THE HOLY BIBLE
Douay-Rheims Version
THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAS
(JEREMIAH)
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 1 1 The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests
that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
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.
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.
4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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.
6 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak,
for I am a child.
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.
8 Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to
deliver thee, saith the Lord.
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:
10 Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over
the kingdoms, to root up, and pull down, and to waste, and
to destroy, and to build, and to plant.
11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest
thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
12 And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will
watch over my word to perform it.
13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying:
What seest thou? I see a boiling caldron, and the face
thereof from the face of the north.
14 And the Lord said to me: from the north shall an evil
break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
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,
16 And I will pronounce my judgements 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.
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.
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.
19 And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail:
for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 2
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith
the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy soul,
pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when
thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not
sown.
3 Israel is holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his
increase: all they that devour him offend: evils shall
come upon them, saith the Lord.
4 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye
families of the house of Israel.
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?
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?
7 And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the
fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: ad when ye
entered in, you defiled my land, and made my inheritance
an abomination.
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.
9 Therefore will I yet contend in judgement with you, saith
the Lord, and I will plead with your children.
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.
11 If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are
not gods,: but my people have changed their glory into an
idol.
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates
thereof, be very desolate, saith the Lord.
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.
14 Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he
become prey?
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.
16 The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have
deflowered thee, even to the crown of the head.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
23 How canst thou say: I am not polluted, and I have not
walked after Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what
thou hast done: as a swift runner pursuing his course.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
29 Why will you contend with me in judgement? you have all
forsaken me, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
32 Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her
stomacher? but my people hath forgotten me days without
number.
33 Why dost thou endeavor to shew thy way good to seek my
love, thou who has also taught thy malices to be thy ways,
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.
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 judgement, because thou hast
said: I have not sinned.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
2 Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not
prostuted 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 Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no
lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou
wouldst not blush.
4 Therefore at least at this time call to me: Thou art my
father, the guide of my virginity:
5 Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue until
the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil
things, and hast been able.
6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast
thou seen what rebellious Israel hast done? she hath gone
out of herself upon every high mountain, and under every
green tree, and hath played the harlot there.
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,
8 That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot,
I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce:
yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went
and played the harlot also herself.
9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the
land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
10 And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not
returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood,
saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath
justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward 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.
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.
14 Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am
your husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two
of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.
15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and
they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
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.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the thrown 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.
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.
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 cease to walk after me.
20 But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house
of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
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.
22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your
rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord
our God.
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.
24 Confusion hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our
youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their
daughters.
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 theLord our God.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
2 And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in
judgement, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless
him, and shall praise him.
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 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.
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.
6 Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay
not: for I bring evil from the north, and great
destruction.
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.
8 For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl:
for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from
us.
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
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?
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.
12 A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I
will speak my judgments with them.
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.
14 Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou
mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in
thee?
15 For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice
of the idol from mount Ephraim.
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.
17 They are set round about her, as keepers of fields:
because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.
18 They ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon
thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter,
because it hath touched thy heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels are in pain, 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.
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.
21 How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I
hear the sound of the trumpet?
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.
23 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and
the heavens, and there was no light in them.
24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and
all the hills were troubled.
25 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of
the air were gone.
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.
27 For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate,
but yet I will not utterly destroy.
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.
29 At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the
city is fled away; they have entered into thickets and
have climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken,
and there dwelleth not a man in them.
30 But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? 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.
31 For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail,
anguishes as of a woman in labor 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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 5
1 Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and
consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can
fins a man that executeth judgement, and seeketh faith:
and I will be merciful unto it.
2 And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will
swear falsely.
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.
4 But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know
not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.
5 I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to
them: for they known the way of the Lord, the judgement of
their God: and behold these have together broken the yoke
more, and have burst the bonds.
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.
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.
