Disaster Is Coming

1The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

2You shall not take you a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters in this place.

3For thus says 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;

4They shall die grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as refuse upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their dead bodies shall be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

5For thus says 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, says the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

6Both 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:

7Neither shall men break bread for those 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.

8Also you shall not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to drink.

9For thus says 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.

10And it shall come to pass, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall say unto you, Why has 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?

11Then shall you say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, says 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;

12And you have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, you walk everyone after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:

13Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that you know not, neither you nor your fathers; and there shall you serve other gods day and night; where I will not show you favor.

Israel Brought Again Into Their Land

14Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

15But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

16Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they shall catch them; and afterward 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.

17For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from my eyes.

18And 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 idols.

19O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things in which there is no profit.

20Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

21Therefore, 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 The LORD.