The Holy Bible

Part 15 out of 29



Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens
fear:

10:3. For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of
the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.

10:4. He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together
with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.

10:5. They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not
speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go.
Therefore fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.

10:6. There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great, and great is
thy name in might.

10:7. Who shall not fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the
glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms
there is none like unto thee.

10:8. They shall be all proved together to be senseless and foolish:
the doctrine of their vanity is wood.

10:9. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from
Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith:
violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of
artificers.

10:10. But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the
everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations
shall not be able to abide his threatening.

10:11. Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made
heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those
places that are under heaven.

10:12. He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world
by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.

10:13. At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and
lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings
for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

10:14. Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is
confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and
there is no spirit in them.

10:15. They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of
their visitation they shall perish.

10:16. The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed
all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts
is his name.

10:17. Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a
siege.

10:18. For thus saith he Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the
inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that
they may be found.

10:19. Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I
said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.

10:20. My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my
children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to
stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

10:21. Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the
Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is
scattered.

10:22. Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the
land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling
for dragons.

10:23. I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it
in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.

The way of a man is not his. . .The meaning is, that notwithstanding
man's free will, yet he can do no good without God's help, nor evil
without his permission. So that, in the present case, all the evils
which Nabuchodonosor was about to bring upon Jerusalem, could not have
come but by the will of God.

10:24. Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in thy fury,
lest thou bring me to nothing.

10:25. Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known
thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name:
because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him,
and have destroyed his glory.



Jeremias Chapter 11


The prophet proclaims the covenant of God: and denounces evils to the
obstinate transgressors of it. The conspiracy of the Jews against him,
a figure of their conspiracy against Christ.

11:1. The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, saying:

11:2. Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Juda,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

11:3. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord the God of
Israel: Cursed is the man that shall not hearken to the words of this
covenant,

11:4. Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out
of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying: Hear ye my voice,
and do all things that I command you: and you shall be my people, and I
will be your God:

11:5. That I may accomplish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to
give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I
answered and said: Amen, O Lord.

11:6. And the Lord said to me: Proclaim aloud all these words in the
cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the
words of the covenant, and do them:

11:7. For protesting I conjured your fathers in the day that I brought
them out of the land of Egypt even to this day: rising early I conjured
them, and said: Hearken ye to my voice:

11:8. And they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear: but walked every one
in the perverseness of his own wicked heart: and I brought upon them
all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they
did them not.

11:9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of
Juda, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

11:10. They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who
refused to hear my words: so these likewise have gone after strange
gods, to serve them: the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have
made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers.

11:11. Wherefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring in evils upon
them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to me,
and I will not hearken to them.

11:12. And the cities of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall
go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer sacrifice, and they shall
not save them in the time of their affliction.

11:13. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda:
and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem thou hast set
up altars of confusion, altars to offer sacrifice to Baalim.

11:14. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, and do not take up
praise and prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time of
their cry to me, in the time of their affliction.

11:15. What is the meaning that my beloved hath wrought much wickedness
in my house? shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy crimes, in
which thou hast boasted?

11:16. The Lord called thy name, a plentiful olive tree, fair,
fruitful, and beautiful: at the noise of a word, a great fire was
kindled in it, and the branches thereof are burnt.

11:17. And the Lord of hosts that planted thee, hath pronounced evil
against thee: for the evils of the house of Israel, and of the house of
Juda, which they have done to themselves, to provoke me, offering
sacrifice to Baalim.

11:18. But thou, O Lord, hast shewn me, and I have known: then thou
shewedst me their doings.

11:19. And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I
knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put
wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let
his name be remembered no more.

11:20. But thou, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judgest justly, and triest the
reins and the hearts, let me see thy revenge on them: for to thee have
I revealed my cause.

Sabaoth. . .That is, of hosts or armies, a name frequently given to God
in the scriptures.--Ibid. Thy revenge. . .This was rather a prediction
of what was to happen, with an approbation of the divine justice, than an
imprecation.

11:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek
thy life, and say: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and
thou shalt not die in our hands.

11:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon
them: their young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their
daughters shall die by famine.

11:23. And there shall be no remains of them: for I will bring in evil
upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation.



Jeremias Chapter 12


The prosperity of the wicked shall be but for a short time. The
desolation of the Jews for their sins. Their return from their
captivity.

