Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

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

 ² "You shall not take yourself 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 that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land:

 ⁴ They shall die grievous deaths; they shall not be mourned; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth."

 ⁵ For thus says the Lord, "Do not enter into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them for I have taken away my peace from this people," says the Lord, "even loving kindness and mercies.

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

 ⁷ Neither will men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither will men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

 ⁸ You shall not also 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 Israel; "Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.

 ¹⁰ And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say to 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 you shall say to them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

 ¹² And you have done worse than your fathers; for behold, every one of you walks after the imagination of his evil heart and mind, and therefore you do not listen to and obey me.¹ [Until cleansed by the Lord, every man's heart and mind is full of evil. From the Word of the Lord within: "As many as are at their savior's feet, there are six things I will put in order in front of your eyes:

1. how evil proceeds out of the heart,
2. and goes forth out of the mouth.
3. how your heart longs for evil.
4. how your feet are swift to run to evil.
5. how your heart builds a strong tower as a bulwark of defense.
6. how your heart is a mirror of the world; (the whole world lies in wickedness)."

 ¹³ Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.'

 ¹⁴ Therefore, behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that it shall no more be said, 'The LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;'

 ¹⁵ But, The LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, 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 catch them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the caves in the rocks.

 ¹⁷ For my eyes are upon all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity hidden from my eyes.

 ¹⁸ And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin in double measure because they have defiled my land; they have filled my inheritance with the carcases of their detestable idols and abominable offerings to them."

 ¹⁹ O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles will come to you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, "Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit."

 ²⁰ "Shall a man make gods for himself, when they are not gods at all?

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