The Lord's Will for Jeremiah's Life
1 Again the Lord spoke to me and said, 2 “Do not marry or have children in a place like this. 3 I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents. 4 They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.
5 “You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy. 6 The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. Not one of you will gash yourself or shave your head to show your grief. 7 No one will eat or drink with anyone to offer comfort when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost a father or mother.
8 “Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink. 9 Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen.
10 “When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against the Lord their God. 11 Then tell them that the Lord has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings. 12 But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me. 13 So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’”
The Return from Exile
14 The Lord says, “The time is coming when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt. 15 Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
The Coming Punishment
16 The Lord says, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks. 17 I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight. 18 I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.”
Jeremiah's Prayer of Confidence in the Lord
19 Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols. 20 Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”
21 “So then,” says the Lord, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am the Lord.”
1 The worde of the Lord came also vnto mee, saying, 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, nor haue sonnes nor daughters in this place. 3 For thus sayeth the Lord concerning the sonnes, and concerning the daughters that are borne in this place, and concerning their mothers that beare them, and concerning their fathers, that beget them in this land, 4 They shall die of deathes and diseases: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, but they shalbe as dung vpon the earth, and they shalbe consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carkeises shall be meate for the foules of the heauen, and for the beasts of the earth. 5 For thus saith the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither goe to lament, nor be moued for the: for I haue taken my peace, from this people, saith the Lord, euen mercy and compassion. 6 Both the great, and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them nor cut themselues, nor make themselues balde for them. 7 They shall not stretch out the hands for the in the mourning to comfort them for the dead, neither shall they giue them the cup of consolation to drinke for their father or for their mother. 8 Thou shalt not also goe into the house of feasting to sit with them to eate and to drinke. 9 For thus sayth the Lord of hostes, the God of Israel, Beholde, I wil cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, euen in your dayes the voyce of myrth, and the voyce of gladnes, the voyce of the bridegrome and the voyce of the bride. 10 And when thou shalt shewe this people all these wordes, and they shall say vnto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great plague against vs? or what is our iniquitie? and what is our sinne that we haue committed against the Lord our God? 11 Then shalt thou say vnto them, Because your fathers haue forsaken me, sayth the Lord, and haue walked after other gods, and haue serued them, and worshipped them, and haue forsaken me, and haue not kept my Law, 12 (And ye haue done worse then your fathers: for beholde, you walke euery one after the stubbernesse of his wicked heart, and will not heare me) 13 Therefore will I driue you out of this land into a lande that ye knowe not, neither you, nor your fathers, and there shall ye serue other gods day and night: for I will shew you no grace. 14 Behold therfore, saith the Lord, the dayes come that it shall no more be sayde, The Lord liueth, which brought vp the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, 15 But the Lord liueth, that brought vp the children of Israel from the lande of the North, and from all the landes where hee had scattered them, and I wil bring them againe into their land that I gaue vnto their fathers. 16 Behold, sayth the Lord, I wil send out many fishers, and they shall fish them, and after, will I send out many hunters, and they shall hunt them from euery mountaine and from euery hill, and out of the caues of the rockes. 17 For mine eyes are vpon al their wayes: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquitie hid from mine eyes. 18 And first I will recompense their iniquitie and their sinne double, because they haue defiled my lande, and haue filled mine inheritance with their filthie carions and their abominations. 19 O Lord, thou art my force, and my strength and my refuge in the day of affliction: the Gentiles shall come vnto thee from the ends of the world, and shall say, Surely our fathers haue inherited lies, and vanitie, wherein was no profite. 20 Shall a man make gods vnto himselfe, and they are no gods? 21 Beholde, therefore I will this once teach them: I will shewe them mine hande and my power, and they shall know that my Name is the Lord.