12:1. Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, but yet I
will speak what is just to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked
prosper: why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?

12:2. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper
and bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their
reins.

12:3. And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and proved my
heart with thee: gather them together as for the day of slaughter.

12:4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither
for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts and the birds
are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.

12:5. If thou hast been wearied with running with footmen, how canst
thou contend with horses? and if thou hast been secure in a land of
peace, what wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?

12:6. For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they
have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice:
believe them not when they speak good things to thee.

12:7. I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have
given my dear soul into the hand of her enemies.

12:8. My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: it hath
cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.

12:9. Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed
throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth,
make haste to devour.

12:10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my
portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a
desolate wilderness.

12:11. They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With
desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that
considereth in the heart.

12:12. The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for
the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the
other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.

12:13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an
inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your
fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.

12:14. Thus saith the Lord against all wicked neighbours, that touch
the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I
will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda
out of the midst of them.

12:15. And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have
mercy on them: and will bring them back, every man to his inheritance,
and every man into his land.

12:16. And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will
learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as
they have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built
up in the midst of my people.

12:17. But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy
that nation, saith the Lord.



Jeremias Chapter 13


Under the figure of a linen girdle is foretold the destruction of the
Jews. Their obstinacy in sin brings all miseries upon them.

13:1. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and
thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.

13:2. And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it
about my loins.

13:3. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:

13:4. Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins,
and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the
rock.

13:5. And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had
commanded me.

13:6. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me:
Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I
commanded thee to hide there.

13:7. And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out
of the place where I had hid it and behold the girdle was rotten, so
that it was fit for no use.

13:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

13:9. Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of
Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.

13:10. This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk
in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to
serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle ,which
is fit for no use.

13:11. For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have
I brought close to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of
Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and
for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

13:12. Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the
Lord the God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. And
they shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be
filled with wine?

13:13. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will
fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of
David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

13:14. And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers
and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will
not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.

13:15. Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.

13:16. Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and
before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for
light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.

13:17. But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for
your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with
tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.

13:18. Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down:
for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.

13:19. The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open
them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.

13:20. Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where
is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?

13:21. What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast
taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head:
shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

13:22. And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come
upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is
discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.

13:23. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots:
you also may do well, when you have learned evil.

13:24. And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the
wind in the desert.

13:25. This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith
the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in
falsehood.

13:26. Wherefore I have also bared thy thighs against thy face, and thy
shame hath appeared.

13:27. I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of
thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe
to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?



Jeremias Chapter 14


A grievous famine: and the prophet's prayer on that occasion. Evils
denounced to false prophets. The prophet mourns for his people.

14:1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the words
of the drought.

14:2. Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are
become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

14:3. The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to
draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they
were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.

14:4. For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon
the earth, the husbandman were confounded, they covered their heads.

14:5. Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it,
because there was no grass.

14:6. And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind
like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

14:7. If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it
for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned
against thee.

14:8. O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble:
why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man
turning in to lodge?

14:9. Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot
save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by
us, forsake us not.

14:10. Thus saith the Lord to this people, that have loved to move
their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will
now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.

14:11. And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their
good.

14:12. When they fast I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer
holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume
them by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.

14:13. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them:
You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you,
but he will give you true peace in this place.

14:14. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my
name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken
to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and
deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.

14:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that
prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine
shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be
consumed.

14:16. And the people to whom they prophesy, shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there
shall be none to bury them: they and their wives, their sons and their
daughters, and I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.

14:17. And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed down
tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the virgin
daughter of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an
exceeding grievous evil.

14:18. If I go forth into the fields, behold the slain with the sword:
and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with
famine. The prophet also and the priest are gone into a land which they
knew not.

14:19. Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred
Sion? why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us?
we have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of
healing, and behold trouble.

14:20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our
fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

14:21. Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name's sake, and do not
disgrace in us the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy
covenant with us.

14:22. Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can
send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our
God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.



Jeremias Chapter 15


God is determined to punish the Jews for their sins. The prophet's
complaint, and God's promise to him.

15:1. And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel shall stand before
me, my soul is not towards this people: cast them out from my sight,
and let them go forth.

15:2. And if they shall say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to
death: and such as are for the sword, to the sword: and such as are for
famine, to famine: and such as are for captivity, to captivity.

