Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message
1 The word of theLordalso came to me, saying,
2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”
3 For thus says theLordconcerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land:
4 “They shall diegruesome deaths; they shall not belamented nor shall they beburied,butthey shall belike refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and theircorpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says theLord:“Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says theLord, “lovingkindness and mercies.
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried;neither shall men lament for them,cut themselves, normake themselves bald for them.
7 Nor shallmenbreakbreadin mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shallmengive them the cup of consolation todrink for their father or their mother.
8 Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
9 For thus says theLordof hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold,I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you,‘Why has theLordpronounced all this great disaster against us? Or whatisour iniquity? Or whatisour sin that we have committed against theLordour God?’
11 then you shall say to them,‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says theLord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.
12 And you have doneworse than your fathers, for behold,each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this landinto a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
God Will Restore Israel
14 “Therefore behold, thedays are coming,” says theLord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘TheLordlives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’
15 but, ‘TheLordlives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of thenorth and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ ForI will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I will send for manyfishermen,” says theLord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For Myeyesareon all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
18 And first I will repaydouble for their iniquity and their sin, becausethey have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”
19 OLord,my strength and my fortress,
# My refuge in the day of affliction,
The Gentiles shall come to You
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Surely our fathers have inherited lies,
# Worthlessness andunprofitablethings.”
20 Will a man make gods for himself,
# Whicharenot gods?
21 “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know,
I will cause them to know
My hand and My might;
# And they shall know thatMy nameistheLord.