Jeremiah 16

God commands Jeremiah to live a life of symbolic mourning to illustrate the impending doom. Jeremiah is commanded not to marry or have children, because the children born in the land will die painful deaths. He is also told not to attend feasts or funerals, symbolizing the end of normal life and joy. God declares that the coming judgment will be so severe that people will no longer talk about the Exodus from Egypt, but about the return from the lands of the north (the future Messianic deliverance).