¹ The word of Jehovah came to me, saying,

² You shall not take a wife for yourself, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.

³ For so says Jehovah 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 fathered them in this land:

⁴ They shall die of deadly diseases; they shall not be mourned nor shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the face of the earth. And they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ For so says Jehovah, Do not enter into the house of mourning. Do not go to weep or moan for them. For I have taken away My peace with loving-kindness and compassions from this people says Jehovah.

⁶ Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, nor shall men mourn for them, nor cut himself, nor make himself bald for them.

⁷ Nor shall anyone break for them in mourning, to comfort him for the dead. Nor shall they give them the cup of comfort to drink for one's father or one's mother.

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

⁹ For so says Jehovah of Hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will cause to cease out of 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.

¹⁰ And it shall be, when you declare to this people all these words, they will say to you, Why has Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity, or what our sin that we have committed against Jehovah our God?

¹¹ Then you shall say to them, Because your fathers have forsaken Me, says Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law.

¹² And you have done more evil than your fathers. For, behold, you each one walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, without listening to Me.

¹³ And I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, you nor your fathers. And there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not grant you favor.

¹⁴ So, behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, As Jehovah lives who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁵ But rather, As Jehovah lives who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands, there where He had driven them. And I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Jehovah. And they shall fish them. And after this I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them, from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

¹⁷ For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face; their iniquity is not hidden from My eyes.

¹⁸ And first I will twice repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the bodies of their hateful things. Yea, their hateful idols have filled My inheritance.

¹⁹ O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, Our fathers have inherited only lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.

²⁰ Can a man make gods to himself? But they are not gods!

²¹ And, behold, I will make them know; this time I will cause them to know My hand and My might; and they shall know that My name is Jehovah.