Jeremiah 16; Jeremiah 17:1-14

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

2 You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.

3 For thus says the LORD 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 the father of them in this land:

4 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the eretz.

5 For thus says the LORD, Don't enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my shalom from this people, says the LORD, even lovingkindness and tender mercies.

6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them;

7 neither shall men break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

9 For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Yisra'el: 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 shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

11 Then shall you tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

12 and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don't listen to me:

13 therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.

14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Yisra'el out of the land of Mitzrayim;

15 but, As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Yisra'el 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 the LORD, and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and 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, neither is their iniquity 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 LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the eretz, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in which there is no profit.

20 Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?

21 Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is the LORD.

1 The sin of Yehudah is written with a pen of iron, [and] with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;

2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills.

3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, [and] your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.

4 You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever.

5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, and whose trust the LORD is.

8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

10 I, the LORD, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

11 As the partridge that sits on [eggs] which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

12 A glorious throne, [set] on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

13 LORD, the hope of Yisra'el, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who depart from me shall be written in the eretz, because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living waters.

14 Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.