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 be carried to Babylon, and there they
shall be until the day of their visitation, saith the Lord:
and I will cause them to be brought, and to be restored in
this place.
Jeremias Chapter 28
The false prophecy of Hananias: he dies that same year, as
Jeremias foretold.
28:1. And it came to pass in that year, in the beginning of
the reign of Sedecias king of Juda, in the fourth year, in
the fifth month, that Hananias the son of Azur, a prophet
of Gabaon spoke to me, in the house of the Lord before the
priests, and all the people, saying:
28:2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: I
have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
28:3. As yet two years of days, and I will cause all the
vessels of the house of the Lord to be brought back into
this place, which Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon took away
from this place, and carried them to Babylon.
28:4. And I will bring back to this place Jechonias the son
of Joakim king of Juda, and all the captives of Juda, that
are gone to Babylon, saith the Lord: for I will break the
yoke of the king of Babylon.
28:5. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the prophet
in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all
the people that stood in the house of the Lord:
28:6. And Jeremias the prophet said: Amen, the Lord do so:
the Lord perform thy words, which thou hast prophesied:
that the vessels may be brought again into the house of the
Lord, and all the captives may return out of Babylon to
this place.
28:7. Nevertheless hear this word that I speak in thy ears,
and in the ears of all the people:
28:8. The prophets that have been before me, and before
thee from the beginning, and have prophesied concerning
many countries, and concerning great kingdoms, of war, and
of affliction, and of famine.
28:9. The prophet that prophesied peace: when his word
shall come to pass, the prophet shall be known, whom the
hath sent in truth.
28:10. And Hananias the prophet took the chain from the
neck of Jeremias the prophet, and broke it.
28:11. And Hananias spoke in the presence of all the
people, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Even so will I break
the yoke of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon after two
full years from off the neck of all the nations.
28:12. And Jeremias the prophet went his way. And the word
of the Lord came to Jeremias, after that Hananias the
prophet had broken the chain from off the neck of Jeremias
the prophet, saying:
28:13. Go, and tell Hananias: Thus saith the Lord: Thou
hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them
chains of iron.
28:14. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these
nations, to serve Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and they
shall serve him: moreover also I have given him the beasts
of the earth.
28:15. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the
prophet: Hear now, Hananias: the Lord hath not sent thee,
and thou hast made this people to trust in a lie.
28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will send
thee away from off the face of the earth: this year shalt
thou die: for thou hast spoken against the Lord.
28:17. And Hananias the prophet died in that year, in the
seventh month.
Jeremias Chapter 29
Jeremias writeth to the captives in Babylon, exhorting them
to be easy there, and not to hearken to false prophets.
That they shall be delivered after seventy years. But those
that remain in Jerusalem shall perish by the sword, famine,
and pestilence. And that Achab, Sedecias, and Semeias,
false prophets, shall die miserably.
29:1. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremias
the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the
ancients that were carried into captivity, and to the
priests, and to the prophets, and to all the people, whom
Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
29:2. After that Jechonias the king, and the queen, and the
eunuchs, and the princes of Juda, and of Jerusalem, and the
craftsmen, and the engravers were departed out of
Jerusalem:
29:3. By the hand of Elasa the son of Saphan, and Gamarias
the son of Helcias, whom Sedecias king of Juda sent to
Babylon to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, saying:
29:4. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to
all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to
be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
29:5. Build ye houses, and dwell in them: and plant
orchards, and eat the fruit of them.
29:6. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters: and take
wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands,
and let them bear sons and daughters: and be ye multiplied
there, and be not few in number.
29:7. And seek the peace of the city, to which I have
caused you to be carried away captives; and pray to the
Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall be your peace.
29:8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
Let not your prophets that are in the midst of you, and
your diviners deceive you: and give no heed to your dreams
which you dream:
29:9. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: and I
have not sent them, saith the Lord.
29:10. For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years
shall begin to be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit
you: and I will perform my good word in your favour, to
bring you again to this place.
29:11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you,
saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction,
to give you an end and patience.
29:12. And you shall call upon me, and you shall go. and
you shall pray to me, and I will hear you.
29:13. You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall
seek me with all your heart.
29:14. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I
will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out
of all nations, and from all the places to which I have
driven you out, saith the Lord: and I will bring you back
from the place to which I caused you to be carried away
captive.
29:15. Because you have said: The Lord hath raised us up
prophets in Babylon:
29:16. For thus saith the Lord to the king that sitteth
upon the throne of David, and to all the people that dwell
in this city, to your brethren that are not gone forth with
you into captivity.
29:17. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will send
upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence:
and I will make them like bad figs that cannot be eaten,
because they are very bad.
29:18. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with
famine, and with the pestilence: and I will give them up
unto affliction to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a
curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach
to all the nations to which I have driven them out:
29:19. Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith
the Lord: which I sent to them by my servants the prophets,
rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith
the Lord.
29:20. Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of
the captivity, whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to
Babylon.
29:21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to
Achab the son of Colias, and to Sedecias the son of
Maasias, who prophesy unto you in my name falsely: Behold I
will deliver them up into the hands of Nabuchodonosor the
king of Babylon: and he shall kill them before your eyes.
29:22. And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the
captivity of Juda, that are in Babylon, saying: The Lord
make thee like Sedecias, and like Achab, whom the king of
Babylon fried in the fire:
29:23. Because they have acted folly in Israel, and have
committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and
have spoken lying words in my name, which I commanded them
not: I am the judge and the witness, saith the Lord.
29:24. And to Semeias the Nehelamite thou shalt say:
29:25. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
Because thou hast sent letters in thy name to all the
people that are in Jerusalem, and to Sophonias the son of
Maasias the priest, and to all the priests, saying:
29:26. The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Joiada the
priest, that thou shouldst be ruler in the house of the
Lord, over every man that raveth and prophesieth, to put
him in the stocks, and into prison.
29:27. And now why hast thou not rebuked Jeremias the
Anathothite, who prophesieth to you?
29:28. For he hath also sent to us in Babylon, saying: It
is a long time: build ye houses, and dwell in them: and
plant gardens, and eat the fruits of them.
29:29. So Sophonias the priest read this letter, in the
hearing of Jeremias the prophet.
29:30. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
29:31. Send to all them of the captivity, saying: Thus
saith the Lord to Semeias the Nehelamite: Because Semeias
hath prophesied to you, and I sent him not: and hath caused
you to trust in a lie:
29:32. Therefore thus saith the Lord: behold I will visit
upon Semeias the Nehelamite, and upon his seed: he shall
not have a man to sit in the midst of this people, and he
shall not see the good that I will do to my people, saith
the Lord: because he hath spoken treason against the Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 30
God will deliver his people from their captivity: Christ
shall be their king: and his church shall be glorious for
ever.
30:1. This is the word that came to Jeremias from the Lord,
saying:
30:2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write
thee all the words that I have spoken to thee, in a book.
30:3. For behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will
bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Juda,
saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land
which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
30:4. And these are the words that the Lord hath spoken to
Israel and to Juda:
30:5. For thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of
terror: there is fear and no peace.
30:6. Ask ye, and see if a man bear children? why then have
I seen every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman
in labour, and all faces are turned yellow?
30:7. Alas, for that day is great, neither is there the
like to it; and it is the time of tribulation to Jacob, but
he shall be saved out of it.
30:8. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord
of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and
will burst his bands: and strangers shall no more rule over
him:
30:9. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David
their king, whom I will raise up to them.
David... That is, Christ of the house of David.
30:10. Therefore fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the
Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for behold, I will
save thee from a country afar off, and thy seed from the
land of their captivity: and Jacob shall return, and be at
rest, and abound with all good things, and there shall be
none whom he may fear:
30:11. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee:
for I will utterly consume all the nations, among which I
have scattered thee: but I will not utterly consume thee:
but I will chastise thee in judgment, that thou mayst not
seem to thyself innocent.
30:12. For thus saith the Lord: Thy bruise is incurable,
thy wound is very grievous.
30:13. There is none to judge thy judgment to bind it up:
thou hast no healing medicines.
30:14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee, and will not
seek after thee: for I have wounded thee with the wound of
an enemy, with cruel chastisement: by reason of the
multitude of thy iniquities, thy sins are hardened.
30:15. Why criest thou for thy affliction? thy sorrow is
incurable: for the multitude of thy iniquity, and for thy
hardened sins I have done these things to thee.
30:16. Therefore all they that devour thee, shall be
devoured: and all thy enemies shall be carried into
captivity: and they that waste thee shall be wasted, and
all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.
30:17. For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of
thy wounds, saith the Lord. Because they have called thee,
O Sion, an outcast: This is she that hath none to seek
after her.
30:18. Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring back the
captivity of the pavilions of Jacob, and will have pity on
his houses, and the city shall be built in her high place,
and the temple shall be founded according to the order
thereof.
30:19. And out of them shall come forth praise, and the
voice of them that play: and I will multiply them, and they
shall not be made few: and I will glorify them, and they
shall not be lessened.
30:20. And their children shall be as from the beginning,
and their assembly shall be permanent before me: and I will
visit against all that afflict them.
30:21. And their leader shall be of themselves: and their
prince shall come forth from the midst of them: and I will
bring him near, and he shall come to me: for who is this
that setteth his heart to approach to me, saith the Lord?
30:22. And you shall be my people: and I will be your God.
30:23. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going
forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the
wicked.
30:24. The Lord will not turn away the wrath of his
indignation, till he have executed and performed the
thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall
understand these things.
Jeremias Chapter 31
The restoration of Israel. Rachel shall cease from morning.
The new covenant. The church shall never fail.
31:1. At that time, saith the Lord, I will be the God of
all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
31:2. Thus saith the Lord: The people that were left and
escaped from the sword, found grace in the desert: Israel
shall go to his rest.
31:3. The Lord hath appeared from afar to me. Yea I have
loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn
thee, taking pity on thee.
31:4. And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built,
O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy
timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that
make merry.
31:5. Thou shalt yet plant vineyards in the mountains of
Samaria: the planters shall plant, and they shall not
gather the vintage before the time.
31:6. For there shall be a day, in which the watchmen on
mount Ephraim, shall cry: Arise, and let us go up to Sion
to the Lord our God.
31:7. For thus saith the Lord: Rejoice ye in the joy of
Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles: shout ye,
and sing, and say: Save, O Lord, thy people, the remnant of
Israel.
31:8. Behold I will bring them from the north country, and
will gather them from the ends of the earth and among them
shall be the blind, and the lame, the woman with child, and
she that is bringing forth, together, a great company of
them returning hither.
31:9. They shall come with weeping: and I will bring them
back in mercy: and I will bring them through the torrents
of waters in a right way, and they shall not stumble in it:
for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
31:10. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare
it in the islands that are afar off, and say: He that
scattered Israel will gather him: and he will keep him as
the shepherd doth his flock.
31:11. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and delivered him
out of the hand of one that was mightier than he.
31:12. And they shall come, and shall give praise in mount
Sion: and they shall flow together to the good things of
the Lord, for the corn, and wine, and oil, and the increase
of cattle and herds, and their soul shall be as a watered
garden, and they shall be hungry no more.
31:13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, the
young men and old men together: and I will turn their
mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them
joyful after their sorrow.
31:14. And I will fill the soul of the priests with
fatness: and my people shall be filled with my good things,
saith the Lord.
31:15. Thus saith the Lord: A voice was heard on high of
lamentation, of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel weeping
for her children and refusing to be comforted for them,
because they are not.
31:16. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from
weeping, and thy eyes tears: for there is a reward for thy
work, saith the Lord: and they shall return out of the land
of the enemy.
31:17. And there is hope for thy last end, saith the Lord:
and the children shall return to their own borders.
31:18. Hearing I heard Ephraim when he went into captivity:
thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed, as a young
bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. Convert me, and I shall
be converted, for thou art the Lord my God.
31:19. For after thou didst convert me, I did penance: and
after thou didst shew unto me, I struck my thigh: I am
confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach
of my youth.
31:20. Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to me, surely he
is a tender child: for since I spoke of him, I will still
remember him. Therefore are my bowels troubled for him:
pitying I will pity him, saith the Lord.
31:21. Set thee up a watchtower, make to thee bitterness:
direct thy heart into the right way, wherein thou hast
walked: return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy
cities.
31:22. How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O
wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing
upon the earth: A WOMAN SHALL COMPASS A MAN.
31:23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As
yet shall they say this word in the land of Juda, and in
the cities thereof, when I shall bring back their
captivity: The Lord bless thee, the beauty of justice, the
holy mountain.
31:24. And Juda and all his cities shall dwell therein
together: the husbandman and they that drive the flocks.
31:25. For I have inebriated the weary soul: and I have
filled every hungry soul.
31:26. Upon this I was as it were awaked out of a sleep,
and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me.
31:27. Behold the days come, saith the Lord: and I will sow
the house of Israel and the house of Juda with the seed of
men, and with the seed of beasts.
31:28. And as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to
throw down, and to scatter, and destroy, and afflict: so
will I watch over them, to build up, and to plant them,
saith the Lord.
31:29. In those days they shall say no more: The fathers
have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are
set on edge.
31:30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every
man that shall eat the sour grape, his teeth shall be set
on edge.
31:31. Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I
will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with
the house of Juda:
31:32. Not according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt, the covenant which
they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the
Lord.
31:33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I
will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in
their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my
people.
31:34. And they shall teach no more every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the
Lord: for all shall know me from the least of them even to
the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
31:35. Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for the
light of the day, the order of the moon and of the stars,
for the light of the night: who stirreth up the sea, and
the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name.
31:36. If these ordinances shall fail before me, saith the
Lord: then also the seed of Israel shall fail, so as not to
be a nation before me for ever.
31:37. Thus saith the Lord: If the heavens above can be
measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out
beneath, I also will cast away all the seed of Israel, for
all that they have done, saith the Lord.
31:38. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city
shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hanameel even
to the gate of the corner.
31:39. And the measuring line shall go out farther in his
sight upon the hill Gareb: and it shall compass Goatha,
31:40. And the whole valley of dead bodies, and of ashes,
and all the country of death, even to the torrent Cedron,
and to the corner of the horse gate towards the east, the
Holy of the Lord: it shall not be plucked up, and it shall
not be destroyed any more for ever.
Jeremias Chapter 32
Jeremias by God's commandment purchases a field of his
kinsman: and prophesies the return of the people out of
captivity: and the everlasting covenant God will make with
his church.
32:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the
tenth year of Sedecias king of Juda: the same is the
eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor.
32:2. At that time the army of the king of Babylon besieged
Jerusalem: and Jeremias the prophet was shut up in the
court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of
Juda.
32:3. For Sedecias king of Juda had shut him up, saying:
Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold
I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon,
and he shall take it?
32:4. And Sedecias king of Juda shall not escape out of the
hand of the Chaldeans: but he shall be delivered into the
hands of the king of Babylon: and he shall speak to him
mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.
32:5. And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon: and he shall
be there till I visit him, saith the Lord. But if you will
fight against the Chaldeans, you shall have no success.
32:6. And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me,
saying:
32:7. Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall
come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field, which is in
Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being next akin.
32:8. And Hanameel my uncle's son came to me, according to
the word of the Lord, to the entry of the prison, and said
to me: Buy my field, which is in Anathoth in the land of
Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou
art next of kin to possess it. And I understood that this
was the word of the Lord.
32:9. And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son,
that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven
staters, and ten pieces of silver.
32:10. And I wrote it in a book and sealed it, and took
witnesses: and I weighed him the money in the balances.
32:11. And I took the deed of the purchase that was sealed,
and the stipulations, and the ratifications with the seals
that were on the outside.
32:12. And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the
son of Neri the son of Maasias in the sight of Hanameel my
uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses that
subscribed the book of the purchase, and before all the
Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
32:13. And I charged Baruch before them, saying:
32:14. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take
these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed
up, and this deed that is open: and put them in an earthen
vessel, that they may continue many days.
32:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again
in this land.
32:16. And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to
Baruch the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
32:17. Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made
heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out
arm: no word shall be hard to thee:
32:18. Thou shewest mercy unto thousands, and returnest the
iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children
after them: O most mighty, great, and powerful, the Lord of
hosts is thy name.
32:19. Great in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought:
whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of
Adam, to render unto every one according to his ways, and
according to the fruit of his devices.
32:20. Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt
even until this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and
hast made thee a name as at this day.
32:21. And hast brought forth thy people Israel, out of the
land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a
strong hand, and a stretched out arm, and with great
terror.
32:22. And hast given them this land which thou didst swear
to their fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and
honey.
32:23. And they came in, and possessed it: but they obeyed
not thy voice, and they walked not in thy law: and they did
not any of those things that thou didst command them to do,
and all these evils are come upon them.
32:24. Behold works are built up against the city to take
it: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans,
who fight against it, by the sword, and the famine, and the
pestilence: and what thou hast spoken, is all come to pass,
as thou thyself seest.
32:25. And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for
money, and take witnesses, whereas the city is given into
the hands of the Chaldeans?
32:26. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
32:27. Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any
thing be hard for me?
32:28. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver
this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the
hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
32:29. And the Chaldeans that fight against this city,
shall come and set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses
upon whose roofs they offered sacrifice to Baal, and poured
out drink offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to
wrath.
32:30. For the children of Israel, and the children of
Juda, have continually done evil in my eyes from their
youth: the children of Israel who even till now provoke me
with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.
32:31. For this city hath been to me a provocation and
indignation from the day that they built it, until this
day, in which it shall be taken out of my sight.
32:32. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel,
and of the children of Juda, which they have done,
provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their princes,
and their priests, and their prophets, the men of Juda, and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
32:33. And they have turned their backs to me, and not
their faces: when I taught them early in the morning, and
instructed them, and they would not hearken to receive
instruction.
32:34. And they have set their idols in the house, in which
my name is called upon, to defile it.
32:35. And they have built the high places of Baal, which
are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their
sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them
not, neither entered it into my heart, that they should do
this abomination, and cause Juda to sin.
32:36. And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of
Israel to this city, whereof you say that it shall be
delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the
sword, and by famine, and by pestilence:
32:37. Behold I will gather them together out of all the
lands to which I have cast them out in my anger, and in my
wrath, and in my great indignation: and I will bring them
again into this place, and will cause them to dwell
securely.
32:38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their
God.
32:39. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that
they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with
them, and with their children after them.
32:40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them,
and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear
in their heart, that they may not revolt from me.
32:41. And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them
good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my
whole heart, and with all my soul.
32:42. For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this
people all this great evil: so will I bring upon them all
the good that I now speak to them.
32:43. And fields shall be purchased in this land: whereof
you say that it is desolate, because there remaineth
neither man nor beast, and it is given into the hands of
the Chaldeans.
32:44. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be
written, and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the
land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities
of Juda, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the
cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards
the south: for I will bring back their captivity, saith the
Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 33
God promises reduction from captivity, and other blessings:
especially the coming of Christ, whose reign in his church
shall be glorious and perpetual.
33:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the second
time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison,
saying:
33:2. Thus saith the Lord, who will do, and will form it,
and prepare it, the Lord is his name.
33:3. Cry to me and I will hear thee: and I will shew thee
great things, and sure things which thou knowest not.
33:4. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the
houses of this city, and to the houses of the king of Juda,
which are destroyed, and to the bulwarks, and to the sword.
33:5. Of them that come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to
fill them with the dead bodies of the men whom I have slain
in my wrath, and in my indignation, hiding my face from
this city because of all their wickedness.
33:6. Behold I will close their wounds and give them
health, and I will cure them: and I will reveal to them the
prayer of peace and truth.
The prayer of peace... That is, the peace and welfare which
they pray for.
33:7. And I will bring back the captivity of Juda, and the
captivity of Jerusalem: and I will build them as from the
beginning.
33:8. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity,
whereby they have sinned against me: and I will forgive all
their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and
despised me.
33:9. And it shall be to me a name, and a joy, and a
praise, and a gladness before all the nations of the earth,
that shall hear of all the good things which I will do to
them: and they shall fear and be troubled for all the good
things, and for all the peace that I will make for them.
33:10. Thus saith the Lord: There shall be heard again in
this place (which you say is desolate, because there is
neither man nor beast: in the cities of Juda, and without
Jerusalem, which are desolate without man, and without
inhabitant, and without beast)
33:11. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the
voice of them that shall say: Give ye glory to the Lord of
hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth for
ever: and of them that shall bring their vows into the
house of the Lord: for I will bring back the captivity of
the land as at the first, saith the Lord.
33:12. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall be again
in this place that is desolate without man, and without
beast, and in all the cities thereof, an habitation of
shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.
33:13. And in the cities on the mountains, and in the
cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards
the south: and in the land of Benjamin, and round about
Jerusalem, and in the cities of Juda shall the flocks pass
again under the hand of him that numbereth them, saith the
Lord.
33:14. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will
perform the good word that I have spoken to the house of
Israel, and to the house of Juda.
33:15. In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud
of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall do
judgment and justice in the earth.
33:16. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem
shall dwell securely: and this is the name that they shall
call him, The Lord our just one.
33:17. For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off
from David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of
Israel.
There shall not be cut off from David, etc... This was
verified in Christ, who is of the house of David; and whose
kingdom in his church shall have no end.
33:18. Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and
Levites a man before my face to offer holocausts, and to
burn sacrifices, and to kill victims continually.
Neither shall there be cut off from the priests, etc...
This promise relates to the Christian priesthood; which
shall also continue for ever: the functions of which (more
especially the great sacrifice of the altar) are here
expressed by the name of holocausts, and other offerings of
the law, which were so many figures of the Christian
sacrifice.
33:19. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
33:20. Thus saith the Lord: if my covenant, with the day
can be made void, and my covenant with the night, that
there should not be day and night in their season:
33:21. Also my covenant with David my servant may be made
void, that he should not have a son to reign upon his
throne, and with the Levites and priests my ministers.
33:22. As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the
sand of the sea be measured: so will I multiply the seed of
David my servant, and the Levites my ministers.
33:23. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
33:24. Hast thou not seen what this people hath spoken,
saying: The two families which the Lord had chosen, are
cast off: and they have despised my people, so that it is
no more a nation before them?
Two families, etc... Viz., the families of the kings and
priests.
33:25. Thus saith the Lord. If I have not set my covenant
between day and night, and laws to heaven and earth:
33:26. Surely I will also cast off the seed of Jacob, and
of David my servant, so as not to take any of his seed to
be rulers of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I
will bring back their captivity, and will have mercy on
them.
Jeremias Chapter 34
The prophet foretells that Sedecias shall fall into the
hands of Nabuchodonosor: God's sentence upon the princes
and people that had broken his covenant.
34:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army, and all
the kingdoms of the earth, that were under the power of his
hand, and all the people fought against Jerusalem and
against all the cities thereof, saying:
34:2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak
to Sedecias king of Juda, and say to him: Thus saith the
Lord: Behold I will deliver this city into the hands of the
king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
34:3. And thou shalt not escape out of his hand: but thou
shalt surely be taken, and thou shalt be delivered into his
hand: and thy eyes shall see the eyes of the king of
Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and thou
shalt go to Babylon.
