Catholic Blog List

Isaias - Jeremias


ISAIAS
THE PROPHECY OF ISAIAS.

ISAIAS 1
CHAPTER I.

The prophet complains of the sins of Juda and Jerusalem: and exhorts them to a sincere conversion.

1 The vision of Isaias, the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Juda and Jerusalem in the days of Ozias, *Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda.
2 Hear, O ye heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken.  I have brought up children, *and exalted them, but they have despised me.
3 The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me, and my people hath not understood.
4 Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, ungracious children: they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the holy One of Israel, they are gone away backwards.
5 For what shall I strike you any more, you that increase transgression? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart is sad.
6 From the sole of the foot unto the top of the head, there is no soundness therein: wounds and bruises, and swelling sores: they are not bound up, nor dressed, nor fomented with oil.
7 *Your land is desolate, your cities are burnt with fire: your country strangers devour before your face, and it shall be desolate as when wasted by enemies.
8 And the daughter of Sion shall be left as a covert in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a city that is laid waste.
9 *Except the Lord of hosts had left us seed, **we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like to Gomorrha.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha.
11 *To what purpose do you offer me the multitude of your victims, saith the Lord?  I am full, I desire not holocausts of rams, and fat of fatlings, and blood of calves, and lambs, and buck-goats.
12 When you came to appear before me, who required these things at your hands, that you should walk in my courts?
13 Offer sacrifice no more in vain: incense is an abomination to me.  The new moons, and the sabbaths, and other festivals, I will not abide, your assemblies are wicked.
14 My soul hateth your new moons, and your solemnities: they are become troublesome to me, I am weary of bearing them.
15 And when you stretch forth your hands, I will turn away my eyes from you: and when you multiply prayer, I will not hear: *for your hands are full of blood.
16 *Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely,
17 Learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge for the fatherless, defend the widow.
18 And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.
19 If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land.
20 But if you will not, and will provoke me to wrath: the sword shall devour you, because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
21 How is the faithful city, that was full of judgment, become a harlot? justice dwelt in it, but now murderers.
22 Thy silver is turned into dross: thy wine is mingled with water.
23 Thy princes are faithless, companions of thieves: they all love bribes, the run after rewards.  *They judge not for the fatherless: and the widow's cometh not in to them.
24 Therefore, saith the Lord, the God of hosts, the mighty one of Israel: Ah! I will comfort myself over my adversaries: and I will be revenged of my enemies.
25 And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean purge away thy dross, and I will take away all thy tin.
26 And I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy counsellors as of old.  After this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city.
27 Sion shall be redeemed in judgment, and they shall bring her back in justice.
28 And he shall destroy the wicked, and the sinners together: and they that have forsaken the Lord, shall be consumed.
29 For they shall be confounded for the idols, to which they have sacrificed: and you shall be ashamed of the gardens which you had chosen.
30 When you shall be as an oak with the leaves falling off, and as a garden without water.
31 And your strength shall be as the ashes of tow, and your work as a spark: and both shall burn together, and there shall be none to quench it.
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*
1:  A.M. 3219, A.C. 785.
2:  Osee xi. 3.
7:  Infra v. 6.
9:  Rom. ix. 29. --- ** Gen. xix. 24.
11:  Jer. vi. 20.; Amos v. 21.
15:  Infra lix. 3.
16:  1 Pet. iii. 11.
23:  Jer. v. 28.
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ISAIAS 2
CHAPTER II.

All nations shall flow to the Church of Christ.  The Jews shall be rejected for their sins.  Idolatry shall be destroyed.

1 The word that Isaias, the son of Amos, saw, concerning Juda and Jerusalem.
2 *And in the last days the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
3 And many people shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4 And he shall judge the Gentiles, and rebuke many people: and they shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into sickles: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they be exercised any more to war.
5 O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
6 For thou hast cast off thy people, the house of Jacob: because they are filled as in times past, and have had soothsayers as the Philistines, and have adhered to strange children.
7 Their land is filled with silver and gold: and there is no end of their treasures.
8 And their land is filled with horses: and their chariots are innumerable.  Their land also is full of idols: they have adored the work of their own hands, which their own fingers have made.
9 And man hath bowed himself down, and man hath been debased: therefore, forgive them not.
10 Enter thou into the rock, and hide thee in the pit from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty.
11 The lofty eyes of man are humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be made to stoop: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
12 Because the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and high-minded, and upon every one that is arrogant, and he shall be humbled.
13 And upon all the tall and lofty cedars of Libanus, and upon all the oaks of Basan.
14 And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the elevated hills.
15 And upon every high tower, and every fenced wall.
16 And upon all the ships of Tharsis, and upon all that is fair to behold.
17 And the loftiness of men shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.
18 And idols shall be utterly destroyed.
19 *And they shall go into the holes of rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
20 In that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he had made for himself to adore, moles and bats.
21 And he shall go into the clefts of rocks, and into the holes of stones, from the face of the fear of the Lord, and from the glory of his majesty, when he shall rise up to strike the earth.
22 Cease ye, therefore, from the man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for he is reputed high.
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*
2:  Micheas iv. 1.
19:  Osee x. 8.; Lu. xxiii. 30.; Apoc. vi. 16.
====================

