Jeremiah 16 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Late seventh century BC, under Jehoiakim, in the years before the Babylonian deportations
Location
Jerusalem and Judah, in ordinary homes where funerals and feasts took place
Audience
The people of Judah, and later exiles reading a promise of return
Situation
God forbids Jeremiah to marry, to have children, to attend funerals, or to go to parties, making his own life a walking announcement that normal family and community life is about to end. The chapter closes with a promise of a rescue so great it will eclipse the escape from Egypt.
Key Background
Marriage and children were near universal in this society and a childless man had no one to carry his name or inherit his land, so a lifelong ban on marrying was a public and permanent oddity that would have demanded explanation from everyone who met him. Mourning customs named here include gashing the skin, shaving the head, and neighbours bringing food and a cup of consolation to the bereaved family, and refusing to take part was a visible insult that made the point. Sending for fishermen and hunters describes the sweeping of a population out of hiding places in the hills, the way Babylonian forces would eventually comb the countryside.
Yahweh's came to me:
"Don't marry. Don't have sons or daughters in this place."
Because this is what Yahweh says about the sons and daughters born in this place, and about the mothers who gave birth to them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:
"They will die from No one will mourn for them or bury them — they'll become like on the ground. They'll be finished off by war and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds and the wild animals."
Because this is what Yahweh says: "Don't go into a house where people are mourning. Don't go to grieve or show sympathy for them, because I've taken away my from these people" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "my and my
"Both important and ordinary people will die in this land. They won't be buried, and no one will mourn for them. No one will or their for them."
"No one will a with to comfort them for the dead. No one will offer them a of not even for the loss of a father or mother."
"And don't go into a house where people are feasting to sit down with them and eat and drink."
Because this is what Yahweh, the of the God of Israel, says: "Right here, in this place, while you're still alive to see it, I'm going to silence the of and — the of the and the of the
"When you tell these people all of this and they ask you, 'Why has Yahweh pronounced all this terrible disaster against us? What did we do wrong? What have we committed against Yahweh our God?'
then tell them: 'Because your ancestors abandoned me' — this is Yahweh's declaration — 'and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them. They abandoned me and didn't keep my
"And you — you've done even worse than ancestors! Look at you, each of you own instead of listening to me."
"So I'm going to you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known, and there you'll serve other gods day and night — because I won't show you any
"But listen — the days are coming" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "when people will no longer say, 'As as who brought the people of Israel up from Egypt.'"
"Instead they'll say, 'As sure as Yahweh lives, who brought the people of Israel up from the northern lands and from all the countries where he had scattered them.' Because I'm going to bring them back to their own — the land I gave to their ancestors."
"But right now I'm sending for many — this is Yahweh's declaration — "and they'll fish them out. After that I'll send for many and they'll hunt them down from every mountain and every hill and from the cracks in the rocks."
"Because my eyes are on everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me, and their is not concealed from my sight."
"First, I'll them for their corruption and their failures, because they've polluted my land with the of their and filled my with their offensive practices."
Yahweh, you are my my fortress, my safe place when trouble comes. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, "Our ancestors inherited nothing but — worthless things that did them no good at all."
Can humans make their own gods? Those aren't gods at all!
"So watch — this time I'm going to make them understand. I will make them know my power and my might, and they will know that my is