14 “However, the days are coming,”(A) declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’(B) 15 but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north(C) and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’(D) For I will restore(E) them to the land I gave their ancestors.(F)

16 “But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them.(G) After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt(H) them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.(I) 17 My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden(J) from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.(K) 18 I will repay(L) them double(M) for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land(N) with the lifeless forms of their vile images(O) and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.(P)(Q)

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The Nation’s Return to the Land

14 Therefore[a] look, days are coming,’ declares[b] Yahweh, ‘and it will no longer be said, “As Yahweh lives,[c] who led up the Israelites[d] from the land of Egypt,” 15 but only[e]As Yahweh lives,[f] who led up the Israelites[g] from the land of the north, and from all the lands where he had driven them,” for I will bring them back to their ground that I gave to their ancestors.[h] 16 Look, I am sending for many fishermen,’ declares[i] Yahweh, ‘and they will fish them out, and afterward[j] I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and from the clefts of the cliffs. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways, they are not hidden from before me,[k] and their iniquity is not concealed from before my eyes. 18 And I will first doubly repay[l] their iniquity and their sin because of their profaning my land with the dead bodies[m] of their abhorrences, and with their abominations they have filled up my inheritance.’”

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 16:14 Literally “To thus”
  2. Jeremiah 16:14 Literally “a declaration of”
  3. Jeremiah 16:14 Literally “The life of Yahweh”
  4. Jeremiah 16:14 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  5. Jeremiah 16:15 Literally “but if”
  6. Jeremiah 16:15 Literally “The life of Yahweh”
  7. Jeremiah 16:15 Literally “sons/children of Israel”
  8. Jeremiah 16:15 Or “fathers”
  9. Jeremiah 16:16 Literally “a declaration of”
  10. Jeremiah 16:16 Literally “after thus”
  11. Jeremiah 16:17 Literally “from to the face of me”
  12. Jeremiah 16:18 Literally “I will reward first second”
  13. Jeremiah 16:18 Hebrew “dead body”