The Lord’s Instruction to His Prophet

16 This message from the Lord came to me: ² “You are not to take a wife, nor are you to have sons or daughters in this place.”

³ For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters who are born in this place, about their mothers who give birth to them, and about their fathers who father them in this land: ⁴ “They’ll die of deadly diseases. People won’t mourn for them, nor will they be buried. They’ll be dung on the surface of the ground, and they’ll come to an end with the sword and with famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the land.”