16
Jeremiah

Symbolic Acts and the People's Sinfulness

Jeremiah 16:1-17:18
1And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2You shall not take a wife for yourself, and you shall not have sons and daughters in this place. 3For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and concerning their fathers who beget them in this land. 4They shall die of deadly diseases; they shall not be mourned and they shall not be buried; they shall become dung upon the face of the soil, and by the sword and by famine they shall be finished, and their carcasses shall become food for the birds of the heavens and for the animals of the land. 5For thus says the LORD: Do not enter a house of mourning, and do not go to mourn, and do not wander among them, for I have gathered away my peace from this people, declares the LORD, my kindness and my compassions. 6Both the great and the small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and they shall not be mourned, and they shall not cut themselves, and they shall not make themselves bald for them. 7They shall not break bread for them in mourning to comfort anyone over the dead, and they shall not give them the cup of consolations for his father or for his mother. 8You shall not enter the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. 9For thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am about to remove from this place before your eyes and in your days the voice of rejoicing and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10And when you declare to this people all these words, they will say to you, Why has the LORD pronounced all this great calamity against us? What is our iniquity, and what is our sin that we have sinned against the LORD our God? 11Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers forsook me, declares the LORD, and walked after other gods and served them and bowed down to them, and they forsook me and did not keep my instruction. 12And you have done more evil than your fathers, for behold, each of you walks after the stubbornness of his evil heart, refusing to listen to me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor. 14Therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, when it will no longer be said, As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt, 15but, As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them; and I will bring them back to their own soil that I gave to their fathers. 16Behold, I am sending for many fishermen, 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 from every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17For my eyes are on all their ways; they have not been hidden from my face, and their iniquity has not been concealed from before my eyes. 18I will first repay double their iniquity and their sin, because they have profaned my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and their abominations have filled my inheritance. 19O LORD, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of distress, to you the nations shall come from the ends of the earth and shall say, Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit. 20Can a man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods. 21Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my hand and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD.
Chapter 17
1The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their heart and on the horns of your altars, 2while their sons remember their altars and their Asherah beside the luxuriant tree on the high hills. 3O my mountain in the field, your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil, your high places for sin throughout all your borders. 4You shall be dispossessed of the inheritance that I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for a fire has been kindled in my anger that will burn forever. 5Thus says the LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6He shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see when good comes; he shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in a land of salt, where no one dwells. 7Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is the LORD. 8He shall be like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by a stream; it shall not fear when heat comes, its leaves shall remain green, and in a year of drought it shall not be anxious, nor shall it cease to bear fruit. 9The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick; who can understand it? 10I the LORD search the heart and test the mind, to give to each person according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. 11Like a partridge that gathers a brood it did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, 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, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living water. 14Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. 15Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come! 16I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after you, nor have I desired the day of incurable despair; you know what came out of my lips; it was before your face. 17Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of evil. 18Let my pursuers be put to shame, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
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