Jeremiah 16 :: New International Version (NIV)

Day of Disaster

Jer 16:1Then the word of the LORD came to me:

Jer 16:2“You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.”

Jer 16:3For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers:

Jer 16:4

Jer 16:4“They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”

Jer 16:5

Jer 16:5For this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the LORD.

Jer 16:6

Jer 16:6“Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead.

Jer 16:7

Jer 16:7No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.

Jer 16:8

Jer 16:8“And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink.

Jer 16:9

Jer 16:9For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.

Jer 16:10

Jer 16:10“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?’

Jer 16:11

Jer 16:11then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law.

Jer 16:12

Jer 16:12But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me.

Jer 16:13

Jer 16:13So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

(cf. Jer 23:7, 8 )

Jer 16:14

Jer 16:14“However, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’

Jer 16:15

Jer 16:15but it will be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.

Jer 16:16

Jer 16:16“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.

Jer 16:17

Jer 16:17My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.

Jer 16:18

Jer 16:18I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”

Jer 16:19

Jer 16:19LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.

Jer 16:20

Jer 16:20Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!”

Jer 16:21

Jer 16:21“Therefore I will teach them— this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the LORD.

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