Do not take a wife
1The word of Yahweh came to me in these terms: 2“Do not take a wife nor have sons and daughters in this place, 3for this is what Yahweh says about sons and daughters born here, and about fathers and mothers who bring them to light in this country:
4All will die of fatal diseases and no one will mourn for them or bury them; their corpses will be like dung on the ground. They will perish by the sword and by starvation and their corpses will be devoured by birds of prey and wild animals.”
5Yahweh further insisted, “Do not go into a house of mourning; neither weep nor loudly lament with the bereaved for I have already withdrawn my peace from these people – even my unwavering love and compassion. 6Both the great and the lowly in this country will perish and no one will mourn for them or bury them. No one shall gash his skin or shave his head as an act of mourning. 7No funeral meal shall be shared to comfort the bereaved or console them on the death of their fathers and mothers.
8Do not go to a house of celebration to feast with them before foods and drinks, 9for Yahweh, Saboath God of Israel has this to say:
In this place and before your very eyes, I will muffle every sound of pleasure and joy, even the song of the newlywed.
10When you announce all these things to the people, they will ask you: ‘Why has Yahweh decided to bring such terrible disasters on us? What wickedness or sin have we committed against Yahweh our God?’
11Then you shall tell them: ‘It is be cause your ancestors turned away from me and went after other gods to serve and worship them. They have forsaken me and refused to obey my Law. 12But you are worse than your forebearers because each of you has gone his own evil ways following his stubborn heart in complete defiance of me. 13Therefore, I will kick you out of this land into a place which is strange to you and your forebearers. There, you will serve other gods day and night, and you will get no compassion from me.’ ”
14Yahweh says, “The days are coming when people will no longer say, ‘Yahweh is a living God for he brought the Israelites out of Egypt,’ 15Rather, they will say, ‘Yahweh is a living God for he liberated the Israelites out of the northern land and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Yes, I will bring them back to their own country – the land that I bestowed to their forebearers.”
16But now Yahweh says, “I am sending for many fishermen to catch them. Afterwards, I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain, hill and cave in the rocks. 17The things that they do are manifest before my eyes and the sins that they commit are not hidden from me. 18I will make them pay double for their wickedness and sin; they have contaminated my land with their idols that are as dead as corpses and have filled it with their abominations.”
Will people make their own gods?
19Yahweh, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in times of distress!
From the furthest limits of the earth nations will come to you and say, “Our ancestors possessed only false hood, worthless idols bereft of power.”
20Will people make their own gods? Then they are not gods!
21Hence Yahweh says: “I will show and let them know my power and my might.
And they will know that Yahweh is my name.”
