The Holy Bible

Part 45 out of 74



it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?

22:17. But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon
shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil
works.

22:18. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim the son of
Josias king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas, my brother,
and, Alas, sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas, my lord, or,
Alas, the noble one.

22:19. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast
forth without the gates of Jerusalem.

22:20. Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and
cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.

22:21. I spoke to thee in thy prosperity: and thou saidst: I will not
hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not
heard my voice.

22:22. The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go
into captivity and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all
thy wickedness.

22:23. Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars,
how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a
woman in labour?

22:24. As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias the son of Joakim the
king of Juda were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.

22:25. And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life,
and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

22:26. And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a
strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:

22:27. And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up
their mind to return thither.

22:28. Is this man Jechonias an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a
vessel wherein is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed,
and are cast into a land which they know not?

22:29. O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

22:30. Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not
prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that
shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.

Write this man barren. . .That is, childless: not that he had no
children, but that his children should never sit on the throne of Juda.



Jeremias Chapter 23


God reproves evil governors; and promises to send good pastors; and
Christ himself the prince of the pastors. He inveighs against false
prophets preaching without being sent.

23:1. Woe to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my
pasture, saith the Lord.

23:2. Therefore thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the pastors
that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away,
and have not visited them: behold I will visit upon you for the evil of
your doings, saith the Lord.

23:3. And I will gather together the remnant of my flock, out of all
the lands into which I have cast them out: and I will make them return
to their own fields, and they shall increase and be multiplied.

23:4. And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall feed them:
they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed: and none shall
be wanting of their number, saith the Lord.

23:5. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to
David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise: and
shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

23:6. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell
confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: The Lord
our just one.

23:7. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, and they shall
say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out
of the land of Egypt:

23:8. But, The Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither
the seed of the house of Israel from the land of the north, and out of
all the lands, to which I had cast them forth: and they shall dwell in
their own land.

23:9. To the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones
tremble: I am become as a drunken man, and as a man full of wine, at
the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his holy words.

23:10. Because the land is full of adulterers, because the land hath
mourned by reason of cursing, the fields of the desert are dried up:
and their course is become evil, and their strength unlike.

23:11. For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I
have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.

23:12. Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for
they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon
them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.

23:13. And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they
prophesied in Baal and deceived my people Israel.

23:14. And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying
in the prophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened the hands of the
wicked, that no man should return from his evil doings, they are all
become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha.

23:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts to the prophets: Behold I
will feed them with wormwood, and will give them gall to drink: for
from the prophets of Jerusalem corruption is gone forth into all the
land.

23:16. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the
prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of
their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

23:17. They say to them that blaspheme me: The Lord hath said: You
shall have peace: and to every one that walketh in the perverseness of
his own heart, they have said: No evil shall come upon you.

23:18. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and
heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it?

23:19. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth,
and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.

23:20. The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and
till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you
shall understand his counsel.

23:21. I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to
them, yet they prophesied.

23:22. If they had stood in my counsel, and had made my words known to
my people, I should have turned them from their evil way, and from
their wicked doings.

23:23. Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God
afar off?

23:24. Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith
the Lord? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?

23:25. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my
name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

23:26. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that
prophesy lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their own heart?

23:27. Who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams,
which they tell every man to his neighbour: as their fathers forgot my
name for Baal.

23:28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream: and he that
hath my word, let him speak my word with truth: what hath the chaff to
do with the wheat, saith the Lord?

23:29. Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?

23:30. Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who
steal my words every one from his neighbour.

23:31. Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use their
tongues, and say: The Lord saith it.

23:32. Behold I am against the prophets that have lying dreams, saith
the Lord: and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lying, and
by their wonders: when I sent them not, nor commanded them, who have
not profited this people at all, saith the Lord.

23:33. If therefore this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall
ask thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to
them: You are the burden: for I will cast you away, saith the Lord.

23:34. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that
shall say: The burden of the Lord: I will visit upon that man, and upon
his house.

Burden of the Lord. . .This expression is here rejected and disallowed,
at least for those times: because it was then used in mockery and
contempt by the false prophets, and unbelieving people, who ridiculed
the repeated threats of Jeremias under the name of his burdens.

23:35. Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and to his
brother, What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken?

23:36. And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, for every
man's word shall be his burden: for you have perverted the words of the
living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

23:37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered
thee? and what hath the Lord spoken?

23:38. But if you shall say: The burden of the Lord: therefore thus
saith the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden of the
Lord: and I have sent to you, saying: Say not, The burden of the Lord:

23:39. Therefore behold I will take you away carrying you, and will
forsake you, and the city which I gave to you, and to your fathers, out
of my presence.

Out of my presence. . .That is, the Lord declares that out of his
presence he will cast them, and bring them to captivity for their
transgressions.

23:40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten.



Jeremias Chapter 24


Under the type of good and bad figs, he foretells the restoration of
the Jews that had been carried away captive with Jechonias, and the
desolation of those that were left behind.

24:1. The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set
before the temple of the Lord: after that Nabuchodonosor king of
Babylon had carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda,
and his chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and
had brought them to Babylon.

24:2. One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season:
and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten,
because they were bad.

24:3. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said:
Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which
cannot be eaten because they are bad.

24:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

24:5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so
will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this
place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.

24:6. And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring
them again into this land: and I will build them up, and not pull them
down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

24:7. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and
they shall be my people, and I will be their God: because they shall
return to me with their whole heart.

24:8. And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are
bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias the king of Juda, and
his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this
city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.

24:9. And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all
the kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a byword, and a
proverb, and to be a curse in all places, to which I have cast them
out.

24:10. And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the
pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them,
and their fathers.



Jeremias Chapter 25


The prophet foretells the seventy years captivity; after that the
destruction of Babylon, and other nations.

25:1. The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people of Juda,
in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, (the same
is the first year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon,)

25:2. Which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of Juda, and
to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

25:3. From the thirteenth year of Josias the son of Ammon king of Juda
until this day: this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the
Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising before day, and
speaking, and you have not hearkened.

25:4. And the Lord hath sent to you all his servants the prophets,
rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined
your ears to hear.

25:5. When he said: Return ye, every one from his evil way, and from
your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord
hath given to you, and your fathers for ever and ever.

25:6. And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor
provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict
you.

25:7. And you have not heard me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke
me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.

25:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not
heard my words:

25:9. Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith
the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will
bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and
against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy
them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual
desolations.

My servant. . .So this wicked king is here called; because God made him
his instrument in punishing the sins of his people.

25:10. And I will take away from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp.

25:11. And all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment:
and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

25:12. And when the seventy years shall be expired, I will punish the
king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity,
and the land of the Chaldeans: and I will make it perpetual
desolations.