8 They are become as amorous horses and stallions, every one
neighed after his neighbor's wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things, sayeth the Lord? and
shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
10 Scale down the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do
not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof,
because they are not the Lord's.
11 For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have
greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
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.
13 The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no
word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall
them.
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.
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.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all
valiant.
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.
18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not
bring you to utter destruction.
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.
20 Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in
Juda, saying:
21 Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who
have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.
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.
23 But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and
provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
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 fullness of the
yearly harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your
sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait
as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
27 As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of
deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.
28 They are grown gross and fat: andhave most wickedly
transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of
the widow, they have not managed the cause of the
fatherless, they have not judged the judgement of the
poor.
29 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or
shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
30 Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the
land.
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?
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
2 I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and
delicate woman.
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.
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.
5 Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her
houses.
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.
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.
8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from
thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
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 grape gatherer into the basket.
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 and they will not receive it.
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.
12 And their houses shall be turned over to others, with
their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch
for my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the
Lord.
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.
14 And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no
peace.
15 They were confounded, because they commmitted 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.
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.
17 And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to
the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not
hearken.
18 Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what
great things I will do to them.
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.
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.
21 Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring
destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons
together shall fall, neighbor and kinsman shall perish.
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.
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.
24 We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble:
anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for
the sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.
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.
27 I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and
thou shalt know and prove their way.
28 All of these princes go out of the way, they walk
deceitfully, they are brass and iron: they are all
corrupted.
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.
30 Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected
them.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 7
1 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
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.
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.
4 Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord,
the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.
5 For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if
you will execute judgement between a man and his neighbor,
6 If you opress 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 I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I
gave to your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.
8 Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not
profit you:
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.
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.
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.
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:
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:
14 I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon,
and in which you trust, and to the places which I have
given you and your fathers, as I did to Silo.
15 And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have
cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
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.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in
the streets of Jerusalem?
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.
19 Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Is it not
themselves, to the confusion of their contenance?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my
indignation was 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.
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your
burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.
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.
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.
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,
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.
26 And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear:
but have hardened their neck, and have done worse than
their fathers.
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.
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 carried away
out of their mouth.
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,
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;
31 And they have built the high places of Topeth, 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.
32 Therefore behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and
it shall no more be called Topeth, nor the valley of the
son of Ennom: but the valley of slaughter, and they shall
bury in Topeth, because there is no place.
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 non to drive them away.
34 And I will cause ot cease out of the cities of Juda, and
out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the
coice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the
voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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 inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
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 they 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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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 How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is
with us? Indeed the lying pen of the scribes hath wrought
falsehood.
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.
10 Therefore I will 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.
11 And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying Peace, peace: when there was no
peace.
12 They are confounded, because they have committed
abomination: yea rather they are not confounded with
confusion, and they have not know how to blush: therefore
shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their
visitation they shall fall, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
15 We looked for peace and no good came: for a time of
healing, and behold fear.
16 The snorting of his horse 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.
17 For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks,
against which there is no charm: and they shall bite you,
saith the Lord.
18 My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.
19 Behold the voice of the daughter 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?
20 The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not
saved.
21 For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am
afflicted, and made sorrowful, astonishment hath taken
hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Galaad? or is no physician there? Why
then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
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.
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.
4 Let every man take heed of his neighbor, and let his not
trust in any brother of his: for every brother will
utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
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.
6 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: Through deceit
they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.
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?
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 Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord?
or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
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.
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.
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?
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.
14 But they have gone after the perverseness of their own
heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
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.
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.
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:
18 Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our
eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.
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.
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 neighbor mourning.
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.
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.
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:
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.
25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit
upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 10
1 Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning
you, O house of Israel.
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:
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.
4 He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it
together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall
asunder.
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.
6 There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great and
great is thy name in might.
7 Who shall 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.
8 They shall all proved together to be senseless and
foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.
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 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.
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.
12 He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the
world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his
knowledge.
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 for the
wind out of his treasures.
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.
