The Holy Bible

Part 14 out of 29

labour for that which doth not satisfy you? Hearken diligently to me,
and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in
fatness.

55:3. Incline your ear and come to me: hear and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, the faithful mercies
of David.

55:4. Behold I have given him for a witness to the people, for a leader
and a master to the Gentiles.

55:5. Behold thou shalt call a nation, which thou knewest not: and the
nations that knew not thee shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy
God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.

55:6. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he
is near.

55:7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts,
and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to
our God: for he is bountiful to forgive.

55:8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways,
saith the Lord.

55:9. For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways
exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.

55:10. And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return
no more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to
spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

55:11. So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth: it
shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and
shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.

55:12. For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the
mountains and the hills shall sing praise before you, and all the trees
of the country shall clap their hands.

55:13. Instead of the shrub, shall come up the fir tree, and instead of
the nettle, shall come up the myrtle tree: and the Lord shall be named
for an everlasting sign, that shall not be taken away.

Isaias Chapter 56

God invites all to keep his commandments: the Gentiles that keep them
shall be the people of God: the Jewish pastors are reproved.

56:1. Thus saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my
salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.

56:2. Blessed is the man that doth this, and the son of man that shall
lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that
keepeth his hands from doing any evil.

56:3. And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord,
speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.
And let not the eunuch say: Behold I am a dry tree.

56:4. For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs, They that shall keep my
sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold
fast my covenant:

56:5. I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place,
and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an
everlasting name which shall never perish.

56:6. And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to
worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that
keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my
covenant:

56:7. I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful
in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please
me upon my altar: for my house shall be called the house of prayer, for
all nations.

56:8. The Lord God, who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I
will still gather unto him his congregation.

56:9. All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the
forest.

56:10. His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not
able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.

56:11. And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds
themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own
way, every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last.

56:12. Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it
shall be as to day, so also to morrow, and much more.

Isaias Chapter 57

The infidelity of the Jews: their idolatry. Promises to humble
penitents.

57:1. The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of
mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the
just man is taken away from before the face of evil.

57:2. Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his
uprightness.

57:3. But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the
adulterer, and of the harlot.

57:4. Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth
wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false
seed,

57:5. Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree,
sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high rocks?

57:6. In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and
thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice.
Shall I not be angry at these things?

57:7. Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy bed, and hast
gone up thither to offer victims.

57:8. And behind the door, and behind the post thou hast set up thy
remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself near me, and hast
received an adulterer: thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant
with them: thou hast loved their bed with open hand.

57:9. And thou hast adorned thyself for the king with ointment, and
hast multiplied thy perfumes. Thou hast sent thy messengers far off,
and wast debased even to hell.

57:10. Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways: yet thou
saidst not: I will rest: thou has found life of thy hand, therefore
thou hast not asked.

57:11. For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that thou hast
lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor thought on me in thy heart?
for I am silent, and as one that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.

57:12. I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.

57:13. When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the
wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away, but he
that putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess
my holy mount.

57:14. And I will say: Make a way: give free passage, turn out of the
path, take away the stumblingblocks out of the way of my people.

57:15. For thus saith the High and the Eminent that inhabiteth
eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy
place, and with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of
the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

57:16. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be angry unto
the end: because the spirit shall go forth from my face, and breathings
I will make.

57:17. For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck
him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry: and he went away wandering
in his own heart.

57:18. I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him back, and
restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn for him.

57:19. I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.

57:20. But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and
the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.

57:21. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.

Isaias Chapter 58

God rejects the hypocritical fasts of the Jews: recommends works of
mercy, and sincere godliness.

58:1. Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my
people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.

58:2. For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as
a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of
their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to
approach to God.

58:3. Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: have we humbled
our souls, and thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your
fast your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.

58:4. Behold you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist
wickedly. Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry
to be heard on high.

58:5. Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his
soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and
to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day
acceptable to the Lord?

58:6. Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands
of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken
go free, and break asunder every burden.

58:7. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the
harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him,
and despise not thy own flesh.

58:8. Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health
shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the
glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.

58:9. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry,
and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of
the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak
that which profiteth not.

58:10. When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt
satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness,
and thy darkness shall be as the noonday.

58:11. And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy
soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a
watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not
fail.

58:12. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built
in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation of generation and
generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences,
turning the paths into rest.

58:13. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own
will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of
the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways,
and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:

58:14. Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee
up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the
inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken
it.

Isaias Chapter 59

The dreadful evil of sin is displayed, as the great obstacle to all
good from God: yet he will send a Redeemer, and make an everlasting
covenant with his church.

59:1. Behold the hand of the Lord is not shortened that it cannot save,
neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.

59:2. But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and
your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.

59:3. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with
iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth
iniquity.

59:4. There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one
that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak
vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity.

59:5. They have broken the eggs of asps, and have woven the webs of
spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is
brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.

59:6. Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover
themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and
the work of iniquity is in their hands.

59:7. Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood:
their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are
in their ways.

59:8. They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in
their steps: their paths are become crooked to them, every one that
treadeth in them knoweth no peace.

59:9. Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake
us. We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have
walked in the dark.

59:10. We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped
as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noonday as in darkness, we
are in dark places, as dead men.

59:11. We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful
doves. We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation,
and it is far from us.

59:12. For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have
testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and have known
our iniquities:

59:13. In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away
so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression:
we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood.

59:14. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far
off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not
come in.

59:15. And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil,
lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his
eyes, because there is no judgment.

59:16. And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished,
because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought
salvation to him, and his own justice supported him.

59:17. He put on justice as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation
upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with
zeal as with a cloak.

59:18. As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries,
and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands.

59:19. And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and
they from the rising of the sun, his glory when he shall come as a
violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on:

59:20. And there shall come a redeemer to Sion, and to them that return
from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.

59:21. This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is
in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart
out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the
mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever.

This is my covenant, etc. . .Note here a clear promise of perpetual
orthodoxy to the church of Christ.

Isaias Chapter 60

The light of true faith shall shine forth in the church of Christ, and
shall be spread through all nations, and continue for all ages.

60:1. Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and
the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

60:2. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people:
but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
thee.

60:3. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the
brightness of thy rising.

60:4. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered
together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy
daughters shall rise up at thy side.

60:5. Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and
be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee,
the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee.

60:6. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of
Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and
frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.

60:7. All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the
rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they shall be offered upon my
acceptable altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.

60:8. Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?

60:9. For, the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in the
beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their silver, and their
gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of
Israel, because he hath glorified thee.

60:10. And the children of strangers shall build up thy walls, and
their kings shall minister to thee: for in my wrath have I struck thee,
and in my reconciliation have I had mercy upon thee.

60:11. And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut
day nor night, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to
thee, and their kings may be brought.

60:12. For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall
perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.

60:13. The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir tree, and the
box tree, and the pine tree together, to beautify the place of my
sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet.

60:14. And the children of them that afflict thee, shall come bowing
down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall worship the steps of
thy feet, and shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Sion of the
Holy One of Israel.

60:15. Because thou wast forsaken, and hated, and there was none that
passed through thee, I will make thee to be an everlasting glory, a joy
unto generation and generation:

60:16. And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and thou shalt be
nursed with the breasts of kings: and thou shalt know that I am the
Lord thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.

60:17. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver:
and for wood brass, and for stones iron: and I will make thy visitation
peace, and thy overseers justice.

60:18. Iniquity shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor
destruction in thy borders, and salvation shall possess thy walls, and
praise thy gates.

60:19. Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day, neither
shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee: but the Lord shall be
unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory.

Thou shalt no more, etc. . .In this latter part of the chapter, the
prophet passes from the illustrious promises made to the church
militant on earth, to the glory of the church triumphant in heaven.

60:20. Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not decrease:
for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and the days
of thy mourning shall be ended.

60:21. And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit the land
for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand to glorify me.

60:22. The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most
strong nation: I the Lord will suddenly do this thing in its time.

Isaias Chapter 61

The office of Christ: the mission of the Apostles; the happiness of
their converts.

61:1. The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed
me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of
heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them
that are shut up.

61:2. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
vengeance of our God: to comfort all that mourn:

61:3. To appoint to the mourners of Sion, and to give them a crown for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit
of grief: and they shall be called in it the mighty ones of justice,
the planting of the Lord to glorify him.

61:4. And they shall build the places that have been waste from of old,
and shall raise up ancient ruins, and shall repair the desolate cities,
that were destroyed for generation and generation.

61:5. And strangers shall stand and shall feed your flocks: and the
sons of strangers shall be your husbandman, and the dressers of your
vines.

61:6. But you shall be called the priests of the Lord: to you it shall
be said: Ye ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and you shall pride yourselves in their glory.

61:7. For your double confusion and shame, they shall praise their
part: therefore shall they receive double in their land, everlasting
joy shall be unto them.

61:8. For I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate robbery in a
holocaust: and I will make their work in truth, and I will make a
perpetual covenant with them.

61:9. And they shall know their seed among the Gentiles, and their
offspring in the midst of peoples: all that shall see them, shall know
them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.

61:10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful
in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and
with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked
with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.

61:11. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden
causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord God make justice to
spring forth, and praise before all the nations.

Isaias Chapter 62

The prophet will not cease from preaching Christ: to whom all nations
shall be converted: and whose church shall continue for ever.

62:1. For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for the sake of
Jerusalem, I will not rest till her just one come forth as brightness,
and her saviour be lighted as a lamp.

62:2. And the Gentiles shall see thy just one, and all kings thy
glorious one: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth
of the Lord shall name.

62:3. And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a
royal diadem in the hand of thy God.

62:4. Thou shalt no more be called Forsaken: and thy land shall no more
be called Desolate: but thou shalt be called My pleasure in her, and
thy land inhabited. Because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee:
and thy land shall be inhabited.

62:5. For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and thy children
shall dwell in thee. And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride,
and thy God shall rejoice over thee.

62:6. Upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the
day, and all the night, they shall never hold their peace. You that are
mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace,

62:7. And give him no silence till he establish, and till he make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

62:8. The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his
strength: Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thy
enemies: and the sons of the strangers shall not drink thy wine, for
which thou hast laboured.

62:9. For they that gather it, shall eat it, and shall praise the Lord:
and they that bring it together, shall drink it in my holy courts.

62:10. Go through, go through the gates, prepare the way for the
people, make the road plain, pick out the stones, and lift up the
standard to the people.

62:11. Behold the Lord hath made it to be heard in the ends of the
earth, tell the daughter of Sion: Behold thy Saviour cometh: behold his
reward is with him, and his work before him.

62:12. And they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the
Lord. But thou shalt be called: A city sought after, and not forsaken.

Isaias Chapter 63

Christ's victory over his enemies: his mercies to his people: their
complaint.

63:1. Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra,
this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his
strength. I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.

Edom. . .Edom and Bosra (a strong city of Edom) are here taken in a
mystical sense for the enemies of Christ and his church.

63:2. Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that
tread in the winepress?

63:3. I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the Gentiles there is
not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have
trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my
garments, and I have stained all my apparel.

63:4. For the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my
redemption is come.

63:5. I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there
was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my
indignation itself hath helped me.

63:6. And I have trodden down the people in my wrath, and have made
them drunk in my indignation, and have brought down their strength to
the earth.

63:7. I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord, the praise of the
Lord for all the things that the Lord hath bestowed upon us, and for
the multitude of his good things to the house of Israel, which he hath
given them according to his kindness, and according to the multitude of
his mercies.

63:8. And he said: Surely they are my people, children that will not
deny: so he became their saviour.

63:9. In all their affliction he was not troubled, and the angel of his
presence saved them: in his love, and in his mercy he redeemed them,
and he carried them and lifted them up all the days of old.

63:10. But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit of his Holy
One: and he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

63:11. And he remembered the days of old of Moses, and of his people:
Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherds of
his flock? where is he that put in the midst of them the spirit of his
Holy One?

63:12. He that brought out Moses by the right hand, by the arm of his
majesty: that divided the waters before them, to make himself an
everlasting name.

63:13. He that led them out through the deep, as a horse in the
wilderness that stumbleth not.

63:14. As a beast that goeth down in the field, the spirit of the Lord
was their leader: so didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a
glorious name.

63:15. Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy habitation and
the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the
multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies? they have held back
themselves from me.

They have held back, etc. . .This is spoken by the prophet in the person
of the Jews at the time when, for their sins, they were given up to
their enemies.

63:16. For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and
Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our father, our
redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.

Abraham hath not know us, etc. . .That is, Abraham will not now
acknowledge us for his children, by reason of our degeneracy; but thou,
O Lord, art our true father and our redeemer, and no other can be
called our parent in comparison with thee.

63:17. Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast
thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return for the
sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.

Made us to err, etc. Hardened our heart, etc. . .The meaning is, that
God in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long
abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and
so given them up to error and hardness of heart.

63:18. They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have
trodden down thy sanctuary.

63:19. We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over
us, and when we were not called by thy name.

Isaias Chapter 64

The prophet prays for the release of his people; and for the remission
of their sins.

64:1. O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the
mountains would melt away at thy presence.

64:2. They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn
with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the
nations might tremble at thy presence.

64:3. When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou
didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away.

64:4. From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor
perceived with the ears: the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee,
what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.

64:5. Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and doth justice: in thy ways
they shall remember thee: behold thou art angry, and we have sinned: in
them we have been always, and we shall be saved.

64:6. And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the
rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our
iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Our justices, etc. . .That is, the works by which we pretended to make
ourselves just. This is spoken particularly of the sacrifices,
sacraments, and ceremonies of the Jews, after the death of Christ, and
the promulgation of the new law.

64:7. There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth up, and
taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed
us in the hand of our iniquity.

64:8. And now, O Lord, thou art our father, and we are clay: and thou
art our maker, and we all are the works of thy hands.

64:9. Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity:
behold, see we are all thy people.

64:10. The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a
desert, Jerusalem is desolate.

64:11. The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers
praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned
into ruins.

64:12. Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these things, wilt thou
hold thy peace, and afflict us vehemently?

Isaias Chapter 65

The Gentiles shall seek and find Christ, but the Jews will persecute
him, and be rejected, only a remnant shall be reserved. The church
shall multiply, and abound with graces.

65:1. They have sought me that before asked not for me, they have found
me that sought me not. I said: Behold me, behold me, to a nation that
did not call upon my name.

65:2. I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving
people, who walk in a way that is not good after their own thoughts.

65:3. A people that continually provoke me to anger before my face,
that immolate in gardens, and sacrifice upon bricks.

65:4. That dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in the temple of idols: that
eat swine's flesh, and profane broth is in their vessels.

65:5. That say: Depart from me, come not near me, because thou art
unclean: these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning all the day.

65:6. Behold it is written before me: I will not be silent, but I will
render and repay into their bosom.

65:7. Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,
saith the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the mountains, and have
reproached me upon the hills; and I will measure back their first work
in their bosom.

65:8. Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it
be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the
sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole.

65:9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Juda a
possessor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my
servants shall dwell there.

65:10. And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks, and the
valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie down in, for my
people that have sought me.

65:11. And you, that have forsaken the Lord, that have forgotten my
holy mount, that set a table for fortune, and offer libations upon it,

65:12. I will number you in the sword, and you shall all fall by
slaughter: because I called and you did not answer: I spoke, and you
did not hear: and you did evil in my eyes, and you have chosen the
things that displease me.

65:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my servants shall eat,
and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall
be thirsty.

65:14. Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded:
behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall
cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit.

65:15. And you shall leave your name for an execration to my elect: and
the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name.

65:16. In which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in
God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, amen:
because the former distresses are forgotten, and because they are hid
from my eyes.

65:17. For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former
things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the
heart.

65:18. But you shall be glad and rejoice for ever in these things,
which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the
people thereof joy.

65:19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the
voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of
crying.

65:20. There shall no more be an infant of days there, nor an old man
that shall not fill up his days: for the child shall die a hundred
years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.

65:21. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall
plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of them.

65:22. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant,
and another eat: for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my
people, and the works of their hands shall be of long continuance.

65:23. My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth in trouble;
for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity
with them.

65:24. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will hear;
as they are yet speaking, I will hear.

65:25. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion and the ox
shall eat straw; and dust shall be the serpent's food: they shall not
hurt nor kill in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.

Isaias Chapter 66

More of the reprobation of the Jews, and of the call of the Gentiles.

66:1. Thus saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my
footstool: what is this house that you will build to me? and what is
this place of my rest?

What is this house, etc. . .This is a prophecy that the temple should be
cast off.

66:2. My hand made all these things, and all these things were made,
saith the Lord. But to whom shall I have respect, but to him that is
poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my
words?

66:3. He that sacrificeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that
killeth a sheep in sacrifice, as if he should brain a dog: he that
offereth an oblation, as if he should offer swine's blood; he that
remembereth incense, as if he should bless an idol. All these things
have they chosen in their ways, and their soul is delighted in their
abominations.

He that sacrificeth an ox, etc. . .This is a prophecy that the
sacrifices which were offered in the old law should be abolished in the
new; and that the offering of them should be a crime.--Ibid.
Remembereth incense. . .Viz., to offer it in the way of a sacrifice.

66:4. Wherefore I also will choose their mockeries, and will bring upon
them the things they feared: because I called, and there was none that
would answer; I have spoken, and they heard not; and they have done
evil in my eyes, and have chosen the things that displease me.

I will choose their mockeries. . .I will turn their mockeries upon
themselves; and will cause them to be mocked by their enemies.

66:5. Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word: Your
brethren that hate you, and cast you out for my name's sake, have said:
Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy: but they shall
be confounded.

66:6. A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the temple, the
voice of the Lord that rendereth recompense to his enemies.

66:7. Before she was in labour, she brought forth; before her time came
to be delivered, she brought forth a man child.

Before she was in labour, etc. . .This relates to the conversion of the
Gentiles, who were born, as it were, all on a sudden to the church of
God.

66:8. Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen the like to
this? shall the earth bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be
brought forth at once, because Sion hath been in labour, and hath
brought forth her children?

66:9. Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself
bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others,
be barren, saith the Lord thy God?

66:10. Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love
her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.

66:11. That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her
consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the
abundance of her glory.

66:12. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon her as it were
a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent the glory of the
Gentiles, which you shall suck; you shall be carried at the breasts,
and upon the knees they shall caress you.

66:13. As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you
shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

66:14. You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall
flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his
servants, and he shall be angry with his enemies.

66:15. For behold the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots are
like a whirlwind, to render his wrath in indignation, and his rebuke
with flames of fire.

66:16. For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by his sword unto all
flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.

66:17. They that were sanctified, thought themselves clean in the
gardens behind the gate within, they that did eat swine's flesh, and
the abomination, and the mouse: they shall be consumed together, saith
the Lord.

66:18. But I know their works, and their thoughts: I come that I may
gather them together with all nations and tongues: and they shall come
and shall see my glory.

66:19. And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them that
shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia
them that draw the bow: into Italy, and Greece, to the islands afar
off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory. And
they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles:

66:20. And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations for a
gift to the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on
mules, and in coaches, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord,
as if the children of Israel should bring an offering in a clean vessel
into the house of the Lord.

66:21. And I will take of them to be priests, and Levites, saith the
Lord.

66:22. For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to
stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your seed stand, and your
name.

66:23. And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath:
and all flesh shall come to adore before my face, saith the Lord.

66:24. And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the men that
have transgressed against me: their worm shall not die, and their fire
shall not be quenched: and they shall be a loathsome sight to all
flesh.

THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS

Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the
tribe of Benjamin: and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a
prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a
child in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification
of his name, Great before the Lord; and a special figure of Jesus
Christ, in the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in
his charity for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered
at their hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he
was stoned to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into
Egypt.

Jeremias Chapter 1

The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. God
encourages him.

1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were
in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.

1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the
son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king
of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of
Josias king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive,
in the fifth month.

1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and
before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made
thee a prophet unto the nations.

1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am
a child.

1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go
to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee,
thou shalt speak.

1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver
thee, saith the Lord.

1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the
Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:

1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms,
to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to
build, and to plant.

1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou,
Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.

1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch
over my word to perform it.

1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What
seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof
from the face of the north.

1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth
upon all the inhabitants of the land.

1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms
of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every
one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all
the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.

1:16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all
their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange
gods, and have adored the work of their own hands.

1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them
all that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will
make thee not to fear their countenance.

1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a
pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of
Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of
the land.

1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I
am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.

Jeremias Chapter 2

God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and infidelity.

2:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2:2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord:
I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy
espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not
sown.

2:3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all
they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the
Lord.

2:4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye
families of the house of Israel:

2:5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me,
that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are
become vain?

2:6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up
out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a
land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the
image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man
dwelt?

2:7. And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit
thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you
defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.

Carmel. . .That is, a fruitful, plentiful land.

2:8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the
law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the
prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.

2:9. Therefore will I yet contend in judgment with you, saith the Lord,
and I will plead with your children.

2:10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar,
and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like
this.

2:11. If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not
gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.

2:12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be
very desolate, saith the Lord.

2:13. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the
fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns,
broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

2:14. Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become a
prey?

2:15. The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have
made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is
none to dwell in them.

2:16. The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have defloured thee,
even to the crown of the head.

2:17. Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the
Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?

2:18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the
troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians,
to drink the water of the river?

2:19. Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall
rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing
for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with
thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

2:20. Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands,
and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under
every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.

2:21. Yet, I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then
art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange
vineyard?

2:22. Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the
herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord
God.

Borith. . .An herb used to clean clothes, and take out spots and dirt.

2:23. How canst thou say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after
Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a
swift runner pursuing his course.

2:24. A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his
heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all
that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.

2:25. Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. But
thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved
strangers, and I will walk after them.

2:26. As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of
Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and their
priests, and their prophets.

2:27. Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast
begotten me: they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and
in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.

2:28. Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and
deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: for according to the number
of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.

2:29. Why will you contend with me in judgment? you have all forsaken
me, saith the Lord.

2:30. In vain have I struck your children, they have not received
correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is
like a ravaging lion.

2:31. See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel,
or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are
revolted, we will come to thee no more?

2:32. Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but
my people hath forgotten me days without number.

2:33. Why dost thou endeavour to shew thy way good to seek my love,
thou who hast also taught thy malices to be thy ways,

2:34. And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and
innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I
mentioned before.

2:35. And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and
therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend
with thee in judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.

2:36. How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over
again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of
Assyria.

2:37. For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy
head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have
nothing prosperous therein.

Jeremias Chapter 3

God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive
them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.

3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from
him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not
that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself
to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will
receive thee.

3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted
thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in
the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications,
and with thy wickedness.

3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward
rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my
father, the guide of my virginity:

3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end?
Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been
able.

3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen
what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every
high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot
there.

3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and
she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had
put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous
sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also
herself.

3:9. And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and
played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

3:10. And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned
to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.

3:11. And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her
soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.

3:12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt
say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn
away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be
angry for ever.

3:13. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers
under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.

3:14. Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I
husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and
will bring you into Sion.

3:15. And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they
shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.

3:16. And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in
those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the
covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither
shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that
be done any more.

3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord:
and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of
the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of
their most wicked heart.

3:18. In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel,
and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land
which I gave to your fathers.

3:19. But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give
thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the
Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to
walk after me.

3:20. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of
Israel despised me, saith the Lord.

3:21. A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the
children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have
forgotten the Lord their God.

3:22. Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions.
Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.

3:23. In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the
mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

3:24. Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

3:25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us,
because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers
from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice
of the Lord our God.

Jeremias Chapter 4

And admonition to sincere repentance, and circumcision of the heart,
with threats of grievous punishment to those that persist in sin.

4:1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if
thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not
be moved.

4:2. And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in
judgment, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall
praise him.

4:3. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up
anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:

4:4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your
hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my
indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can
quench it because of the wickedness of your thoughts.

4:5. Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and
sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble
yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.

4:6. Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for
I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.

4:7. The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath
roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land
desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an
inhabitant.

4:8. For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the
fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.

4:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the
heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the
priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed.

4:10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived
this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the
sword reacheth even to the soul?

4:11. At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A
burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the
daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.

4:12. A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will
speak my judgments with them.

4:13. Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a
tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are
laid waste.

4:14. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be
saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?

4:15. For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the
idol from mount Ephraim.

4:16. Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that
guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against
the cities of Juda.

4:17. They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she
hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.

4:18. Thy ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee:
this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched
thy heart.

4:19. My bowels, my bowels are in part, the senses of my heart are
troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard
the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.

4:20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is
laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a
moment.

4:21. How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the
sound of the trumpet?

4:22. For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and
senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have
no knowledge.

4:23. I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the
heavens, and there was no light in them.

4:24. I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all
the hills were troubled.

4:25. I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air
were gone.

4:26. I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities
were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the
wrath of his indignation.

4:27. For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet
I will not utterly destroy.

4:28. The Earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above:
because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented,
neither am I turned away from it.

4:29. At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is
fled away: they have entered into thickets and climbed up the rocks:
all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.

4:30. But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou clothest
thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,
and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out
in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.

4:31. For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as
of a woman in labour of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion,
dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted
because of them that are slain.

Jeremias Chapter 5

The judgments of God shall fall upon the Jews for their manifold sins.

5:1. Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider,
and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that
executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.

5:2. And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear
falsely.

5:3. O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they
have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to
receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock,
and they have refused to return.

5:4. But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the
way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.

5:5. I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for
they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and
behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the
bonds.

5:6. Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the
evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every
one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their
transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

5:7. How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and
swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they
committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.

5:8. They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed
after his neighbour's wife.

5:9. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not
my soul take revenge on such a nation?

5:10. Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly
destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the
Lord's.

5:11. For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly
transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

5:12. They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil
shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.

5:13. The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of
God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

5:14. Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: because you have spoken
this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this
people as wood, and it shall devour them.

5:15. Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of
Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation
whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.

5:16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

5:17. And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour
thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy
herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword
they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

5:18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you
to utter destruction.

5:19. And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these
things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and
served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in
a land that is not your own.

5:20. Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda,
saying:

5:21. Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes,
and see not: and ears, and hear not.

5:22. Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not
repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an
everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves
thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell,
and shall not pass over it.

5:23. But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and
provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

5:24. And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our
God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who
preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.

5:25. Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have
withholden good things from you.

5:26. For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as
fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.

5:27. As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit:
therefore are they become great and enriched.

5:28. They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed
my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not
managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the
judgment of the poor.

5:29. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not
my soul take revenge on such a nation?

5:30. Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

5:31. The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their
hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the
end thereof?

Jeremias Chapter 6

The evils that threaten Jerusalem. She is invited to return, and walk
in the good way, and not to rely on sacrifices without obedience.

6:1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of
Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard
over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great
destruction.

6:2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate
woman.

6:3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have
pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them
that are under his hand.

6:4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe
unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are
grown longer.

6:5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.

6:6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a
trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression
is in the midst of her.

6:7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her
wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity
and stripes are continually before me.

6:8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee,
lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.

6:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of
Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a
grapegatherer into the basket.

6:10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may
hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear:
behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and they
will not receive it.

6:11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with
holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of
the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient
and he that is full of days.

6:12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands
and their wives together: for I will stretch forth my hand upon the
inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.

6:13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to
covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty
of deceit.

6:14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.

6:15. They were confounded, because they committed abomination: yea,
rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how
to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time
of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.

6:16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for
the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall
find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.

6:17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the
sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.

6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great
things I will do to them.

6:19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the
fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and
they have cast away my law.

6:20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the
sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not
acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.

6:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction
upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall,
neighbour and kinsman shall perish.

6:22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the
north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.

6:23. They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will
have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall
mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of
Sion.

6:24. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish
hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.

6:25. Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the
sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.

6:26. Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle
thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter
lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.

6:27. I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou
shalt know, and prove their way.

6:28. All these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they
are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.

6:29. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the
founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.

6:30. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.

Jeremias Chapter 7

The temple of God shall not protect a sinful people, without a sincere
conversion. The Lord will not receive the prayers of the prophet for
them: because they are obstinate in their sins.

7:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

7:2. Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there
this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda,
that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.

7:3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Make your ways and
your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.

7:4. Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the
temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.

7:5. For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will
execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,

7:6. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,
and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange
gods to your own hurt,

7:7. I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to
your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.

7:8. Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit
you:

7:9. To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to
offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.

7:10. And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my
name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have
done all these abominations.

7:11. Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in
your eyes become a den of robbers? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith
the Lord.

7:12. Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the
beginning: and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people
Israel:

7:13. And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord:
and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have
not heard: and I have called you, and you have not answered:

7:14. I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in
which you trust, and to the place which I have given you and your
fathers, as I did to Silo.

7:15. And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away
all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.

7:16. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee
praise and supplication for them: and do not withstand me: for I will
not hear thee.

7:17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the
streets of Jerusalem?

7:18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and
the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to
offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.

Queen of heaven. . .That is, the moon, which they worshipped under that
name.

7:19. Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? is it not
themselves, to the confusion of their own countenance?

7:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my
indignation is enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts,
and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and
it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.

7:21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.

7:22. For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the
day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter
of burnt offerings and sacrifices.

I commanded them not. . .Viz., such sacrifices as the Jews at this time
offered, without obedience; which was the thing principally commanded:
so that in comparison with it, the offering of the holocausts and
sacrifices was of small account.

7:23. But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and
I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the
way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.

7:24. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in
their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went
backward and not forward,

7:25. From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt,
even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
from day to day, rising up early and sending.

