drink, On account of a lost father or mother.

8 And so, you shall not enter the house of feasting, so as to sit with them, and to eat and drink.”

Neither enter thou into the house of feasting, To sit down with them to eat and to drink!

9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will take away from this place, in your sight and in your days, the voice of gladness and the voice of rejoicing, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to cause to cease from this place, Before your eyes, in your days, The voice of joy and the voice of mirth, The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And when you announce all these words to this people, they will say to you: ‘Why would the Lord pronounce all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity and what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’

And when thou shalt have declared to this people all these things, and they shall say to thee, “Why hath Jehovah pronounced against us all this great evil? What is our iniquity, and what our sin, which we have committed against Jehovah our God?”

11 And you shall say to them: It is because your fathers abandoned me, says the Lord. And they went after strange gods, and they served them and adored them. And they abandoned me, and they did not keep my law.

Then shalt thou say to them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jehovah, And have walked after strange gods, And have served them and worshipped them, And have forsaken me, and not kept my law.

12 But you have acted even worse than your fathers. For behold, each one walks after the depravity of his own evil heart, so that he does not listen to me.

And ye yourselves have done worse than your fathers; For, behold, ye walk every one after the perverseness of his evil heart, And do not hearken to me.

13 And so, I will cast you out of this land, into a land that you do not know, and that your fathers did not know. And in that place, you will serve, day and night, strange gods who will not give you rest.

Therefore will I cast you forth from this land Into a land unknown to you and to your fathers; And there shall ye serve strange gods day and night; For I will show you no favor.

14 Therefore, behold, the days are approaching, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of Egypt,’

Yet behold the days shall come, saith Jehovah, When men shall no more say, “As Jehovah liveth Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,”

15 but instead, ‘As the Lord lives, who led the sons of Israel away from the land of the north,’ and from all the lands to which I have cast them out. And I will lead them back into their own land, which I gave to their fathers.

But, “As Jehovah liveth Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North, And from all the lands whither he had driven them.” For I will bring them again into their own land, Which I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they will fish for them. And after this, I will send many hunters to them, and they will hunt for them on every mountain, and on every hilltop, and in the caverns of the rocks.

Behold, I will send many fishers, saith Jehovah, who shall fish them, And then will I send many hunters who shall hunt them From every mountain, and from every hill, and from the holes of the rocks.

17 For my eyes are upon all their ways. They have not been hidden from my face, and their iniquity has not been concealed from my eyes.

For mine eyes are upon all their ways; They are not concealed from my view, Nor is their iniquity hidden from mine eyes.

18 But first, I will repay their double iniquities and their sins. For they have defiled my land with the dead bodies of their idols, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

And I will requite their former and their repeated iniquities and sins, Because they have polluted my land with carcasses offered to their idols, And filled my inheritance with their abominable things.

19 “O Lord, my strength, and my health, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: the Gentiles will approach you from the ends of the earth, and they will say: ‘Truly, our fathers possessed a lie, an emptiness that has not benefited them.’

O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of distress! To thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, And shall say, “Truly our fathers inherited delusion, Vain and unprofitable things.

20 How can man make gods for himself, though these are not gods?”

Shall one make for himself gods Which are no gods?”

21 “Concerning this, behold: I will make it clear to them, in this turn. I will reveal to them my hand and my virtue. And they will know that the Lord is my name.”

Therefore, behold, I will this time cause them to feel, I will cause them to feel my hand and my might, And they shall know that my name is Jehovah.