15:3. And I will visit them with four kinds, saith the Lord: The sword
to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts
of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

15:4. And I will give them up to the rage of all the kingdoms of the
earth: because of Manasses the son of Ezechias the king of Juda, for
all that he did in Jerusalem.

15:5. For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan
thee? or who shall go to pray for thy peace?

15:6. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward:
and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee: I
am weary of entreating thee.

15:7. And I will scatter them with a fan in the gates of the land: I
have killed and destroyed my people, and yet they are not returned from
their ways.

15:8. Their widows are multiplied unto me above the sand of the sea: I
have brought upon them against the mother of the young man a spoiler at
noonday: I have cast a terror on a sudden upon the cities.

15:9. She that hath borne seven is become weak, her soul hath fainted
away: her sun is gone down, while it was yet day: she is confounded,
and ashamed: and the residue of them I will give up to the sword in the
sight of their enemies, saith the Lord.

15:10. Woe is me, my mother: why hast thou borne me a man of strife, a
man of contention to all the earth? I have not lent on usury, neither
hath any man lent to me on usury: yet all curse me.

15:11. The Lord saith to me: Assuredly it shall be well with thy
remnant, assuredly I shall help thee in the time of affliction, and in
the time of tribulation against the enemy.

15:12. Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the
brass?

Shall iron be allied, etc. . .Shall the iron, that is, the strength of
Juda, stand against the stronger iron of the north, that is, of
Babylon: or enter into an alliance upon equal footing with it? No
certainly: but it must be broken by it.

15:13. Thy riches and thy treasures I will give unto spoil for nothing,
because of all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

15:14. And I will bring thy enemies out of a land, which thou knowest
not: for a fire is kindled in my rage, it shall burn upon you.

15:15. O Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and defend me
from them that persecute me, do not defend me in thy patience: know
that for thy sake I have suffered reproach.

Do not defend me in thy patience. . .That is, let not thy patience and
longsuffering, which thou usest towards sinners, keep thee from making
haste to my assistance.

15:16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me
a joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Lord
God of hosts.

15:17. I sat not in the assembly of jesters, nor did I make a boast of
the presence of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with
threats.

15:18. Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate so as
to refuse to be healed? it is become to me as the falsehood of
deceitful waters that cannot be trusted.

15:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted, I will
convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face; and thou wilt
separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they
shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.

15:20. And I will make thee to this people as a strong wall of brass:
and they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with
thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

15:21. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I
will redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty.



Jeremias Chapter 16


The prophet is forbid to marry. The Jews shall be utterly ruined for
their idolatry: but shall at length be released from their captivity,
and the Gentiles shall be converted.

16:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

16:2. Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons and
daughters in this place.

16:3. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and daughters, that
are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them:
and concerning their fathers, of whom they were born in this land:

16:4. They shall die by the death of grievous illnesses: they shall not
be lamented, and they shall not be buried, they shall be as dung upon
the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed with the sword, and
with famine: and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the
air, and for the beasts of the earth.

16:5. For thus saith the Lord: Enter not into the house of feasting,
neither go thou to mourn, nor to comfort them: because I have taken
away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, my mercy and
commiserations.

16:6. Both the great and the little shall die in this land: they shall
not be buried nor lamented, and men shall not cut themselves, nor make
themselves bald for them.

16:7. And they shall not break bread among them to him that mourneth,
to comfort him for the dead: neither shall they give them for their
father and mother.

16:8. And do not thou go into the house of feasting, to sit with them,
and to eat and drink:

16:9. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I
will take away out of this place in your sight, and in your days the
voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom,
and the voice of the bride.

16:10. And when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they
shall say to thee: Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced against us all
this great evil? what is our iniquity? and what is our sin, that we
have sinned against the Lord our God?

16:11. Thou shalt say to them: Because your fathers forsook me, saith
the Lord: and went after strange gods, and served them, and adored
them: and they forsook me, and kept not my law.

16:12. And you also have done worse than your fathers: for behold every
one of you walketh after the perverseness of his evil heart, so as not
to hearken to me.

16:13. So I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land which you
know not, nor your fathers: and there you shall serve strange gods day
and night, which shall not give you any rest.

16:14. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, when it shall be
said no more: The Lord liveth, that brought forth the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt.

16:15. But, The Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of
the land of the north, and out of all the lands to which I cast them
out: and I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their
fathers.

