Jeremiah 16

1 And the word of Yahweh came unto me saying:

2 Thou shall not take to thee a wife, —Neither shalt thou have sons or daughters, in this place.

3 For, Thus, saith Yahweh, Concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are being born in this place, —and concerning their mothers who do bear them, and concerning their fathers who do beget them, in this land,

4 Of deaths from diseases, shall they die, They shall not be lamented, Neither shall they be buried, As heaps of dung on the face of the ground, shall they serve, —Yea by sword and by famine, shall they be consumed, And, their dead bodies shall become, food—To the bird of the heavens, and To the beast of the earth.

5 For, Thus, saith Yahweh—Do not thou enter into the house of crying, Neither do thou go to lament, nor do thou bemoan for them, —For I have withdrawn my blessing from this people, Declareth Yahweh, Both lovingkindness and compassion.

6 So shall great and small die in this land, They shall not be buried, —Neither shall men lament for them Nor cut themselves, Nor make themselves bald for them;

7 Neither shall they break bread to them in mourning To console one over his dead, —Nor cause them to drink the cup of consolation, Over one’s father Or over one’s mother;

8 And the house of banqueting, shall thou not enter To sit with them, To eat and to drink.

9 For, Thus, saith Yahweh of hosts, God of Israel, Behold me! causing to cease out of this place, Before your eyes, And in your days, The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride,

10 And it shall be when thou shalt declare to this people, all these words, —and they shall say unto thee—For what reason, hath Yahweh pronounced against us all this great calamity? Or what is our iniquity, or what our sin, which we have sinned against Yahweh our God?

11 Then shalt thou say unto them, —For that your fathers forsook, me, Declareth Yahweh, And walked after other gods, and served them, and bowed down to them, —Whereas me, they forsook And my law, kept they not;

12 And, ye, have done more wickedly than your fathers, —for look at you! walking every man after the stubbornness of his wicked heart, so as not to hearken unto me,

13 Therefore will I hurl you forth, from off this land, unto a land which ye have not known, ye, nor your fathers, —and ye can serve there other gods day and night, in that I will grant you no favour.

14 Therefore lo! days are coming, Declareth Yahweh, When it shall be said no more By the life of Yahweh, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt; but—

15 By the life of Yahweh, who hath brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of the North, and out of all the lands whither he had driven them, —So will I bring them back upon their own soil, which I gave to their fathers.

16 Behold me! sending for many fishers Declareth Yahweh, And they shall catch them, —and thereafter will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from off every mountain and from off every hill, and out of the clefts of the crags.

17 For mine own eyes are upon all their ways, they have not been hid from my face—neither hath their iniquity been concealed from being straight before mine eyes.

18 Thus will I recompense, first, twofold, their iniquity and their sin, because of their profaning my land, —with the carcase of their disgusting and detestable things, have they filled mine inheritance.

19 O Yahweh, my strength, and my refuge, and my place to fly to, in the day of distress, —Unto thee, shall nations come in, out of the ends of the earth, that they may say—Surely! Falsehood, did our fathers inherit, Vanity, among whom is none that can profit:

20 Shall a son of earth, make for himself gods, Seeing that, they, are no-gods?

21 Therefore behold me! causing them to know, by this stroke, I will cause them to know my hand and my might, —That they may know that my name, is Yahweh!