Famine, Sword, and Death
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The word of the LORD came to me:
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"You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.
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For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:
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1They shall die of deadly diseases. 2They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. 3They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 4They shall perish by the sword and by famine, 5and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
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"For thus says the LORD: 6Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the LORD.
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Both great and small shall die in this land. 7They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or 8cut himself 9or make himself bald for them.
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No one shall 10break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother.
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You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.
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For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: 11Behold, I will silence in this place, before 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.
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"And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, 12'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?'
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then you shall say to them: 13'Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the LORD, and 14have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law,
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and because 15you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, 16every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.
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Therefore 17I will hurl you out of this land into 18a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, 19and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.'
The Lord Will Restore Israel
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20"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, 21'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,'
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but 22'As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel 23out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.' For 24I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
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"Behold, 25I am sending for many fishers, declares the LORD, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out 26of the clefts of the rocks.
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For 27my eyes are on all their ways. 28They are not hidden from me, 29nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
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But first 30I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and 31have filled my inheritance with their abominations."
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32O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, 33my refuge in the day of trouble, 34to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, 35worthless things in which there is no profit.
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Can man make for himself 36gods? Such are not gods!"
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"Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that 37my name is the LORD."
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)