34:4. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Sedecias king of
Juda: Thus saith the Lord to thee: Thou shalt not die by
the sword.
34:5. But thou shalt die in peace, and according to the
burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before
thee, so shall they burn thee: and they shall mourn for
thee, saying: Alas, Lord: for I have spoken the word, saith
the Lord.
Die in peace... That is, by a natural death.
34:6. And Jeremias the prophet spoke all these words to
Sedecias the king of Juda in Jerusalem.
34:7. And the army of the king of Babylon fought against
Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Juda that were
left, against Lachis, and against Azecha: for these
remained of the cities of Juda, fenced cities.
34:8. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after
that king Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people
in Jerusalem making a proclamation:
34:9. That every man should let his manservant, and every
man his maidservant, being Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go
free: and that they should not lord it over them, to wit,
over the Jews their brethren.
34:10. And all the princes, and all the people who entered
into the covenant, heard that every man should let his
manservant, and every man his maidservant go free, and
should no more have dominion over them: and they obeyed,
and let them go free.
34:11. But afterwards they turned: and brought back again
their servants and their handmaids, whom they had let go
free, and brought them into subjection as menservants and
maidservants.
34:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias from the
Lord, saying:
34:13. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I made a
covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them
out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage,
saying:
34:14. At the end of seven years, let ye go every man his
brother being a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee, so he
shall serve thee six years: and thou shalt let him go free
from thee: and your fathers did not hearken to me, nor did
they incline their ear.
34:15. And you turned to day, and did that which was right
in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every one to his
brother: and you made a covenant in my sight, in the house
upon which my name is invocated.
34:16. And you are fallen back, and have defiled my name:
and you have brought back again every man his manservant,
and every man his maidservant, whom you had let go free,
and set at liberty: and you have brought them into
subjection to be your servants and handmaids.
34:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not
hearkened to me, in proclaiming liberty every man to his
brother and every man to his friend: behold I proclaim a
liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the
pestilence, and to the famine: and I will cause you to be
removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.
34:18. And I will give the men that have transgressed my
covenant, and have not performed the words of the covenant
which they agreed to in my presence, when they cut the calf
in two and passed between the parts thereof:
34:19. The princes of Juda, and the princes of Jerusalem,
the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the
land that passed between the parts of the calf:
34:20. And I will give them into the hands of their
enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their life:
and their dead bodies shall be for meat to the fowls of the
air, and to the beasts of the earth.
34:21. And Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, I
will give into the hands of their enemies, and into the
hands of them that seek their lives, and into the hands of
the armies of the king of Babylon, which are gone from you.
34:22. Behold I will command, saith the Lord, and I will
bring them again to this city, and they shall fight against
it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the
cities of Juda a desolation, without an inhabitant.
Jeremias Chapter 35
The obedience of the Rechabites condemns the disobedience
of the Jews. The reward of the Rechabites.
35:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the
days of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, saying:
35:2. Go to the house of the Rechabites: and speak to them,
and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the
chambers of the treasures, and thou shalt give them wine to
drink.
Rechabites... These were of the race of Jethro, father in
law to Moses.
35:3. And I took Jezonias the son of Jeremias the son of
Habsanias, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the
whole house of the Rechabites.
35:4. And I brought them into the house of the Lord, to the
treasure house of the sons of Hanan, the son of Jegedelias
the man of God, which was by the treasure house of the
princes, above the treasure of Maasias the son of Sellum,
who was keeper of the entry.
35:5. And I set before the sons of the house of the
Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups: and I said to them:
Drink ye wine.
35:6. And they answered : We will not drink wine: because
Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us,
saying: You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your
children, for ever:
35:7. Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow reed, nor
plant vineyards, nor have any: but you shall dwell in tents
all your days, that you may live many days upon the face of
the earth, in which you are strangers.
35:8. Therefore we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son
of Rechab, our father, in all things that he commanded us:
so as to drink no wine all our days: neither we, nor our
wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters:
35:9. Nor to build houses to dwell in, nor to have
vineyard, or field, or seed:
35:10. But we have dwelt in tents, and have been obedient
according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.
35:11. But when Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up to
our land, we said: Come, let us go into Jerusalem from the
face of the army of the Chaldeans, and from the face of the
army of Syria: and we have remained in Jerusalem.
35:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
35:13. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Go,
and say to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem: Will you not receive instruction, to obey my
words, saith the Lord?
35:14. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, by which he
commanded his sons not to drink wine, have prevailed: and
they have drunk none to this day, because they have obeyed
the commandment of their father: but I have spoken to you,
rising early and speaking, and you have not obeyed me.
35:15. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
rising early, and sending and saying: Return ye every man
from his wicked way, and make your ways good: and follow
not strange gods, nor worship them, and you shall dwell in
the land, which I gave you and your fathers: and you have
not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.
35:16. So the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have
constantly kept the commandment of their father, which he
commanded them: but this people hath not obeyed me.
35:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: Behold I will bring upon Juda, and upon all the
inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have
pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, and
they have not heard: I have called to them, and they have
not answered me.
35:18. And Jeremias said to the house of the Rechabites:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Because you
have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and
have kept all his precepts, and have done all that he
commanded you:
35:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: There shall not be wanting a man of the race of
Jonadab the son of Rechab, standing before me for ever.
Jeremias Chapter 36
Jeremias sends Baruch to read his prophecies in the temple;
the book is brought to king Joakim, who burns it. The
prophet denounces his judgment, and causes Baruch to write
a new copy.
36:1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Joakim the
son of Josias king of Juda, that this word came to Jeremias
by the Lord, saying:
36:2. Take thee a roll of a book, and thou shalt write in
it all the words that I have spoken to thee against Israel
and Juda, and against all the nations from the day that I
spoke to thee, from the days of Josias even to this day.
36:3. If so be, when the house of Juda shall hear all the
evils that I purpose to do unto them, that they may return
every man from his wicked way: and I will forgive their
iniquity, and their sin.
36:4. So Jeremias called Baruch the son of Nerias: and
Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremias all the words of
the Lord, which he spoke to him, upon the roll of a book.
36:5. And Jeremias commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up,
and cannot go into the house of the Lord.
Shut up... Not that the prophet was now in prison; for the
contrary appears from ver. 19, but that he kept himself
shut up, by reason of the persecutions he had lately met
with. See chap. 26.
36:6. Go thou in therefore, and read out of the volume,
which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the
Lord, in the hearing of all the people in the house of the
Lord on the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in
the hearing of all Juda that come out of their cities:
36:7. If so be they may present their supplication before
the Lord, and may return every one from his wicked way: for
great is the wrath and indignation which the Lord hath
pronounced against this people.
36:8. And Baruch the son of Nerias did according to all
that Jeremias the prophet ,had commanded him, reading out
of the volume the words of the Lord in the house of the
Lord.
36:9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Joakim the
son of Josias king of Juda, in the ninth month, that they
proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in
Jerusalem, and to all the people that were come together
out of the cities of Juda to Jerusalem.
36:10. And Baruch read out of the volume the words of
Jeremias in the house of the Lord, in the treasury of
Gamarias the son of Saphan the scribe, in the upper court,
in the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in
the hearing of all the people.
36:11. And when Micheas the son of Gamarias the son of
Saphan had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
36:12. He went down into the king's house to the
secretary's chamber: and behold all the princes sat there,
Elisama the scribe, and Dalaias the son of Semeias, and
Elnathan the son of Achobor, and Gamarias the son of
Saphan, and Sedecias the son of Hananias, and all the
princes.
36:13. And Micheas told them all the words that he had
heard when Baruch read out of the volume in the hearing of
the people.
36:14. Therefore all the princes sent Judi the son of
Nathanias, the son of Selemias, the son of Chusi, to
Baruch, saying: Take in thy hand the volume in which thou
hast read in the hearing of the people, and come. So Baruch
the son of Nerias took the volume in his hand, and came to
them.
36:15. And they said to him: Sit down and read these things
in our hearing. And Baruch read in their hearing.
36:16. And when they had heard all the words, they looked
upon one another with astonishment, and they said to
Baruch: We must tell the king all these words.
36:17. And they asked him, saying: Tell us how didst thou
write all these words from his mouth.
36:18. And Baruch said to them: With his mouth he
pronounced all these words as if he were reading to me: and
I wrote in a volume with ink.
36:19. And the princes said to Baruch: Go, and hide thee,
both thou and Jeremias, and let no man know where you are.
36:20. And they went in to the king into the court: but
they laid up the volume in the chamber of Elisama the
scribe: and they told all the words in the hearing of the
king.
36:21. And the king sent Judi that he should take the
volume: who bringing it out of the chamber of Elisama the
scribe, read it in the hearing of the king, and of all the
princes that stood about the king.
36:22. Now the king sat in the winter house, in the ninth
month: and there was a hearth before him full of burning
coals.
36:23. And when Judi had read three or four pages, he cut
it with the penknife, and he cast it into the fire, that
was upon the hearth, till all the volume was consumed with
the fire that was on the hearth.
36:24. And the king and all his servants that heard all
these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their
garments.
36:25. But yet Elnathan, and Dalaias, and Gamarias spoke to
the king, not to burn the book: and he heard them not.
36:26. And the king commanded Jeremiel the son of Amelech,
and Saraias the son of Ezriel, and Selemias the son of
Abdeel, to take up Baruch the scribe, and Jeremias the
prophet: but the Lord hid them.
36:27. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the
prophet, after that the king had burnt the volume, and the
words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremias,
saying:
36:28. Take thee again another volume: and write in it all
the former words that were in the first volume which Joakim
the king of Juda both burnt.
36:29. And thou shalt say to Joakim the king of Juda: Thus
saith the Lord: Thou hast burnt that volume, saying: Why
hast thou written therein, and said: The king of Babylon
shall come speedily, and shall lay waste this land: and
shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?
36:30. Therefore thus saith the Lord against Joakim the
king of Juda: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of
David: and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by
day, and to the frost by night.
He shall have none, etc... Because his son Joachin or
Jechonias, within three months after the death of his
father, was carried away to Babylon, so that his reign is
not worthy of notice.
36:31. And I will punish him, and his seed and his
servants, for their iniquities, and I will bring upon them,
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of
Juda all the evil that I have pronounced against them, but
they have not heard.
36:32. And Jeremias took another volume, and gave it to
Baruch the son of Nerias the scribe: who wrote in it from
the mouth of Jeremias all the words of the book which
Joakim the king of Juda had burnt with fire: and there were
added besides many more words than had been before.
Jeremias Chapter 37
Jeremias prophesies that the Chaldeans, who had departed
from Jerusalem, would return and burn the city. He is cast
into prison. His conference with Sedecias.
37:1. Now king Sedecias the son of Josias reigned instead
of Jechonias the son of Joakim: whom Nabuchodonosor king of
Babylon made king in the land of Juda.
37:2. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of
the land did obey the words of the Lord, that he spoke in
the hand of Jeremias the prophet.
37:3. And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias,
and Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremias the
prophet, saying: Pray to the Lord our God for us.
37:4. Now Jeremias walked freely in the midst of the
people: for they had not as yet cast him into prison. And
the army of Pharao was come out of Egypt: and the Chaldeans
that besieged Jerusalem, hearing these tidings, departed
from Jerusalem.
37:5. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the
prophet, saying:
37:6. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Thus shall you
say to the king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me:
Behold the army of Pharao, which is come forth to help you,
shall return into their own land, into Egypt.
37:7. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against
this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
37:8. Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not your souls, saying:
The Chaldeans shall surely depart and go away from us: for
they shall not go away.