7:26. And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but
have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers.

7:27. And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not
hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer
thee.

7:28. And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not
hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction:
faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.

7:29. Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on
high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his
wrath,

7:30. Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the
Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is
called upon, to pollute it;

7:31. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the
valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters in
the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.

7:32. Therefore behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it
shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom:
but the valley of slaughter: and they shall bury in Topheth, because
there is no place.

7:33. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of
the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to
drive them away.

7:34. And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of
the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness,
the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land
shall be desolate.

Jeremias Chapter 8

Other evils that shall fall upon the Jews for their impenitence.

8:1. At that time, saith the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the
kings of Juda, and the bones of the princes thereof, and the bones of
the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

8:2. And they shall spread them abroad to the sun, and the moon, and
all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have
served, and after whom have walked, and whom they have sought, and
adored: they shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried: they
shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.

8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all that shall
remain of this wicked kindred in all places, which are left, to which I
have cast them out, saith the Lord of hosts.

8:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Shall not he that
falleth, rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not turn
again?

8:5. Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn
revolting? they have laid hold on lying, and have refused to return.

8:6. I attended, and hearkened; no man speaketh what is good, there is
none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done? They are
all turned to their own course, as a horse rushing to the battle.

8:7. The kite in the air hath known her time: the turtle, and the
swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming: but my
people have not known the judgment of the Lord.

8:8. How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?
Indeed the lying pens of the scribes hath wrought falsehood.

8:9. The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for
they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in
them.

8:10. Therefore will I give their women to strangers, their fields to
others for an inheritance: because from the least even to the greatest
all follow covetousness: from the prophet even to the priest all deal
deceitfully.

8:11. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people
disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: when there was no peace.

8:12. They are confounded, because they have committed abomination: yea
rather they are not confounded with confusion, and they have not known
how to blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the
time of their visitation they shall fall, saith the Lord.

8:13. Gathering I will gather them together, saith the Lord, there is
no grape on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree, the leaf
is fallen: and I have given them the things that are passed away.

8:14. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into
the fenced city, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath
put us to silence, and hath given us water of gall to drink: for we
have sinned against the Lord.

8:15. We looked for peace and no good came: for a time of healing, and
behold fear.

8:16. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan, all the land was
moved at the sound of the neighing of his warriors: and they came and
devoured the land, and all that was in it: the city and its
inhabitants.

8:17. For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against
which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

8:18. My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.

8:19. Behold the voice of the daughter of my people from a far country:
Is not the Lord in Sion, or is not her king in her? why then have they
provoked me to wrath with their idols, and strange vanities?

8:20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

8:21. For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am afflicted,
and made sorrowful, astonishment hath taken hold on me.

8:22. Is there no balm in Galaad? or is there no physician there? Why
then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?

Jeremias Chapter 9

The prophet laments the miseries of his people: and their sins, which
are the cause of them. He exhorts them to repentance.

9:1. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my
eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people.

9:2. Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring
men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are
all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.

9:3. And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for
truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have
proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the
Lord.

9:4. Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in
any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every
friend will walk deceitfully.

9:5. And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the
truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have
laboured to commit iniquity.

9:6. Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have
refused to know me, saith the Lord.

9:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and
try them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?

9:8. Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his
mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait
for him.

9:9. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall
not my soul be revenged on such a nation?

9:10. For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for
the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt
up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they
have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the
beasts they are gone away and departed.

9:11. And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of
dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an
inhabitant.

9:12. Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the
word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why
the land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none
passeth through?

9:13. And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I
gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.

9:14. But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and
after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.

9:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold
I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to
drink.

9:16. And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their
fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they
be consumed.

9:17. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and
call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that
are wise women, and let them make haste:

9:18. Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes
shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.

9:19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted
and greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our
dwellings are cast down.

9:20. Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears
receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and
every one her neighbour mourning.

9:21. For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our
houses to destroy the children from without, the young men from the
streets.

9:22. Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as
dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the
mower, and there is none to gather it.

9:23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich
man glory in his riches:

9:24. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment,
and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.

9:25. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon
every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.

9:26. Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children
of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled
round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised
in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the
heart.

Jeremias Chapter 10

Neither stars nor idols are to be feared, but the great Creator of all
things. The chastisement of Jerusalem for her sins.

10:1. Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O
house of Israel.

10:2. Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the

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