Jeremiah — Chapter 16
The word of GOD came to me:
You are not to marry and not to have sons and daughters in this place.
For thus said GOD concerning any sons and daughters that may be born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them, and concerning the fathers who beget them in this land:
They shall die gruesome deaths. They shall not be lamented or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
For thus said GOD:Do not enter a house of mourning,amourning Lit. “religious gathering.” Do not go to lament and to condole with them;For I have withdrawn My favor from that people—declares GOD—My kindness and compassion.
Great and small alike shall die in this land,They shall not be buried; no one shall lament them,Nor gash and tonsure themselves for them.
They shall not break breadbbread So a few mss. Most mss. and editions read “to them.” for a mournercmourner Lit. “mourning.” To offer comfort for a death,Nor offer one a cup of consolationFor the loss of their father or mother.
Nor shall you enter a house of feasting,To sit down with them to eat and drink.
For thus said GOD of Hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the sound of mirth and gladness, the voice of bridegroom and bride.
And when you announce all these things to that people, and they ask you, “Why has GOD decreed upon us all this fearful evil? What is the iniquity and what the sin that we have committed against the ETERNAL our God?”
say to them, “Because your ancestors deserted Me—declares GOD—and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them; they deserted Me and did not keep My Instruction.
And you have acted worse than your ancestors, every one of you following the willfulness of their own evil heart and paying no heed to Me.
Therefore I will hurl you out of this land to a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods, day and night; for I will show you no mercy.”
Assuredly, a time is coming—declares GOD—when it shall no more be said, “As GOD lives who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt,”
but rather, “As GOD lives who brought the Israelites out of the northland, and out of all the lands to which they had been banished.” For I will bring them back to their land, which I gave to their ancestors.
Lo, I am sending for many fishermen—declares GOD—And they shall haul them out;And after that I will send for many hunters,And they shall hunt themOut of every mountain and out of every hillAnd out of the clefts of the rocks.
For My eyes are on all their ways,They are not hidden from My presence,Their iniquity is not concealed from My sight.
I will pay them in fulldfull See note to Isa. 65.7.—Nay, doubly for their iniquity and their sins—Because they have defiled My landWith the corpses of their abominations,etheir abominations I.e., their lifeless idols. And have filled My own possessionWith their abhorrent things.
O ETERNAL One, my strength and my stronghold,My refuge in a day of trouble,To You nations shall comeFrom the ends of the earth and say:Our ancestors inherited utter delusions,Things that are futile and worthless.
Can mortals make gods for themselves?No-gods are they!
Assuredly, I will teach them,Once and for all I will teach themMy power and My might.And they shall learn that My name is GOD.
✦ Connected Across Traditions
Divine Compassion & Mercy
Quran 1:1
“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”
Luke 6:36
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
Snp 1.8
“As a mother would risk her life to protect her child, her only child, even so should one cultivate a limitless heart with regard to all beings.”
Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1
“One Universal Creator God. The Name Is Truth. Creative Being Personified. No Fear. No Hatred.”
Impermanence & Letting Go
Dhammapada 20:277
“All conditioned things are impermanent. When one sees this with wisdom, one turns away from suffering.”
Tao Te Ching 76
“A man is born gentle and weak. At his death he is hard and stiff. The soft and yielding is the disciple of life.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1-2
“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.”
Bhagavad Gita 2:22
“As a person puts on new garments, giving up old ones, the soul similarly accepts new material bodies, giving up the old and useless ones.”
The Path to Wisdom
Dhammapada 20:282
“Wisdom springs from meditation; without meditation wisdom wanes.”
Analects 2:11
“If you study the past and use it to understand the present, you are worthy of being a teacher.”
Tao Te Ching 33
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.”
Quran 39:9
“Are those who know equal to those who do not know?”
Good vs Evil / Light vs Darkness
Yasna 30:3
“Now the two primal Spirits, who reveal themselves as Twins, are the Better and the Bad, in thought and word and action.”
John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Dhammapada 1:1-2
“Mind is the forerunner of all actions. If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow.”
Bhagavad Gita 16:21
“There are three gates to self-destructive hell: lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one must learn to give these up.”