37:9. But if you should even beat all the army of the
Chaldeans that fight against you, and there should be left
of them some wounded men: they shall rise up, every man
from his heart, and burn this city with fire.
37:10. Now when the army of the Chaldeans was gone away
from Jerusalem, because of Pharao's army,
37:11. Jeremias went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the
land of Benjamin: and to divide a possession there in the
presence of the citizens,
37:12. And when he was come to the gate of Benjamin, the
captain of the gate, who was there in his turn, was one
named Jerias, the son of Selemias, the son of Hananias: and
he took hold of Jeremias the prophet, saying: Thou art
fleeing to the Chaldeans.
37:13. And Jeremias answered: It is not so, I am not
fleeing to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so
Jerias took Jeremias and brought him to the princes.
37:14. Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremias, and
they beat him, and cast him into the prison that was in the
house of Jonathan the scribe: for he was chief over the
prison.
37:15. So Jeremias went into the house of the prison, and
into the dungeon: and Jeremias remained there many days.
37:16. Then Sedecias the king, sending, took him: and asked
him secretly in his house, and said: Is there, thinkest
thou, any word from the Lord? And Jeremias said. There is.
And he said: Thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the
king of Babylon.
37:17. And Jeremias said to king Sedecias: In what have I
offended against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that
thou hast cast me into prison?
37:18. Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and
said: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, and
against this land?
37:19. Now therefore hear, I beseech thee, my lord the
king: let my petition be accepted in thy sight: and send me
not back into the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die
there.
37:20. Then king Sedecias commanded that Jeremias should be
committed into the entry of the prison: and that they
should give him daily a piece of bread, beside broth, till
all the bread in the city were spent: and Jeremias remained
in the entry of the prison.
Jeremias Chapter 38
The prophet at the instance of the great men is cast into a
filthy dungeon: he is drawn out by Abdemelech, and has
another conference with the king.
38:1. Now Saphatias the son of Mathan, and Gedelias the son
of Phassur, and Juchal the son of Selemias, and Phassur the
son of Melchias heard the words that Jeremias spoke to all
the people, saying:
38:2. Thus saith the Lord: Whosoever shall remain in this
city, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by
pestilence: but he that shall go forth to the Chaldeans,
shall live, and his life shall be safe, and he shall live.
38:3. Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be
delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon,
and he shall take it.
38:4. And the princes said to the king. We beseech thee
that this man may be put to death: for on purpose he
weakeneth the hands of the men of war, that remain in this
city, and the hands of the people, speaking to them
according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to
this people, but evil.
38:5. And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands:
for it is not lawful for the king to deny you any thing.
38:6. Then they took Jeremias and cast him into the dungeon
of Melchias the son of Amelech, which was in the entry of
the prison: and they let down Jeremias by ropes into the
dungeon, wherein there was no water, but mire. And Jeremias
sunk into the mire.
38:7. Now Abdemelech the Ethiopian, an eunuch that was in
the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremias in the
dungeon: but the king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin.
38:8. And Abdemelech went out of the king's house, and
spoke to the king, saying:
38:9. My lord the king, these men have done evil in all
that they have done against Jeremias the prophet, casting
him into the dungeon to die there with hunger, for there is
no more bread in the city.
38:10. Then the king commanded Abdemelech the Ethiopian,
saying: Take from hence thirty men with thee, and draw up
Jeremias the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.
38:11. So Abdemelech taking the men with him, went into the
king's house that was under the storehouse: and he took
from thence old rags, and old rotten things, and he let
them down by cords to Jeremias into the dungeon.
38:12. And Abdemelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremias: Put
these old rags and these rent and rotten things under thy
arms, and upon the cords: and Jeremias did so.
38:13. And they drew up Jeremias with the cords, and
brought him forth out of the dungeon. And Jeremias remained
in the entry of the prison.
38:14. And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias the
prophet to him to the third gate, that was in the house of
the Lord: and the king said to Jeremias: I will ask thee a
thing, hide nothing from me.
38:15. Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare
it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give
thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.
38:16. Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private,
saying: As the Lord liveth, that, made us this soul, I will
not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the
hands of these men that seek thy life.
38:17. And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord
of hosts the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution
and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul
shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire: and
thou shalt be safe, and thy house.
38:18. But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the
king of Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the
hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire:
and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.
38:19. And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid
because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans:
lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they
should abuse me.
38:20. But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee:
hearken, I beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I
speak to the, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul
shall live.
38:21. But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word
which the Lord hath shewn me:
38:22. Behold all the women that are left in the house of
the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of
the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace
have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they
have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place
and they have departed from thee.
Thy men of peace... Viri pacifici tui. That is thy false
friends promising thee peace and happiness, and by their
evil counsels involving thee in misery.
38:23. And all thy wives, and thy children shall be brought
out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape their
hands, but thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of
Babylon: and he shall burn this city with fire.
38:24. Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know
these words, and thou shalt not die.
38:25. But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken
with thee, and shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us
what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and
we will not kill thee: and also what the king said to thee:
38:26. Thou shalt say to them: I presented my supplication
before the king, that he would not command me to be carried
back into the house of Jonathan, to die there.
38:27. So all the princes came to Jeremias, and asked him:
and he spoke to them according to all the words that the
king had commanded him: and they left him: for nothing had
been heard.
38:28. But Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison,
until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and it came to pass
that Jerusalem was taken.
Jeremias Chapter 39
After two years' siege Jerusalem is taken. Sedecias is
carried before Nabuchodonosor, who kills his sons in his
sight, and then puts out his eyes. Jeremias is set at
liberty.
39:1. In the ninth year of Sedecias king of Juda, in the
tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all
his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
39:2. And in the eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth
month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.
39:3. And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in,
and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu,
Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the
rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
39:4. And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of
war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night
out of the city by the way of the king's garden, and by the
gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to
the way of the desert.
39:5. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and
they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho,
and when they had taken him, they brought him to
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the
land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.
39:6. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in
Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all
the nobles of Juda.
39:7. He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him
with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.
39:8. And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house, and the
houses of the people with fire, and they threw down the
wall of Jerusalem.
39:9. And Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away
captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained
in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him,
and the rest of the people that remained.
39:10. But Nabuzardan the general left some of the poor
people that had nothing at all, in the land of Juda, and he
gave them vineyards, and cisterns at that time.
39:11. Now Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had given charge
to Nabuzardan the general concerning Jeremias, saying:
39:12. Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no
harm: but as he hath a mind, so do with him.
39:13. Therefore Nabuzardan the general sent, and
Nabuzardan, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and
Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,
39:14. Sent and took Jeremias out of the court of the
prison, and committed him to Godolias the son of Ahicam the
son of Saphan, that he might go home, and dwell among the
people.
39:15. But the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, when he
was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: Go, and
tell Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying:
39:16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
Behold I will bring my words upon this city unto evil, and
not unto good: and they shall be accomplished in thy sight
in that day.
39:17. And I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord:
and thou shalt not be given into the hands of the men whom
thou fearest:
39:18. But delivering, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
not fall by the sword: but thy life shall be saved for
thee, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the
Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 40
Jeremias remains with Godolias the governor; who receives
all the Jews that resort to him.
40:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after
that Nabuzardan the general had let him go from Rama, when
he had taken him, being bound with chains, among all them
that were carried away from Jerusalem and Juda, and were
carried to Babylon.
40:2. And the general of the army taking Jeremias, said to
him: The Lord thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this
place,
40:3. And he hath brought it: and the Lord hath done as he
hath said: because you have sinned against the Lord, and
have not hearkened to his voice, and this word is come upon
you.
40:4. Now then behold I have loosed thee this day from the
chains which were upon thy hands: if it please thee to come
with me to Babylon, come: and I will set my eyes upon thee:
but if it do not please thee to come with me to Babylon,
stay here: behold all the land is before thee, as thou
shalt choose, and whither it shall please thee to go,
thither go.
40:5. And come not with me: but dwell with Godolias the son
of Ahicam the son of Saphan, whom the king of Babylon hath
made governor over the cities of Juda: dwell therefore with
him in the midst of the people: or whithersoever it shall
please thee to go, go. And the general of the army gave him
victuals and presents, and let him go.
40:6. And Jeremias went to Godolias the son of Ahicam to
Masphath: and dwelt with him in the midst of the people
that were left in the land.
40:7. And when all the captains of the army that were
scattered through the countries, they and their companions,
had heard that the king of Babylon had made Godolias the
son of Ahicam governor of the country, and that he had
committed unto him men and women, and children, and of the
poor of the land, them that had not been carried away
captive to Babylon:
40:8. They came to Godolias to Masphath: and Ismahel the
son of Nathanias, and Johanan, and Jonathan, the sons of
Caree, and Sareas the son of Thanehumeth, and the children
of Ophi, that were of Netophathi, and Jezonias the son of
Maachati, they and their men.
40:9. And Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan
swore to them and to their companions, saying: Fear not to
serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, and serve the king
of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
40:10. Behold I dwell in Masphath, that I may answer the
commandment of the Chaldeans that are sent to us: but as
for you, gather ye the vintage, and the harvest, and the
oil, and lay it up in your vessels, and abide in your
cities which you hold.
40:11. Moreover all the Jews that were in Moab, and among
the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and in all the
countries, when they heard that the king of Babylon had
left a remnant in Judea, and that he had made Godolias the
son of Ahicam the son of Saphan ruler over them:
40:12. All the Jews, I say, returned out of all the places
to which they had fled, and they came into the land of Juda
to Godolias to Masphath: and they gathered wine, and a very
great harvest.
40:13. Then Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains
of the army, that had been scattered about in the
countries, came to Godolias to Masphath.
40:14. And they said to him: Know that Baalis the king of
the children of Ammon hath sent Ismahel the son of
Nathanias to kill thee. And Godolias the son of Ahicam
believed them not.
40:15. But Johanan the son of Caree, spoke to Godolias
privately in Masphath, saying: I will go, and I will kill
Ismahel the son of Nathanias, and no man shall know it,
lest he kill thee, and all the Jews be scattered, that are
gathered unto thee, and the remnant of Juda perish.
40:16. And Godolias the son of Ahicam said to Johanan the
son of Caree: Do not this thing: for what thou sayst of
Ismahel is false.
Jeremias Chapter 41
Godolias is slain: the Jews that were with him are
apprehensive of the Chaldeans.
41:1. And it came to pass in the seventh month, that
Ismahel the son of Nathanias, the son of Elisama of the
royal blood, and the nobles of the king, and ten men with
him, came to Godolias the son of Ahicam into Masphath: and
they ate bread there together in Masphath.
41:2. And Ismahel the son of Nathanias arose, and the ten
men that were with him, and they struck Godolias the son of
Ahicam, the son of Saphan with the sword, and slew him whom
the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
41:3. Ismahel slew also all the Jews that were with
Godolias in Masphath, and the Chaldeans that were found
there, and the soldiers.
41:4. And on the second day after he had killed Godolias,
no man yet knowing it,
41:5. There came some from Sichem, and from Silo, and from
Samaria, fourscore men, with their beards shaven, and their
clothes rent, and mourning: and they had offerings and
incense in their hand, to offer in the house of the Lord.
41:6. And Ismahel the son of Nathanias went forth from
Masphath to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and
when he had met them, he said to them: Come to Godolias,
the son of Ahicam.
41:7. And when they were come to the midst of the city,
Ismahel the son of Nathanias, slew them, and cast them into
the midst of the pit, he and the men that were with him.
41:8. But ten men were found among them, that said to
Ismahel: Kill us not: for we have stores in the field, of
wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey. And he forbore, and
slew them not with their brethren.
41:9. And the pit into which Ismahel cast all the dead
bodies of the men whom he slew because of Godolias, is the
same that king Asa made, for fear of Baasa the king of
Israel: the same did Ismahel the son of Nathanias fill with
them that were slain.
41:10. Then Ismahel carried away captive all the remnant of
the people that were in Masphath: the king's daughters, and
all the people that remained in Masphath: whom Nabuzardan
the general of the army had committed to Godolias the son
of Ahicam. And Ismahel the son of Nathanias took them, and
he departed, to go over to the children of Ammon.
41:11. But Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains
of the fighting men that were with him, heard of the evil
that Ismahel the son of Nathanias had done.
41:12. And taking all the men, they went out to fight
against Ismahel the son of Nathanias, and they found him by
the great waters that are in Gabaon.
41:13. And when all the people that were with Ismahel, had
seen Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains of the
fighting men that were with him, they rejoiced.
41:14. And all the people whom Ismahel had taken, went back
to Masphath: and they returned and went to Johanan the son
of Caree.
41:15. But Ismahel the son of Nathanias fled with eight
men, from the face of Johanan, and went to the children of
Ammon.
41:16. Then Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains
of the soldiers that were with him, took all the remnant of
the people whom they had recovered from Ismahel the son of
Nathanias, from Masphath, after that he had slain Godolias
the son of Ahicam: valiant men for war, and the women, and
the children, and the eunuchs whom he had brought back from
Gabaon.
41:17. And they departed, and sat as sojourners in Chamaam,
which is near Bethlehem: in order to go forward, and enter
into Egypt,
41:18. From the face of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid
of them, because Ismahel the son of Nathanias had slain
Godolias the son of Ahicam, whom the king of Babylon had
made governor in the land of Juda.
Jeremias Chapter 42
Jeremias assures the remnant of the people, that if they
will stay in Juda, they shall be safe; but if they go down
into Egypt, they shall perish.
42:1. Then all the captains of the warriors, and Johanan
the son of Caree, and Jezonias, the son of Osaias, and the
rest of the people from the least to the greatest came
near:
42:2. And they said to Jeremias the prophet: Let our
supplication fall before thee: and pray thou for us to the
Lord thy God for all this remnant, for we are left but a
few of many, as thy eyes do behold us.
42:3. And let the Lord thy God shew us the way by which we
may walk, and the thing that we must do.
42:4. And Jeremias the prophet said to them: I have heard
you: behold I will pray to the Lord your God according to
your words: and whatsoever thing he shall answer me, I will
declare it to you: and I will hide nothing from you.
42:5. And they said to Jeremias: The Lord be witness
between us of truth and faithfulness, if we do not
according to every thing for which the Lord thy God shall
send thee to us.
42:6. Whether it be good or evil, we will obey the voice of
the Lord our God, to whom we send thee: that it may be well
with us when we shall hearken to the voice of the Lord our
God.
Good or evil... That is, agreeable or disagreeable.
42:7. Now after ten days, the word of the Lord came to
Jeremias.
42:8. And he called Johanan the son of Caree, and all the
captains of the fighting men that were with him, and all
the people from the least to the greatest.
42:9. And he said to them: Thus saith the Lord the God of
Israel, to whom you sent me, to present your supplications
before him:
42:10. If you will be quiet and remain in this land, I will
build you up, and not pull you down: I will plant you, and
not pluck you up: for now I am appeased for the evil that I
have done to you.
I am appeased for the evil that I have done to you... That
is, I am appeased, as I have sufficiently punished you, and
now I am reconciled with you.
42:11. Fear not because of the king of Babylon, of whom you
are greatly afraid: fear him not, saith the Lord: for I am
with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
42:12. And I will shew mercies to you, and will take pity
on you, and will cause you to dwell in your own land.
42:13. But if you say: We will not dwell in this land,
neither will we hearken to the voice of the Lord our God,
42:14. Saying: No, but we will go into the land of Egypt:
where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the
trumpet, nor suffer hunger: and there we will dwell.
42:15. For this now hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant
of Juda: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
If you set your faces to go into Egypt, and enter in to
dwell there:
42:16. The sword which you fear, shall overtake you there
in the land of Egypt: and the famine, whereof you are
afraid, shall cleave to you in Egypt, and there you shall
die.
42:17. And all the men that set their faces to go into
Egypt, to dwell there, shall die by the sword, and by
famine, and by pestilence: none of them shall remain, nor
escape from the face of the evil that I will bring upon
them.
42:18. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel:
As my anger and my indignation hath been kindled against
the inhabitants of Jerusalem: so shall my indignation be
kindled against you, when you shall enter into Egypt, and
you shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a
curse, and a reproach: and you shall see this place no
more.
42:19. This is the word of the Lord concerning you, O ye
remnant of Juda: Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that
I have adjured you this day.
42:20. For you have deceived your own souls: for you sent
me to the Lord our God, saying: Pray for us to the Lord our
God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say
to thee, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
42:21. And now I have declared it to you this day, and you
have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, with regard
to all the things for which he hath sent me to you.
42:22. Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by
the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence in the place to
which you desire to go to dwell there.
Jeremias Chapter 43
The Jews, contrary to the orders of God by the prophet, go
into Egypt, carrying Jeremias with them. He foretells the
devastation of that land by the king of Babylon.
43:1. And it came to pass, that when Jeremias had made an
end of speaking to the people all the words of the Lord
their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to
them, all these words:
43:2. Azarias the son of Osaias, and Johanan the son of
Caree, and all the proud men, made answer, saying to
Jeremias: Thou tellest a lie: the Lord our God hath not
sent thee, saying: Go not into Egypt, to dwell there.
43:3. But Baruch the son of Nerias setteth thee on against
us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to kill
us, and to cause us to be carried away captives to Babylon.
43:4. So Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains of
the soldiers, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of
the Lord, to remain in the land of Juda.
43:5. But Johanan the son of Caree, and all the captains of
the soldiers took all the remnant of Juda, that were
returned out of all nations, to which they had before been
scattered, to dwell in the land of Juda:
43:6. Men, and women, and children, and the king's
daughters, and every soul, which Nabuzardan the general had
left with Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, and
Jeremias the prophet, and Baruch the son of Nerias.
43:7. And they went into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed
not the voice of the Lord: and they came as far as Taphnis.
43:8. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias in Taphnis,
saying:
43:9. Take great stones in thy hand, and thou shalt hide
them in the vault that is under the brick wall at the gate
of Pharao's house in Taphnis: in the sight of the men of
Juda.
43:10. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of
hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will send, and take
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will
set his throne over these stones which I have hid, and he
shall set his throne over them.
43:11. And he shall come and strike the land of Egypt: such
as are for death, to death: and such as are for captivity,
to captivity: and such as are for the sword, to the sword.
43:12. And he shall kindle a fire in the temples of the
gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them, and he shall carry
them away captives: and he shall array himself with the
land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment: and he
shall go forth from thence in peace.
43:13. And he shall break the statues of the house of the
sun, that are in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the
gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.
Jeremias Chapter 44
The prophet's admonition to the Jews in Egypt against
idolatry is not regarded: he denounces to them their
destruction.
44:1. The word that came to Jeremias, concerning all the
Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, dwelling in Magdal,
and in Taphnis, and in Memphis, and in the land of
Phatures, saying:
44:2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: You
have seen all this evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem,
and upon all the cities of Juda: and behold they are
desolate this day, and there is not an inhabitant in them:
44:3. Because of the wickedness which they have committed,
to provoke me to wrath, and to go and offer sacrifice, and
worship other gods, which neither they, nor you, nor your
fathers knew.
44:4. And I sent to you all my servants the prophets,
rising early, and sending, and saying: Do not commit this
abominable thing, which I hate.
44:5. But they heard not, nor inclined their ear to turn
from their evil ways, and not to sacrifice to strange gods.
44:6. Wherefore my indignation and my fury was poured
forth, and was kindled in the cities of Juda, and in the
streets of Jerusalem: and they are turned to desolation and
waste, as at this day.
44:7. And now thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own
souls, that there should die of you man and woman, child
and suckling out of the midst of Juda, and no remnant
should be left you:
44:8. In that you provoke me to wrath with the works of
your hands, by sacrificing to other gods in the land of
Egypt, into which you are come to dwell there: and that you
should perish, and be a curse, and a reproach to all the
nations of the earth?
44:9. Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the
evils of the kings of Juda, and the evils of their wives,
and your evils, and the evils of your wives, that they have
done in the land of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
44:10. They are not cleansed even to this day: neither have
they feared, nor walked in the law of the Lord, nor in my
commandments, which I set before you and your fathers.
44:11. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: Behold I will set my face upon you for evil: and I
will destroy all Juda.
44:12. And I will take the remnant of Juda that have set
their faces to go into the land of Egypt, and to dwell
there; and they shall be all consumed in the land of Egypt:
they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine: and they
shall be consumed from the least even to the greatest, by
the sword, and by the famine shall they die: and they shall
be for an execration, and for a wonder, and for a curse,
and for a reproach.
44:13. And I will visit them that dwell in the land of
Egypt, as I have visited Jerusalem by the sword, and by
famine and by pestilence.
44:14. And there shall be none that shall escape, and
remain of the remnant of the Jews that are gone to sojourn
in the land of Egypt: and that shall return into the land
of Juda, to which they have a desire to return to dwell
there: there shall none return but they that shall flee.
44:15. Then all the men that knew that their wives
sacrificed to other gods: and all the women of whom there
stood by a great multitude, and all the people of them that
dwelt in the land of Egypt in Phatures, answered Jeremias,
saying:
44:16. As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the
name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee:
44:17. But we will certainly do every word that shall
proceed out of our own mouth, to sacrifice to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we and
our fathers have done, our kings, and our princes in the
cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem: and we
were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw
no evil.
The queen of heaven... The moon, which they worshipped
under this name.
44:18. But since we left off to offer sacrifice to the
queen of heaven, and to pour out frank offerings to her, we
have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the
sword, and by famine.
44:19. And if we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven,
and pour out drink offerings to her: did we make cakes to
worship her, to pour out drink offerings to her, without
our husbands?
44:20. And Jeremias spoke to all the people, to the men,
and to the women, and to all the people which had given him
that answer, saying:
44:21. Was it not the sacrifice that you offered in the
cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and
your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people
of the land, which the Lord hath remembered, and hath it
not entered into his heart?
44:22. So that the Lord could no longer bear, because of
the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations
which you have committed: therefore your land is become a
desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an
inhabitant, as at this day.
44:23. Because you have sacrificed to idols, and have
sinned against the Lord: and have not obeyed the voice of
the Lord, and have not walked in his law, and in his
commandments, and in his testimonies: therefore are these
evils come upon you, as at this day.
44:24. And Jeremias said to all the people and to all the
women: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda, you that
dwell in the land of Egypt:
44:25. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel,
saying: You and your wives have spoken with your mouth, and
fulfilled with your hands, saying: Let us perform our vows
which we have made, to offer sacrifice to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to her: you have
fulfilled your vows, and have performed them indeed.
44:26. Therefore hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda,
you that dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold I have sworn by
my great name, saith the Lord: that my name shall no more
be named in the mouth of any man of Juda, in the land of
Egypt, saying: The Lord God liveth.
44:27. Behold I will watch over them for evil, and not for
good: and all the men of Juda that are in the land of
Egypt, shall be consumed, by the sword, and by famine, till
there be an end of them.
44:28. And a few men that shall flee from the sword, shall
return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Juda: and
all the remnant of Juda that are gone into the land of
Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose word shall stand,
mine, or theirs.
44:29. And this shall be a sign to you, saith the Lord,
that I will punish you in this place: that you may know
that my words shall be accomplished indeed against you for
evil.
44:30. Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver Pharao
Nechao king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into
the hand of them that seek his life: as I delivered
Sedecias king of Juda into the land of Nabuchodonosor the
king of Babylon his enemy, and that sought his life.
Jeremias Chapter 45
The prophet comforts Baruch in his affliction.
45:1. The word that Jeremias the prophet spoke to Baruch
the son of Nerias, when he had written these words in a
book, out of the mouth of Jeremias, in the fourth year of
Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, saying:
45:2. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to thee,
Baruch:
45:3. Thou hast said: Woe is me, wretch that I am, for the
Lord hath added sorrow to my sorrow: I am wearied with my
groans, and I find no rest.
45:4. Thus saith the Lord: Thus shalt thou say to him:
Behold, them whom I have built, I do destroy: and them whom
I have planted, I do pluck up, and all this land.
45:5. And dost thou seek great things for thyself? Seek
not: for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the
Lord! but I will give thee thy life, and save thee in all
places whithersoever thou shalt go.
Jeremias Chapter 46
A prophecy against Egypt. The Jews shall return from
captivity.
46:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the
prophet against the Gentiles,
46:2. Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao king
of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Charcamis,
whom Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon defeated, in the
fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda.
46:3. Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to
battle.
46:4. Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand
forth with helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of
mail.
46:5. What then? I have seen them dismayed, and turning
their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and
they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the
Lord.
46:6. Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to
escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the
north by the river Euphrates.
46:7. Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his
streams swell like those of rivers?
46:8. Egypt riseth up like a flood, and the waves thereof
shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up
and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city, and its
inhabitants.
46:9. Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let
the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Libyans
that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot
arrows.
46:10. For this is the day of the Lord the God of hosts, a
day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his
enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and
shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice
of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river
Euphrates.
46:11. Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter
of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall
be no cure for thee.
46:12. The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy
howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled
against the strong, and both are fallen together.
46:13. The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the
prophet, how Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and
strike the land of Egypt:
46:14. Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, and
let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand
up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all
round about thee.
46:15. Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood
not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.
46:16. He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath
fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us
return to our own people, and to the land of our nativity,
from the sword of the dove.
The dove... See the annotation on chap. 25., ver. 38.
46:17. Call ye the name of Pharao king of Egypt, a tumult
time hath brought.
46:18. As I live, saith the King, (whose name is the Lord
of hosts,) as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel
by the sea, so shall he come.
46:19. Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter
inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate,
and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.
46:20. Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there
shall come from the north one that shall goad her.
46:21. Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her,
like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away
together, and they could not stand, for the day of their
slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.
46:22. Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall
hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against
her, as hewers of wood.
46:23. They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which
cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and
are without number.
46:24. The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered
into the hand of the people of the north.
46:25. The Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath said:
Behold I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon
Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her
kings, and upon Pharao, and upon them that trust in him.
Visit upon... That is, punish.-Ibid. Alexandria... In the
Hebrew, No, which was the ancient name of the city, to
which Alexander gave afterwards the name of Alexandria.
46:26. And I will deliver them into the hand of them that
seek their lives, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king
of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and
afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old,
saith the Lord.
46:27. And thou my servant Jacob, fear not and be not thou
dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar
off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and
Jacob shall return and be at rest, and prosper: and there
shall be none to terrify him.
46:28. And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith the
Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the
nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not
consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will
I spare thee as if thou wert innocent.
Jeremias Chapter 47
A prophecy of the desolation of the Philistines, of Tyre,
Sidon, Gaza, and Ascalon.
47:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the
prophet against the people of Palestine, before Pharao took
Gaza.
47:2. Thus saith the Lord: Behold there come up waters out
of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent,
and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the
city and the inhabitants thereof: then the men shall cry,
and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl,
47:3. At the noise of the marching of arms, and of his
soldiers, at the rushing of his chariots, and the multitude
of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back to the
children, for feebleness of hands,
47:4. Because of the coming of the day, in which all the
Philistines shall be laid waste, and Tyre and Sidon shall
be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the
Lord hath wasted the Philistines, the remnant of the isle
of Cappadocia.
47:5. Baldness is come upon Gaza: Ascalon hath held her
peace with the remnant of their valley: how long shalt thou
cut thyself?
47:6. O thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be
quiet? Go into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
47:7. How shall it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it a
charge against Ascalon, and against the countries thereof
by the sea side, and there hath made an appointment for it?
Jeremias Chapter 48
A prophecy of the desolation of Moab for their pride: but
their captivity shall at last be released.
48:1. Against Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: Woe to Nabo, for it is laid waste, and confounded:
Cariathaim is taken: the strong city is confounded and hath
trembled.
48:2. There is no more rejoicing in Moab over Hesebon: they
have devised evil. Come, and let us cut it off from being a
nation. Therefore shalt thou in silence hold thy peace,
and the sword shall follow thee.
48:3. A voice of crying from Oronaim: waste, and great
destruction.
48:4. Moab is destroyed: proclaim a cry for her little
ones.
48:5. For by the ascent of Luith shall the mourner go up
with weeping: for in the descent of Oronaim the enemies
have heard a howling of destruction.
48:6. Flee, save your lives: and be as heath in the
wilderness.
48:7. For because thou hast trusted in thy bulwarks, and in
thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken: and Chamos shall
go into captivity, his priests, and his princes together.
Chamos... The idol of the Moabites.
48:8. And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no
city shall escape: and the valleys shall perish, and the
plains shall be destroyed, for the Lord hath spoken:
48:9. Give a flower to Moab, for in its flower it shall go
out: and the cities thereof shall be desolate, and
uninhabited.
48:10. Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord
deceitfully: and cursed be he that withholdeth his sword
from blood.
Deceitfully... In the Greek, negligently. The work of God
here spoken of, is the punishment of the Moabites.
48:11. Moab hath been fruitful from his youth, and hath
rested upon his lees: and hath not been poured out from
vessel to vessel, nor hath gone into captivity: therefore
his taste hath remained in him, and his scent is not
changed.
Moab hath been fruitful... That is, rich and flourishing.
And hath rested upon his lees... That is, remained in its
bad morals; as wine not decanted has its lees mixed and
remains muddy.
48:12. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and
I will send him men that shall order and overturn his
bottles, and they shall cast him down, and shall empty his
vessels, and break their bottles one against another.
48:13. And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, as the house of
Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.
Of Bethel... That is, of their golden calf which they
worshipped in Bethel.
48:14. How do you say: We are valiant and stout men in
battle?
48:15. Moab is laid waste, and they have cast down her
cities: and her choice young men are gone down to the
slaughter: saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
48:16. The destruction of Moab is near to come: the
calamity thereof shall come on exceeding swiftly.
48:17. Comfort him, all you that are round about him, and
all you that know his name, say: How is the strong staff
broken, the beautiful rod?
48:18. Come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst, O
dwelling of the daughter of Dibon: because the spoiler of
Moab is come up to thee, he hath destroyed thy bulwarks.
48:19. Stand in the way, and look out, O habitation of
Aroer: inquire of him that fleeth: and say to him that hath
escaped: What is done?
48:20. Moab is confounded, because he is overthrown: howl
ye, and cry, tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is wasted.
48:21. And judgment is come upon the plain country: upon
Helon, and upon Jasa, and upon Mephaath.
48:22. And upon Dibon, and upon Nabo, and upon the house of
Deblathaim,
48:23. And upon Cariathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon
Bethmaon,
48:24. And upon Carioth, and upon Bosra: and upon all the
cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
48:25. The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken,
saith the Lord.
The horn of Moab is cut off... That is, the strength of
Moab is cut off. A metaphor drawn from animals whose
strength is in their horns.
48:26. Make him drunk, because he lifted up himself against
the Lord: and Moab shall dash his hand in his own vomit,
and he also shall be in derision.
48:27. For Israel hath been a derision unto them: as though
thou hadst found him amongst thieves: for thy words
therefore, which thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt
be led away captive.
48:28. Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, you that
dwell in Moab: and be ye like the dove that maketh her nest
in the mouth of the hole in the highest place.
48:29. We have heard the pride of Moab, he is exceeding
proud: his haughtiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride,
and the loftiness of his heart.
48:30. I know, saith the Lord, his boasting, and that the
strength thereof is not according to it, neither hath it
endeavoured to do according as it was able.
48:31. Therefore will I lament for Moab, and I will cry out
to all Moab, for the men of the brick wall that mourn.
48:32. O vineyard of Sabama, I will weep for thee, with the
mourning of Jazer: thy branches are gone over the sea, they
are come even to the sea of Jazer: the robber hath rushed
in upon thy harvest and thy vintage.
48:33. Joy and gladness is taken away from Carmel, and from
the land of Moab, and I have taken away the wine out of the
presses: the treader of the grapes shall not sing the
accustomed cheerful tune.
48:34. From the cry of Hesebon even to Eleale, and to Jasa,
they have uttered their voice: from Segor to Oronaim, as a
heifer of three years old: the waters also of Nemrim shall
be very bad.
48:35. And I will take away from Moab, saith the Lord, him
that offereth in the high places, and that sacrificeth to
his gods.
48:36. Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes
and my heart shall sound like pipes for the men of the
brick wall: because he hath done more than he could,
therefore they have perished.
48:37. For every head shall be bald, and every beard shall
be shaven: all hands shall be tied together, and upon every
back there shall be haircloth.
48:38. Upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets
thereof general mourning: because I have broken Moab as an
useless vessel, saith the Lord.
48:39. How is it overthrown, and they have howled! How hath
Moab bowed down the neck, and is confounded! And Moab shall
be a derision, and an example to all round about him.
48:40. Thus saith the Lord: Behold he shall fly as an
eagle, and shall stretch forth his wings to Moab.
48:41. Carioth is taken, and the strongholds are won: and
the heart of the valiant men of Moab in that day shall be
as the heart of a woman in labour.
48:42. And Moab shall cease to be a people: because he hath
gloried against the Lord.
48:43. Fear, and the pit, and the snare come upon thee, O
inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord.
Fear... That is, the sword of the enemy. The pit... That
is, unforeseen calamities. The snare... That is, the
ambushes laid by the enemy.
48:44. He that shall flee from the fear, shall fall into
the pit: and he that shall get up out of the pit, shall be
taken in the snare: for I will bring upon Moab the year of
their visitation, saith the Lord.
48:45. They that fled from the snare stood in the shadow of
Hesebon: but there came a fire out of Hesebon, and a flame
out of the midst of Seon, and it shall devour part of Moab,
and the crown of the head of the children of tumult.
48:46. Woe to thee, Moab, thou hast persisted, O people of
Chamos: for thy sons, and thy daughters are taken captives.
48:47. And I will bring back the captivity of Moab in the
last days, saith the Lord. Hitherto the judgments of Moab.
Jeremias Chapter 49
The like desolation of Ammon, of Idumea, of the Syrians, of
the Agarenes, and of the Elamites.
49:1. Against the children of Ammon. Thus saith the Lord:
Hath Israel no sons? or hath he no heir? Why then hath
Melchom inherited Gad: and his people dwelt in his cities?
Melchom... The idol of the Ammonites.
49:2. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I
will cause the noise of war to be heard in Rabbath of the
children of Ammon, and it shall be destroyed into a heap,
and her daughters shall be burnt with fire, and Israel
shall possess them that have possessed him, saith the Lord.
49:3. Howl, O Hesebon, for Hai is wasted. Cry, ye daughters
of Rabbath, gird yourselves with haircloth: mourn and go
about by the hedges: for Melchom shall be carried into
captivity, his priests, and his princes together.
