***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIBLE, DOUAY-RHEIMS VERSION, BOOK 28: JEREMIAS***
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Book 28 Jeremias
THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS
Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the
tribe of Benjamin: and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a
prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a child
in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification of his
name, Great before the Lord; and a special figure of Jesus Christ, in
the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in his charity
for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered at their
hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he was stoned
to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into Egypt.
Jeremias Chapter 1
The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. God
encourages him.
1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were
in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the
son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king
of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias
king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the
fifth month.
1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made
thee a prophet unto the nations.
1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am
a child.
1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go
to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou
shalt speak.
1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord.
1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord
said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:
1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms,
to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to
build, and to plant.
1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou,
Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch
over my word to perform it.
1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What
seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof
from the face of the north.
1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.
1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms
of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every
one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all
the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.
1:16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all their
wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods,
and have adored the work of their own hands.
1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all
that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make
thee not to fear their countenance.
1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a
pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of
Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of
the land.
1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I am
with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
Jeremias Chapter 2
God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and infidelity.
2:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2:2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord:
I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy
espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not
sown.
2:3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all
they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
2:4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families
of the house of Israel:
2:5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me,
that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are
become vain?
2:6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out
of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land
uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the image of
death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?
2:7. And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit
thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you
defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.
Carmel... That is, a fruitful, plentiful land.
2:8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the
law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the
prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
2:9. Therefore will I yet contend in judgment with you, saith the Lord,
and I will plead with your children.
2:10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar,
and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like
this.
2:11. If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not gods:
but my people have changed their glory into an idol.
2:12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be
very desolate, saith the Lord.
2:13. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the
fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken
cisterns, that can hold no water.
2:14. Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become a
prey?
2:15. The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have
made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is none
to dwell in them.
2:16. The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have defloured thee,
even to the crown of the head.
2:17. Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the
Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?
2:18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the
troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians,
to drink the water of the river?
2:19. Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall
rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing
for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with
thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts.
2:20. Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands,
and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under
every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.
2:21. Yet, I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art
thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange
vineyard?
2:22. Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the
herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord
God.
Borith... An herb used to clean clothes, and take out spots and dirt.
2:23. How canst thou say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after
Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a swift
runner pursuing his course.
2:24. A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his
heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all
that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.
2:25. Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. But
thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved
strangers, and I will walk after them.
2:26. As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of
Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and their
priests, and their prophets.
2:27. Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast
begotten me: they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and
in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.
2:28. Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and
deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: for according to the number
of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.
2:29. Why will you contend with me in judgment? you have all forsaken
me, saith the Lord.
2:30. In vain have I struck your children, they have not received
correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is
like a ravaging lion.
2:31. See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel,
or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are
revolted, we will come to thee no more?
2:32. Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but
my people hath forgotten me days without number.
2:33. Why dost thou endeavour to shew thy way good to seek my love, thou
who hast also taught thy malices to be thy ways,
2:34. And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and
innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I
mentioned before.
2:35. And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and
therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend
with thee in judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.
2:36. How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over
again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of
Assyria.
2:37. For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy
head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have nothing
prosperous therein.
Jeremias Chapter 3
God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive
them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.
3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from
him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not
that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself
to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will
receive thee.
3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted
thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the
wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and
with thy wickedness.
3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward
rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my
father, the guide of my virginity:
3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end?
Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.
3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen
what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every
high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot
there.
3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and
she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,
3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put
her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister
Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.
3:9. And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and
played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
3:10. And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned
to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
3:11. And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her
soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
3:12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt
say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn
away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be
angry for ever.
3:13. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers
under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.
3:14. Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I
husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and
will bring you into Sion.
3:15. And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they
shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
3:16. And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in
those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the
covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither
shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that
be done any more.
3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and
all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the
Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their
most wicked heart.
3:18. In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel,
and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land
which I gave to your fathers.
3:19. But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee
a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And
I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.
3:20. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of
Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
3:21. A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the
children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have
forgotten the Lord their God.
3:22. Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions.
Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
3:23. In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the
mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
3:24. Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
3:25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us,
because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from
our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of
the Lord our God.
Jeremias Chapter 4
And admonition to sincere repentance, and circumcision of the heart,
with threats of grievous punishment to those that persist in sin.
4:1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if
thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not
be moved.
4:2. And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in
judgment, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall
praise him.
4:3. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up
anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:
4:4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your
hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my
indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can
quench it because of the wickedness of your thoughts.
4:5. Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and
sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble
yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.
4:6. Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for I
bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
4:7. The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath
roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land
desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an
inhabitant.
4:8. For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the
fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.
4:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the
heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the
priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed.
4:10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived
this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the
sword reacheth even to the soul?
4:11. At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A
burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the
daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.
4:12. A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will
speak my judgments with them.
4:13. Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest:
his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.
4:14. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be
saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?
4:15. For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the
idol from mount Ephraim.
4:16. Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that
guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against
the cities of Juda.
4:17. They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she
hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.
4:18. Thy ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee:
this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched
thy heart.
4:19. My bowels, my bowels are in part, the senses of my heart are
troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the
sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.
4:20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is
laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a
moment.
4:21. How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the
sound of the trumpet?
4:22. For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and
senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have
no knowledge.
4:23. I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the
heavens, and there was no light in them.
4:24. I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the
hills were troubled.
4:25. I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air
were gone.
4:26. I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities
were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the
wrath of his indignation.
4:27. For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I
will not utterly destroy.
4:28. The Earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above:
because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither
am I turned away from it.
4:29. At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is
fled away: they have entered into thickets and climbed up the rocks: all
the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.
4:30. But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou clothest
thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,
and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in
vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.
4:31. For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as
of a woman in labour of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion,
dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted
because of them that are slain.
Jeremias Chapter 5
The judgments of God shall fall upon the Jews for their manifold sins.
5:1. Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider,
and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that
executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.
5:2. And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear
falsely.
5:3. O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they
have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to
receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and
they have refused to return.
5:4. But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the
way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.
5:5. I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for
they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and
behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the
bonds.
5:6. Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the
evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every
one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their
transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.
5:7. How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and
swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they
committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.
5:8. They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed
after his neighbour's wife.
5:9. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not
my soul take revenge on such a nation?
5:10. Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly
destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the
Lord's.
5:11. For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly
transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
5:12. They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil
shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.
5:13. The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God
in them: these things therefore shall befall them.
5:14. Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: because you have spoken this
word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people
as wood, and it shall devour them.
5:15. Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of
Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation
whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.
5:16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.
5:17. And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour
thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy
herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword
they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.
5:18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you
to utter destruction.
