1The word of Yahweh also came to me. He said,
2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”
3For Yahweh says this about the sons and daughters born in this land, and about their mothers and fathers:
4“They will die terribly; no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will be like dung on the ground. They will be killed by war and starvation, and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.”
5For Yahweh says, “Do not go into a house where there is mourning, nor go to grieve or show pity for them; for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even my loving kindness and tender mercies.”
6Both great and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, nor will people mourn for them, or cut themselves, or shave their heads for them.
7No one will bring food to comfort them in their grief for the dead; no one will offer a cup of consolation for their father or mother.
8“You must not go into a house where there is feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
9For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I will silence from this place, before your very eyes and in your lifetime, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bridegroom and the bride.”
10“When you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our wrongdoing? What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’
11Then you will tell them, ‘Because your ancestors turned away from me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and followed other gods, and served them, and worshiped them, and deserted me, and did not obey my law.’
12‘And you have done even worse than your ancestors; for look, each of you stubbornly follows your own evil heart, refusing to listen to me.’
13‘Therefore I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’
14“Therefore, the days are coming,” says Yahweh, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,’
15but rather, ‘As surely as Yahweh lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of the north and from all the countries where he had scattered them.’ I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.”
16“Look, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish for them. Afterward, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and from the cracks in the rocks.”
17“For my eyes are on all their ways; nothing is hidden from my sight, nor is their wrongdoing concealed from my eyes.”
18“First, I will pay them back double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the dead bodies of their detestable idols and have filled my inheritance with their disgusting practices.”
19Yahweh, my strength, my fortress, and my refuge in times of trouble, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, worthless idols, and things of no benefit.”
20“Can people make gods for themselves, when they are not gods at all?”
21“Therefore, look, I will make them know, this one time I will make them know my power and my might; and they will know that my name is Yahweh.”