Punish. . .Literally, visit upon.

25:13. And I will bring upon that land all my words, that I have spoken
against it, all that is written in this book, all that Jeremias hath
prophesied against all nations:

25:14. For they have served them, whereas they were many nations, and
great kings: and I will repay them according to their deeds, and
according to the works of their hands.

25:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take the cup
of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to
drink thereof, into which I shall send thee.

25:16. And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because of the
sword, which I shall send among them.

25:17. And I took the cup at the hand of the Lord, and I presented it
to all the nations to drink of it, to which the Lord sent me:

25:18. To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings
thereof, and the princes thereof: to make them a desolation, and an
astonishment, and a hissing, and a curse, as it is at this day.

25:19. Pharao the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and
all his people,

25:20. And all in general: all the kings of the land of Ausitis, and
all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza,
and Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus.

25:21. And Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon.

25:22. And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon: and the
kings of the land of the islands that are beyond the sea.

25:23. And Dedan, and Thema, and Buz, and all that have their hair cut
round.

25:24. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the west, that
dwell in the desert.

25:25. And all the kings of Zambri, and all the kings of Elam, and all
the kings of the Medes:

25:26. And all the kings of the north far and near, every one against
his brother: and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face
thereof: and the king of Sesac shall drink after them.

Sesac. . .That is, Babel, or Babylon; which after bringing all these
people under her yoke, should quickly fall and be destroyed herself.

25:27. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God
of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit: and fall, and rise no
more, because of the sword, which I shall send among you.

25:28. And if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall
drink:

25:29. For behold I begin to bring evil on the city wherein my name is
called upon: and shall you be as innocent and escape free? you shall
not escape free: for I will call for the sword upon all the inhabitants
of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.

25:30. And thou shalt prophesy unto them all these words, and thou
shalt say to them: I The Lord shall roar from on high, and shall utter
his voice from his holy habitation: roaring he shall roar upon the
place of his beauty: the shout as it were of them that tread grapes
shall be given out against all the inhabitants of the earth.

25:31. The noise is come even to the ends of the earth: for the Lord
entereth into judgment with the nations: he entereth into judgment with
all flesh; the wicked I have delivered up to the sword, saith the Lord.

25:32. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold evil shall go forth from
nation to nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the ends of
the earth.

25:33. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of
the earth even to the other end thereof: they shall not be lamented,
and they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung
upon the face of the earth.

25:34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and sprinkle yourselves with ashes,
ye leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and your
dispersion are accomplished, and you shall fall like precious vessels.

25:35. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the leaders of
the flock to save themselves.

25:36. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the
principal of the flock: because the Lord hath wasted their pastures.

25:37. And the fields of peace have been silent because of the fierce
anger of the Lord.

25:38. He hath forsaken his covert as the lion, for the land is laid
waste because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the fierce anger
of the Lord.

The dove. . .This is commonly understood of Nabuchodonosor, whose
military standard, it is said, was a dove. But the Hebrew word Jonah,
which is here rendered a dove, may also signify a waster or oppressor,
which name better agrees to that unmerciful prince; or by comparison,
as a dove's flight is the swiftest, so would their destruction come
upon them.



Jeremias Chapter 26


The prophet is apprehended and accused by the priests: but discharged
by the princes.

26:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, came this word from the Lord, saying:

26:2. Thus saith the Lord: stand in the court of the house of the Lord,
and speak to all the cities of Juda, out of which they come, to adore
in the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee to
speak unto them: leave not out one word.

26:3. If so be they will hearken and be converted every one from his
evil way; that I may repent me of the evil that I think to do unto them
for the wickedness of their doings.

26:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If you will not
hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have given you:

26:5. To give ear to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent
to you rising up early: and sending, and you have not hearkened:

26:6. I will make this house like Silo: and I will make this city a
curse to all the nations of the earth.

26:7. And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard
Jeremias speaking these words in the house of the Lord.

26:8. And when Jeremias had made an end of speaking all that the Lord
had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests, and the
prophets, and all the people laid hold on him, saying: Let him be put
to death.

26:9. Why hath he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This
house shall be like Silo; and this city shall be made desolate, without
an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered together against
Jeremias in the house of the Lord.

26:10. And the princes of Juda heard these words: and they went up from
the king's house into the house of the Lord, and sat in the entry of
the new gate of the house of the Lord.

26:11. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and to
all the people, saying: The judgment of death is for this man: because
he hath prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

26:12. Then Jeremias spoke to all the princes, and to all the people,
saying: The Lord sent me to prophesy concerning this house, and
concerning this city all the words that you have heard.

26:13. Now therefore amend your ways, and your doings, and hearken to
the voice of the Lord your God: and the Lord will repent him of the
evil that he hath spoken against you.

26:14. But as for me, behold I am in your hands: do with me what is
good and right in your eyes:

26:15. But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you
will shed innocent blood against your own selves, and against this
city, and the inhabitants thereof. For in truth the Lord sent me to
you, to speak all these words in your hearing.

26:16. Then the princes, and all the people said to the priests, and to
the prophets: There is no judgment of death for this man: for he hath
spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.

26:17. And some of the ancients of the land rose up: and they spoke to
all the assembly of the people, saying:

26:18. Micheas of Morasthi was a prophet in the days of Ezechias king
of Juda, and he spoke to all the people of Juda, saying: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts: Sion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall
be a heap of stones: and the mountain of the house the high places of
woods.

26:19. Did Ezechias king of Juda, and all Juda, condemn him to death?
did they not fear the Lord, and beseech the face of the Lord: and the
Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them? therefore we
are doing a great evil against our souls.

26:20. There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord,
Urias the son of Semei of Cariathiarim: and he prophesied against this
city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremias.

26:21. And Joakim, and all his men in power, and his princes heard
these words: and the king sought to put him to death. And Urias heard
it, and was afraid, and fled and went into Egypt.

26:22. And king Joakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of
Achobor, and men with him into Egypt.

26:23. And they brought Urias out of Egypt: and brought him to king
Joakim, and he slew him with the sword: and he cast his dead body into
the graves of the common people.

26:24. So the hand of Ahicam the son of Saphan was with Jeremias, that
he should not be delivered into the hands of the people, to put him to
death.



Jeremias Chapter 27


The prophet sends chains to divers kings, signifying that they must
bend their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. The vessels of
the temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried
away.

27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, this word came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

Joakim. . .This revelation was made to the prophet in the beginning of
the reign of Joakim: but the bands were not sent to the princes here
named before the reign of Sedecias, ver. 3.

27:2. Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains: and thou
shalt put them on thy neck.

27:3. And thou shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of
Tyre, and to the king of Sidon: by the hand of the messengers that are
come to Jerusalem to Sedecias the king of Juda.

27:4. And thou shalt command them to speak to their masters: Thus saith
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your
masters:

27:5. I made the earth, and the men and the beasts that are upon the
face of the earth, by my great power, and by my stretched out arm: and
I have given it to whom it seemed good in my eyes.

27:6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon my servant: moreover also the beasts of
the field I have given him to serve him.

27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son:
till the time come for his land and himself: and many nations and great
kings shall serve him.

His son. . .Viz., Evilmerodach; and his son's son, Nabonydus, or
Nabonadius, the Baltassar of Daniel, chap. 5., and the last of the
Chaldean kings.

27:8. But the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, and whosoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon: I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and
with famine, and with pestilence, saith the Lord: till I consume them
by his hand.

27:9. Therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and
dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall
not serve the king of Babylon.

27:10. For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your
country, and cast you out, and to make you perish.

27:11. But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon, and shall serve him: I will let them remain in
their own land, saith the Lord: and they shall till it, and dwell in
it.

27:12. And I spoke to Sedecias the king of Juda according to all these
words, saying: Bend down your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and you shall live.

27:13. Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by
famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the
nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

27:14. Hearken not to the words of the prophets that say to you: You
shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they tell you a lie.

27:15. For I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy in
my name falsely: to drive you out, and that you may perish, both you,
and the prophets that prophesy to you.

27:16. I spoke also to the priests, and to this people, saying: Thus
saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that
prophesy to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the Lord shall now in a
short time be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto
you.

27:17. Therefore hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon,
that you may live. Why should this city be given up to desolation?

27:18. But if they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them:
let them interpose themselves before the Lord of hosts, that the
vessels which were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of
the king of Juda, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.

27:19. For thus saith the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea,
and to the bases, and to the rest of the vessels that remain in this
city:

27:20. Which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon did not take, when he
carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the great men of Juda and Jerusalem.

27:21. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to the
vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the
king of Juda and Jerusalem:

27:22. They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until
the day of their visitation, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to
be brought, and to be restored in this place.



Jeremias Chapter 28


The false prophecy of Hananias: he dies that same year, as Jeremias
foretold.

28:1. And it came to pass in that year, in the beginning of the reign
of Sedecias king of Juda, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that
Hananias the son of Azur, a prophet of Gabaon spoke to me, in the house
of the Lord before the priests, and all the people, saying:

28:2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: I have broken the
yoke of the king of Babylon.

28:3. As yet two years of days, and I will cause all the vessels of the
house of the Lord to be brought back into this place, which
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried
them to Babylon.

28:4. And I will bring back to this place Jechonias the son of Joakim
king of Juda, and all the captives of Juda, that are gone to Babylon,
saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

28:5. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the prophet in the
presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that
stood in the house of the Lord:

28:6. And Jeremias the prophet said: Amen, the Lord do so: the Lord
perform thy words, which thou hast prophesied: that the vessels may be
brought again into the house of the Lord, and all the captives may
return out of Babylon to this place.

28:7. Nevertheless hear this word that I speak in thy ears, and in the
ears of all the people:

28:8. The prophets that have been before me, and before thee from the
beginning, and have prophesied concerning many countries, and
concerning great kingdoms, of war, and of affliction, and of famine.

28:9. The prophet that prophesied peace: when his word shall come to
pass, the prophet shall be known, whom the hath sent in truth.

28:10. And Hananias the prophet took the chain from the neck of
Jeremias the prophet, and broke it.

28:11. And Hananias spoke in the presence of all the people, saying:
Thus saith the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nabuchodonosor
the king of Babylon after two full years from off the neck of all the
nations.

28:12. And Jeremias the prophet went his way. And the word of the Lord
came to Jeremias, after that Hananias the prophet had broken the chain
from off the neck of Jeremias the prophet, saying:

28:13. Go, and tell Hananias: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken
chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron.

28:14. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: I have put a
yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, to serve
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and they shall serve him: moreover also
I have given him the beasts of the earth.

28:15. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the prophet: Hear now,
Hananias: the Lord hath not sent thee, and thou hast made this people
to trust in a lie.

28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will send thee away from
off the face of the earth: this year shalt thou die: for thou hast
spoken against the Lord.

28:17. And Hananias the prophet died in that year, in the seventh
month.



Jeremias Chapter 29


Jeremias writeth to the captives in Babylon, exhorting them to be easy
there, and not to hearken to false prophets. That they shall be
delivered after seventy years. But those that remain in Jerusalem shall
perish by the sword, famine, and pestilence. And that Achab, Sedecias,
and Semeias, false prophets, shall die miserably.

29:1. Now these are the words of the letter which Jeremias the prophet
sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the ancients that were carried
into captivity, and to the priests, and to the prophets, and to all the
people, whom Nabuchodonosor had carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

29:2. After that Jechonias the king, and the queen, and the eunuchs,
and the princes of Juda, and of Jerusalem, and the craftsmen, and the
engravers were departed out of Jerusalem:

29:3. By the hand of Elasa the son of Saphan, and Gamarias the son of
Helcias, whom Sedecias king of Juda sent to Babylon to Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, saying:

29:4. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to all that are
carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from
Jerusalem to Babylon:

29:5. Build ye houses, and dwell in them: and plant orchards, and eat
the fruit of them.

29:6. Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters: and take wives for
your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons
and daughters: and be ye multiplied there, and be not few in number.

29:7. And seek the peace of the city, to which I have caused you to be
carried away captives; and pray to the Lord for it: for in the peace
thereof shall be your peace.

29:8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Let not your
prophets that are in the midst of you, and your diviners deceive you:
and give no heed to your dreams which you dream:

29:9. For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: and I have not sent
them, saith the Lord.

29:10. For thus saith the Lord: When the seventy years shall begin to
be accomplished in Babylon, I will visit you: and I will perform my
good word in your favour, to bring you again to this place.

29:11. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith the
Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of affliction, to give you an end and
patience.

29:12. And you shall call upon me, and you shall go. and you shall pray
to me, and I will hear you.

29:13. You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me
with all your heart.

29:14. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring
back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from
all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord: and I
will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried
away captive.

29:15. Because you have said: The Lord hath raised us up prophets in
Babylon:

29:16. For thus saith the Lord to the king that sitteth upon the throne
of David, and to all the people that dwell in this city, to your
brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity.

29:17. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will send upon them the
sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and I will make them like
bad figs that cannot be eaten, because they are very bad.

29:18. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with famine, and
with the pestilence: and I will give them up unto affliction to all the
kingdoms of the earth: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a
hissing, and a reproach to all the nations to which I have driven them
out:

29:19. Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord:
which I sent to them by my servants the prophets, rising by night, and
sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord.

29:20. Hear ye therefore the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity,
whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to Babylon.

29:21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to Achab the son
of Colias, and to Sedecias the son of Maasias, who prophesy unto you in
my name falsely: Behold I will deliver them up into the hands of
Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon: and he shall kill them before your
eyes.

29:22. And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of
Juda, that are in Babylon, saying: The Lord make thee like Sedecias,
and like Achab, whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire:

29:23. Because they have acted folly in Israel, and have committed
adultery with the wives of their friends, and have spoken lying words
in my name, which I commanded them not: I am the judge and the witness,
saith the Lord.

29:24. And to Semeias the Nehelamite thou shalt say:

29:25. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Because thou
hast sent letters in thy name to all the people that are in Jerusalem,
and to Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest, and to all the priests,
saying:

29:26. The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Joiada the priest,
that thou shouldst be ruler in the house of the Lord, over every man
that raveth and prophesieth, to put him in the stocks, and into prison.

29:27. And now why hast thou not rebuked Jeremias the Anathothite, who
prophesieth to you?

29:28. For he hath also sent to us in Babylon, saying: It is a long
time: build ye houses, and dwell in them: and plant gardens, and eat
the fruits of them.

29:29. So Sophonias the priest read this letter, in the hearing of
Jeremias the prophet.

29:30. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

29:31. Send to all them of the captivity, saying: Thus saith the Lord
to Semeias the Nehelamite: Because Semeias hath prophesied to you, and
I sent him not: and hath caused you to trust in a lie:

29:32. Therefore thus saith the Lord: behold I will visit upon Semeias
the Nehelamite, and upon his seed: he shall not have a man to sit in
the midst of this people, and he shall not see the good that I will do
to my people, saith the Lord: because he hath spoken treason against
the Lord.



Jeremias Chapter 30


God will deliver his people from their captivity: Christ shall be their
king: and his church shall be glorious for ever.

30:1. This is the word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

30:2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write thee all
the words that I have spoken to thee, in a book.

30:3. For behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will bring again
the captivity of my people Israel and Juda, saith the Lord: and I will
cause them to return to the land which I gave to their fathers, and
they shall possess it.

30:4. And these are the words that the Lord hath spoken to Israel and
to Juda:

30:5. For thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of terror: there
is fear and no peace.

30:6. Ask ye, and see if a man bear children? why then have I seen
every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labour, and all
faces are turned yellow?

30:7. Alas, for that day is great, neither is there the like to it; and
it is the time of tribulation to Jacob, but he shall be saved out of
it.

30:8. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts,
that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst his bands:
and strangers shall no more rule over him:

30:9. But they shall serve the Lord their God, and David their king,
whom I will raise up to them.

David. . .That is, Christ of the house of David.

30:10. Therefore fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the Lord,
neither be dismayed, O Israel: for behold, I will save thee from a
country afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity: and
Jacob shall return, and be at rest, and abound with all good things,
and there shall be none whom he may fear:

30:11. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: for I will
utterly consume all the nations, among which I have scattered thee: but
I will not utterly consume thee: but I will chastise thee in judgment,
that thou mayst not seem to thyself innocent.

30:12. For thus saith the Lord: Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is
very grievous.

30:13. There is none to judge thy judgment to bind it up: thou hast no
healing medicines.

30:14. All thy lovers have forgotten thee, and will not seek after
thee: for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with cruel
chastisement: by reason of the multitude of thy iniquities, thy sins
are hardened.

30:15. Why criest thou for thy affliction? thy sorrow is incurable: for
the multitude of thy iniquity, and for thy hardened sins I have done
these things to thee.

30:16. Therefore all they that devour thee, shall be devoured: and all
thy enemies shall be carried into captivity: and they that waste thee
shall be wasted, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

30:17. For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of thy wounds,
saith the Lord. Because they have called thee, O Sion, an outcast: This
is she that hath none to seek after her.

30:18. Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring back the captivity of
the pavilions of Jacob, and will have pity on his houses, and the city
shall be built in her high place, and the temple shall be founded
according to the order thereof.

30:19. And out of them shall come forth praise, and the voice of them
that play: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be made few:
and I will glorify them, and they shall not be lessened.

30:20. And their children shall be as from the beginning, and their
assembly shall be permanent before me: and I will visit against all
that afflict them.

30:21. And their leader shall be of themselves: and their prince shall
come forth from the midst of them: and I will bring him near, and he
shall come to me: for who is this that setteth his heart to approach to
me, saith the Lord?

30:22. And you shall be my people: and I will be your God.

30:23. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a
violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the wicked.

30:24. The Lord will not turn away the wrath of his indignation, till
he have executed and performed the thought of his heart: in the latter
days you shall understand these things.



Jeremias Chapter 31


The restoration of Israel. Rachel shall cease from morning. The new
covenant. The church shall never fail.

31:1. At that time, saith the Lord, I will be the God of all the
families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

31:2. Thus saith the Lord: The people that were left and escaped from
the sword, found grace in the desert: Israel shall go to his rest.

31:3. The Lord hath appeared from afar to me. Yea I have loved thee
with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on
thee.

31:4. And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of
Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go
forth in the dances of them that make merry.

31:5. Thou shalt yet plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria: the
planters shall plant, and they shall not gather the vintage before the
time.

31:6. For there shall be a day, in which the watchmen on mount Ephraim,
shall cry: Arise, and let us go up to Sion to the Lord our God.

31:7. For thus saith the Lord: Rejoice ye in the joy of Jacob, and
neigh before the head of the Gentiles: shout ye, and sing, and say:
Save, O Lord, thy people, the remnant of Israel.

31:8. Behold I will bring them from the north country, and will gather
them from the ends of the earth and among them shall be the blind, and
the lame, the woman with child, and she that is bringing forth,
together, a great company of them returning hither.

31:9. They shall come with weeping: and I will bring them back in
mercy: and I will bring them through the torrents of waters in a right
way, and they shall not stumble in it: for I am a father to Israel, and
Ephraim is my firstborn.

31:10. Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the
islands that are afar off, and say: He that scattered Israel will
gather him: and he will keep him as the shepherd doth his flock.

31:11. For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and delivered him out of the
hand of one that was mightier than he.

31:12. And they shall come, and shall give praise in mount Sion: and
they shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, for the corn,
and wine, and oil, and the increase of cattle and herds, and their soul
shall be as a watered garden, and they shall be hungry no more.

31:13. Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, the young men and
old men together: and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will
comfort them, and make them joyful after their sorrow.

31:14. And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness: and my
people shall be filled with my good things, saith the Lord.

31:15. Thus saith the Lord: A voice was heard on high of lamentation,
of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel weeping for her children and
refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not.

31:16. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thy
eyes tears: for there is a reward for thy work, saith the Lord: and
they shall return out of the land of the enemy.

31:17. And there is hope for thy last end, saith the Lord: and the
children shall return to their own borders.

31:18. Hearing I heard Ephraim when he went into captivity: thou hast
chastised me, and I was instructed, as a young bullock unaccustomed to
the yoke. Convert me, and I shall be converted, for thou art the Lord
my God.

31:19. For after thou didst convert me, I did penance: and after thou
didst shew unto me, I struck my thigh: I am confounded and ashamed,
because I have borne the reproach of my youth.

31:20. Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to me, surely he is a tender
child: for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore
are my bowels troubled for him: pitying I will pity him, saith the
Lord.

31:21. Set thee up a watchtower, make to thee bitterness: direct thy
heart into the right way, wherein thou hast walked: return, O virgin of
Israel, return to these thy cities.

31:22. How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering
daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: A WOMAN
SHALL COMPASS A MAN.

31:23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As yet shall
they say this word in the land of Juda, and in the cities thereof, when
I shall bring back their captivity: The Lord bless thee, the beauty of
justice, the holy mountain.

31:24. And Juda and all his cities shall dwell therein together: the
husbandman and they that drive the flocks.

31:25. For I have inebriated the weary soul: and I have filled every
hungry soul.

31:26. Upon this I was as it were awaked out of a sleep, and I saw, and
my sleep was sweet to me.

31:27. Behold the days come, saith the Lord: and I will sow the house
of Israel and the house of Juda with the seed of men, and with the seed
of beasts.

31:28. And as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to throw down,
and to scatter, and destroy, and afflict: so will I watch over them, to
build up, and to plant them, saith the Lord.

31:29. In those days they shall say no more: The fathers have eaten a
sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.

31:30. But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that
shall eat the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.

31:31. Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda:

31:32. Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers,
in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt, the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over
them, saith the Lord.

31:33. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in
their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their
God, and they shall be my people.

31:34. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every
man his brother, saying: Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the
least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: for I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

31:35. Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for the light of the
day, the order of the moon and of the stars, for the light of the
night: who stirreth up the sea, and the waves thereof roar, the Lord of
hosts is his name.

31:36. If these ordinances shall fail before me, saith the Lord: then
also the seed of Israel shall fail, so as not to be a nation before me
for ever.

31:37. Thus saith the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and
the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I also will cast
away all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the
Lord.

31:38. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be
built to the Lord from the tower of Hanameel even to the gate of the
corner.

31:39. And the measuring line shall go out farther in his sight upon
the hill Gareb: and it shall compass Goatha,

31:40. And the whole valley of dead bodies, and of ashes, and all the
country of death, even to the torrent Cedron, and to the corner of the
horse gate towards the east, the Holy of the Lord: it shall not be
plucked up, and it shall not be destroyed any more for ever.



Jeremias Chapter 32


Jeremias by God's commandment purchases a field of his kinsman: and
prophesies the return of the people out of captivity: and the
everlasting covenant God will make with his church.

32:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the tenth year of
Sedecias king of Juda: the same is the eighteenth year of
Nabuchodonosor.

32:2. At that time the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem:
and Jeremias the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which
was in the house of the king of Juda.

32:3. For Sedecias king of Juda had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou
prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will give this city
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?

32:4. And Sedecias king of Juda shall not escape out of the hand of the
Chaldeans: but he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of
Babylon: and he shall speak to him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall
see his eyes.

32:5. And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon: and he shall be there till
I visit him, saith the Lord. But if you will fight against the
Chaldeans, you shall have no success.

32:6. And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:

32:7. Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall come to thee,
saying: Buy thee my field, which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to
buy it, being next akin.

32:8. And Hanameel my uncle's son came to me, according to the word of
the Lord, to the entry of the prison, and said to me: Buy my field,
which is in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: for the right of
inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it. And I
understood that this was the word of the Lord.

32:9. And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that is in
Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of
silver.

32:10. And I wrote it in a book and sealed it, and took witnesses: and
I weighed him the money in the balances.

32:11. And I took the deed of the purchase that was sealed, and the
stipulations, and the ratifications with the seals that were on the
outside.

32:12. And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neri
the son of Maasias in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, in the
presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, and
before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.

32:13. And I charged Baruch before them, saying:

32:14. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take these
writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed
that is open: and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue
many days.

32:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Houses, and
fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

32:16. And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son
of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:

32:17. Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and
earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm: no word shall be
hard to thee:

32:18. Thou shewest mercy unto thousands, and returnest the iniquity of
the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: O most mighty,
great, and powerful, the Lord of hosts is thy name.

32:19. Great in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought: whose eyes
are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam, to render unto
every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his
devices.

32:20. Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even until
this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and hast made thee a name as
at this day.

32:21. And hast brought forth thy people Israel, out of the land of
Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and a
stretched out arm, and with great terror.

32:22. And hast given them this land which thou didst swear to their
fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

32:23. And they came in, and possessed it: but they obeyed not thy
voice, and they walked not in thy law: and they did not any of those
things that thou didst command them to do, and all these evils are come
upon them.

32:24. Behold works are built up against the city to take it: and the
city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, by
the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and what thou hast
spoken, is all come to pass, as thou thyself seest.

32:25. And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for money, and
take witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hands of the
Chaldeans?

32:26. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

32:27. Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any thing be
hard for me?

32:28. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver this city
into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of
Babylon, and they shall take it.

32:29. And the Chaldeans that fight against this city, shall come and
set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses upon whose roofs they
offered sacrifice to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to strange
gods, to provoke me to wrath.

32:30. For the children of Israel, and the children of Juda, have
continually done evil in my eyes from their youth: the children of
Israel who even till now provoke me with the work of their hands, saith
the Lord.

32:31. For this city hath been to me a provocation and indignation from
the day that they built it, until this day, in which it shall be taken
out of my sight.

32:32. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel, and of the
children of Juda, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and
their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, the
men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

32:33. And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces:
when I taught them early in the morning, and instructed them, and they
would not hearken to receive instruction.

32:34. And they have set their idols in the house, in which my name is
called upon, to defile it.

32:35. And they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the
valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their
daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it
into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and cause Juda to
sin.

32:36. And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to
this city, whereof you say that it shall be delivered into the hands of
the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence:

32:37. Behold I will gather them together out of all the lands to which
I have cast them out in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great
indignation: and I will bring them again into this place, and will
cause them to dwell securely.

32:38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

32:39. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear
me all days: and that it may be well with them, and with their children
after them.

32:40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and will not
cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that
they may not revolt from me.

32:41. And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them good: and I
will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with
all my soul.

32:42. For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all
this great evil: so will I bring upon them all the good that I now
speak to them.

32:43. And fields shall be purchased in this land: whereof you say that
it is desolate, because there remaineth neither man nor beast, and it
is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.

32:44. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written,
and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin, and
round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda, and in the cities on the
mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are
towards the south: for I will bring back their captivity, saith the
Lord.



Jeremias Chapter 33


God promises reduction from captivity, and other blessings: especially
the coming of Christ, whose reign in his church shall be glorious and
perpetual.

33:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the second time, while
he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying:

33:2. Thus saith the Lord, who will do, and will form it, and prepare
it, the Lord is his name.

33:3. Cry to me and I will hear thee: and I will shew thee great
things, and sure things which thou knowest not.

33:4. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the houses of this
city, and to the houses of the king of Juda, which are destroyed, and
to the bulwarks, and to the sword.

33:5. Of them that come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them
with the dead bodies of the men whom I have slain in my wrath, and in
my indignation, hiding my face from this city because of all their
wickedness.

33:6. Behold I will close their wounds and give them health, and I will
cure them: and I will reveal to them the prayer of peace and truth.

The prayer of peace. . .That is, the peace and welfare which they pray
for.

33:7. And I will bring back the captivity of Juda, and the captivity of
Jerusalem: and I will build them as from the beginning.

33:8. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they
have sinned against me: and I will forgive all their iniquities,
whereby they have sinned against me, and despised me.

33:9. And it shall be to me a name, and a joy, and a praise, and a
gladness before all the nations of the earth, that shall hear of all
the good things which I will do to them: and they shall fear and be
troubled for all the good things, and for all the peace that I will
make for them.

33:10. Thus saith the Lord: There shall be heard again in this place
(which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast: in
the cities of Juda, and without Jerusalem, which are desolate without
man, and without inhabitant, and without beast)

33:11. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall
say: Give ye glory to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his
mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring their vows into
the house of the Lord: for I will bring back the captivity of the land
as at the first, saith the Lord.

33:12. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall be again in this place
that is desolate without man, and without beast, and in all the cities
thereof, an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

33:13. And in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the
plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: and in the land
of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Juda shall
the flocks pass again under the hand of him that numbereth them, saith
the Lord.

33:14. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform the
good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel, and to the house
of Juda.

33:15. In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice
to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the
earth.

33:16. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
securely: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our
just one.

33:17. For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a
man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.

There shall not be cut off from David, etc. . .This was verified in
Christ, who is of the house of David; and whose kingdom in his church
shall have no end.

33:18. Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a
man before my face to offer holocausts, and to burn sacrifices, and to
kill victims continually.

Neither shall there be cut off from the priests, etc. . .This promise
relates to the Christian priesthood; which shall also continue for
ever: the functions of which (more especially the great sacrifice of
the altar) are here expressed by the name of holocausts, and other
offerings of the law, which were so many figures of the Christian
sacrifice.

33:19. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

33:20. Thus saith the Lord: if my covenant, with the day can be made
void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and
night in their season:

33:21. Also my covenant with David my servant may be made void, that he
should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites
and priests my ministers.

33:22. As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the
sea be measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and
the Levites my ministers.

33:23. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

33:24. Hast thou not seen what this people hath spoken, saying: The two
families which the Lord had chosen, are cast off: and they have
despised my people, so that it is no more a nation before them?

Two families, etc. . .Viz., the families of the kings and priests.

33:25. Thus saith the Lord. If I have not set my covenant between day
and night, and laws to heaven and earth:

33:26. Surely I will also cast off the seed of Jacob, and of David my
servant, so as not to take any of his seed to be rulers of the seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will bring back their captivity, and
will have mercy on them.



Jeremias Chapter 34


The prophet foretells that Sedecias shall fall into the hands of
Nabuchodonosor: God's sentence upon the princes and people that had
broken his covenant.

34:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth,
that were under the power of his hand, and all the people fought
against Jerusalem and against all the cities thereof, saying:

34:2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Sedecias
king of Juda, and say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will
deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall
burn it with fire.

34:3. And thou shalt not escape out of his hand: but thou shalt surely
be taken, and thou shalt be delivered into his hand: and thy eyes shall
see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy
mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.

34:4. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Sedecias king of Juda: Thus
saith the Lord to thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword.

34:5. But thou shalt die in peace, and according to the burnings of thy
fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so shall they burn
thee: and they shall mourn for thee, saying: Alas, Lord: for I have
spoken the word, saith the Lord.

Die in peace. . .That is, by a natural death.

34:6. And Jeremias the prophet spoke all these words to Sedecias the
king of Juda in Jerusalem.

34:7. And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and
against all the cities of Juda that were left, against Lachis, and
against Azecha: for these remained of the cities of Juda, fenced
cities.

34:8. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that king
Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem making a
proclamation:

34:9. That every man should let his manservant, and every man his
maidservant, being Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free: and that they
should not lord it over them, to wit, over the Jews their brethren.

34:10. And all the princes, and all the people who entered into the
covenant, heard that every man should let his manservant, and every man
his maidservant go free, and should no more have dominion over them:
and they obeyed, and let them go free.

34:11. But afterwards they turned: and brought back again their
servants and their handmaids, whom they had let go free, and brought
them into subjection as menservants and maidservants.

34:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

34:13. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I made a covenant with
your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, saying:

34:14. At the end of seven years, let ye go every man his brother being
a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee, so he shall serve thee six years:
and thou shalt let him go free from thee: and your fathers did not
hearken to me, nor did they incline their ear.

34:15. And you turned to day, and did that which was right in my eyes,
in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother: and you made a
covenant in my sight, in the house upon which my name is invocated.

34:16. And you are fallen back, and have defiled my name: and you have
brought back again every man his manservant, and every man his
maidservant, whom you had let go free, and set at liberty: and you have
brought them into subjection to be your servants and handmaids.

34:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not hearkened to me, in
proclaiming liberty every man to his brother and every man to his
friend: behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine: and I will cause you to be
removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.

34:18. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, and
have not performed the words of the covenant which they agreed to in my
presence, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts
thereof:

34:19. The princes of Juda, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs,
and the priests, and all the people of the land that passed between the
parts of the calf:

34:20. And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and into
the hands of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be
for meat to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth.

34:21. And Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, I will give into
the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their
lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which
are gone from you.

34:22. Behold I will command, saith the Lord, and I will bring them
again to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and
burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Juda a desolation,
without an inhabitant.



Jeremias Chapter 35


The obedience of the Rechabites condemns the disobedience of the Jews.
The reward of the Rechabites.

35:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the days of
Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, saying:

35:2. Go to the house of the Rechabites: and speak to them, and bring
them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers of the
treasures, and thou shalt give them wine to drink.

Rechabites. . .These were of the race of Jethro, father in law to Moses.

35:3. And I took Jezonias the son of Jeremias the son of Habsanias, and
his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.

35:4. And I brought them into the house of the Lord, to the treasure
house of the sons of Hanan, the son of Jegedelias the man of God, which
was by the treasure house of the princes, above the treasure of Maasias
the son of Sellum, who was keeper of the entry.

35:5. And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots
full of wine, and cups: and I said to them: Drink ye wine.

35:6. And they answered : We will not drink wine: because Jonadab the
son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying: You shall drink no
wine, neither you, nor your children, for ever:

35:7. Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow reed, nor plant vineyards,
nor have any: but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may
live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are strangers.

35:8. Therefore we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab,
our father, in all things that he commanded us: so as to drink no wine
all our days: neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our
daughters:

35:9. Nor to build houses to dwell in, nor to have vineyard, or field,
or seed:

35:10. But we have dwelt in tents, and have been obedient according to
all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

35:11. But when Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up to our land, we
said: Come, let us go into Jerusalem from the face of the army of the
Chaldeans, and from the face of the army of Syria: and we have remained
in Jerusalem.

35:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

35:13. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Go, and say to
the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not
receive instruction, to obey my words, saith the Lord?

35:14. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, by which he commanded
his sons not to drink wine, have prevailed: and they have drunk none to
this day, because they have obeyed the commandment of their father: but
I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, and you have not
obeyed me.

35:15. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising
early, and sending and saying: Return ye every man from his wicked way,
and make your ways good: and follow not strange gods, nor worship them,
and you shall dwell in the land, which I gave you and your fathers: and
you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.

35:16. So the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have constantly kept
the commandment of their father, which he commanded them: but this
people hath not obeyed me.

35:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold
I will bring upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all
the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to
them, and they have not heard: I have called to them, and they have not
answered me.

35:18. And Jeremias said to the house of the Rechabites: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the
commandment of Jonadab your father, and have kept all his precepts, and
have done all that he commanded you:

35:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: There
shall not be wanting a man of the race of Jonadab the son of Rechab,
standing before me for ever.



Jeremias Chapter 36


Jeremias sends Baruch to read his prophecies in the temple; the book is
brought to king Joakim, who burns it. The prophet denounces his
judgment, and causes Baruch to write a new copy.

36:1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Joakim the son of
Josias king of Juda, that this word came to Jeremias by the Lord,
saying:

36:2. Take thee a roll of a book, and thou shalt write in it all the
words that I have spoken to thee against Israel and Juda, and against
all the nations from the day that I spoke to thee, from the days of
Josias even to this day.

36:3. If so be, when the house of Juda shall hear all the evils that I
purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his wicked
way: and I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin.

36:4. So Jeremias called Baruch the son of Nerias: and Baruch wrote
from the mouth of Jeremias all the words of the Lord, which he spoke to
him, upon the roll of a book.

36:5. And Jeremias commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up, and cannot
go into the house of the Lord.

Shut up. . .Not that the prophet was now in prison; for the contrary
appears from ver. 19, but that he kept himself shut up, by reason of
the persecutions he had lately met with. See chap. 26.

36:6. Go thou in therefore, and read out of the volume, which thou hast
written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of all the
people in the house of the Lord on the fasting day: and also thou shalt
read them in the hearing of all Juda that come out of their cities:

36:7. If so be they may present their supplication before the Lord, and
may return every one from his wicked way: for great is the wrath and
indignation which the Lord hath pronounced against this people.

36:8. And Baruch the son of Nerias did according to all that Jeremias
the prophet ,had commanded him, reading out of the volume the words of
the Lord in the house of the Lord.

36:9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Joakim the son of Josias
king of Juda, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before
the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that
were come together out of the cities of Juda to Jerusalem.

36:10. And Baruch read out of the volume the words of Jeremias in the
house of the Lord, in the treasury of Gamarias the son of Saphan the
scribe, in the upper court, in the entry of the new gate of the house
of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people.

36:11. And when Micheas the son of Gamarias the son of Saphan had heard
out of the book all the words of the Lord,

36:12. He went down into the king's house to the secretary's chamber:
and behold all the princes sat there, Elisama the scribe, and Dalaias
the son of Semeias, and Elnathan the son of Achobor, and Gamarias the
son of Saphan, and Sedecias the son of Hananias, and all the princes.

36:13. And Micheas told them all the words that he had heard when
Baruch read out of the volume in the hearing of the people.

36:14. Therefore all the princes sent Judi the son of Nathanias, the
son of Selemias, the son of Chusi, to Baruch, saying: Take in thy hand
the volume in which thou hast read in the hearing of the people, and
come. So Baruch the son of Nerias took the volume in his hand, and came
to them.

36:15. And they said to him: Sit down and read these things in our
hearing. And Baruch read in their hearing.

36:16. And when they had heard all the words, they looked upon one
another with astonishment, and they said to Baruch: We must tell the
king all these words.

36:17. And they asked him, saying: Tell us how didst thou write all
these words from his mouth.

36:18. And Baruch said to them: With his mouth he pronounced all these
words as if he were reading to me: and I wrote in a volume with ink.

36:19. And the princes said to Baruch: Go, and hide thee, both thou and
Jeremias, and let no man know where you are.

36:20. And they went in to the king into the court: but they laid up
the volume in the chamber of Elisama the scribe: and they told all the
words in the hearing of the king.

36:21. And the king sent Judi that he should take the volume: who
bringing it out of the chamber of Elisama the scribe, read it in the
hearing of the king, and of all the princes that stood about the king.

36:22. Now the king sat in the winter house, in the ninth month: and
there was a hearth before him full of burning coals.

36:23. And when Judi had read three or four pages, he cut it with the
penknife, and he cast it into the fire, that was upon the hearth, till
all the volume was consumed with the fire that was on the hearth.

36:24. And the king and all his servants that heard all these words
were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.

36:25. But yet Elnathan, and Dalaias, and Gamarias spoke to the king,
not to burn the book: and he heard them not.

36:26. And the king commanded Jeremiel the son of Amelech, and Saraias
the son of Ezriel, and Selemias the son of Abdeel, to take up Baruch
the scribe, and Jeremias the prophet: but the Lord hid them.

36:27. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, after
that the king had burnt the volume, and the words that Baruch had
written from the mouth of Jeremias, saying:

36:28. Take thee again another volume: and write in it all the former
words that were in the first volume which Joakim the king of Juda both
burnt.

