Chapter 44

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.