ISAIAS 3
CHAPTER III.

The confusion and other evils that shall come upon the Jews for their sins.  The pride of their women shall be punished.

1 For behold the sovereign, the Lord of hosts, shall take away from Jerusalem, and from Juda the valiant and the strong, the whole strength of bread, and the whole strength of water.
2 The strong man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the cunning man, and the ancient.
3 The captain over fifty, and the honourable in countenance, and the counsellor, and the architect, and the skilful in eloquent speech.
4 *And I will give children to be their princes, and the effeminate shall rule over them.
5 And the people shall rush one upon another, and every man against his neighbour: the child shall make it tumult against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.
6 For a man shall take hold of his brother, one of the house of his father, saying: Thou hast a garment, be thou our ruler, and let this ruin be under thy hand.
7 In that day he shall answer, saying: I am no healer, and in my house there is no bread, nor clothing: make me not ruler of the people.
8 For Jerusalem is ruined, and Juda is fallen: because their tongue, and their devices, are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of his majesty.
9 The shew of their countenance hath answered them: and they have proclaimed abroad their sin as Sodom, and they have not hid it: woe to their soul, for evils are rendered to them.
10 Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings.
11 Woe to the wicked unto evil: for the reward of his hands shall be given him.
12 As for my people, their oppressors have stripped them, and women have ruled over them.  O my people, *they that call thee blessed, the same deceive thee, and destroy the way of thy steps.
13 The Lord standeth up to judge, and he standeth to judge the people.
14 The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and its princes: for you have devoured the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your house.
15 Why do you consume my people, and grind the faces of the poor? saith the Lord, the God of hosts.
16 And the Lord said: Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and have walked with stretched-out necks, and wanton glances of their eyes, and made a noise as they walked with their feet, and moved in a set pace:
17 The Lord will make bald the crown of the head of the daughters of Sion, and the Lord will discover their hair.
18 In that day the Lord will take away the ornaments of shoes, and little moons,
19 And chains, and necklaces, and bracelets, and bonnets,
20 And bodkins, and ornaments of the legs, and tablets, and sweet balls, and ear-rings,
21 And rings, and jewels hanging on the forehead,
22 And changes of apparel, and short cloaks, and fine linen, and crisping pins,
23 And looking-glasses, and lawns, and headbands, and fine veils.
24 And instead of a sweet smell, there shall be stench, and instead of a girdle a cord, and instead of curled hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher haircloth.
25 Thy fairest men also shall fall by the sword, and thy valiant ones in battle.
26 And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall sit desolate on the ground.
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*
4:  Eccle. x.
12:  Ezec. xiii. 10.
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ISAIAS 4
CHAPTER IV.

After an extremity of evils that shall fall upon the Jews, a remnant shall be comforted by Christ.

1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying: We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, take away our reproach.
2 In that day the bud of the Lord shall be in magnificence and glory, and the fruit of the earth shall be high, and a great joy to them that shall have escaped of Israel.
3 And it shall come to pass, that every one that shall be left in Sion, and that shall remain in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, every one that is written in life in Jerusalem.
4 If the Lord shall wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall wash away the blood of Jerusalem out of the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.
5 And the Lord will create upon every place of Mount Sion, and where he is called upon, a cloud by day, and a smoke, and the brightness of a flaming fire in the night: for over all the glory shall be a protection.
6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shade in the day-time from the heat, and for a security and covert from the whirlwind, and from rain.
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ISAIAS 5
CHAPTER V.

The reprobation of the Jews is foreshewn under the parable of a vineyard.  A woe is pronounced against sinners: the army God shall send against them.

