Jeremiah 16 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Yahweh's message came to me:

"Don't marry. Don't have sons or daughters in this place."

Because this is what Yahweh says about the sons and daughters born in this place, and about the mothers who gave birth to them and the fathers who fathered them in this land:

"They will die from devastating diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them — they'll become like fertilizer on the ground. They'll be finished off by war and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds and the wild animals."

Because this is what Yahweh says: "Don't go into a house where people are mourning. Don't go to grieve or show sympathy for them, because I've taken away my peace from these people" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "my steady love and my compassion."

"Both important and ordinary people will die in this land. They won't be buried, and no one will mourn for them. No one will cut themselves or shave their heads for them."

"No one will share a meal with mourners to comfort them for the dead. No one will offer them a cup of consolation, not even for the loss of a father or mother."

"And don't go into a house where people are feasting to sit down with them and eat and drink."

Because this is what Yahweh, the Commander of angel armies, the God of Israel, says: "Right here, in this place, while you're still alive to see it, I'm going to silence the sounds of celebration and joy — the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride."

"When you tell these people all of this and they ask you, 'Why has Yahweh pronounced all this terrible disaster against us? What did we do wrong? What failure have we committed against Yahweh our God?'

then tell them: 'Because your ancestors abandoned me' — this is Yahweh's declaration — 'and followed other gods and served them and worshiped them. They abandoned me and didn't keep my instructions."

"And you — you've done even worse than your ancestors! Look at you, each of you stubbornly following your own corrupt desires instead of listening to me."

"So I'm going to hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known, and there you'll serve other gods day and night — because I won't show you any favor."

"But listen — the days are coming" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "when people will no longer say, 'As sure as Yahweh lives, who brought the people of Israel up from Egypt.'"

"Instead they'll say, 'As sure as Yahweh lives, who brought the people of Israel up from the northern lands and from all the countries where he had scattered them.' Because I'm going to bring them back to their own soil — the land I gave to their ancestors."

"But right now I'm sending for many fishermen" — this is Yahweh's declaration — "and they'll fish them out. After that I'll send for many hunters, and they'll hunt them down from every mountain and every hill and from the cracks in the rocks."

"Because my eyes are on everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me, and their corruption is not concealed from my sight."

"First, I'll pay them back double for their corruption and their failures, because they've polluted my land with the lifeless carcasses of their disgusting idols and filled my inheritance with their offensive practices."

Yahweh, you are my strength, my fortress, my safe place when trouble comes. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, "Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies — worthless things that did them no good at all."

Can humans make their own gods? Those aren't gods at all!

"So watch — this time I'm going to make them understand. I will make them know my power and my might, and they will know that my name is Yahweh."