Jeremiah · Bible in Basic English
Jeremiah 16 Bible in Basic English
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Then again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
1 Then Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2 You are not to take a wife for yourself or have sons or daughters in this place.
2 “You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.”
3 For this is what the Lord has said about the sons and daughters who come to birth in this place, and about their mothers who have given them birth, and about their fathers who have given life to them in this land:
3 For Yahweh says 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 became their father in this land:
4 Death from evil diseases will overtake them; there will be no weeping for them and their bodies will not be put to rest; they will be like waste on the face of the earth: the sword and need of food will put an end to them; their dead bodies will be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
4 “They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”
5 For this is what the Lord has said: Do not go into the house of sorrow, do not go to make weeping or songs of grief for them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, even mercy and pity.
5 For Yahweh says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says Yahweh, “even loving kindness and tender mercies.
6 Death will overtake great as well as small in the land: their bodies will not be put in a resting-place, and no one will be weeping for them or wounding themselves or cutting off their hair for them:
6 Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them.
7 No one will make a feast for them in sorrow, to give them comfort for the dead, or put to their lips the cup of comfort on account of their father or their mother.
7 Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8 And you are not to go into the house of feasting, or be seated with them to take food or drink.
8 “You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.”
9 For the Lord of armies, the God of Israel, has said, See, before your eyes and in your days I will put an end in this place to the laughing voices and the voice of joy; to the voice of the newly-married man and the voice of the bride.
9 For Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will cause to cease out of 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.
10 And it will be, that when you say all these words to the people, then they will say to you, Why has the Lord done all this evil against us? what is our wrongdoing and what is our sin which we have done against the Lord our God?
10 It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has Yahweh pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against Yahweh our God?’
11 Then you will say to them, Because your fathers have given me up, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and become their servants and their worshippers, and have given me up and have not kept my law;
11 then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says Yahweh, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law.
12 And you have done worse evil than your fathers; for see, every one of you is guided by the pride of his evil heart, so as not to give ear to me:
12 You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me.
13 For this reason I will send you away out of this land into a land which is strange to you, to you and to your fathers; there you will be the servants of other gods day and night, and you will have no mercy from me.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14 For this cause, see, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it will no longer be said, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.
14 “Therefore behold, the days come,” says Yahweh, “that it will no more be said, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’
15 But, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had sent them: and I will take them back again to their land which I gave to their fathers.
15 but, ‘As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.’ I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers.
16 See, I will send for great numbers of fishermen, says the Lord, and they will take them like fish in a net; and after that, I will send for numbers of bowmen, and they will go after them, driving them from every mountain and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
16 “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says Yahweh, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
17 For my eyes are on all their ways: there is no cover for them from my face, and their evil-doing is not kept secret from my eyes.
17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes.
18 And I will give them the reward of their evil-doing and their sin twice over; because they have made my land unclean, and have made my heritage full of the bodies of their unholy and disgusting things.
18 First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”
19 O Lord, my strength and my strong tower, my safe place in the day of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and say, The heritage of our fathers is nothing but deceit, even false things in which there is no profit.
19 Yahweh, my strength, my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.
20 Will a man make for himself gods which are no gods?
20 Should a man make to himself gods which yet are no gods?”
21 For this reason, truly, I will make them see, this once I will give them knowledge of my hand and my power; and they will be certain that my name is the Lord.
21 “Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once I will cause them to know my hand and my might. Then they will know that my name is Yahweh.”
Cross references (21)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Jeremiah 1:4; Jeremiah 1:2; Jeremiah 2:1
- 2 1 Corinthians 7:26–27; Luke 23:29; Genesis 19:14; Luke 21:23; Matthew 24:19
- 3 Jeremiah 16:5; Jeremiah 16:9; Jeremiah 6:21
- 4 Jeremiah 25:33; Psalm 83:10; Jeremiah 9:22; Zephaniah 1:17; Jeremiah 34:20
- 5 Ezekiel 24:16–23; Isaiah 27:11; Jeremiah 15:1–4; Deuteronomy 31:17; Jeremiah 16:6–7
- 6 Deuteronomy 14:1; Jeremiah 47:5; Jeremiah 41:5; Leviticus 19:28; Jeremiah 48:37
- 7 Ezekiel 24:17; Hosea 9:4; Deuteronomy 26:14; Job 42:11; Proverbs 31:6–7
- 8 Ecclesiastes 7:2–4; Jeremiah 15:17; Isaiah 22:12–14; Amos 6:4–6; Luke 17:27–29
- 9 Hosea 2:11; Ezekiel 26:13; Jeremiah 7:34; Jeremiah 25:10; Isaiah 24:7–12
- 10 Jeremiah 5:19; Deuteronomy 29:24–25; 1 Kings 9:8–9; Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 2:35
- 11 Psalm 106:35–41; Ezekiel 11:21; Nehemiah 9:26–29; Jeremiah 22:9; 1 Peter 4:3
- 12 Jeremiah 13:10; Jeremiah 7:26; Ecclesiastes 9:3; Jeremiah 9:14; Jeremiah 7:24
- 13 Deuteronomy 28:36; Deuteronomy 4:26–28; Jeremiah 15:14; Jeremiah 17:4; 2 Chronicles 7:20
- 14 Jeremiah 23:7–8; Deuteronomy 15:15; Exodus 20:2; Hosea 3:4–5; Micah 6:4
- 15 Jeremiah 3:18; Jeremiah 32:37; Jeremiah 24:6; Amos 9:14; Ezekiel 39:28
- 16 Habakkuk 1:14–15; Amos 4:2; Micah 7:2; Revelation 6:15–17; Amos 9:1–3
- 17 Proverbs 15:3; Proverbs 5:21; Jeremiah 23:24; Psalm 90:8; Job 34:21–22
- 18 Isaiah 40:2; Numbers 35:33–34; Jeremiah 17:18; Jeremiah 2:7; Revelation 18:6
- 19 Isaiah 25:4; Nahum 1:7; Jeremiah 17:17; Isaiah 2:2–3; Isaiah 44:10
- 20 Psalm 115:4–8; Isaiah 37:19; Galatians 4:8; Acts 19:26; Isaiah 36:19
- 21 Psalm 9:16; Jeremiah 33:2; Psalm 83:18; Amos 5:8; Exodus 15:3
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
… we now see fulfilled, he thus spoke: "O Lord my God, and my refuge in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations come from the utmost end of the earth, saying, Truly our fathers have worshipped lying images, wherein there is no profit." But that the Jews, by whom He behoved even to be slain, were not going …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 2 (1887)
Therefore nations that are converted to Christ afterwards, and taking to heart the impieties of their parents, and saying now what the prophet Jeremias himself said, "Truly a lie our fathers have worshipped, vanity which hath not profited them" --when, I say, they now say this, they renounce the opinions and blasphemies of their unjust parents....There have led us away …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)
… if the heathen who came from the ends of the earth, in the words of Jeremias, "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our forefathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit:" if the heathen forsook their idols, to come to the God of Israel; ought Israel …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 8 (1888)