Jeremiah 16:1-9

New King James Version

Jeremiah’s Lifestyle and Message

16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, ² “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” ³ For 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: ⁴ “They shall die ^(A)gruesome deaths; they shall not be ^(B)lamented nor shall they be ^(C)buried, but they shall be ^(D)like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their ^(E)corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵ For thus says the Lord: ^(F)“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. ⁶ Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; ^(G)neither shall men lament for them, ^(H)cut themselves, nor ^(I)make themselves bald for them. 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 ^(J)drink for their father or their mother. ⁸ Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, ^(K)I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of ^[a]mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.