16:1 The word of the LORD came also to me, saying,
16:2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have
sons nor daughters in this place.
16:3 For thus saith 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;
16:4 They shall die by 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 carcasses shall be food for
the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
16:5 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]
loving-kindness and mercies.
16:6 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:
16:7 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.
16:8 Also thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit
with them to eat and to drink.
16:9 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.
16:10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt show this
people all these words, and they shall say to thee, Why 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?
16:11 Then shalt thou say to them, Because your fathers have
forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods,
and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have
forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
16:12 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 to me:
16:13 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 show
you favor.
16:14 Therefore behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it
shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought the
children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
16:15 But, The LORD liveth, that brought 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 to their fathers.
16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and
they shall fish them; and afterwards 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.
16:17 For my eyes [are] upon all their ways: they are not hid
from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.
16:18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin
double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled my
inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and
abominable things.
16:19 O LORD, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the
day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to thee from the
ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have
inherited lies, vanity, and [things] in which [there is] no
profit.
16:20 Shall a man make gods to himself, and they [are] no gods?
16:21 Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I
will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall
know that my name [is] JEHOVAH.
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