Jer 16 | ABEn | STEP | And [ 3 came 1 the word 2 of the lord ] to me saying,

‏ Jeremiah 16

CHAPTER 16 Judgment and Threat of Exile

1 And [³came ¹the word ²of the lord] to me saying, 2 You should not take a wife, and there shall not be engendered to you a son nor daughter in this place. 3 For thus says the lord, Concerning the sons and the daughters of the ones being engendered in this place, and concerning their mothers giving them birth, and concerning their fathers engendering them in this land; 4 by [²death ¹a diseased] they shall die; they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be entombed; for [²an example ³upon ⁴the face ⁵of the ⁶earth ¹they will be]. By the sword they shall fall, and in hunger they shall be finished off entirely. And [²shall be ¹their corpses] for food to the wild beasts of the earth, and to the winged creatures of the heaven. 5 Thus says the lord, You should not enter into their revelry, and you should not go in to lament, and you should not mourn them. For I have removed my peace from this people, says the lord, even mercy and charity. 6 And [⁴shall die ¹great ²and ³small] in this land. They shall not be buried, and they shall not be lamented, they shall not beat their chest for them, nor [²cuts ¹shall they make], and they shall not be shaven; 7 and in no way should [²be broken ¹bread] in their mourning for consolation over one having died; they shall not give a drink for them of a cup for consolation over his father or his mother. 8 [⁴into ⁵a residence ⁶with a banquet ²shall not ³enter ¹You] to sit down with them to eat and to drink. 9 For thus says the lord God of Israel, Behold, I depose from out of this place before your eyes, and in your days a voice of joy, and a voice of gladness, the voice of the groom, and the voice of the bride. 10 And it will be whenever you should announce to this people all these matters, then they shall say to you, Why did the lord speak against us all these evils? What is our injustice, and what is our sin which we sinned before the lord our God? 11 And you shall say to them, Because [²abandoned ³me ¹your fathers], says the lord; and they set out after strange gods, and they served to them, and did obeisance to them; and they abandoned me, and [³my law ¹they did not ²keep]. 12 And you were wicked above your fathers. And behold, you [²go ¹each] after the things pleasing your heart -- the evils, to not obey me. 13 And I will throw you away from this land, into a land which you knew not -- you and your fathers. And you shall serve there strange gods day and night, the ones that shall not grant mercy to you.

Future Restoration

14 On account of this, behold, days come, says the lord, and [²not ¹they shall ⁴say ³still], As the lord lives, the one leading up the sons of Israel from out of the land of Egypt. 15 But they shall say, As the lord lives, who led the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the places where they were pushed out there. And I shall restore them unto their land which I gave to their fathers. 16 Behold, I send [²fishermen ¹many], says the lord, and they shall fish them. And after these I shall send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, and upon every hill, and from out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are upon all their ways, and [²were not hid ¹their offences] before my eyes. 18 And I shall recompense double their iniquities, and their sins upon which they profaned my land by the decaying flesh of their abominations, and by their lawless deeds in which they filled my inheritance. 19 O lord my strength and my help and my refuge in a day of evils. To you nations shall come from the ends of the earth. And they shall say, O how false [³acquired ²our fathers ¹the idols], and there is no [²in ³them ¹benefit]. 20 Shall [²make ³for himself ¹a man] gods, and these are not gods? 21 On account of this, behold, I will make manifest to them [²in ³this time ¹my hand]; and I shall make known to them my power; and they shall know that my name is the lord.