1 I will *sing to my beloved the canticle of my cousin concerning his vineyard.  My beloved had a vineyard on a hill  in a fruitful place.
2 And he fenced it in, and picked the stones out of it, and planted it with the choicest vines, and built a tower in the midst thereof, and set up a wine-press therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And  now, O ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and ye men of Juda, judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What is there that I ought to do more to my vineyard, that I have not done to it? was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes?
5 And now I will shew you what I will do to my vineyard.  I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be wasted: I will break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down.
6 And I will make it desolate: it shall not be pruned, and it shall not be digged: but briers and thorns shall come up: and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it.
7:  For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel: and the man of Juda, his pleasant plant: and I looked that he should do judgment, and behold iniquity: and do justice, and behold a cry.
8 Woe to you that join house to house, and lay field to field, even to the end of the place: shall you alone dwell in the midst of the earth?
9 These things are in my ears, saith the Lord of hosts: unless many great and fair houses shall become desolate, without an inhabitant.
10 For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one little measure, and thirty bushels of seed shall yield three bushels.
11 Woe to you that rise up early in the morning to follow drunkenness, and to drink till the evening, to be inflamed with wine.
12 The harp, and the lyre, and the timbrel, and the pipe, and wine, are in your feasts: and the work of the Lord you regard not, nor do you consider the works of his hands.*
13 Therefore is my people led away captive, because they had not knowledge, and their nobles have perished with famine, and their multitude were dried up with thirst.
14 Therefore hath hell enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth without any bounds, and their strong ones, and their people, and their high and glorious ones shall go down into it.
15 And man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be brought low.
16 And the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and the holy God shall be sanctified in justice.
17 And the lambs shall feed according to their order, and strangers shall eat the deserts turned into fruitfulness.
18 Woe to you that draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as the rope of a cart.
19 That say: Let him make haste, and let his work come quickly, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the holy one of Israel come, that we may know it.
20 Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.
21 *Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits.
22 Woe to you that are mighty to drink wine, and stout men at drunkenness.
23 That justify the wicked for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him.
24 Therefore, as the tongue of the fire devoureth the stubble, and the heat of the flame consumeth it; so shall their root be as ashes, and their bud shall go up as dust: for they have cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and have blasphemed the word of the holy one of Israel.
25 Therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them, and struck them: and the mountains were troubled, and their carcasses became as dung in the midst of the streets.  For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
26 And he will lift up a sign to the nations afar off, and will whistle to them from the ends of the earth: and behold they shall come with speed swiftly.
27 There is none that shall faint, nor labour among them: they shall not slumber, nor sleep, neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken.
28 Their arrows are sharp, and all their bows are bent.  The hoofs of their horses shall be like the flint, and their wheels like the violence of a tempest.
29 Their roaring like that of a lion, they shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and take hold of the prey, and they shall keep fast hold of it, and there shall be none to deliver it.
30 And they shall make a noise against them that day, like the roaring of the sea: we shall look towards the land, and behold darkness of tribulation, and the light is darkened with the mist thereof.
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*
1:  Jer. ii. 21.; Mat. xxi. 33.
12:  Amos vi. 6.
21:  Prov. iii. 7.; Rom. xii. 16.
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ISAIAS 6
CHAPTER VI.

A glorious vision, in which the prophet's lips are cleansed: he foretelleth the obstinacy of the Jews.

1 In the year that king Ozias died, *I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and elevated: and his train filled the temple.
2 Upon it stood the Seraphims: the one had six wings, and the other had six wings: with two they covered his face, and with two they covered his feet, and with two they flew.
3 And they cried one to another, and said: *Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.
4 And the lintels of the doors were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: Woe is me, because I have held my peace; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people that hath unclean lips, and I have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of hosts.
6 And one of the Seraphims flew to me, and in his hand was a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs off the altar.
7 And he touched my mouth, *and said: Behold this hath touched thy lips, and thy iniquities shall be taken away, and thy sin shall be cleansed.
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send? and who shall go for us?  And I said: Lo, here am I, send me.
9 And he said: Go, and thou shalt say to this people: *Hearing, hear, and understand not: and see the vision, and know it not.
10 Blind the heart of this people, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes: lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I heal them.
11 And I said: How long, O Lord?  And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate.
12 And the Lord shall remove men far away, and she shall be multiplied that was left in the midst of the earth.
13 And there shall be still a tithing therein, and she shall turn, and shall be made a shew as a turpentine-tree, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches: that which shall stand therein, shall be a holy seed.
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*
1:  A.M. 3246, A.C. 758.
3:  Apoc. iv. 8.
7:  Jer. i. 9.
9:  Mat. xiii. 14.; Mark iv. 12.; Luke viii. 10.; John xii. 40.; Acts xxviii. 26.; Rom. xi. 8.
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ISAIAS 7
CHAPTER VII.