5:19. And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these
things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and
served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a
land that is not your own.
5:20. Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda,
saying:
5:21. Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes,
and see not: and ears, and hear not.
5:22. Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent
at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting
ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall
toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not
pass over it.
5:23. But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and
provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
5:24. And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our
God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who
preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.
5:25. Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have
withholden good things from you.
5:26. For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as
fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
5:27. As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit:
therefore are they become great and enriched.
5:28. They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed
my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not
managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the
judgment of the poor.
5:29. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not
my soul take revenge on such a nation?
5:30. Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.
5:31. The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their
hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the
end thereof?
Jeremias Chapter 6
The evils that threaten Jerusalem. She is invited to return, and walk in
the good way, and not to rely on sacrifices without obedience.
6:1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of
Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard over
Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great destruction.
6:2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate
woman.
6:3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have
pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them
that are under his hand.
6:4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe
unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are
grown longer.
6:5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.
6:6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a
trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression
is in the midst of her.
6:7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her wickedness
cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity and stripes
are continually before me.
6:8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee,
lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
6:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of
Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a
grapegatherer into the basket.
6:10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may
hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold
the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and they will not
receive it.
6:11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with
holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of
the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient
and he that is full of days.
6:12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands
and their wives together: for I will stretch forth my hand upon the
inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
6:13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to
covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty of
deceit.
6:14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.
6:15. They were confounded, because they committed abomination: yea,
rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to
blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time of
their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.
6:16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for
the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall
find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.
6:17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound
of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.
6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great
things I will do to them.
6:19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the
fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and
they have cast away my law.
6:20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the
sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not
acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.
6:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction
upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall,
neighbour and kinsman shall perish.
6:22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the
north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.
6:23. They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will
have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall mount
upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of Sion.
6:24. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish
hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.
6:25. Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the sword
of the enemy, and fear is on every side.
6:26. Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle
thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter
lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
6:27. I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt
know, and prove their way.
6:28. All these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they
are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.
6:29. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the
founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.
6:30. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.
Jeremias Chapter 7
The temple of God shall not protect a sinful people, without a sincere
conversion. The Lord will not receive the prayers of the prophet for
them: because they are obstinate in their sins.
7:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
7:2. Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this
word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that
enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.
7:3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Make your ways and
your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.
7:4. Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.
7:5. For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will
execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,
7:6. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and
shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods
to your own hurt,
7:7. I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to
your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.
7:8. Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit
you:
7:9. To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer
to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.
7:10. And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my
name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have
done all these abominations.
7:11. Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in
your eyes become a den of robbers? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the
Lord.
7:12. Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the beginning:
and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel:
7:13. And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord:
and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have not
heard: and I have called you, and you have not answered:
7:14. I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in
which you trust, and to the place which I have given you and your
fathers, as I did to Silo.
7:15. And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away
all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
7:16. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee
praise and supplication for them: and do not withstand me: for I will
not hear thee.
7:17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the
streets of Jerusalem?
7:18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the
women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to
offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.
Queen of heaven... That is, the moon, which they worshipped under that
name.
7:19. Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? is it not themselves,
to the confusion of their own countenance?
7:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my
indignation is enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts,
and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it
shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
7:21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.
7:22. For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the
day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter
of burnt offerings and sacrifices.
I commanded them not... Viz., such sacrifices as the Jews at this time
offered, without obedience; which was the thing principally commanded:
so that in comparison with it, the offering of the holocausts and
sacrifices was of small account.
7:23. But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and
I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the
way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.
7:24. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in
their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went
backward and not forward,
7:25. From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt,
even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
from day to day, rising up early and sending.
7:26. And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but
have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers.
7:27. And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not
hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer
thee.
7:28. And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not
hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction:
faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.
7:29. Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on
high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his
wrath,
7:30. Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the
Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is
called upon, to pollute it;
7:31. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the
valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters in
the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.
7:32. Therefore behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall
no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom: but the
valley of slaughter: and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no
place.
7:33. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of
the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to
drive them away.
7:34. And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of
the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land
shall be desolate.
Jeremias Chapter 8
Other evils that shall fall upon the Jews for their impenitence.
8:1. At that time, saith the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the
kings of Juda, and the bones of the princes thereof, and the bones of
the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
8:2. And they shall spread them abroad to the sun, and the moon, and all
the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and
after whom have walked, and whom they have sought, and adored: they
shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried: they shall be as
dung upon the face of the earth.
8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all that shall remain
of this wicked kindred in all places, which are left, to which I have
cast them out, saith the Lord of hosts.
8:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Shall not he that
falleth, rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not turn
again?
8:5. Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn
revolting? they have laid hold on lying, and have refused to return.
8:6. I attended, and hearkened; no man speaketh what is good, there is
none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done? They are
all turned to their own course, as a horse rushing to the battle.
8:7. The kite in the air hath known her time: the turtle, and the
swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming: but my
people have not known the judgment of the Lord.
8:8. How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?
Indeed the lying pens of the scribes hath wrought falsehood.
8:9. The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they
have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.
8:10. Therefore will I give their women to strangers, their fields to
others for an inheritance: because from the least even to the greatest
all follow covetousness: from the prophet even to the priest all deal
deceitfully.
8:11. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: when there was no peace.
8:12. They are confounded, because they have committed abomination: yea
rather they are not confounded with confusion, and they have not known
how to blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the
time of their visitation they shall fall, saith the Lord.
8:13. Gathering I will gather them together, saith the Lord, there is no
grape on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree, the leaf is
fallen: and I have given them the things that are passed away.
8:14. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into
the fenced city, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath
put us to silence, and hath given us water of gall to drink: for we have
sinned against the Lord.
8:15. We looked for peace and no good came: for a time of healing, and
behold fear.
8:16. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan, all the land was
moved at the sound of the neighing of his warriors: and they came and
devoured the land, and all that was in it: the city and its inhabitants.
8:17. For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against
which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
8:18. My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.
8:19. Behold the voice of the daughter of my people from a far country:
Is not the Lord in Sion, or is not her king in her? why then have they
provoked me to wrath with their idols, and strange vanities?
8:20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
8:21. For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am afflicted,
and made sorrowful, astonishment hath taken hold on me.
8:22. Is there no balm in Galaad? or is there no physician there? Why
then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?
Jeremias Chapter 9
The prophet laments the miseries of his people: and their sins, which
are the cause of them. He exhorts them to repentance.
9:1. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes?
and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people.
9:2. Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring
men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are
all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.
9:3. And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for
truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have
proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
9:4. Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in
any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every
friend will walk deceitfully.
9:5. And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the
truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have
laboured to commit iniquity.
9:6. Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have
refused to know me, saith the Lord.
9:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and try
them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?
9:8. Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his
mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait
for him.
9:9. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall
not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
9:10. For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for
the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up,
for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they have not
heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts
they are gone away and departed.
9:11. And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of
dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an
inhabitant.
9:12. Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the
word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why the
land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none
passeth through?
9:13. And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I gave
them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.
9:14. But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and
after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
9:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I
will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to
drink.
9:16. And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their
fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they
be consumed.
9:17. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and
call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that
are wise women, and let them make haste:
9:18. Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes
shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.
9:19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and
greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our dwellings
are cast down.
9:20. Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears
receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and
every one her neighbour mourning.
9:21. For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our
houses to destroy the children from without, the young men from the
streets.
9:22. Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as
dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the
mower, and there is none to gather it.
9:23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and
let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man
glory in his riches:
9:24. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and
knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and
justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
9:25. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every
one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
9:26. Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of
Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round,
that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the
flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
Jeremias Chapter 10
Neither stars nor idols are to be feared, but the great Creator of all
things. The chastisement of Jerusalem for her sins.
10:1. Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O
house of Israel.
10:2. Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the
Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens
fear:
10:3. For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of
the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.
10:4. He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together
with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.
10:5. They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not
speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go.
Therefore fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.
10:6. There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great, and great is
thy name in might.
10:7. Who shall not fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the
glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms
there is none like unto thee.
10:8. They shall be all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the
doctrine of their vanity is wood.
10:9. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from
Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith:
violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of
artificers.
10:10. But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the
everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations
shall not be able to abide his threatening.
10:11. Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made
heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those
places that are under heaven.
10:12. He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world
by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.
10:13. At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and
lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings
for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
10:14. Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is
confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there
is no spirit in them.
10:15. They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of their
visitation they shall perish.
10:16. The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed
all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts
is his name.
10:17. Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a
siege.
10:18. For thus saith he Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the
inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that
they may be found.
10:19. Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I
said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.
10:20. My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children
are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth
my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
10:21. Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the
Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is
scattered.
10:22. Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the
land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling
for dragons.
10:23. I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it
in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.
The way of a man is not his... The meaning is, that notwithstanding
man's free will, yet he can do no good without God's help, nor evil
without his permission. So that, in the present case, all the evils
which Nabuchodonosor was about to bring upon Jerusalem, could not have
come but by the will of God.
10:24. Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in thy fury,
lest thou bring me to nothing.
10:25. Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known
thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because
they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have
destroyed his glory.
Jeremias Chapter 11
The prophet proclaims the covenant of God: and denounces evils to the
obstinate transgressors of it. The conspiracy of the Jews against him, a
figure of their conspiracy against Christ.
11:1. The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, saying:
11:2. Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Juda,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
11:3. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel:
Cursed is the man that shall not hearken to the words of this covenant,
11:4. Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out
of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying: Hear ye my voice,
and do all things that I command you: and you shall be my people, and I
will be your God:
11:5. That I may accomplish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to
give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I
answered and said: Amen, O Lord.
11:6. And the Lord said to me: Proclaim aloud all these words in the
cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the
words of the covenant, and do them:
11:7. For protesting I conjured your fathers in the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt even to this day: rising early I conjured
them, and said: Hearken ye to my voice:
11:8. And they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear: but walked every one
in the perverseness of his own wicked heart: and I brought upon them all
the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did
them not.
11:9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of
Juda, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
11:10. They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who
refused to hear my words: so these likewise have gone after strange
gods, to serve them: the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have
made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers.
11:11. Wherefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring in evils upon
them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to me,
and I will not hearken to them.
11:12. And the cities of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall
go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer sacrifice, and they shall not
save them in the time of their affliction.
11:13. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda:
and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem thou hast set up
altars of confusion, altars to offer sacrifice to Baalim.
11:14. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, and do not take up
praise and prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time of
their cry to me, in the time of their affliction.
11:15. What is the meaning that my beloved hath wrought much wickedness
in my house? shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy crimes, in
which thou hast boasted?
11:16. The Lord called thy name, a plentiful olive tree, fair, fruitful,
and beautiful: at the noise of a word, a great fire was kindled in it,
and the branches thereof are burnt.
11:17. And the Lord of hosts that planted thee, hath pronounced evil
against thee: for the evils of the house of Israel, and of the house of
Juda, which they have done to themselves, to provoke me, offering
sacrifice to Baalim.
11:18. But thou, O Lord, hast shewn me, and I have known: then thou
shewedst me their doings.
11:19. And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I
knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put
wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let
his name be remembered no more.
11:20. But thou, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judgest justly, and triest the
reins and the hearts, let me see thy revenge on them: for to thee have I
revealed my cause.
Sabaoth... That is, of hosts or armies, a name frequently given to God
in the scriptures.-Ibid. Thy revenge... This was rather a prediction of
what was to happen, with an approbation of the divine justice, than an
imprecation.
11:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek
thy life, and say: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and
thou shalt not die in our hands.
11:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon
them: their young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their
daughters shall die by famine.
11:23. And there shall be no remains of them: for I will bring in evil
upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation.
Jeremias Chapter 12
The prosperity of the wicked shall be but for a short time. The
desolation of the Jews for their sins. Their return from their
captivity.
12:1. Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, but yet I
will speak what is just to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper:
why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?
12:2. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and
bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their
reins.
12:3. And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and proved my
heart with thee: gather them together as for the day of slaughter.
12:4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither
for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts and the birds
are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.
12:5. If thou hast been wearied with running with footmen, how canst
thou contend with horses? and if thou hast been secure in a land of
peace, what wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?
12:6. For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have
fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe
them not when they speak good things to thee.
12:7. I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given
my dear soul into the hand of her enemies.
12:8. My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: it hath
cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.
12:9. Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed
throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth,
make haste to devour.
12:10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my
portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a
desolate wilderness.
12:11. They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With
desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that
considereth in the heart.
12:12. The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for
the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other
end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.
12:13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an
inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your
fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.
12:14. Thus saith the Lord against all wicked neighbours, that touch the
inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I will
pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of
the midst of them.
12:15. And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have
mercy on them: and will bring them back, every man to his inheritance,
and every man into his land.
12:16. And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn
the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as they
have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built up in
the midst of my people.
12:17. But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy
that nation, saith the Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 13
Under the figure of a linen girdle is foretold the destruction of the
Jews. Their obstinacy in sin brings all miseries upon them.
13:1. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and
thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.
13:2. And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it
about my loins.
13:3. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:
13:4. Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and
arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
13:5. And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded
me.
13:6. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me:
Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I
commanded thee to hide there.
13:7. And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out
of the place where I had hid it and behold the girdle was rotten, so
that it was fit for no use.
13:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
13:9. Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of
Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.
13:10. This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in
the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to
serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle which
is fit for no use.
13:11. For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I
brought close to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda,
saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a
praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
13:12. Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the Lord
the God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. And they
shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with
wine?
13:13. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will
fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of
David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
13:14. And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers
and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will
not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.
13:15. Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.
13:16. Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before
your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and
he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.
13:17. But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for
your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with
tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.
13:18. Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down:
for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.
13:19. The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open
them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.
13:20. Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where
is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?
13:21. What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught
them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not
sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?
13:22. And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come
upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered,
the soles of thy feet are defiled.
13:23. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots:
you also may do well, when you have learned evil.
13:24. And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the
wind in the desert.
13:25. This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith
the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.
13:26. Wherefore I have also bared thy thighs against thy face, and thy
shame hath appeared.
13:27. I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of
thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe
to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?
Jeremias Chapter 14
A grievous famine: and the prophet's prayer on that occasion. Evils
denounced to false prophets. The prophet mourns for his people.
14:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the words of
the drought.
14:2. Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are
become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
14:3. The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to
draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they
were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.
14:4. For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon
the earth, the husbandman were confounded, they covered their heads.
14:5. Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it,
because there was no grass.
14:6. And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind
like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.
14:7. If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it
for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned against
thee.
14:8. O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble:
why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man
turning in to lodge?
14:9. Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot
save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us,
forsake us not.
14:10. Thus saith the Lord to this people, that have loved to move their
feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will now
remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.
14:11. And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their good.
14:12. When they fast I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer
holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them
by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.
14:13. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them: You
shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he
will give you true peace in this place.
14:14. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my
name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken
to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and
deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.
14:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that
prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine
shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be
consumed.
14:16. And the people to whom they prophesy, shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there
shall be none to bury them: they and their wives, their sons and their
daughters, and I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.
14:17. And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed down
tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the virgin daughter
of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an exceeding
grievous evil.
14:18. If I go forth into the fields, behold the slain with the sword:
and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with famine.
The prophet also and the priest are gone into a land which they knew
not.
14:19. Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred Sion?
why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us? we
have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of
healing, and behold trouble.
14:20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our
fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
14:21. Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name's sake, and do not
disgrace in us the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant
with us.
14:22. Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can
send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our
God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.
Jeremias Chapter 15
God is determined to punish the Jews for their sins. The prophet's
complaint, and God's promise to him.
15:1. And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel shall stand before
me, my soul is not towards this people: cast them out from my sight, and
let them go forth.
15:2. And if they shall say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to death:
and such as are for the sword, to the sword: and such as are for famine,
to famine: and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
15:3. And I will visit them with four kinds, saith the Lord: The sword
to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts
of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
15:4. And I will give them up to the rage of all the kingdoms of the
earth: because of Manasses the son of Ezechias the king of Juda, for all
that he did in Jerusalem.
15:5. For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan
thee? or who shall go to pray for thy peace?
15:6. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: and
I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee: I am
weary of entreating thee.
15:7. And I will scatter them with a fan in the gates of the land: I
have killed and destroyed my people, and yet they are not returned from
their ways.
15:8. Their widows are multiplied unto me above the sand of the sea: I
have brought upon them against the mother of the young man a spoiler at
noonday: I have cast a terror on a sudden upon the cities.
15:9. She that hath borne seven is become weak, her soul hath fainted
away: her sun is gone down, while it was yet day: she is confounded, and
ashamed: and the residue of them I will give up to the sword in the
sight of their enemies, saith the Lord.
15:10. Woe is me, my mother: why hast thou borne me a man of strife, a
man of contention to all the earth? I have not lent on usury, neither
hath any man lent to me on usury: yet all curse me.
15:11. The Lord saith to me: Assuredly it shall be well with thy
remnant, assuredly I shall help thee in the time of affliction, and in
the time of tribulation against the enemy.
15:12. Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the brass?
Shall iron be allied, etc... Shall the iron, that is, the strength of
Juda, stand against the stronger iron of the north, that is, of Babylon:
or enter into an alliance upon equal footing with it? No certainly: but
it must be broken by it.
15:13. Thy riches and thy treasures I will give unto spoil for nothing,
because of all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
15:14. And I will bring thy enemies out of a land, which thou knowest
not: for a fire is kindled in my rage, it shall burn upon you.
15:15. O Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and defend me
from them that persecute me, do not defend me in thy patience: know that
for thy sake I have suffered reproach.
Do not defend me in thy patience... That is, let not thy patience and
longsuffering, which thou usest towards sinners, keep thee from making
haste to my assistance.
15:16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me
a joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Lord
God of hosts.
15:17. I sat not in the assembly of jesters, nor did I make a boast of
the presence of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with
threats.
15:18. Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate so as
to refuse to be healed? it is become to me as the falsehood of deceitful
waters that cannot be trusted.
15:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted, I will
convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face; and thou wilt
separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they
shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.
15:20. And I will make thee to this people as a strong wall of brass:
and they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with
thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
15:21. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will
redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty.
Jeremias Chapter 16
The prophet is forbid to marry. The Jews shall be utterly ruined for
their idolatry: but shall at length be released from their captivity,
and the Gentiles shall be converted.
16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
16:2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons and
daughters in this place.
16:3. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and daughters, that
are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them: and
concerning their fathers, of whom they were born in this land:
16:4. They shall die by the death of grievous illnesses: they shall not
be lamented, and they shall not be buried, they shall be as dung upon
the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed with the sword, and
with famine: and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the air,
and for the beasts of the earth.
16:5. For thus saith the Lord: Enter not into the house of feasting,
neither go thou to mourn, nor to comfort them: because I have taken away
my peace from this people, saith the Lord, my mercy and commiserations.
16:6. Both the great and the little shall die in this land: they shall
not be buried nor lamented, and men shall not cut themselves, nor make
themselves bald for them.
16:7. And they shall not break bread among them to him that mourneth, to
comfort him for the dead: neither shall they give them for their father
and mother.
16:8. And do not thou go into the house of feasting, to sit with them,
and to eat and drink:
16:9. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will
take away out of this place in your sight, and in your days the voice of
mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the
voice of the bride.
16:10. And when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they
shall say to thee: Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced against us all
this great evil? what is our iniquity? and what is our sin, that we have
sinned against the Lord our God?
16:11. Thou shalt say to them: Because your fathers forsook me, saith
the Lord: and went after strange gods, and served them, and adored them:
and they forsook me, and kept not my law.
16:12. And you also have done worse than your fathers: for behold every
one of you walketh after the perverseness of his evil heart, so as not
to hearken to me.
16:13. So I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land which you
know not, nor your fathers: and there you shall serve strange gods day
and night, which shall not give you any rest.
16:14. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, when it shall be
said no more: The Lord liveth, that brought forth the children of Israel
out of the land of Egypt.
16:15. But, The Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of
the land of the north, and out of all the lands to which I cast them
out: and I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their
fathers.
16:16. Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall
hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill and out of the holes
of the rocks.
16:17. For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my
face, and their iniquity hath not been hid from my eyes.
16:18. And I will repay first their double iniquities, and their sins:
because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and
they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.
16:19. O Lord, my might, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of
tribulation: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth,
and shall say: Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a vanity which
hath not profited them.
16:20. Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods?
16:21. Therefore behold I will this once cause them to know, I will shew
them my hand and my power: and they shall know that my name is the Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 17
For their obstinacy in sin the Jews shall be led captive. He is cursed
that trusteth in flesh. God alone searcheth the heart, giving to every
one as he deserves. The prophet prayeth to be delivered from his
enemies, and preacheth up the observance of the sabbath.
17:1. The sin of Juda is written with a pen of iron, with the point of a
diamond, it is graven upon the table of their heart, upon the horns of
their altars.
17:2. When their children shall remember their altars, and their groves,
and their green trees upon the high mountains,
17:3. Sacrificing in the field: I will give thy strength, and all thy
treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin in all thy borders.
17:4. And thou shalt be left stripped of thy inheritance, which I gave
thee: and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou
knowest not: because thou hast kindled a fire in my wrath, it shall burn
for ever.
17:5. Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
17:6. For he shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see
when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert in a
salt land, and not inhabited.
Tamaric... A barren shrub that grows in the driest parts of the
wilderness.
17:7. Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall
be his confidence.
17:8. And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that
spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when the
heat cometh. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of
drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time
to bring forth fruit.
17:9. The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can
know it?
17:10. I am the Lord who search the heart, and prove the reins: who give
to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his
devices.
17:11. As the partridge hath hatched eggs which she did not lay: so is
he that hath gathered riches, and not by right: in the midst of his days
he shall leave them, and in his latter end he shall be a fool.
17:12. A high and glorious throne from the beginning is the place of our
sanctification.
17:13. O Lord, the hope of Israel: all that forsake thee shall be
confounded: they that depart from thee, shall be written in the earth:
because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters.
17:14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be
saved: for thou art my praise.
17:15. Behold they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? let it
come.
17:16. And I am not troubled, following thee for my pastor, and I have
not desired the day of man, thou knowest. That which went out of my
lips, hath been right in thy sight.
17:17. Be not thou a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day of
affliction.
17:18. Let them be confounded that persecute me, and let not me be
confounded: let them be afraid, and let not me be afraid: bring upon
them the day of affliction, and with a double destruction, destroy them.
Let them be confounded, etc... Such expressions as these in the writings
of the prophets, are not to be understood as imprecations proceeding
from malice or desire of revenge: but as prophetic predictions of evils
that were about to fall upon impenitent sinners, and approbations of the
ways of divine justice.
17:19. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the
children of the people, by which the kings of Juda come in, and go out,
and in all the gates of Jerusalem:
17:20. And thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings
of Juda, and al Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter
in by these gates.
17:21. Thus saith the Lord: Take heed to your souls, and carry no
burdens on the sabbath day: and bring them not in by the gates of
Jerusalem.
17:22. And do not bring burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day,
neither do ye any work: sanctify the sabbath day, as I commanded your
fathers.
17:23. But they did not hear, nor incline their ear: but hardened their
neck, that they might not hear me, and might not receive instruction.
17:24. And it shall come to pass: if you will hearken to me, saith the
Lord, to bring in no burdens by the gates of this city on the sabbath
day: and if you will sanctify the sabbath day, to do no work therein:
17:25. Then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and
princes, sitting upon the throne of David, and riding in chariots and on
horses, they and their princes, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever.
17:26. And they shall come from the cities of Juda, and from the places
round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the
plains, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing holocausts,
and victims, and sacrifices, and frankincense, and they shall bring in
an offering into the house of the Lord.
17:27. But if you will not hearken to me, to sanctify the sabbath day,
and not to carry burdens, and not to bring them in by the gates of
Jerusalem on the sabbath day: I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof,
and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it shall not be
quenched.
Jeremias Chapter 18
As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God's hand. He
pardoneth penitents, and punisheth the obstinate. They conspire against
Jeremias, for which he denounceth to them the miseries that hang over
them.
18:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
18:2. Arise, and go down into the potter's house, and there thou shalt
hear my words.
18:3. And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a
work on the wheel.
18:4. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his
hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes
to make it.
18:5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
18:6. Cannot I do with you, as this potter, O house of Israel, saith the
Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my
hand, O house of Israel.
18:7. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to
root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.
18:8. If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their
evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.
18:9. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build
up and plant it.
18:10. If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I
will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.
18:11. Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you,
and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from his
evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.
18:12. And they said; We have no hopes: for we will go after our own
thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his
evil heart.
18:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath
heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?
18:14. Shall the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can
the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?
18:15. Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and
stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not
trodden:
18:16. That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a
perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished,
and wag his head.
18:17. As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy: I will
shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.
18:18. And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias:
for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise,
nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the
tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
18:19. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
18:20. Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit
for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for
them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.
Remember, etc... This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by
the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon
them in punishment of their crimes.
18:21. Therefore deliver up their children to famine, and bring them
into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children and
widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young men be
stabbed with the sword in battle.
18:22. Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the
robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me,
and have hid snares for my feet.
18:23. But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto
death: not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy
sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy wrath
do thou destroy them.
Jeremias Chapter 19
Under the type of breaking a potter's vessel, the prophet foresheweth
the desolation of the Jews for their sins.
19:1. Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter's earthen bottle, and
take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:
19:2. And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the
entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that
I shall tell thee.
19:3. And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of Juda,
and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God
of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place: so that
whosoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:
19:4. Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place: and
have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their
fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place
with the blood of innocents.
19:5. And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their
children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command,
nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.
19:6. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place
shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom, but
the valley of slaughter.
19:7. And I will defeat the counsel of Juda and of Jerusalem in this
place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their
enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give
their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts
of the earth.
19:8. And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing: every
one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss because
of all the plagues thereof.
19:9. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the
flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his
friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and
they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
19:10. And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that
shall go with thee.
19:11. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Even so
will I break this people, and this city, as the potter's vessel is
broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in
Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.
19:12. Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the
inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.
19:13. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Juda
shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon whose
roofs they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured
out drink offerings to strange gods.
19:14. Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to
prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said
to all the people:
19:15. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will
bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof all the evils
that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks,
that they might not hear my words.
