Jeremiah 16:14

The word of GOD came to me:

You are not to marry and not to have sons and daughters in this place.

For thus said GOD concerning any sons and daughters that may be born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them, and concerning the fathers who beget them in this land:

They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

For thus said GOD:
Do not enter a house of mourning,^amourning Lit. “religious gathering.”
Do not go to lament and to condole with them;
For I have withdrawn My favor from that people
—declares GOD—
My kindness and compassion.

Great and small alike shall die in this land,
They shall not be buried; no one shall lament them,
Nor gash and tonsure themselves for them.

They shall not break bread^bbread So a few mss. Most mss. and editions read “to them.” for a mourner^cmourner Lit. “mourning.”
To offer comfort for a death,
Nor offer one a cup of consolation
For the loss of their father or mother.

Nor shall you enter a house of feasting,
To sit down with them to eat and drink.

For thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.

And when you announce all these things to that people, and they ask you, “Why has GOD decreed upon us all this fearful evil? What is the iniquity and what the sin that we have committed against the ETERNAL our God?”

say to them, “Because your ancestors deserted Me—declares GOD—and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them; they deserted Me and did not keep My Instruction.

And you have acted worse than your ancestors, every one of you following the willfulness of their own evil heart and paying no heed to Me.

Therefore I will hurl you out of this land to a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods, day and night; for I will show you no mercy.”

but rather, “As GOD lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which they had been banished.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their ancestors.

Lo, I am sending for many fishermen
—declares GOD—
And they shall haul them out;
And after that I will send for many hunters,
And they shall hunt them
Out of every mountain and out of every hill
And out of the clefts of the rocks.

For My eyes are on all their ways,
They are not hidden from My presence,
Their iniquity is not concealed from My sight.

I will pay them in full^dfull See note to Isa. 65.7.—
Nay, doubly for their iniquity and their sins—
Because they have defiled My land
With the corpses of their abominations,^etheir abominations I.e., their lifeless idols.
And have filled My own possession
With their abhorrent things.

O ETERNAL One, my strength and my stronghold,
My refuge in a day of trouble,
To You nations shall come
From the ends of the earth and say:
Our ancestors inherited utter delusions,
Things that are futile and worthless.

Can mortals make gods for themselves?
No-gods are they!

Assuredly, I will teach them,
Once and for all I will teach them
My power and My might.
And they shall learn that My name is GOD.