The prophet assures Achaz that the two kings, his enemies, shall not take Jersualem.  A virgin shall conceive and bear a son.

1 And *it came to pass in the days of Achaz, the son of Joathan, the son of Ozias, king of Juda, that Rasin, king of Syria, and Phacee, the son of Romelia, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem, to fight against it: but they could not prevail over it.
2 And they told the house of David, saying: Syria hath rested upon Ephraim, and his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the woods are moved with the wind.
3 And the Lord said to Isaias: Go forth to meet Achaz, thou and Jasub, thy son, that is left, to the conduit of the upper pool, *in the way of the fuller's field.
4 And thou shalt say to him: See thou be quiet: fear not, and let not thy heart be afraid of the two tails of these fire-brands, smoking with the wrath of the fury of Rasin, king of Syria, and of the son of Romelia.
5 Because Syria hath taken counsel against thee, unto the evil of Ephraim and the son of Romelia, saying:
6 Let us go up to Juda, and rouse it up, and draw it away to us, and make the son of Tabeel king in the midst thereof.
7 Thus saith the Lord God: It shall not stand, and this shall not be.
8 But the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rasin: and within threescore and five years, Ephraim shall cease to be a people:
9 And the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria, the son of Romelia.  If you will not believe, you shall not continue.
10 And the Lord spoke again to Achaz, saying:
11 Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, either unto the depth of hell, or unto the height above.
12 And Achaz said: I will not ask, and I will not tempt the Lord.
13 And he said: Hear ye, therefore, O house of David: Is it a small thing for you to be grievous to men, that you are grievous to my God also?
14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.  *Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel.
15 He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good.
16 For before the child know to refuse the evil, and to choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of the face of her two kings.
17 The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon the house of thy father, days that have not come since the time of the separation of Ephraim from Juda, with the king of the Assyrians.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall hiss for the fly, that is in the uttermost parts of the rivers of Egypt, and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria.
19 And they shall come, and shall all of them rest in the torrents of the valleys, and in the holes of the rocks, and upon all places set with shrubs, and in all hollow places.
20 In that day the Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired by them that are beyond the river, by the king of the Assyrians, the head and the hairs of the feet, and the whole beard.
21 And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep.
22 And for the abundance of milk he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that shall be left in the midst of the land.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place where there were a thousand vines, at a thousand pieces of silver, shall become thorns and briers.
24 With arrows and with bows they shall go in thither: for briars and thorns shall be in all the land.
25 And as for all the hills that shall be raked with a rake, the fear of thorns and briers shall not come thither, but they shall be for the ox to feed on, and the lesser cattle to tread upon.
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*
1:  A.M. 3262, A.C. 742.; 4 Kings xvi. 15.
3:  4 Kings xviii. 17.
14:  Mat. i. 23.; Luke i. 31.
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ISAIAS 8
CHAPTER VIII.

The name of the child that is to be born: many evils shall come upon the Jews for their sins.

1 And the Lord said to me: Take thee a great book, and write in it with a man's pen.  Take away the spoils with speed, quickly take the prey.
2 And I took unto me faithful witnesses, Urias, the priest, and Zacharias, the son of Barachias.
3 And I went to the prophetess, and she conceived, and bore a son.  And the Lord said to me: Call his name, Hasten to take away the spoils: Make haste to take away the prey.
4 For before the child know to call his father and his mother, the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of the Assyrians.
5 And the Lord spoke to me again, saying:
6 Forasmuch as this people hath cast away the waters of Siloe, that go with silence, and hath rather taken Rasin, and the son of Romelia:
7 Therefore, behold the Lord will bring upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, the king of the Assyrians, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and shall overflow all his banks,
8 And shall pass through Juda, overflowing, and going over, shall reach even to the neck.  And the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Emmanuel.
9 Gather yourselves together, O ye people, and be overcome, and give ear, all ye lands afar off: strengthen yourselves, and be overcome, gird yourselves, and be overcome.
10 Take counsel together, and it shall be defeated: speak a word, and it shall not be done: because God is with us.
11 For thus saith the Lord to me: As he hath taught me, with a strong arm, that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying:
12 Say ye not: A conspiracy: for all that this people speaketh, is a conspiracy: neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
13 Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
14 And he shall be a sanctification to you.  *But for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to the two houses of Israel, for a snare and a ruin to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
15 And very many of them shall stumble and fall, and shall be broken in pieces, and shall be snared, and taken.
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.
17 And I will wait for the Lord, who hath hid his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.
18 Behold I and my children, whom the Lord hath given me for a sign, and for a wonder in Israel, from the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth in Mount Sion.
19 And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?
20 To the law rather, and to the testimony.  And if they speak not according to this word, they shall not have the morning light.
21 And they shall pass by it, they shall fall, and be hungry: and when they shall be hungry, they will be angry, and curse their king, and their God, and look upwards.
22 And they shall look to the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, weakness and distress, and a mist following them, and they cannot fly away from their distress.
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*
14:  Luke ii. 34.; Rom. ix. 32.; 1 Pet. iv. 6.
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ISAIAS 9
CHAPTER IX.

