Jeremiah:16

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* The word of the LORD came to me : * "You shall not take a wife , nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place . * For 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 begot them in this land : * They shall die of deadly diseases . They shall not be lamented , nor shall they be buried ; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground . They shall perish by the sword and by famine , and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth . * "For thus says the LORD : Do not enter the house of mourning , or go to lament , or bemoan them ; for I have taken away my peace from this people , says the LORD , my steadfast love and mercy . * Both great and small shall die in this land ; they shall not be buried , and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them . * No one shall break bread for the mourner , to comfort him for the dead ; nor shall any one give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother . * You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them , to eat and drink . * For thus says the LORD of hosts , the God of Israel : Behold , I will make to cease from 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 . * "And when you tell this people all these words , and they say to you , `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 ?' * then you shall say to them : `Because your fathers have forsaken me , says the LORD , and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them , and have forsaken me and have not kept my law , * and because you have done worse than your fathers , for behold , every one of you follows his stubborn evil will , refusing to listen to me ; * therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land which neither you nor your fathers have known , and there you shall serve other gods day and night , for I will show you no favor .' * "Therefore , behold , the days are coming , says the LORD , when it shall no longer be said , `As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt ,' * but `As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them .' For I will bring them back to their own land which I gave to their fathers . * "Behold , I am sending for many fishers , says the LORD , and they shall catch them ; and afterwards I will send for many hunters , and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill , and out of the clefts of the rocks . * For my eyes are upon all their ways ; they are not hid from me , nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes . * And I will doubly recompense their iniquity and their sin , because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols , and have filled my inheritance with their abominations ." * O LORD , my strength and my stronghold , my refuge in the day of trouble , to thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say : "Our fathers have inherited nought but lies , worthless things in which there is no profit . * Can man make for himself gods ? Such are no gods !" * "Therefore , behold , I will make them know , this once I will make them know my power and my might , and they shall know that my name is the LORD ."

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