The word of the LORD also came to me, saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife or have sons and daughters in this place (Jerusalem) .” 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the ^amothers who give birth to them, and the ^bfathers who father them in this land: 4 “They will ^adie of deadly diseases. They ^bwill not be mourned or buried; they will be like ^cdung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will be food for the ^dbirds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.”

5 For thus says the LORD, “Do not enter a house of ^amourning, nor go to lament (express grief) or bemoan the dead, for I have ^btaken My peace away from this people,” says the LORD, “even My ^clovingkindness and compassion. 6 Both ^agreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will they be lamented (mourned over with expressions of grief in death) , nor will anyone ^bcut himself or ^cshave his head for them in mourning. 7 People will not ^aoffer food to the mourners, to comfort anyone as they grieve for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 And you Jeremiah shall ^anot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I will ^aremove from this place, before your very eyes and in your time, the sound of joy and the shout of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 “Now when you tell these people all these words and they ask you, ‘^aWhy has the LORD decreed all this great tragedy against us? And what is our iniquity, what is the sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11 Then you are to say to them, ‘It is ^abecause your fathers have abandoned (rejected) Me,’ says the LORD, ‘and have walked after ^bother gods and have served them and bowed down to the handmade idols and have abandoned (rejected) Me and have not kept My law, 12 and because you have done ^aworse things than your fathers. Just look, every one of you walks in the ^bstubbornness of his own ^cevil heart, so that you do not listen obediently to Me. 13 Therefore I will ^ahurl you out of this land of Judah into the ^bland of the Babylonians which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will ^cserve other gods day and night, for I will show you no compassion.’

14 “^aTherefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who ^bbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 15 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the ^aland of the north and from all the countries to which He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers.

16 “Behold (listen carefully) , I will send for many ^afishermen,” says the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will ^bhunt them ^cfrom every mountain and from every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 ^aFor My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, ^bnor is their wickedness concealed from My eyes. 18 I will first ^adoubly repay and punish them for their wickedness and their sin before I return them to their land, because they have ^bprofaned My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their ^cdetestable idols and with their abominations.”