15 They are vain things and a ridiculous work: in the time of
their visitation they shall perish.
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.
17 Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in
a siege.
18 For thus saith the 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.
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.
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.
21 Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not
sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and
all their flock is scattered.
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.
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.
24 Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgement: and not in
fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 11
1 The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, saying:
2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men
of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
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 yethis covenant,
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:
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.
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:
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:
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.
9 And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the
men of Juda, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
15 What is the meaning that my beloved hath wrought muck
wickedness in my house? shall the holy flesh take away
from thee thy crimes, in which thou hast boasted?
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.
17 And the Lord of hosts that planted thee, hath pronounced
evil against thee: for the evils of the house of Israel,
and the house of Juda, which they have done to themselves,
to provoke me, offering sacrifice to Baalim.
18 But thou, O Lord, hast shewn me, and I have known: then
thou shewedst me their doings.
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.
20 But thou, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judgest justly, and
triest the reins and hearts, let me see thy revenge on
them: for to thee I have revealed my cause.
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.
22 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will
visit upon them: and their young men shall die by the
sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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?
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.
3 And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and
proved my heart with thee: gather them together as sheep
for a sacrifice, and prepare them for the day of
slaughter.
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.
5 If thou hast 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?
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.
7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I
have given my dear soul into the land of her enemies.
8 My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: is
hath cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.
9 Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? Is it as a
bird died throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all
the beasts of the earth, make haste to devour.
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden
my portion under foot: they have changed my delightful
portion into a desolate wilderness.
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 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.
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.
14 Thus saith the Lord against all my wicked neighbors, 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.
15 And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and
have mercy on them: and I will bring them back, every man
to his inheritance, and every man to his land.
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.
17 But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and
destroy that nation, saith the Lord.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
2 And I got a girdle accoding to the word of the Lord, and
put it about my loins.
3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time,
saying:
4 Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy
loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it
there in a hole of the rock.
5 And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had
commanded me.
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.
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.
8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
9 Thus saith the Lord: after this manner will I make the
pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.
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.
11 For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so
have I brought close to me all of 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.
12 Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith
the Lord 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 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.
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.
15 Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath
spoken.
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.
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 the tears, because the flock of the Lord is
carried away captive.
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.
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.
20 Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north:
where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful
cattle?
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?
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.
23 If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his
spots: you may also do well, when you have learned evil.
24 And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away
by the wind in the desert.
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.
26 Wherefore I have also bared my thighs against thy face,
and thy shame hath appeared.
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?
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 14
1 The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the
words of the drought.
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.
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.
4 For the destruction of the land, because there came no
rain upon the earth, the husbandmen were confounded, they
covered their heads.
5 Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left
it, because there was no grass.
6 And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up
the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there
was no grass.
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.
8 O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of
trouble: why wilt thou be a stranger in the land, and as
a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?
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.
10 Thus saith the Lord to his 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.
11 And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for
their good.
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.
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 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.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that
prophecy 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.
16 And the people to whom they prophecy, shall be cast out in
the streets of Jerusalem because of the fanmine 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 wickedness upon them.
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.
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.
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.
20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of
our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
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 to the sword,
to the sword: and such as are for famine, to famine: and
such as are to captivity, to captivity.
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 destroy.
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.
5 For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall
bemoan thee? or who shall go to pray for thy peace?
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.
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 form their ways.
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.
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.
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.
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.
12 Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the
brass?
13 Thy riches and thy treasures I will give unto spoil for
nothing, because of all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
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 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 sufferred
reproach.
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.
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.
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.
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted,
I will convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face;
and if 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.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 16
1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have
thee sons and daughters in this place.
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:
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.
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.
6 Both the great and the little shall die in the land: they
shall not be buried nor lamented, and men shall not cut
themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
7 And they shall not break bread among them to him that
mourneth, to comfort him for the dead: neither shall they
give them to drink of the cup, to comfort them for their
father and mother.
