⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ^(A)Do 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.

^16 (A)“Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep, nor shall your tears run down. ¹⁷ Sigh, but not aloud; make no mourning for the dead. ^(B)Bind on your turban, and ^(C)put your shoes on your feet; do not cover your lips, ^(D)nor eat the bread of men.” ¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning, and ^(E)at evening my wife died. And on the next morning I did ^(F)as I was commanded.

¹⁹ And ^(G)the people said to me, “Will you not tell us what these things mean for us, that you are acting thus?” ²⁰ Then I said to them, “The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ ‘Say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: ^(H)Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the pride of your power, the delight of your eyes, and the yearning of your soul, and ^(I)your sons and your daughters whom you left behind shall fall by the sword. ²² And ^(J)you shall do as I have done; ^(K)you shall not cover your lips, ^(L)nor eat the bread of men. ^23 (M)Your turbans shall be on your heads and your shoes on your feet; you shall not mourn or weep, but ^(N)you shall rot away in your iniquities and groan to one another.

The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! ² And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^3 (F)I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and ^(G)the birds of the air ^(H)and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ^4 (I)And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what ^(J)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

¹⁷ Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and ^(A)I will forsake them and ^(B)hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ^(C)‘Have not these evils come upon us because ^(D)our God is not among us?’

⁴ And out came another horse, ^(A)bright red. Its rider was permitted ^(B)to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.

⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(A)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(B)cut himself ^(C)or make himself bald for them. ⁷ No one shall ^(D)break 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.

¹⁰ For before those days ^(A)there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in, for I set every man against his neighbor.

⁵ In those times there was no peace ^(A)to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. ⁶ They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress.