Jeremiah 16 · The Lantern

The word of the LORD came also unto me, saying,

Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place.

For thus saith the LORD concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land;

They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

For thus saith the LORD, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the LORD, even lovingkindness and mercies.

Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald

Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.

Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.

For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in 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.

And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?

Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;

And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;

But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

It is recorded in the Gospel according to Matthew that our Savior came alongside the Sea of Galilee and saw "Simon and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen." Then the text says that the Savior, seeing them, said: "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.

God made you a hunter, not a conqueror, who said: Behold, I send many hunters (Jer. XVI, 16): hunters not of sin, but of absolution; hunters not of blame certainly, but of grace. Christ is the fisherman, to whom it is said: Henceforth you shall be a life-giving man (Luke V, 10).

The apostles were fishermen, and the Lord said to them, "I will make you fishers of people." Moreover, it is said by the prophet that God intended to send fishers at first, and afterwards hunters. At first, he did send fishers, and now, afterwards, he is sending hunters. Why fishers? Why hunters?

For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.

And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.

O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

"Lord, my strength and my help and my refuge in the day of evils; to you the nations shall come from the end of the earth and shall say: As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them." From the end of the earth the nations came to God, and the nations have said: "As false things did our fathers acquire idols, and there is no profit in them"?

Further, Jeremiah says of Christ, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch. A king shall reign and shall be wise. He shall execute justice and judgment in the earth. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently.

For I am very much God's debtor, who gave me such great grace that many people were reborn in God through me and afterwards confirmed, and that clerics were ordained for them everywhere, for a people just coming to the faith, whom the Lord took from the utmost parts of the earth, as he once had promised through His prophets: "To you the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the…

Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?

"Shall a man make gods for himself?" Not only from images do human beings make gods for themselves, but you will find human beings making gods for themselves also from fabrications; for as many as are able to fabricate another god and another cosmogony besides the one recorded by the Spirit, a dispensation of the world besides the true world, all these have made gods for themse…

(Verse 20) To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Truly, our fathers have possessed a lie, vanity that has not profited them. Septuagint: To you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and say: How have our fathers possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them?

Although Hermes calls these idols gods, he nevertheless admits that they were made by people whose example we should not follow, and thus, willy-nilly, he proves that these idols should not be worshiped by people who are unlike the people who made them, that is, by wise, believing and religious people.

Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.

Jeremiah16