36:29. And thou shalt say to Joakim the king of Juda: Thus saith the
Lord: Thou hast burnt that volume, saying: Why hast thou written
therein, and said: The king of Babylon shall come speedily, and shall
lay waste this land: and shall cause to cease from thence man and
beast?

36:30. Therefore thus saith the Lord against Joakim the king of Juda:
He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body
shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night.

He shall have none, etc. . .Because his son Joachin or Jechonias, within
three months after the death of his father, was carried away to
Babylon, so that his reign is not worthy of notice.

36:31. And I will punish him, and his seed and his servants, for their
iniquities, and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and upon the men of Juda all the evil that I have pronounced
against them, but they have not heard.

36:32. And Jeremias took another volume, and gave it to Baruch the son
of Nerias the scribe: who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremias all
the words of the book which Joakim the king of Juda had burnt with
fire: and there were added besides many more words than had been
before.



Jeremias Chapter 37


Jeremias prophesies that the Chaldeans, who had departed from
Jerusalem, would return and burn the city. He is cast into prison. His
conference with Sedecias.

37:1. Now king Sedecias the son of Josias reigned instead of Jechonias
the son of Joakim: whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made king in the
land of Juda.

37:2. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land did
obey the words of the Lord, that he spoke in the hand of Jeremias the
prophet.

37:3. And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias, and Sophonias
the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremias the prophet, saying: Pray to
the Lord our God for us.

37:4. Now Jeremias walked freely in the midst of the people: for they
had not as yet cast him into prison. And the army of Pharao was come
out of Egypt: and the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem, hearing these
tidings, departed from Jerusalem.

37:5. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, saying:

37:6. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the
king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me: Behold the army of Pharao,
which is come forth to help you, shall return into their own land, into
Egypt.

37:7. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city,
and take it, and burn it with fire.

37:8. Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not your souls, saying: The
Chaldeans shall surely depart and go away from us: for they shall not
go away.

37:9. But if you should even beat all the army of the Chaldeans that
fight against you, and there should be left of them some wounded men:
they shall rise up, every man from his heart, and burn this city with
fire.

37:10. Now when the army of the Chaldeans was gone away from Jerusalem,
because of Pharao's army,

37:11. Jeremias went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of
Benjamin: and to divide a possession there in the presence of the
citizens,

37:12. And when he was come to the gate of Benjamin, the captain of the
gate, who was there in his turn, was one named Jerias, the son of
Selemias, the son of Hananias: and he took hold of Jeremias the
prophet, saying: Thou art fleeing to the Chaldeans.

37:13. And Jeremias answered: It is not so, I am not fleeing to the
Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Jerias took Jeremias and
brought him to the princes.

37:14. Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremias, and they beat
him, and cast him into the prison that was in the house of Jonathan the
scribe: for he was chief over the prison.

37:15. So Jeremias went into the house of the prison, and into the
dungeon: and Jeremias remained there many days.

37:16. Then Sedecias the king, sending, took him: and asked him
secretly in his house, and said: Is there, thinkest thou, any word from
the Lord? And Jeremias said. There is. And he said: Thou shalt be
delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.

37:17. And Jeremias said to king Sedecias: In what have I offended
against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that thou hast cast me
into prison?

37:18. Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and said: The
king of Babylon shall not come against you, and against this land?

37:19. Now therefore hear, I beseech thee, my lord the king: let my
petition be accepted in thy sight: and send me not back into the house
of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

37:20. Then king Sedecias commanded that Jeremias should be committed
into the entry of the prison: and that they should give him daily a
piece of bread, beside broth, till all the bread in the city were
spent: and Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.



Jeremias Chapter 38


The prophet at the instance of the great men is cast into a filthy
dungeon: he is drawn out by Abdemelech, and has another conference with
the king.

38:1. Now Saphatias the son of Mathan, and Gedelias the son of Phassur,
and Juchal the son of Selemias, and Phassur the son of Melchias heard
the words that Jeremias spoke to all the people, saying:

38:2. Thus saith the Lord: Whosoever shall remain in this city, shall
die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: but he that shall
go forth to the Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be safe, and
he shall live.

38:3. Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the
hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

38:4. And the princes said to the king. We beseech thee that this man
may be put to death: for on purpose he weakeneth the hands of the men
of war, that remain in this city, and the hands of the people, speaking
to them according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to
this people, but evil.

38:5. And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands: for it is not
lawful for the king to deny you any thing.

38:6. Then they took Jeremias and cast him into the dungeon of Melchias
the son of Amelech, which was in the entry of the prison: and they let
down Jeremias by ropes into the dungeon, wherein there was no water,
but mire. And Jeremias sunk into the mire.

38:7. Now Abdemelech the Ethiopian, an eunuch that was in the king's
house, heard that they had put Jeremias in the dungeon: but the king
was sitting in the gate of Benjamin.

38:8. And Abdemelech went out of the king's house, and spoke to the
king, saying:

38:9. My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have
done against Jeremias the prophet, casting him into the dungeon to die
there with hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.

38:10. Then the king commanded Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying: Take
from hence thirty men with thee, and draw up Jeremias the prophet out
of the dungeon, before he die.

38:11. So Abdemelech taking the men with him, went into the king's
house that was under the storehouse: and he took from thence old rags,
and old rotten things, and he let them down by cords to Jeremias into
the dungeon.

38:12. And Abdemelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremias: Put these old
rags and these rent and rotten things under thy arms, and upon the
cords: and Jeremias did so.

38:13. And they drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth
out of the dungeon. And Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.

38:14. And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias the prophet to him to
the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to
Jeremias: I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me.

38:15. Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee,
wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt
not hearken to me.

38:16. Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private, saying: As the
Lord liveth, that, made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor
will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.

38:17. And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the
God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes
of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be
burnt with fire: and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.

38:18. But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of
Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans,
and they shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of
their hand.

38:19. And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid because of the
Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered
into their hands, and they should abuse me.

38:20. But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee: hearken, I
beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I speak to the, and it
shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.

38:21. But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord
hath shewn me:

38:22. Behold all the women that are left in the house of the king of
Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and
they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed
against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery
place and they have departed from thee.

Thy men of peace. . .Viri pacifici tui. That is thy false friends
promising thee peace and happiness, and by their evil counsels
involving thee in misery.

38:23. And all thy wives, and thy children shall be brought out to the
Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape their hands, but thou shalt be
taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall burn this city
with fire.

38:24. Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know these words, and
thou shalt not die.

38:25. But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken with thee, and
shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us what thou hast said to the
king, hide it not from us, and we will not kill thee: and also what the
king said to thee:


 


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