The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Jeremiah 16
1 Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 “You shall not take a wife, neither shall
you have sons or daughters, in this place.”
3 For Yahweh says concerning the sons
and concerning the daughters who are
born in this place, and concerning their
mothers who bore them, and concerning
their fathers who became their father in
this land:
4 “They will die grievous deaths. They
will not be lamented, neither will they be
buried. They will be as dung on the surface
of the ground. They will be consumed
by the sword and by famine. Their dead
bodies will be food for the birds of the sky
and for the animals of the earth.”
5 For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the
house of mourning. Don’t go to lament.
Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away
my peace from this people,” says Yahweh,
“even loving kindness and tender mercies.
6 Both great and small will die in this
land. They will not be buried. Men won’t
lament for them, cut themselves, or make
themselves bald for them.
7 Men won’t break bread for them in
mourning, to comfort them for the dead.
Men won’t give them the cup of consolation
to drink for their father or for their
mother.
8 “You shall not go into the house offeasting to
sit with them, to eat and to drink.”
9 For Yahweh of Armies, the God ofIsrael
says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of
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 It will happen, when you tell this people all
these words, and they ask you, ‘Why
has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil
against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or
‘What is our sin that we have committed
against Yahweh our God?’
11 then you shall tell them, ‘Because your
fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh,
‘and have walked after other gods, have
served them, have worshiped them, have
forsaken me, and have not kept my law.
12 You have done evil more than your
fathers,for behold, you each walk after the
stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you
don’t listen to me.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this
land into the land that you have not
known, neither you nor your fathers.
There you will serve other gods day and
night, for I will show you no favor.’
14 “Therefore behold, the days come,”
says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said,
‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’
15 but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up
the children of Israel from the land of the
north, and from all the countries where he
had driven them.’ I will bring them again
into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,”
says Yahweh, “and they will fish
them up. Afterward I will send for many
hunters, and they will hunt them from
every mountain, from every hill, and out
of the clefts of the rocks.
17 For my eyes are on all their ways.
They are not hidden from my face. Their
iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes.
18 First I will recompense their iniquity
and their sin double, because they have
polluted my land with the carcasses of
their detestable things, and have filled my
inheritance with their abominations.”
19 Yahweh, my strength, my stronghold,
and my refuge in the day of affliction,
the nations will come to you from the ends
of the earth, and will say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but
lies, vanity and things in which there is no
profit.
20 Should a man make to himself gods
which yet are no gods?”
21 “Therefore behold, I will cause them to
know, this once I will cause them to know my
hand and my might. Then they will know that my name is
Yahweh.”