16:16. Behold I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall
fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall
hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill and out of the holes
of the rocks.

16:17. For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my
face, and their iniquity hath not been hid from my eyes.

16:18. And I will repay first their double iniquities, and their sins:
because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols,
and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

16:19. O Lord, my might, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of
tribulation: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the
earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a vanity
which hath not profited them.

16:20. Shall a man make gods unto himself and they are no gods?

16:21. Therefore behold I will this once cause them to know, I will
shew them my hand and my power: and they shall know that my name is the
Lord.



Jeremias Chapter 17


For their obstinacy in sin the Jews shall be led captive. He is cursed
that trusteth in flesh. God alone searcheth the heart, giving to every
one as he deserves. The prophet prayeth to be delivered from his
enemies, and preacheth up the observance of the sabbath.

17:1. The sin of Juda is written with a pen of iron, with the point of
a diamond, it is graven upon the table of their heart, upon the horns
of their altars.

17:2. When their children shall remember their altars, and their
groves, and their green trees upon the high mountains,

17:3. Sacrificing in the field: I will give thy strength, and all thy
treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin in all thy borders.

17:4. And thou shalt be left stripped of thy inheritance, which I gave
thee: and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou
knowest not: because thou hast kindled a fire in my wrath, it shall
burn for ever.

17:5. Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and
maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.

17:6. For he shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see
when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert in a
salt land, and not inhabited.

Tamaric. . .A barren shrub that grows in the driest parts of the
wilderness.

17:7. Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall
be his confidence.

17:8. And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that
spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when
the heat cometh. And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time
of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any
time to bring forth fruit.

17:9. The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can
know it?

17:10. I am the Lord who search the heart, and prove the reins: who
give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of
his devices.

17:11. As the partridge hath hatched eggs which she did not lay: so is
he that hath gathered riches, and not by right: in the midst of his
days he shall leave them, and in his latter end he shall be a fool.

17:12. A high and glorious throne from the beginning is the place of
our sanctification.

17:13. O Lord, the hope of Israel: all that forsake thee shall be
confounded: they that depart from thee, shall be written in the earth:
because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters.

17:14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be
saved: for thou art my praise.

17:15. Behold they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? let it
come.

17:16. And I am not troubled, following thee for my pastor, and I have
not desired the day of man, thou knowest. That which went out of my
lips, hath been right in thy sight.

17:17. Be not thou a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day of
affliction.

17:18. Let them be confounded that persecute me, and let not me be
confounded: let them be afraid, and let not me be afraid: bring upon
them the day of affliction, and with a double destruction, destroy
them.

Let them be confounded, etc. . .Such expressions as these in the
writings of the prophets, are not to be understood as imprecations
proceeding from malice or desire of revenge: but as prophetic
predictions of evils that were about to fall upon impenitent sinners,
and approbations of the ways of divine justice.

17:19. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the
children of the people, by which the kings of Juda come in, and go out,
and in all the gates of Jerusalem:

17:20. And thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings
of Juda, and al Juda, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter
in by these gates.

17:21. Thus saith the Lord: Take heed to your souls, and carry no
burdens on the sabbath day: and bring them not in by the gates of
Jerusalem.

17:22. And do not bring burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day,
neither do ye any work: sanctify the sabbath day, as I commanded your
fathers.

17:23. But they did not hear, nor incline their ear: but hardened their
neck, that they might not hear me, and might not receive instruction.

17:24. And it shall come to pass: if you will hearken to me, saith the
Lord, to bring in no burdens by the gates of this city on the sabbath
day: and if you will sanctify the sabbath day, to do no work therein:

17:25. Then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and
princes, sitting upon the throne of David, and riding in chariots and
on horses, they and their princes, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever.

17:26. And they shall come from the cities of Juda, and from the places
round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the
plains, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing
holocausts, and victims, and sacrifices, and frankincense, and they
shall bring in an offering into the house of the Lord.

17:27. But if you will not hearken to me, to sanctify the sabbath day,
and not to carry burdens, and not to bring them in by the gates of
Jerusalem on the sabbath day: I will kindle a fire in the gates
thereof, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it shall not
be quenched.



Jeremias Chapter 18


As the clay in the hand of the potter, so is Israel in God's hand. He
pardoneth penitents, and punisheth the obstinate. They conspire against
Jeremias, for which he denounceth to them the miseries that hang over
them.

18:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

18:2. Arise, and go down into the potter's house, and there thou shalt
hear my words.

18:3. And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing
a work on the wheel.

18:4. And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his
hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his
eyes to make it.

18:5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

18:6. Cannot I do with you, as this potter, O house of Israel, saith
the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my
hand, O house of Israel.

18:7. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to
root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.

18:8. If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their
evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.

18:9. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build
up and plant it.

18:10. If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I
will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.

18:11. Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against
you, and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from
his evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.

18:12. And they said; We have no hopes: for we will go after our own
thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his
evil heart.

18:13. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath
heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to
excess?

18:14. Shall the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or
can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?

18:15. Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and
stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not
trodden:

18:16. That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a
perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be
astonished, and wag his head.

18:17. As a burning wind will I scatter them before the enemy: I will
shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.

18:18. And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias:
for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the
wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with
the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.

18:19. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.

18:20. Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit
for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for
them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.

Remember, etc. . .This is spoken in the person of Christ, persecuted by
the Jews, and prophetically denouncing the evils that should fall upon
them in punishment of their crimes.

18:21. Therefore deliver up their children to famine, and bring them
into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children
and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young
men be stabbed with the sword in battle.

18:22. Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the
robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me,
and have hid snares for my feet.

18:23. But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto
death: not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from
thy sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy
wrath do thou destroy them.



Jeremias Chapter 19


Under the type of breaking a potter's vessel, the prophet foresheweth
the desolation of the Jews for their sins.

19:1. Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter's earthen bottle, and
take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:

19:2. And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the
entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that
I shall tell thee.

19:3. And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of
Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts,
the God of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place:
so that whosoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:

19:4. Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place : and
have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their
fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place
with the blood of innocents.

19:5. And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their
children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command,
nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.

19:6. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place
shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom,
but the valley of slaughter.

19:7. And I will defeat the counsel of Juda and of Jerusalem in this
place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their
enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will
give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the
beasts of the earth.

19:8. And I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing: every
one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss because
of all the plagues thereof.

19:9. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the
flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his
friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and
they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.

19:10. And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that
shall go with thee.

19:11. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Even
so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter's vessel is
broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in
Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.

19:12. Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the
inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.

19:13. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Juda
shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon whose
roofs they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured
out drink offerings to strange gods.

19:14. Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him
to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and
said to all the people:

19:15. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will
bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof all the evils
that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks,
that they might not hear my words.



Jeremias Chapter 20


The prophet is persecuted: he denounces captivity to his persecutors,
and bemoans himself.

20:1. Now Phassur the son of Emmer, the priest, who was appointed chief
in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words.

20:2. And Phassur struck Jeremias the prophet, and put him in the
stocks, that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the
Lord.

20:3. And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out
of the stocks. And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy
name Phassur, but fear on every side.

Phassur. . .This name signifies increase and principality: and therefore
is here changed to Magor-Missabib, or fear on every side: to denote the
evils that should come upon him in punishment of his opposing the word
of God.

20:4. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver thee up to fear,
thee and all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their
enemies, and thy eyes shall see it, and I will give all Juda into the
hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall carry them away to Babylon,
and shall strike them with the sword.

20:5. And I will give all the substance of this city, and all its
labour, and every precious thing thereof, and all the treasures of the
kings of Juda will I give into the hands of their enemies: and they
shall pillage them, and take them away, and carry them to Babylon.

20:6. But thou Phassur, and all that dwell in thy house, shall go into
captivity, and thou shalt go to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and
there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast
prophesied a lie.

20:7. Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been
stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughingstock
all the day, all scoff at me.

Thou hast deceived, etc. . .The meaning of the prophet, is not to charge
God with any untruth; but what he calls deceiving, was only the
concealing from him, when he accepted of the prophetical commission,
the greatness of the evils which the execution of that commission was
to bring upon him.

20:8. For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against
iniquity, and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is
made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day.

20:9. Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more
in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in
my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.

20:10. For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side:
Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my
familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be
deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.

20:11. But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore they that
persecute me shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly
confounded, because they have not understood the everlasting reproach,
which never shall be effaced.

20:12. And thou, O Lord of hosts, prover of the just, who seest the
reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them:
for to thee I have laid open my cause.