Jeremias Chapter 20
The prophet is persecuted: he denounces captivity to his persecutors,
and bemoans himself.
20:1. Now Phassur the son of Emmer, the priest, who was appointed chief
in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words.
20:2. And Phassur struck Jeremias the prophet, and put him in the
stocks, that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the
Lord.
20:3. And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out
of the stocks. And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy
name Phassur, but fear on every side.
Phassur... This name signifies increase and principality: and therefore
is here changed to Magor-Missabib, or fear on every side: to denote the
evils that should come upon him in punishment of his opposing the word
of God.
20:4. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver thee up to fear,
thee and all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their
enemies, and thy eyes shall see it, and I will give all Juda into the
hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall carry them away to Babylon,
and shall strike them with the sword.
20:5. And I will give all the substance of this city, and all its
labour, and every precious thing thereof, and all the treasures of the
kings of Juda will I give into the hands of their enemies: and they
shall pillage them, and take them away, and carry them to Babylon.
20:6. But thou Phassur, and all that dwell in thy house, shall go into
captivity, and thou shalt go to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and
there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast
prophesied a lie.
20:7. Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been
stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughingstock
all the day, all scoff at me.
Thou hast deceived, etc... The meaning of the prophet, is not to charge
God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the
concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission, the
greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was to
bring upon him.
20:8. For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity,
and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is made a
reproach to me, and a derision all the day.
20:9. Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in
his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my
bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
20:10. For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side:
Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my
familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived,
and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.
20:11. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that
persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly
confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach,
which never shall be effaced.
20:12. And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the
reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them:
for to thee I have laid open my cause.
Let me see, etc... This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill will,
but zeal of justice.
20:13. Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered
the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.
20:14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my
mother bore me, be blessed.
Cursed be the day, etc... In these, and the following words of the
prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more energy
the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him.
20:15. Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying:
A man child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice.
20:16. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord hath overthrown, and
hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at
noontide:
20:17. Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my
grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
20:18. Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and that my
days should be spent in confusion?
Jeremias Chapter 21
The prophet's answer to the messengers of Sedecias, when Jerusalem was
besieged.
21:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias
sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of
Maasias the priest, saying:
21:2. Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon
maketh war against us: if so be the Lord will deal with us according to
all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us.
21:3. And Jeremias said to them: Thus shall you say to Sedecias:
21:4. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back
the weapons of war that are in your hands, and with which you fight
against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans, that besiege you round
about the walls: and I will gather them together in the midst of this
city.
21:5. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and
with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath.
21:6. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and beasts
shall die of a great pestilence.
21:7. And after this, saith the Lord, I will give Sedecias the king of
Juda, and his servants, and his people, and such as are left in this
city from the pestilence, and the sword, and the famine, into the hand
of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and he shall
strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be moved to
pity, nor spare them, nor shew mercy to them.
21:8. And to this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I
set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
21:9. He that shall abide in this city, shall die by the sword, and by
the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that shall go out and flee
over to the Chaldeans, that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall
be to him as a spoil.
21:10. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for
good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
21:11. And to the house of the king of Juda: Hear ye the word of the
Lord,
21:12. O house of David, thus saith the Lord: Judge ye judgment in the
morning, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand
of the oppressor: lest my indignation go forth like a fire, and be
kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your
ways.
21:13. Behold I come to thee that dwellest in a valley upon a rock above
a plain, saith the Lord: and you say: Who shall strike us and who shall
enter into our houses?
To thee that dwellest, etc... He speaks to Jerusalem, confiding in the
strength of her situation upon rocks, surrounded with a deep valley.
21:14. But I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your doings,
saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof: and it
shall devour all things round about it.
Jeremias Chapter 22
An exhortation both to king and people to return of God. The sentence of
God upon Joachaz, Joakim, and Jechonias.
22:1. Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and
there thou shalt speak this word,
Go down, etc... The contents of this chapter are of a more ancient date
than those of the foregoing chapter: for the order of time is not always
observed in the writings of the prophets.
22:2. And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, king of Juda, that
sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people,
who enter in by these gates.
22:3. Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver him
that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the
stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and
shed not innocent blood in this place.
22:4. For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by
the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his
throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants,
and their people.
22:5. But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself,
saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
22:6. For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art
to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a
wilderness, and cities not habitable.
Galaad the head of Libanus... By Galaad, a rich and fruitful country, is
here signified the royal palace of the kings of the house of David: by
Libanus, a high mountain abounding in cedar trees, the populous city of
Jerusalem.
22:7. And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and
they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into
the fire.
Prepare... Literally, sanctify.
22:8. And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every
man to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
22:9. And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.
22:10. Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears:
lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his
native country.
Weep not for him that is dead, etc... He means the good king Josias, who
by death was taken away, so as not to see the miseries of his country.
Ibid. Him that goeth away... Viz., sellum, alias Joachaz, who was
carried captive into Egypt.
22:11. For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of
Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this
place: He shall return hither no more:
22:12. But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he
die, and he shall not see this land any more.
22:13. Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his
chambers not in judgment: that will oppress his friend without cause,
and will not pay him his wages.
22:14. Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who
openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them
with vermilion.
22:15. Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it
was then well with him?
22:16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was
it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?
22:17. But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon
shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil
works.
22:18. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josias
king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother, and, Alas,
sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord, or, Alas, the
noble one.
22:19. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast
forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
22:20. Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and
cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
22:21. I spoke to thee in thy prosperity: and thou saidst: I will not
hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard
my voice.
22:22. The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into
captivity and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy
wickedness.
22:23. Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars,
how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a
woman in labour?
22:24. As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the
king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
22:25. And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life,
and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
22:26. And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a
strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
22:27. And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up
their mind to return thither.
22:28. Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a
vessel wherein is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed,
and are cast into a land which they know not?
22:29. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
22:30. Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not
prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall
sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.
Write this man barren... That is, childless: not that he had no
children, but that his children should never sit on the throne of Juda.
Jeremias Chapter 23
God reproves evil governors; and promises to send good pastors; and
Christ himself the prince of the pastors. He inveighs against false
prophets preaching without being sent.
23:1. Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture,
saith the Lord.
23:2. Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the pastors
that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away,
and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you for the evil of
your doings, saith the Lord.
23:3. And I will gather together the remnant of my flock, out of all the
lands into which I have cast them out: and I will make them return to
their own fields, and they shall increase and be multiplied.
23:4. And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall feed them:
they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed: and none shall
be wanting of their number, saith the Lord.
23:5. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David
a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall
execute judgment and justice in the earth.
23:6. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell
confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our
just one.
23:7. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and they shall say
no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of
the land of Egypt:
23:8. But, The Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither the
seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and out of all
the lands, to which I had cast them forth: and they shall dwell in their
own land.
