Jer 16 | NASB1995 | STEP | The word of the Lord also came to me saying ,

‏ Jeremiah 16

Distresses Foretold

1 The word of the Lord also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their ^amothers who bear them, and their ^bfathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will ^cdie of deadly diseases, they ^dwill not be lamented or buried; they will be as ^edung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the ^fbirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”

5 For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of ^{▼▼ Or banqueting
,} ^hmourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have ⁱwithdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My ^jlovingkindness and compassion. 6 “Both ^kgreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone ^lgash himself or ^mshave his head for them. 7 “Men will not ⁿbreak bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 “Moreover you shall ^onot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to ^{▼▼ Lit cause to cease
,} ^qeliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘ ^rFor what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 “Then you are to say to them, ‘It is ^sbecause your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed ^tother gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12 ‘You too have done evil, even ^umore than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the ^vstubbornness of his own ^wevil heart, without listening to Me. 13 ‘So I will ^xhurl you out of this land into the ^yland which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will ^zserve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

God Will Restore Them

14 ^aa“Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who ^abbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the ^acland of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

16 “Behold, I am going to send for many ^adfishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will ^aehunt them ^affrom every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 ^ag“For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, ^ahnor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 “I will first ^aidoubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have ^ajpolluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their ^akdetestable idols and with their abominations.” 19 O Lord, my ^alstrength and my stronghold,
And my ^amrefuge in the day of distress,
To You the ^annations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but ^aofalsehood,
Futility and ^{▼▼ Lit there is nothing profitable in them
,} ^aqthings of no profit.”
20 Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are ^arnot gods!

21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will ^asmake them know
My ^{▼▼ Lit hand}power and My might;
And they shall ^auknow that My name is the Lord.”