8 And do not thou go into the house of feasting, to sit with
them, and to eat and drink.
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.
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?
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.
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.
13 So I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land
which you know not, nor you fathers: and there you shall
serve strange gods day and night, which shall not give you
any rest.
14 Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, when it
shall be said no more: The Lord liveth, that brought for
the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt:
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and there are no gods?
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
2 When their children shall remember their altars, and their
groves, and their green trees upon high mountains,
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.
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.
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.
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.
7 Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord
shall be his confidence.
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.
9 The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable,
who can know it?
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.
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.
12 A high and glorious throne from the beginning is the place
of our sanctification:
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.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I
shall be saved, for thou art my praise.
15 Behold they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? let
it come.
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 Be not thou a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day
of affliction.
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.
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:
20 And thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye
kings of Juda, and all Juda, and all the inhabitant of
Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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 forever.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 18
1 The word that came from Jeremias to the Lord, saying:
2 Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there thou
shalt hear my words.
3 And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was
doing a work on the wheel.
4 And the vessel was broken which he was making with clay
with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it
seemed good in his eyes to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6 Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord?
behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in
my hand, O house of Israel.
7 I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a
kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.
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.
9 And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to
build up and plant it.
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.
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.
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.
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?
14 Shall now 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?
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:
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.
17 As a burning will I scatter them before the enemy: I will
shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their
destruction.
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.
19 Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my
adversaries.
20 Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged
a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy
sight, so speak good for them, and turn away thy
indignation from them.
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.
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.
23 But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me
unto death: forgive 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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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:
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.
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 whoever shall hear it,
his ears shall tingle:
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.
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.
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.
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.
8 And I will make this city an astonishent, and a hissing:
every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and
shall hiss because of all the plagues thereof.
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.
10 And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men
that shall go with thee.
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.
12 Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the
inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of Juda shall
be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon
whose roots they have sacrificed to all the host of
heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to strange
gods.
14 Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent
him to prophecy, and he stood in the court of the house of
the Lord, and said to all people:
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, and they might not
hear my words.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 20
1 Now Phassur the son of Emmur, the priest, who was
appointed chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias
prophesying these words.
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.
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.
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 strike them with the sword.
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.
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.
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 laughing-stock all the day, all scoff at me.
8 For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against
iniquity, and I often proclaim devistation: and the word
of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all
the day.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
14 Cursed be the day wherein I was borne: let not the day in
which my mother bore me, be blessed.
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.
16 Let that man be as the cities that the Lord hath
overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in
the morning, and howling at noontide:
17 Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have
been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
18 Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and
that my days should be spent in confusion?
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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:
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.
3 And Jeremias said to them: Thus shall you say to Sedecias:
4 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn
back the weapons of war that are in your hands, 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.
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.
6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and
beasts shall die of a great pestilence.
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 on
them.
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.
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.
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.
11 And to the house of the king of Juda: Hear ye the word of
the Lord,
12 O house of David, this saith the Lord: Judge ye judgement
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.
14 Behold I come to thee that dwelleth 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?
15 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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 22
1 Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of
Juda, and there thou shalt speak this word,
2 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of
Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy
servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgement and justice, and
deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the
oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless,
nor the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not
innocent blood in this place.
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.
5 But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by
myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a
desolation.
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.
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.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall
say every man to his neighbor: Why hath the Lord done so
to this great city?
9 And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the
covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange
gods, and served them.
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.
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:
12 But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall
he die, and he shall not see this land any more.
13 Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and
his chambers not in judgement: that will oppress his
friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
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.
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?
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?
17 But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and
upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and
running after evil works.
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.
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and
cast forth without the gates of Jerusalem.
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.
21 I spoke to thee in thy properity: and thoiu saidst: I will
not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because
thou hast not heard my voice.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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:
27 And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they
lift up their mind to return thither.
28 Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is
he a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? why are they
cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which
they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 23
1 Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my
pasture, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
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.
