Disaster Predicted
1Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”
- JER 16:2[NOTE]DO NOT MARRY. The only person in the Old Testament God told not to marry. His single life was a warning that families were about to be torn apart, 16:3 to 4.
3For this is what Yahweh says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
5Indeed, this is what Yahweh says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go to mourn or show sympathy, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares Yahweh.
6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them. 7No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.
8You must not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down with them to eat and drink. 9For this is what Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.
10When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’
11Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares Yahweh, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction. 12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me. 13So I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
- JER 16:11[DEMONIC]Your fathers left Me and followed other gods
- JER 16:13[DEMONIC]In exile you will serve other gods day and night
God Will Restore Israel
14Yet behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’ 15Instead they will say, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their forefathers.
- JER 16:14[PROPHECY]A new exodus from the land of the north would outshine the exodus from Egypt → EZR 1:1-3; EZR 2:1MEDIUM
16But for now I will send for many fishermen, declares Yahweh, and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill, even from the clefts of the rocks.
17For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes. 18And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”
- JER 16:18[DEMONIC]Can man make gods for himself
19O Yahweh, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in the day of distress,
the nations will come to You
from the ends of the earth, and they will say,
“Our fathers inherited nothing but lies,
worthless idols of no benefit at all.
20Can man make gods for himself?
Such are not gods!”
21“Therefore behold, I will inform them,
and this time I will make them know
My power and My might;
then they will know
that My name is Yahweh.