Home Master Index
←Prev   Jeremiah 16 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


16:1  The Lord said to me:
16:2  Jeremiah, don't get married and have children—Judah is no place to raise a family.
16:3  I'll tell you what's going to happen to children and their parents here.
16:4  They will die of horrible diseases and of war and starvation. No one will give them a funeral or bury them, and their bodies will be food for the birds and wild animals. And what's left will lie on the ground like manure.
16:5  When someone dies, don't visit the family or show any sorrow. I will no longer love or bless or have any pity on the people of Judah.
16:6  Rich and poor alike will die and be left unburied. No one will mourn and show their sorrow by cutting themselves or shaving their heads.
16:7  No one will bring food and wine to help comfort those who are mourning the death of their father or mother.
16:8  Don't even set foot in a house where there is eating and drinking and celebrating.
16:9  Warn the people of Judah that I, the Lord All-Powerful, will put an end to all their parties and wedding celebrations.
16:10  They will ask, “Why has the Lord our God threatened us with so many disasters? Have we done something wrong or sinned against him?”
16:11  Then tell them I have said: People of Judah, your ancestors turned away from me; they rejected my laws and teachings and started worshiping other gods.
16:12  And you have done even worse! You are stubborn, and instead of obeying me, you do whatever evil comes to your mind.
16:13  So I will throw you into a land that you and your ancestors know nothing about, a place where you will have to worship other gods both day and night. And I won't feel the least bit sorry for you.
16:14  A time will come when you will again worship me. But you will no longer call me the Living Lord who rescued Israel from Egypt.
16:15  Instead, you will call me the Living Lord who rescued you from that country in the north and from the other countries where I had forced you to go. Someday I will bring you back to this land that I gave your ancestors.
16:16  But for now, I am sending enemies who will catch you like fish and hunt you down like wild animals in the hills and the caves.
16:17  I can see everything you are doing, even if you try to hide your sins from me.
16:18  I will punish you double for your sins, because you have polluted my own land. You have filled it with lifeless idols that remind me of dead bodies.
16:19  Our Lord, you are the one who gives me strength and protects me like a fortress when I am in trouble. People will come to you from distant nations and say, “Our ancestors worshiped false and useless gods,
16:20  worthless idols made by human hands.”
16:21  Then the Lord replied, “That's why I will teach them about my power, and they will know that I truly am the Lord.”