23:9. To the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones
tremble: I am become as a drunken man, and as a man full of wine, at the
presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his holy words.
23:10. Because the land is full of adulterers, because the land hath
mourned by reason of cursing, the fields of the desert are dried up: and
their course is become evil, and their strength unlike.
23:11. For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I
have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.
23:12. Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for
they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon
them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.
23:13. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied
in Baal and deceived my people Israel.
23:14. And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying
in the prophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that no man should return from his evil doings, they are all
become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.
23:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the prophets: Behold I
will feed them with wormwood, and will give them gall to drink: for from
the prophets of Jerusalem corruption is gone forth into all the land.
23:16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the
prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of
their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
23:17. They say to them that blaspheme me: The Lord hath said: You shall
have peace: and to every one that walketh in the perverseness of his own
heart, they have said: No evil shall come upon you.
23:18. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and
heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it?
23:19. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth,
and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.
23:20. The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and
till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you
shall understand his counsel.
23:21. I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied.
23:22. If they had stood in my counsel, and had made my words known to
my people, I should have turned them from their evil way, and from their
wicked doings.
23:23. Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar
off?
23:24. Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith the
Lord? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?
23:25. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my
name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
23:26. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy
lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their own heart?
23:27. Who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams,
which they tell every man to his neighbour: as their fathers forgot my
name for Baal.
23:28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream: and he that
hath my word, let him speak my word with truth: what hath the chaff to
do with the wheat, saith the Lord?
23:29. Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?
23:30. Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who
steal my words every one from his neighbour.
23:31. Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use their
tongues, and say: The Lord saith it.
23:32. Behold I am against the prophets that have lying dreams, saith
the Lord: and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lying, and
by their wonders: when I sent them not, nor commanded them, who have not
profited this people at all, saith the Lord.
23:33. If therefore this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall ask
thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to them:
You are the burden: for I will cast you away, saith the Lord.
23:34. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall
say: The burden of the Lord: I will visit upon that man, and upon his
house.
Burden of the Lord... This expression is here rejected and disallowed,
at least for those times: because it was then used in mockery and
contempt by the false prophets, and unbelieving people, who ridiculed
the repeated threats of Jeremias under the name of his burdens.
23:35. Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and to his
brother, What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken?
23:36. And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, for every
man's word shall be his burden: for you have perverted the words of the
living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.
23:37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered
thee? and what hath the Lord spoken?
23:38. But if you shall say: The burden of the Lord: therefore thus
saith the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden of the Lord:
and I have sent to you, saying: Say not, The burden of the Lord:
23:39. Therefore behold I will take you away carrying you, and will
forsake you, and the city which I gave to you, and to your fathers, out
of my presence.
Out of my presence... That is, the Lord declares that out of his
presence he will cast them, and bring them to captivity for their
transgressions.
23:40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten.
Jeremias Chapter 24
Under the type of good and bad figs, he foretells the restoration of the
Jews that had been carried away captive with Jechonias, and the
desolation of those that were left behind.
24:1. The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set
before the temple of the Lord: after that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon
had carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, and his
chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and had
brought them to Babylon.
24:2. One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season:
and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten,
because they were bad.
24:3. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said:
Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot
be eaten because they are bad.
24:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
24:5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so
will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this
place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.
24:6. And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring
them again into this land: and I will build them up, and not pull them
down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
24:7. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and
they shall be my people, and I will be their God: because they shall
return to me with their whole heart.
24:8. And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are
bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias the king of Juda, and
his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this
city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.
24:9. And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all the
kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a byword, and a proverb,
and to be a curse in all places, to which I have cast them out.
24:10. And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the
pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them,
and their fathers.
Jeremias Chapter 25
The prophet foretells the seventy years captivity; after that the
destruction of Babylon, and other nations.
25:1. The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people of Juda,
in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, (the same
is the first year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon,)
25:2. Which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of Juda, and to
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:
25:3. From the thirteenth year of Josias the son of Ammon king of Juda
until this day: this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the
Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising before day, and
speaking, and you have not hearkened.
25:4. And the Lord hath sent to you all his servants the prophets,
rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined your
ears to hear.
25:5. When he said: Return ye, every one from his evil way, and from
your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord hath
given to you, and your fathers for ever and ever.
25:6. And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor
provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict
you.
25:7. And you have not heard me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke
me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.
25:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard
my words:
25:9. Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith
the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will
bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and
against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy
them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual
desolations.
My servant... So this wicked king is here called; because God made him
his instrument in punishing the sins of his people.
25:10. And I will take away from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp.
25:11. And all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment: and
all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
25:12. And when the seventy years shall be expired, I will punish the
king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity,
and the land of the Chaldeans: and I will make it perpetual desolations.
Punish... Literally, visit upon.
25:13. And I will bring upon that land all my words, that I have spoken
against it, all that is written in this book, all that Jeremias hath
prophesied against all nations:
25:14. For they have served them, whereas they were many nations, and
great kings: and I will repay them according to their deeds, and
according to the works of their hands.
25:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take the cup
of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to
drink thereof, into which I shall send thee.
25:16. And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because of the
sword, which I shall send among them.
25:17. And I took the cup at the hand of the Lord, and I presented it to
all the nations to drink of it, to which the Lord sent me:
25:18. To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings thereof,
and the princes thereof: to make them a desolation, and an astonishment,
and a hissing, and a curse, as it is at this day.
25:19. Pharao the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and
all his people,
25:20. And all in general: all the kings of the land of Ausitis, and all
the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and
Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus.
25:21. And Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon.
25:22. And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon: and the
kings of the land of the islands that are beyond the sea.
25:23. And Dedan, and Thema, and Buz, and all that have their hair cut
round.
25:24. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the west, that
dwell in the desert.
25:25. And all the kings of Zambri, and all the kings of Elam, and all
the kings of the Medes:
25:26. And all the kings of the north far and near, every one against
his brother: and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face
thereof: and the king of Sesac shall drink after them.
Sesac... That is, Babel, or Babylon; which after bringing all these
people under her yoke, should quickly fall and be destroyed herself.
25:27. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God
of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit: and fall, and rise no
more, because of the sword, which I shall send among you.
25:28. And if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall
drink:
25:29. For behold I begin to bring evil on the city wherein my name is
called upon: and shall you be as innocent and escape free? you shall
not escape free: for I will call for the sword upon all the inhabitants
of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.
25:30. And thou shalt prophesy unto them all these words, and thou shalt
say to them: I The Lord shall roar from on high, and shall utter his
voice from his holy habitation: roaring he shall roar upon the place of
his beauty: the shout as it were of them that tread grapes shall be
given out against all the inhabitants of the earth.
