God tells Jeremiah not to marry or have children or attend funerals or feasts, as a sign of the coming disaster. Yet after exile, he promises that the people will no longer say the LORD brought them up from Egypt, but from the north.
1 The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying ,
2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife , neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place .
3 For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place , and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land ;
4 They shall die of grievous deaths ; they shall not be lamented ; neither shall they be buried ; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth : and 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 saith the LORD , Enter not into the house of mourning , neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people , saith the LORD , even lovingkindness and mercies .
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land : they shall not be buried , neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
7 Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning , to comfort them for the dead ; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother .
8 Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting , to sit with them to eat and to drink .
9 For thus saith 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 , and the voice of gladness , the voice of the bridegroom , and the voice of the bride .
10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words , and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath 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 shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith 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 ye have done worse than your fathers ; for, behold , ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart , that they may not hearken unto me:
13 Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers ; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night ; where I will not shew you favour .
14 Therefore, behold, the days come , saith the LORD , that it shall no more be said , The LORD liveth , that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt ;
15 But, The LORD liveth , that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north , and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers .
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers , saith the LORD , and they shall fish 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 holes of the rocks .
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways : they are not hid from my face , neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes .
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double ; because they have defiled my land , they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things .
19 O LORD , my strength , and my fortress , and my refuge in the day of affliction , the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth , and shall say , Surely our fathers have inherited lies , vanity , and things wherein there is no profit .
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods ?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know , I will cause them to know mine hand and my might ; and they shall know that my name is The LORD .