[1] Then again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, [2] You are not to
take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place. [3] For
this is what the Lord has said about the sons and daughters who come to
birth in this place, and about their mothers who have given them birth, and
about their fathers who have given life to them in this land: [4] Death
from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them
and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the
face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them;
their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts
of the earth. [5] For this is what the Lord has said: Do not go into the
house of sorrow, do not go to make weeping or songs of grief for them: for
I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, even mercy and
pity. [6] Death will overtake great as well as small in the land: their
bodies will not be put in a resting-place, and no one will be weeping for
them or wounding themselves or cutting off their hair for them: [7] No one
will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or
put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their
mother. [8] And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be seated
with them to take food or drink. [9] For the Lord of armies, the God of
Israel, has said, See, before your eyes and in your days I will put an end
in this place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice of
the newly-married man and the voice of the bride. [10] And it will be, that
when you say all these words to the people, then they will say to you, Why
has the Lord done all this evil against us? what is our wrongdoing and what
is our sin which we have done against the Lord our God? [11] Then you will
say to them, Because your fathers have given me up, says the Lord, and have
gone after other gods and become their servants and their worshippers, and
have given me up and have not kept my law; [12] And you have done worse
evil than your fathers; for see, every one of you is guided by the pride of
his evil heart, so as not to give ear to me: [13] For this reason I will
send you away out of this land into a land which is strange to you, to you
and to your fathers; there you will be the servants of other gods day and
night, and you will have no mercy from me. [14] For this cause, see, the
days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, By the
living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.
[15] But, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the
land of the north, and from all the countries where he had sent them: and I
will take them back again to their land which I gave to their fathers. [16]
See, I will send for great numbers of fishermen, says the Lord, and they
will take them like fish in a net; and after that, I will send for numbers
of bowmen, and they will go after them, driving them from every mountain
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. [17] For my eyes
are on all their ways: there is no cover for them from my face, and their
evil-doing is not kept secret from my eyes. [18] And I will give them the
reward of their evil-doing and their sin twice over; because they have made
my land unclean, and have made my heritage full of the bodies of their
unholy and disgusting things. [19] O Lord, my strength and my strong tower,
my safe place in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the
ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is nothing but
deceit, even false things in which there is no profit. [20] Will a man make
for himself gods which are no gods? [21] For this reason, truly, I will
make them see, this once I will give them knowledge of my hand and my
power; and they will be certain that my name is the Lord.
