Disaster Predicted

1And the word of YHWH came to me, saying: 2“You shall not take for yourself a wife, and not shall there be unto you sons and daughers in this place.”

3For thus says YHWH concerning the sons and concerning the daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them, and concerning their fathers who begat them in this land: 4“They will die diseased deaths; they will not be mourned, and they will not be buried; they will be like dung upon the face of the ground, and by the sword and by famine they will be finished off, and their corpses shall be as food for the birds of the heavens and for the beast of the earth.”

5For thus says YHWH: “Do not enter a house of mourning, and do not go to mourn, and you shall not bemoan them, for I have gathered up My peace away from this people, a declaration of YHWH, even loving devotion and mercies.”

6“And the great and the small will die in this land; they will not be buried, and no one will mourn for them nor cut themselves nor make themselves bald for them. 7And no one will break it for them for mourning, to comfort them for the dead, nor give them the cup of consolation to drink for his father or for his mother.

8And you shall not enter the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and drink. 9For thus says YHWH of Hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am going to make cease from this place before your⁺ eyes, and in your⁺ days, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10And it will come to pass, when you declare to this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘For what has YHWH spoken against us all this great evil? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against YHWH our God?’

11And you shall say to them ‘Upon that your⁺ fathers have forsaken Me, a declaration of YHWH, and they have walked after other gods, and they have served them and bowed down to them, and they have forsaken Me and have not kept My law. 12And you⁺ have done worse than your⁺ fathers! And behold, you⁺ are walking, each man after the stubborness of his evil heart, so as to not listen to Me! 13And I will cast you⁺ from this land, into a land that you have not known—you⁺ and your⁺ fathers. And there you⁺ will serve other gods day and night—where I will not give you⁺ favor!’

God Will Restore Israel

14Therefore, behold, the days are coming, a declaration of YHWH, and it will not be said anymore, ‘YHWH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, 15but only, ‘YHWH lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands to which He had driven them there.’ And I will bring them back to their land that I gave to their fathers.

16Behold, I I will send for many fishermen, a declaration of YHWH, and they will catch them; and after this, I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them on every mountain and from every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.

17For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, and their iniquity is not hidden from before My eyes! 18And first I will repay double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcass of their detestable and abominable things!”

19O YHWH, my strength and my fortress

and My refuge in the day of distress—

the nations will come to You

from the ends of the earth,

and they will say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies,

worthlessness—and no profit is in them!

20Can man make gods for himself?

And they are not gods!”

21“Therefore, behold, I I will cause them to know,

in this moment I will cause them to know

My hand and My might;

and they will know

that My name is YHWH.