18. Early in the day I was talking with the people. That evening my wife died, and the next day I did as I had been told.
19. The people asked me, “Why are you acting like this?”
20. So I said to them, “The Lord spoke to me and told me
21. to give you Israelites this message: you are proud of the strength of the Temple. You like to look at it and to visit it, but the Lord is going to profane it. And the younger members of your families who are left in Jerusalem will be killed in war.
22. Then you will do what I have done. You will not cover your faces or eat the food that mourners eat.
23. You will not go bareheaded or barefoot or mourn or cry. You will waste away because of your sins, and you will groan to one another.