AB - Jeremiah - 16

16:1  And you shall not take a wife, says the Lord God of Israel.

16:2  And there shall be no son born to you, nor daughter in this place.

16:3  For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that have born them, and their fathers that have begotten them in this land:

16:4  They shall die a grievous death. They shall not be lamented over, nor buried; they shall be for an example on the face of the earth; and they shall be for the wild beasts of the land, and for the birds of the sky. They shall fall by the sword, and shall be consumed with famine.

16:5  Thus says the Lord: Enter not into their mourning feast, and go not to lament, and mourn not for them, for I have removed My peace from this people.

16:6  They shall not bewail them, nor make cuttings for them, and they shall not shave themselves for them.

16:7  And there shall be no bread broken in mourning for them in consolation over the dead; they shall not give one to drink a cup for consolation over his father or his mother.

16:8  You shall not enter into the banquet house, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

16:9  For thus says the Lord God of Israel: Behold, I will make the voice of joy to cease out of this place before your eyes, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

16:10  And it shall come to pass, when you report to this people all these words, and they shall say to you, Why has the Lord pronounced all these evils against us? What is our unrighteousness? And what is our sin which we have sinned before the Lord our God?

16:11  Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers forsook Me, says the Lord, and went after strange gods and served them, and worshipped them, and forsook Me, and kept not My law.

16:12  (And you sinned worse than your fathers-for behold, you walk everyone after the lusts of your own evil heart, so as not to listen to Me).

16:13  Therefore I will cast you off from this good land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known. And you shall serve their other gods, who shall have no mercy upon you.

16:14  Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

16:15  but, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel from the land of the north, and from all countries in which they were thrust out. And I will restore them to their own land, which I gave to their fathers.

16:16  Behold, I will send many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them upon every mountain, and upon every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

16:17  For My eyes are upon all their ways; and their iniquities have not been hidden from My eyes.

16:18  And I will recompense double for their iniquity and their sins, whereby they have profaned My land with the carcasses of their abominations, and with their iniquities, whereby they have trespassed against My inheritance.

16:19  O Lord, You are my strength and my help, and my refuge in days of evil. To You the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, How worthless were the idols which our fathers procured for themselves, and there is no help in them.

16:20  Will a man make gods for himself, whereas these are no gods?

16:21  Therefore behold, I will at this time manifest My hand to them, and will make known to them My power; and they shall know that My name is the Lord.