Jeremiah 16:1-4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

Jeremiah’s Celibacy and Message

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