Jeremiah 16-17

English Standard Version

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ²“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ⁴^(A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵“For thus says the Lord: ^(F)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷No one shall ^(J)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)Behold, I will silence in 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“And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(L)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹²and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

¹⁴^(T)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(U)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but ^(V)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(W)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(X)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, ^(Y)I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^(Z)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For ^(AA)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(AB)They are not hidden from me, ^(AC)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸But first ^(AD)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(AE)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

¹⁹^(AF)O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
    ^(AG)my refuge in the day of trouble,
^(AH)to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
    ^(AI)worthless things in which there is no profit.
²⁰Can man make for himself ^(AJ)gods?
    Such are not gods!”

²¹“Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^(AK)my name is the Lord.”

The Sin of Judah

17 “The sin of Judah is written with ^(AL)a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on ^(AM)the tablet of their heart, and on ^(AN)the horns of their altars, ²while ^(AO)their children remember their altars and their ^(AP)Asherim, ^(AQ)beside every green tree and on the high hills, ³^(AR)on the mountains in the open country. ^(AS)Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. ⁴You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, ^(AT)and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, ^(AU)for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

⁵Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man ^(AV)who trusts in man
    and makes flesh his strength,^[a]
    whose heart turns away from the Lord.
⁶^(AW)He is like a shrub in the desert,
    ^(AX)and shall not see any good come.
He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness,
    in ^(AY)an uninhabited salt land.

⁷^(AZ)“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
    ^(BA)whose trust is the Lord.
⁸^(BB)He is like a tree planted by water,
    that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
    for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
    for it does not cease to bear fruit.”

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things,
    and desperately sick;
    who can understand it?
¹⁰^(BC)“I the Lord search the heart
    ^(BD)and test the mind,^[b]
^(BE)to give every man according to his ways,
    according to the fruit of his deeds.”

¹¹Like the ^(BF)partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch,
so is ^(BG)he who gets riches but not by justice;
^(BH)in the midst of his days they will leave him,
^(BI)and at his end he will be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
    is the place of our sanctuary.
¹³O Lord, ^(BJ)the hope of Israel,
    ^(BK)all who forsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you^[c] ^(BL)shall be written in the earth,
    for ^(BM)they have forsaken ^(BN)the Lord, the fountain of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance

¹⁴^(BO)Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
    save me, and I shall be saved,
    for ^(BP)you are my praise.
¹⁵^(BQ)Behold, they say to me,
    “Where is the word of the Lord?
    Let it come!”
¹⁶I have not run away from being your shepherd,
    nor have I desired the day of sickness.
^(BR)You know ^(BS)what came out of my lips;
    it was before your face.
¹⁷Be not a terror to me;
    ^(BT)you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
¹⁸^(BU)Let those be put to shame who persecute me,
    but let me not be put to shame;
^(BV)let them be dismayed,
    but let me not be dismayed;
^(BW)bring upon them the day of disaster;
    destroy them with double destruction!

Keep the Sabbath Holy

¹⁹Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People's Gate, by which ^(BX)the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem, ²⁰and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ^(BY)you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and ^(BZ)do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. ²²And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath ^(CA)or do any work, but ^(CB)keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. ²³Yet ^(CC)they did not listen or incline their ear, ^(CD)but stiffened their neck, that they ^(CE)might not hear and receive instruction.

²⁴“‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and ^(CF)bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but ^(CG)keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, ²⁵then ^(CH)there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever. ²⁶And people shall come from ^(CI)the cities of Judah ^(CJ)and the places around Jerusalem, ^(CK)from the land of Benjamin, ^(CL)from the Shephelah, from the hill country, ^(CM)and from ^(CN)the Negeb, bringing ^(CO)burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and ^(CP)bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord. ²⁷But if you do not listen to me, to ^(CQ)keep the Sabbath day holy, ^(CR)and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will ^(CS)kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall ^(CT)devour the palaces of Jerusalem and ^(CU)shall not be quenched.’”