Let me see, etc. . .This prayer proceeded not from hatred or ill will,
but zeal of justice.

20:13. Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered
the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.

20:14. Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which
my mother bore me, be blessed.

Cursed be the day, etc. . .In these, and the following words of the
prophet, there is a certain figure of speech to express with more
energy the greatness of the evils to which his birth had exposed him.

20:15. Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying:
A man child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice.

20:16. Let that man be as the cities which the Lord hath overthrown,
and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling
at noontide:

20:17. Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my
grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.

20:18. Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and that
my days should be spent in confusion?



Jeremias Chapter 21


The prophet's answer to the messengers of Sedecias, when Jerusalem was
besieged.

21:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias
sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of
Maasias the priest, saying:

21:2. Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon
maketh war against us: if so be the Lord will deal with us according to
all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us.

21:3. And Jeremias said to them: Thus shall you say to Sedecias:

21:4. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold I will turn back
the weapons of war that are in your hands, and with which you fight
against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans, that besiege you round
about the walls: and I will gather them together in the midst of this
city.

21:5. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand,
and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great
wrath.

21:6. And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, men and beasts
shall die of a great pestilence.

21:7. And after this, saith the Lord, I will give Sedecias the king of
Juda, and his servants, and his people, and such as are left in this
city from the pestilence, and the sword, and the famine, into the hand
of Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their
enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and he shall
strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be moved to
pity, nor spare them, nor shew mercy to them.

21:8. And to this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I
set before you the way of life, and the way of death.

21:9. He that shall abide in this city, shall die by the sword, and by
the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that shall go out and flee
over to the Chaldeans, that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall
be to him as a spoil.

21:10. For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for
good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

21:11. And to the house of the king of Juda: Hear ye the word of the
Lord,

21:12. O house of David, thus saith the Lord: Judge ye judgment in the
morning, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand
of the oppressor: lest my indignation go forth like a fire, and be
kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your
ways.

21:13. Behold I come to thee that dwellest in a valley upon a rock
above a plain, saith the Lord: and you say: Who shall strike us and who
shall enter into our houses?

To thee that dwellest, etc. . .He speaks to Jerusalem, confiding in the
strength of her situation upon rocks, surrounded with a deep valley.

21:14. But I will visit upon you according to the fruit of your doings,
saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof: and it
shall devour all things round about it.



Jeremias Chapter 22


An exhortation both to king and people to return of God. The sentence
of God upon Joachaz, Joakim, and Jechonias.

22:1. Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda,
and there thou shalt speak this word,

Go down, etc. . .The contents of this chapter are of a more ancient date
than those of the foregoing chapter: for the order of time is not
always observed in the writings of the prophets.

22:2. And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, king of Juda, that
sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy
people, who enter in by these gates.

22:3. Thus saith the Lord: Execute judgment and justice, and deliver
him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not
the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, nor oppress them unjustly:
and shed not innocent blood in this place.

22:4. For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in
by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his
throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants,
and their people.

22:5. But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself,
saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.

22:6. For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou
art to me Galaad the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a
wilderness, and cities not habitable.

Galaad the head of Libanus. . .By Galaad, a rich and fruitful country,
is here signified the royal palace of the kings of the house of David:
by Libanus, a high mountain abounding in cedar trees, the populous city
of Jerusalem.

22:7. And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons:
and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong
into the fire.

Prepare. . .Literally, sanctify.

22:8. And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say
every man to his neighbour: Why hath the Lord done so to this great
city?

22:9. And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.

22:10. Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears:
lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his
native country.

Weep not for him that is dead, etc. . .He means the good king Josias,
who by death was taken away, so as not to see the miseries of his
country.--Ibid. Him that goeth away. . .Viz., sellum, alias Joachaz, who
was carried captive into Egypt.

22:11. For thus saith the Lord to Sellum the son of Josias the king of
Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this
place: He shall return hither no more:

22:12. But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he
die, and he shall not see this land any more.

22:13. Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his
chambers not in judgment: that will oppress his friend without cause,
and will not pay him his wages.

22:14. Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who
openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth
them with vermilion.

22:15. Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it
was then well with him?

22:16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was
it not therefore because he knew me, saith the Lord?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 23


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 24


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 25


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Punish. . .Literally, visit upon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 26


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 27


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 28


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



Jeremias Chapter 29


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

29:14. And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring


 


Back to Full Books