< Jeremiah 16 >
1 And there is a word of YHWH to me, saying,
2 “You do not take a wife to yourself, Nor do you have sons and daughters in this place.”
3 For thus said YHWH, Of the sons and of the daughters who are born in this place, And of their mothers—those bearing them, And of their fathers—those begetting them in this land:
4 “They die painful deaths, They are not lamented, nor are they buried, For they are dung on the face of the ground, And are consumed by sword and by famine, And their carcass has been for food To the bird of the heavens, And to the beast of the earth.”
5 For thus said YHWH: “Do not enter the house of a mourning-feast, Nor go to lament nor bemoan for them, For I have removed My peace from this people,” A declaration of YHWH, “The kindness and the mercies.
6 And great and small have died in this land, They are not buried, and none lament for them, Nor does any cut himself, nor become bald for them.
7 Nor do they deal out to them for mourning, To comfort him concerning the dead, Nor cause them to drink a cup of consolations For his father and for his mother.
8 You do not enter a house of banqueting, To sit with them, to eat and to drink,”
9 For thus said YHWH of Hosts, God of Israel: “Behold, I am causing to cease from this place, Before your eyes, and in your days, The voice of joy, and the voice of rejoicing, The voice of bridegroom and voice of bride.
10 And it has come to pass, When you declare all these words to this people, And they have said to you, Why has YHWH spoken all this great evil against us? Indeed, what [is] our iniquity, and what [is] our sin, That we have sinned against our God YHWH?
11 Then you have said to them: Because that your fathers have forsaken Me, A declaration of YHWH, And go after other gods, and serve them, And they bow themselves to them, And have forsaken Me, and not kept My law,
12 You also have done evil above your fathers, And behold, you are each walking after the stubbornness of his evil heart, So as not to listen to Me.
13 And I have cast you from off this land, On to a land that you have not known, You and your fathers, And you have served other gods there by day and by night, Where I do not give grace to you.
14 Therefore, behold, days are coming,” A declaration of YHWH, “And it is not said anymore, YHWH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
15 But, YHWH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of the north, And out of all the lands to where He drove them, And I have brought them back to their land, That I gave to their fathers.
16 Behold, I am sending for many fishers,” A declaration of YHWH, “And they have fished them, And after this I send for many hunters, And they have hunted them from off every mountain, And from off every hill, and from holes of the rocks.
17 For My eyes [are] on all their ways, They have not been hidden from My face, Nor has their iniquity been concealed from before My eyes.
18 And I have repaid a first—A second time—their iniquity and their sin, Because of their defiling My land, With the carcass of their detestable things, Indeed, their abominations have filled My inheritance.”
19 O YHWH, my strength, and my fortress, And my refuge in a day of adversity, Nations come to You from the ends of the earth, And say, “Our fathers only inherited falsehood, Vanity, and none among them is profitable.”
20 Does man make gods for himself, And they—no gods?
21 “Therefore, behold, I am causing them to know at this time, I cause them to know My hand and My might, And they have known that My Name [is] YHWH!”