25:31. The noise is come even to the ends of the earth: for the Lord
entereth into judgment with the nations: he entereth into judgment with
all flesh; the wicked I have delivered up to the sword, saith the Lord.
25:32. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold evil shall go forth from
nation to nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the ends of
the earth.
25:33. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of
the earth even to the other end thereof: they shall not be lamented, and
they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon
the face of the earth.
25:34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and sprinkle yourselves with ashes,
ye leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and your
dispersion are accomplished, and you shall fall like precious vessels.
25:35. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the leaders of
the flock to save themselves.
25:36. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the
principal of the flock: because the Lord hath wasted their pastures.
25:37. And the fields of peace have been silent because of the fierce
anger of the Lord.
25:38. He hath forsaken his covert as the lion, for the land is laid
waste because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the fierce anger
of the Lord.
The dove... This is commonly understood of Nabuchodonosor, whose
military standard, it is said, was a dove. But the Hebrew word Jonah,
which is here rendered a dove, may also signify a waster or oppressor,
which name better agrees to that unmerciful prince; or by comparison, as
a dove's flight is the swiftest, so would their destruction come upon
them.
Jeremias Chapter 26
The prophet is apprehended and accused by the priests: but discharged by
the princes.
26:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, came this word from the Lord, saying:
26:2. Thus saith the Lord: stand in the court of the house of the Lord,
and speak to all the cities of Juda, out of which they come, to adore in
the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee to
speak unto them: leave not out one word.
26:3. If so be they will hearken and be converted every one from his
evil way; that I may repent me of the evil that I think to do unto them
for the wickedness of their doings.
26:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If you will not
hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have given you:
26:5. To give ear to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent
to you rising up early: and sending, and you have not hearkened:
26:6. I will make this house like Silo: and I will make this city a
curse to all the nations of the earth.
26:7. And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard
Jeremias speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
26:8. And when Jeremias had made an end of speaking all that the Lord
had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests, and the
prophets, and all the people laid hold on him, saying: Let him be put to
death.
26:9. Why hath he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This house
shall be like Silo; and this city shall be made desolate, without an
inhabitant? And all the people were gathered together against Jeremias
in the house of the Lord.
26:10. And the princes of Juda heard these words: and they went up from
the king's house into the house of the Lord, and sat in the entry of the
new gate of the house of the Lord.
26:11. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and to all
the people, saying: The judgment of death is for this man: because he
hath prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.
26:12. Then Jeremias spoke to all the princes, and to all the people,
saying: The Lord sent me to prophesy concerning this house, and
concerning this city all the words that you have heard.
26:13. Now therefore amend your ways, and your doings, and hearken to
the voice of the Lord your God: and the Lord will repent him of the evil
that he hath spoken against you.
26:14. But as for me, behold I am in your hands: do with me what is good
and right in your eyes:
26:15. But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you
will shed innocent blood against your own selves, and against this city,
and the inhabitants thereof. For in truth the Lord sent me to you, to
speak all these words in your hearing.
26:16. Then the princes, and all the people said to the priests, and to
the prophets: There is no judgment of death for this man: for he hath
spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.
26:17. And some of the ancients of the land rose up: and they spoke to
all the assembly of the people, saying:
26:18. Micheas of Morasthi was a prophet in the days of Ezechias king of
Juda, and he spoke to all the people of Juda, saying: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts: Sion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall
be a heap of stones: and the mountain of the house the high places of
woods.
26:19. Did Ezechias king of Juda, and all Juda, condemn him to death?
did they not fear the Lord, and beseech the face of the Lord: and the
Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them? therefore we
are doing a great evil against our souls.
26:20. There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord,
Urias the son of Semei of Cariathiarim: and he prophesied against this
city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremias.
26:21. And Joakim, and all his men in power, and his princes heard these
words: and the king sought to put him to death. And Urias heard it, and
was afraid, and fled and went into Egypt.
26:22. And king Joakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achobor,
and men with him into Egypt.
26:23. And they brought Urias out of Egypt: and brought him to king
Joakim, and he slew him with the sword: and he cast his dead body into
the graves of the common people.
26:24. So the hand of Ahicam the son of Saphan was with Jeremias, that
he should not be delivered into the hands of the people, to put him to
death.
Jeremias Chapter 27
The prophet sends chains to divers kings, signifying that they must bend
their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. The vessels of the
temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried away.
27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, this word came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
Joakim... This revelation was made to the prophet in the beginning of
the reign of Joakim: but the bands were not sent to the princes here
named before the reign of Sedecias, ver. 3.
27:2. Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains: and thou
shalt put them on thy neck.
27:3. And thou shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre,
and to the king of Sidon: by the hand of the messengers that are come to
Jerusalem to Sedecias the king of Juda.
27:4. And thou shalt command them to speak to their masters: Thus saith
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters:
27:5. I made the earth, and the men and the beasts that are upon the
face of the earth, by my great power, and by my stretched out arm: and I
have given it to whom it seemed good in my eyes.
27:6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon my servant: moreover also the beasts of
the field I have given him to serve him.
27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son:
till the time come for his land and himself: and many nations and great
kings shall serve him.
His son... Viz., Evilmerodach; and his son's son, Nabonydus, or
Nabonadius, the Baltassar of Daniel, chap. 5., and the last of the
Chaldean kings.
27:8. But the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nabuchodonosor king
of Babylon, and whosoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the
king of Babylon: I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with
famine, and with pestilence, saith the Lord: till I consume them by his
hand.
27:9. Therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and
dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall not
serve the king of Babylon.
27:10. For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your
country, and cast you out, and to make you perish.
27:11. But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon, and shall serve him: I will let them remain in
their own land, saith the Lord: and they shall till it, and dwell in it.
27:12. And I spoke to Sedecias the king of Juda according to all these
words, saying: Bend down your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and you shall live.
27:13. Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by
famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the
nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
27:14. Hearken not to the words of the prophets that say to you: You
shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they tell you a lie.
27:15. For I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy in my
name falsely: to drive you out, and that you may perish, both you, and
the prophets that prophesy to you.
27:16. I spoke also to the priests, and to this people, saying: Thus
saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that prophesy
to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the Lord shall now in a short time
be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
27:17. Therefore hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon,
that you may live. Why should this city be given up to desolation?
27:18. But if they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them: let
them interpose themselves before the Lord of hosts, that the vessels
which were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king
of Juda, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.
27:19. For thus saith the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea,
and to the bases, and to the rest of the vessels that remain in this
city:
27:20. Which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon did not take, when he
carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the great men of Juda and Jerusalem.
27:21. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to the
vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the
king of Juda and Jerusalem:
27:22. They shall