49:4. Why gloriest thou in the valleys? thy valley hath
flowed away, O delicate daughter, that hast trusted in thy
treasures, and hast said: Who shall come to me?
49:5. Behold I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord
God of hosts, from all that are round about thee: and you
shall be scattered every one out of one another's sight,
neither shall there be any to gather together them that
flee.
49:6. And afterwards I will cause the captives of the
children of Ammon to return, saith the Lord.
49:7. Against Edom. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Is wisdom
no more in Theman? counsel is perished from her children:
their wisdom is become unprofitable.
49:8. Flee and turn your backs, go down into the deep hole,
ye inhabitants of Dedan: for I have brought the destruction
of Esau upon him, the time of his visitation.
49:9. If grapegatherers had come to thee, would they not
have left a bunch? if thieves in the night, they would have
taken what was enough for them.
49:10. But I have made Esau bare, I have revealed his
secrets, and he cannot be hid: his seed is laid waste, and
his brethren, and his neighbours, and he shall not be.
49:11. Leave thy fatherless children: I will make them
live: and thy widows shall hope in me.
49:12. For thus saith the Lord: Behold they whose judgment
was not to drink of the cup, shall certainly drink: and
shalt thou come off as innocent? thou shalt not come off as
innocent, but drinking thou shalt drink.
49:13. For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that
Bosra shall become a desolation, and a reproach, and a
desert, and a curse: and all her cities shall be
everlasting wastes.
49:14. I have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an
ambassador is sent to the nations: Gather yourselves
together, and come against her, and let us rise up to
battle.
49:15. For behold I have made thee a little one among the
nations, despicable among men.
49:16. Thy arrogancy hath deceived thee, and the pride of
thy heart: O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock,
and endeavourest to lay hold on the height of the hill: but
though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as an eagle, I
will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.
49:17. And Edom shall be desolate: every one that shall
pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its
plagues.
49:18. As Sodom was overthrown and Gomorrha, and the
neighbours thereof, saith the Lord: there shall not a man
dwell there, and there shall no son of man inhabit it.
49:19. Behold one shall come up as a lion from the swelling
of the Jordan, against the strong and beautiful: for I will
make him run suddenly upon her: and who shall be the chosen
one whom I may appoint over her? for who is like to me? and
who shall abide me? and who is that shepherd that can
withstand my countenance?
49:20. Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he
hath taken concerning Edom: and his thoughts which he hath
thought concerning the inhabitants of Theman: surely the
little ones of the flock shall cast them down, of a truth
they shall destroy them with their habitation.
49:21. The earth is moved at the noise of their fall: the
cry of their voice is heard in the Red Sea.
49:22. Behold he shall come up as an eagle, and fly: and he
shall spread his wings over Bosra: and in that day the
heart of the valiant ones of Edom shall be as the heart of
a woman in labour.
49:23. Against Damascus. Emath is confounded and Arphad:
for they have heard very bad tidings, they are troubled as
in the sea: through care they could not rest.
49:24. Damascus is undone, she is put to flight, trembling
hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her as a
woman in labour.
49:25. How have they forsaken the city of renown, the city
of joy!
49:26. Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets:
and all the men of war shall be silent in that day, saith
the Lord of hosts.
49:27. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus,
and it shall devour the strong holds of Benadad.
49:28. Against Cedar and against the kingdoms of Asor,
which Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon destroyed. Thus saith
the Lord: Arise, and go ye up to Cedar, and waste the
children of the east.
Cedar and Asor... Were parts of Arabia; which with Moab,
Ammon, Edom, etc., were all brought under the yoke of
Nabuchodonosor.
49:29. They shall take their tents, and their flocks: and
shall carry off for themselves their curtains, and all
their vessels, and their camels: and they shall call fear
upon them round about.
49:30. Flee ye, get away speedily, sit in deep holes, you
that inhabit Asor, saith the Lord: for Nabuchodonosor king
of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath
conceived designs against you.
49:31. Arise, and go up to a nation that is at ease, and
that dwelleth securely, saith the Lord: they have neither
gates, nor bars: they dwell alone.
49:32. And their camels shall be for a spoil and the
multitude of their cattle for a booty, and I will scatter
into every wind them that have their hair cut round, and I
will bring destruction upon them from all their confines,
saith the Lord.
49:33. And Asor shall be a habitation for dragons, desolate
for ever: no man shall abide there, nor son of man inhabit
it.
49:34. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the
prophet against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of
Sedecias king of Juda, saying:
Elam... A part of Persia.
49:35. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will break
the bow of Elam, and their chief strength.
49:36. And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the
four quarters of heaven: and I will scatter them into all
these winds: and there shall be no nation, to which the
fugitives of Elam shall not come.
49:37. And I will cause Elam to be afraid before their
enemies, and in the sight of them that seek their life: and
I will bring evil upon them, my fierce wrath, saith the
Lord: and I will send the sword after them, till I consume
them.
49:38. And I will set my throne in Elam, and destroy kings
and princes from thence, saith the Lord.
49:39. But in the latter days I will cause the captives of
Elam, to return, saith the Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 50
Babylon, which hath afflicted the Israelites, after their
restoration, shall be utterly destroyed.
50:1. The word that the Lord hath spoken against Babylon,
and against the land of the Chaldeans in the hand of
Jeremias the prophet.
50:2. Declare ye among the nations, and publish it, lift up
a standard: proclaim, and conceal it not: say: Babylon is
taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is overthrown, their
graven things are confounded, their idols are overthrown.
Bel, etc... Bel and Merodach were worshipped for gods by
the men of Babylon.
50:3. For a nation is come up against her out of the north,
which shall make her land desolate: and there shall be none
to dwell therein, from man even to beast: yea they are
removed, and gone away.
A nation, etc... Viz., the Medes.
50:4. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the
children of Israel shall come, they and the children of
Juda together: going and weeping they shall make haste, and
shall seek the Lord their God.
50:5. They shall ask the way to Sion, their faces are
hitherward. They shall come, and shall be joined to the
Lord by an everlasting covenant, which shall never be
forgotten.
50:6. My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds
have caused them to go astray, and have made them wander in
the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they
have forgotten their resting place.
50:7. All that found them, have devoured them: and their
enemies said: We have not sinned in so doing: because they
have sinned against the Lord the beauty of justice, and
against the Lord the hope of their fathers.
50:8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out
of the land of the Chaldeans: and be ye as kids at the head
of the flock.
50:9. For behold I raise up, and will bring against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the land of the north:
and they shall be prepared against her, and from thence she
shall be taken: their arrows, like those of a mighty man, a
destroyer, shall not return in vain.
50:10. And Chaldea shall be made a prey: all that waste her
shall be filled, saith the Lord.
50:11. Because you rejoice, and speak great things,
pillaging my inheritance: because you are spread abroad as
calves upon the grass, and have bellowed as bulls.
50:12. Your mother is confounded exceedingly, and she that
bore you is made even with the dust: behold she shall be
the last among the nations, a wilderness unpassable, and
dry.
50:13. Because of the wrath of the Lord it shall not be
inhabited, but shall be wholly desolate: every one that
shall pass by Babylon, shall be astonished, and shall hiss
at all her plagues.
50:14. Prepare yourselves against Babylon round about, all
you that bend the bow: fight against her, spare not arrows:
because she hath sinned against the Lord.
50:15. Shout against her, she hath every where given her
hand, her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown
down, for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance
upon her: as she hath done, so do to her.
50:16. Destroy the sower out of Babylon, and him that
holdeth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the
sword of the dove every man shall return to his people, and
every one shall flee to his own land.
The dove... Or the destroyer; for the Hebrew word signifies
either the one or the other.
50:17. Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven
him away: first the king of Assyria devoured him: and last
this Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
50:18. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of
Israel: Behold I will visit the king of Babylon and his
land, as I have visited the king of Assyria.
50:19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation: and
he shall feed on Carmel, and Bason, and his soul shall be
satisfied in mount Ephraim, and Galaad.
50:20. In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the
iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be
none: and the sin of Juda, and there shall none be found:
for I will be merciful to them, whom I shall leave.
50:21. Go up against the land of the rulers, and punish the
inhabitants thereof, waste, and destroy all behind them,
saith the Lord: and do according to all that I have
commanded thee.
50:22. A noise of war in the land, and a great destruction.
50:23. How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and
destroyed! how is Babylon turned into a desert among the
nations!
50:24. I have caused thee to fall into a snare, and thou
art taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware of it: thou
art found and caught, because thou hast provoked the Lord.
50:25. The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought
forth the weapons of his wrath: for the Lord the God of
hosts hath a work to be done in the land of the Chaldeans.
50:26. Come ye against her from the uttermost borders: open
that they may go forth that shall tread her down: take the
stones out of the way, and make heaps, and destroy her: and
let nothing of her be left.
50:27. Destroy all her valiant men, let them go down to the
slaughter: woe to them, for their day is come, the time of
their visitation.
50:28. The voice of them that flee, and of them that have
escaped out of the land of Babylon: to declare in Sion the
revenge of the Lord our God, the revenge of his temple.
50:29. Declare to many against Babylon, to all that bend
the bow: stand together against her round about, and let
none escape; pay her according to her work: according to
all that she hath done, do ye to her: for she hath lifted
up herself against the Lord, against the Holy One of
Israel.
50:30. Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets:
and all her men of war shall hold their peace in that day,
saith the Lord.
50:31. Behold I come against thee, O proud one, saith the
Lord the God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time of thy
visitation.
50:32. And the proud one shall fall, he shall fall down,
and there shall be none to lift him up: and I will kindle a
fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about
him.
50:33. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of
Israel, and the children of Juda are oppressed together:
all that have taken them captives, hold them fast, they
will not let them go.
50:34. Their redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his
name: he will defend their cause in judgment, to terrify
the land, and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
50:35. A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and
upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and
upon her wise men.
50:36. A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be
foolish: a sword upon her valiant ones, and they shall be
dismayed.
50:37. A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots,
and upon all the people that are in the midst of her: and
they shall become as women: a sword upon her treasures, and
they shall be made a spoil.
50:38. A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried
up: because it is a land of idols, and they glory in
monstrous things.
50:39. Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig
fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein, and it shall be
no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be built up
from generation to generation.
Fig fauns... Monsters of the desert, or demons in monstrous
shapes: such as the ancients called fauns and satyrs; and
as they imagined them to live upon wild figs, they called
them fauni ficarii or fig fauns.
50:40. As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and their
neighbour cities, saith the Lord: no man shall dwell there,
neither shall the son of man inhabit it.
50:41. Behold a people cometh from the north, and a great
nation, and many kings shall rise from the ends of the
earth.
50:42. They shall take the bow and the shield: they are
cruel and unmerciful: their voice shall roar like the sea,
and they shall ride upon horses: like a man prepared for
battle against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
50:43. The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them,
and his hands are grown feeble: anguish hath taken hold of
him, pangs as a woman in labour.
50:44. Behold he shall come up like a lion from the
swelling of the Jordan to the strong and beautiful: for I
will make him run suddenly upon her: and who shall be the
chosen one whom I may appoint over her? for who is like to
me? and who shall bear up against me? and who is that
shepherd that can withstand my countenance?
50:45. Therefore hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he
hath taken against Babylon: and his thoughts which he hath
thought against the land of the Chaldeans: surely the
little ones of the flocks shall pull them down, of a truth
their habitation shall be destroyed with them.
50:46. At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is
moved, and the cry is heard amongst the nations.
