'Cannot' in the Bible

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God!Behold, I do not know how to speak,For I am [only] a young man.”

“For My people have committed two evils:They have abandoned (rejected) Me,The fountain of living water,And they have carved out their own cisterns,Broken cisternsThat cannot hold water.

My soul, my soul! I writhe in anguish and pain! Oh, the walls of my heart!My heart is pounding and throbbing within me;I cannot be silent,For you have heard, O my soul,The sound of the trumpet,The alarm of war.

‘Do you not fear Me?’ says the Lord.‘Do you not tremble [in awe] in My presence?For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,An eternal decree and a perpetual barrier beyond which it cannot pass.Though the waves [of the sea] toss and break, yet they cannot prevail [against the sand ordained to hold them back];Though the waves and the billows roar, yet they cannot cross over [the barrier].[Is not such a God to be feared?]

To whom shall I (Jeremiah) speak and give warningThat they may hear?Behold, their ears are closed [absolutely deaf to God]And they cannot listen.Behold, the word of the Lord has become a reprimand and an object of scorn to them;They have no delight in it.

“Behold, you are trusting in deceptive and useless words that bring no benefit.

“For behold, I am sending serpents among you,Vipers which cannot be charmed,And they will bite you,” says the Lord.

“They are like scarecrows in a cucumber field;They cannot speak;They have to be carried,Because they cannot walk!Do not be afraid of them,For they can do no harm or evil,Nor can they do any good.”

Then the cities of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry to the [man-made] gods to whom they burn incense, but they cannot save them in the time of their disaster.

“Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man astounded and perplexed,Like a mighty man unable to save?Yet You, O Lord, are among us,And we are called by Your name;Do not leave us!”

and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “This is the way I will break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it cannot be mended. They will bury [corpses] in Topheth until there is no more room left [in that place] to bury [the dead].

If I say, “I will not remember HimOr speak His name anymore,”Then my heart becomes a burning fireShut up in my bones.And I am weary of enduring and holding it in;I cannot endure it [nor contain it any longer].

“Can anyone hide himself in secret placesSo that I cannot see him?” says the Lord.“Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the Lord.

“Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]?” says the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks the [most stubborn] rock [in pieces]?

Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad figs, very bad, so rotten that they cannot be eaten.”

‘And as for the bad figs, which are so rotten that they cannot be eaten,’ surely thus says the Lord, ‘so I will abandon Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes, and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and those who live in the land of Egypt.

thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Behold (listen very carefully), I am sending the sword, famine, and virulent disease (pestilence) on them, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.

As the host of [the stars of] heaven cannot be counted and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’”

Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am [in hiding, virtually] restrained; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.

“They have cut down her forest,” says the Lord;“Certainly it will no longer be found,Because they (the invaders) are more numerous than locustsAnd cannot be counted.

“But I have stripped Esau (Edom) bare;I have uncovered his hiding placesAnd he cannot hide himself.His descendants have been destroyed along with his brothers (relatives) and his neighbors;And he is no more.

Concerning Damascus [in Syria].“Hamath and Arpad are perplexed and shamed,For they have heard bad news;They are disheartened;Troubled and anxious like a [storm-tossed] seaWhich cannot be calmed.