Jeremiah 16 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

Jeremiah’s Life-Style and Message

The Signs of Coming Captivity

Jer 16:1The word of the LORD also came to me, saying,

Jer 16:2“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

Jer 16:3For thus says the LORD concerning 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:

Jer 16:4

Jer 16:4“They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

Jer 16:5

Jer 16:5For thus says the LORD: “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 the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies.

Jer 16:6

Jer 16:6“Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

Jer 16:7

Jer 16:7“Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.

Jer 16:8

Jer 16:8“Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

Jer 16:9

Jer 16:9For thus says the LORD of 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.

Jer 16:10

Jer 16:10“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

Jer 16:11

Jer 16:11“then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.

Jer 16:12

Jer 16:12‘And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.

Jer 16:13

Jer 16:13‘Therefore I will cast you out of this land into 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

(cf. Jer. 23:7, 8 )

Jer 16:14

Jer 16:14“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Jer 16:15

Jer 16:15“but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

Jer 16:16

Jer 16:16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “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.

Jer 16:17

Jer 16:17“For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

Jer 16:18

Jer 16:18“And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

Jer 16:19

Jer 16:19O LORD, 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 and unprofitable things.”

Jer 16:20

Jer 16:20Will a man make gods for himself,
Which are not gods?

Jer 16:21

Jer 16:21“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 that My name is the LORD.

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