Jeremias Chapter 51
The miseries that shall fall upon Babylon from the Medes:
the destruction of her idols.
51:1. Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will raise up as it
were a pestilential wind against Babylon and against the
inhabitants thereof, who have lifted up their heart against
me.
51:2. And I will send to Babylon fanners, and they shall
fan her, and shall destroy her land: for they are come upon
her on every side in the day of her affliction.
51:3. Let not him that bendeth, bend his bow, and let not
him go up that is armed with a coat of mail: spare not her
young men, destroy all her army.
51:4. And the slain shall fall in the land of the
Chaldeans, and the wounded in the regions thereof.
51:5. For Israel and Juda have not been forsaken by their
God the Lord of hosts: but their land hath been filled with
sin against the Holy One of Israel.
51:6. Flee ye from the midst of Babylon, and let every one
save his own life: be not silent upon her iniquity: for it
is the time of revenge from the Lord, he will render unto
her what she hath deserved.
51:7. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the
Lord, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk
of her wine, and therefore they have staggered.
51:8. Babylon is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howl for
her, take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed.
51:9. We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed:
let us forsake her, and let us go every man to his own
land: because her judgment hath reached even to the
heavens, and is lifted up to the clouds.
51:10. The Lord hath brought forth our justices: Come, and
let us declare in Sion the work of the Lord our God.
51:11. Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers, the Lord hath
raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: and his
mind is against Babylon to destroy it, because it is the
vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
51:12. Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard,
strengthen the watch: set up the watchmen, prepare the
ambushes: for the Lord hath both purposed, and done all
that he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
51:13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, rich in
treasures, thy end is come for thy entire destruction.
51:14. The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying: I
will fill thee with men as with locusts, and they shall
lift up a joyful shout against thee.
51:15. He that made the earth by his power, that hath
prepared the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the
heavens by his understanding.
51:16. When he uttereth his voice the waters are multiplied
in heaven: he lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the
earth, he hath turned lightning into rain: and hath brought
forth the wind out of his treasures.
51:17. Every man is become foolish by his knowledge: every
founder is confounded by his idol, for what he hath cast is
a lie, and there is no breath in them.
51:18. They are vain works, and worthy to be laughed at,
in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
51:19. The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he that
made all things he it is, and Israel is the sceptre of his
inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
51:20. Thou dashest together for me the weapons of war, and
with thee I will dash nations together, and with thee I
will destroy kingdoms:
51:21. And with thee I will break in pieces the horse, and
his rider, and with thee I will break in pieces the
chariot, and him that getteth up into it:
51:22. And with thee I will break in pieces man and woman,
and with thee I will break in pieces the old man and the
child, and with thee I will break in pieces the young man
and the virgin:
51:23. And with thee I will break in pieces the shepherd
and his flock, and with thee I will break in pieces the
husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee I will break
in pieces captains and rulers.
51:24. And I will render to Babylon, and to all the
inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil, that they have done
in Sion, before your eyes, saith the Lord.
51:25. Behold I come against thee, thou destroying
mountain, saith the Lord, which corruptest the whole earth:
and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will roll
thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt
mountain.
51:26. And they shall not take of thee a stone for the
corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be
destroyed for ever, saith the Lord.
51:27. Set ye up a standard in the land: sound with the
trumpet among the nations: prepare the nations against her:
call together against her the kings of Ararat, Menni, and
Ascenez: number Taphsar against her, bring the horse as the
stinging locust.
51:28. Prepare the nations against her, the kings of Media,
their captains, and all their rulers, and all the land of
their dominion.
51:29. And the land shall be in a commotion, and shall be
troubled: for the design of the Lord against Babylon shall
awake, to make the land of Babylon desert and
uninhabitable.
51:30. The valiant men of Babylon have forborne to fight,
they have dwelt in holds: their strength hath failed, and
they are become as women: her dwelling places are burnt,
her bars are broken.
51:31. One running post shall meet another, and messenger
shall meet messenger: to tell the king of Babylon that his
city is taken from one end to the other:
51:32. And that the fords are taken, and the marshes are
burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
51:33. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel:
The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashingfloor, this is
the time of her thrashing: yet a little while, and the time
of her harvest shall come.
51:34. Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon hath eaten me up, he
hath devoured me: he hath made me as an empty vessel: he
hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his
belly with my delicate meats, and he hath cast me out.
51:35. The wrong done to me, and my flesh be upon Babylon,
saith the habitation of Sion: and my blood upon the
inhabitants of Chaldea, saith Jerusalem.
51:36. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will judge
thy cause, and will take vengeance for thee, and I will
make her sea desolate, I and will dry up her spring.
51:37. And Babylon shall be reduced to heaps, a dwelling
place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, because
there is no inhabitant.
51:38. They shall roar together like lions, they shall
shake their manes like young lions.
51:39. In their heat I will set them drink: and I will make
them drunk, that they may slumber, and sleep an everlasting
sleep, and awake no more, saith the Lord.
51:40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
and like rams with kids.
51:41. How is Sesach taken, and the renowned one of all the
earth surprised? How is Babylon become an astonishment
among the nations?
51:42. The sea is come up over Babylon : she is covered
with the multitude of the waves thereof.
51:43. Her cities are become an astonishment, a land
uninhabited and desolate, a land wherein none can dwell,
nor son of man pass through it.
51:44. And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will
bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed
down: and the nations shall no more flow together to him,
for the wall also of Babylon shall fall.
51:45. Go out of the midst of her, my people: that every
man may save his life from the fierce wrath of the Lord.
51:46. And lest your hearts faint, and ye fear for the
rumour that shall be heard in the land: and a rumour shall
come in one year, and after this year another rumour: and
iniquity in the land, and ruler upon ruler.
51:47. Therefore behold the days come, and I will visit the
idols of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded,
and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
51:48. And the heavens and the earth, and all things that
are in them shall give praise for Babylon: for spoilers
shall come to her from the north, saith the Lord.
51:49. And as Babylon caused that there should fall slain
in Israel: so of Babylon there shall fall slain in all the
earth.
51:50. You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand
not still: remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem
come into your mind.
51:51. We are confounded, because we have heard reproach:
shame hath covered our faces: because strangers are come
upon the sanctuaries of the house of the Lord.
51:52. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and
I will visit her graven things, and in all her land the
wounded shall groan:
51:53. If Babylon should mount up to heaven, and establish
her strength on high: from me there should come spoilers
upon her, saith the Lord.
51:54. The noise of a cry from Babylon, and great
destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
51:55. Because the Lord hath laid Babylon waste, and
destroyed out of her the great voice: and their wave shall
roar like many waters: their voice hath made a noise:
51:56. Because the spoiler is come upon her, that is, upon
Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is
weakened, because the Lord, who is a strong revenger, will
surely repay.
51:57. And I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men,
and her captains, and her rulers, and her valiant men: and
they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall awake no
more, saith the king whose name is Lord of hosts.
51:58. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of
Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates
shall be burnt with fire, and the labours of the people
shall come to nothing, and of the nations shall go to the
fire, and shall perish.
51:59. The word that Jeremias the prophet commanded Saraias
the son of Nerias, the son of Maasias, when he went with
king Sedecias to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign:
now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.
51:60. And Jeremias wrote in one book all the evil that was
to come upon Babylon: all these words that are written
against Babylon.
51:61. And Jeremias said to Saraias: When thou shalt come
into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these
words,
51:62. Thou shalt say: O Lord, thou hast spoken against
this place to destroy it: so that there should be neither
man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be
desolate for ever.
51:63. And when thou shalt have made an end of reading this
book, thou shalt tie a stone to it, and shalt throw it into
the midst of the Euphrates:
51:64. And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and she
shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring
upon her, and she shall be utterly destroyed. Thus far are
the words of Jeremias.
Jeremias Chapter 52
A recapitulation of the reign of Sedecias, and the
destruction of Jerusalem. The number of the captives.
52:1. Sedecias was one and twenty years old when he began
to reign: and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and the
name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias of
Lobna.
52:2. And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the
Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.
52:3. For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and
against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence: and
Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.
52:4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign,
in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon came, he and all his
army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it, and built
forts against it round about.
52:5. And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of
king Sedecias.
52:6. And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month,
a famine overpowered the city: and there was no food for
the people of the land.
52:7. And the city was broken up, and the men of war fled,
and went out of the city in the night by the way of the
gate that is between the two walls, and leadeth to the
king's garden, (the Chaldeans besieging the city round
about,) and they went by the way that leadeth to the
wilderness.
52:8. But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king:
and they overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near
Jericho: and all his companions were scattered from him.
52:9. And when they had taken the king, they carried him to
the king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of
Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.
52:10. And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias
before his eyes: and he slew all the princes of Juda in
Reblatha.
52:11. And he put out the eyes of Sedecias, and bound him
with fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him into
Babylon, and he put him in prison till the day of his
death.
52:12. And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month,
the same is the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, king of
Babylon, came Nabuzardan the general of the army, who stood
before the king of Babylon in Jerusalem.
52:13. And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's
house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great
house he burnt with fire.
52:14. And all the army of the Chaldeans that were with the
general broke down all the wall of Jerusalem round about.
52:15. But Nabuzardan the general carried away captives
some of the poor people, and of the rest of the common sort
who remained in the city, and of the fugitives that were
fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the
multitude.
52:16. But of the poor of the land, Nabuzardan the general
left some for vinedressers, and for husbandmen.
52:17. The Chaldeans also broke in pieces the brazen
pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases,
and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord: and
they carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
52:18. And they took the caldrons, and the fleshhooks, and
the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and
all the brazen vessels that had been used in the ministry:
and
52:19. The general took away the pitchers, and the censers,
and the pots, and the basins, and the candlesticks, and the
mortars, and the cups: as many as were of gold, in gold:
and as many as were of silver, in silver:
52:20. And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of
brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had
made in the house of the Lord: there was no weight of the
brass of all these vessels.
52:21. And concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen
cubits high: and a cord of twelve cubits compassed it
about: but the thickness thereof was four fingers, and it
was hollow within.
52:22. And chapiters of brass were upon both: and the
height of one chapiter was five cubits: and network, and
pomegranates were upon the chapiters round about, all of
brass. The same of the second pillar, and the pomegranates.
52:23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down:
and the pomegranates being a hundred in all, were compassed
with network.
52:24. And the general took Saraias the chief priest, and
Sophonias the second priest, and the three keepers of the
entry.
52:25. He also took out of the city one eunuch that was
chief over the men of war: and seven men of them that were
near the king's person, that were found in the city: and a
scribe, an officer of the army who exercised the young
soldiers: and threescore men of the people of the land,
that were found in the midst of the city.
52:26. And Nabuzardan the general took them, and brought
them to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha.
52:27. And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to
death in Reblatha, in the land of Emath: and Juda was
carried away captive out of his land.
52:28. This is the people whom Nabuchodonosor carried away
captive: in the seventh year, three thousand and
twenty-three Jews.
52:29. In the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, eight
hundred and thirty-two souls from Jerusalem.
52:30. In the three and twentieth year of Nabuchodonosor,
Nabuzardan the general carried away of the Jews seven
hundred and forty five souls. So all the souls were four
thousand six hundred.
52:31. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year
of the captivity of Joachin king of Juda, in the twelfth
month, the five and twentieth day of the month, that
Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his
reign, lifted up the head of Joachin king of Juda, and
brought him forth out of prison.
52:32. And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne
above the thrones of the kings that were with him in
Babylon.
52:33. And he changed his prison garments, and he ate bread
before him always all the days of his life.
52:34. And for his diet a continual provision was allowed
him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the
day of his death, all the days of his life.
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