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 judgement and justice in the
earth.
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.
7 Therefore behold the days to 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:
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.
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.
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.
11 For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my
house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.
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.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they
prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel.
14 And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of
lying in the peophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened
the hand of the wicked, that no man should return from his
evil doings: that are all become unto me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants thereof as Gamorrha.
15 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the prophets:
Behold I will feed them with wormwood, and I will give
them gall to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem
corruption has gone forth into all the land.
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.
17 They say tothem 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 to you.
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?
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.
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.
21 I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken
to them, yet they prophesied.
22 If they 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 Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a
God afar off?
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?
25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesylies in
my name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that
prophesy lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their
own heart?
27 Who seek to make my people forget my name through their
dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor: as
their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
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?
29 Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a
hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
30 Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the
Lord: who steal my words every one from his neighbor.
31 Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use
their tongues, and say: The Lord saith it.
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.
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.
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.
35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and to his
brother: What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the
Lord spoken?
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.
37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord
answered thee? and what hath the Lord spoken?
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, Tne burden of the Lord:
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.
40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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.
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.
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.
4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
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 oif the
Chaldeans, for their own good.
6 And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I
will bring them again into this land: and I will be their
God: and I will build them up, and not pull them down: and
I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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,)
2 Which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of
Juda, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have
not heard my words:
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.
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.
11 And all this land shall be a desolation, and an
astonishment: and all these nations shall serve the king
of Babylon seventy years.
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.
13 And I will bring upon the 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:
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.
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 nations to drink thereof, unto which I shall send
thee.
16 And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because
of the sword, which I shall send among them.
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:
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.
19 Pharao the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his
princes, and all his people,
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.
21 And Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon.
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.
23 And Dedan, and Thema, and Buz, and all that have their
hair cut round.
24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the
west, that dwell in the desert.
25 And all the kings of Zambri, and all the kings of Elam,
and all the kings of Medes:
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.
27 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts
the God of Israel: Dring ye, and be drunken, and vomit:
and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword, which I
shall send among you.
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:
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.
30 And thou shalt prophesy unto them all these words, and
thou shalt say to them: 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.
31 The noise is come even to the ends of the earth: for the
Lord entereth into judgement with the nations: he entereth
into judgement with all flesh; the wicked I have delivered
up to the sword, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
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.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the
leaders of the flock to save themselves.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the
principal of the flock: because the Lord hath watsed their
pastures.
37 And the fields of peace have been silent, because of the
fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has 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 Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 26
1 In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias
king of Juda, came this word from the Lord, saying:
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 to speak unto
them: leave not out one word.
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.
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 to you:
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:
6 I will make this house like Silo: and I will make this
city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
7 And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people
heard Jeremias speaking these words in the house of the
Lord.
8 And when Jeremias 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.
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.
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.
11 And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and
to all the people, saying: The judgement of death is for
this man: because he hath prophesied against this city, as
you have heard with your ears.
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 you
have heard.
13 Now therefore amend your ways, and your doings, and
hearken to the voice of the Lord your God: and the Lord
will repent of the evil that he hath spoken against you.
14 But as for me, behold I am in your hands: do with me what
is good and right in your eyes:
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.
16 Then the princes, and all the people said to the priests,
and to the prophets: There is no judgement of death for
this man: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord
our God.
17 And some of the ancients of the land rose up: and they
spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying:
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.
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 they had
spoken against them? therefore we are doing a great evil
against our souls.
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.
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.
22 And king Joakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of
Achobor, and men with him into Egypt.
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.
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.
The Book of the Prophet Jeremias, Chapter 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:
2 Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains:
and thou shalt put them on thy neck.
3 And thou shalt send them to the 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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Babylon.
10 For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your
country, and east you out, and to make you perish.
11 But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the
yoke of the king Babylon, and shall serve him: Will let
them remain in their own land, saith the Lord: and they
shall till it, and dwell in it.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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, |