What joy shall come after afflictions by the birth and kingdom of Christ; which shall flourish for ever.  Judgments upon Israel for their sins.

1 At *the first time the land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthali was lightly touched: and at the last the way of the sea beyond the Jordan of the Galilee of the Gentiles was heavily loaded.
2 The people that walked in darkness, have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the region of the shadow of death, light is risen.
3 Thou hast multiplied the nation, and hast not increased the joy.  They shall rejoice before thee, as they that rejoice in the harvest, as conquerors rejoice after taking a prey, when they divide the spoils.
4 For the yoke of their burden, and the rod of their shoulder, and the sceptre of their oppressor thou hast overcome, *as in the day of Madian.
5 For every violent taking of spoils, with tumult, and garment mingled with blood, shall be burnt, and be fuel for the fire.
6 For a child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, God the Mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.
7 His empire shall be multiplied, and there shall be no end of peace: he shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom: to establish it, and strengthen it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth and for ever: the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.
8 The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel.
9 And all the people of Ephraim shall know, and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in the pride and haughtiness of their heart:
10 The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with square stones: they have cut down the sycamores, but we will change them for cedars.
11 And the Lord shall set up the enemies of Rasin over him, *and shall bring on his enemies in a crowd:
12 The Syrians from the east, and the Philistines from the west: and they shall devour Israel with open mouth.  For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
13 And the people are not returned to him who hath struck them, and have not sought after the Lord of hosts.
14 And the Lord shall destroy out of Israel the head and the tail, him that bendeth down, and him that holdeth back, in one day.
15 The aged and honourable, he is the head: and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail.
16 And they that call this people blessed, shall cause them to err: and they that are called blessed, shall be thrown down headlong.
17 Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men: neither shall he have mercy on their fatherless, and widows: for every one is a hypocrite and wicked, and every mouth hath spoken folly.  For all this his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
18 For wickedness is kindled as a fire, it shall devour the brier and the thorn: and shall kindle in the thicket of the forest, and it shall be wrapped up in smoke, ascending on high.
19 By the wrath of the Lord of hosts the land is troubled, and the people shall be as fuel for the fire: no man shall spare his brother.
20 And he shall turn to the right hand, and shall be hungry: and shall eat on the left hand, and shall not be filled: every one shall eat the flesh of his own arm: Manasses Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasses, and they together shall be against Juda.
21 After all these things his indignation is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
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*
1:  Matt. iv. 15.
4:  Judges vii. 12.
11:  4 Kings xvi. 9.
====================

ISAIAS 10
CHAPTER X.

Woe to the makers of wicked laws.  The Assyrians shall be a rod for punishing Israel: but for their pride they shall be destroyed: and a remnant of Israel saved.

1 Woe to them that make wicked laws: and when they write, write injustice:
2 To oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people: that widows might be their prey, and that they might rob the fatherless.
3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and of the calamity which cometh from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
4 That you be not bowed down under the bond, and fall with the slain?  In all these things his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 Woe to the Assyrian, he is the rod and the staff of my anger, and my indignation is in their hands.
6 I will send him to a deceitful nation, and I will give him a charge against the people of my wrath, to take away the spoils, and to lay hold on the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 But he shall not take it so, and his heart shall not think so: but his heart shall be set to destroy, and to cut off nations not a few.
8 For he shall say:
9 Are not my princes as so many kings? is not Calano as Charcamis: and Emath as Arphad? is not Samaria as Damascus?
10 As my hand hath found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their idols of Jerusalem, and of Samaria.
11 Shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?
12 And it shall come to pass, that when the Lord shall have performed all his works in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, I will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the king of *Assyria, and the glory of the haughtiness of his eyes.
13 For he hath said: By the strength of my own hand I have done it, and by my own wisdom I have understood: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have taken the spoils of the princes, and as a mighty man hath pulled down them that sat on high.
14 And my hand hath found the strength of the people as a nest; and as eggs are gathered that are left, so have I gathered all the earth: and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or made the least noise.
15 Shall the axe boast itself against him that cutteth with it? or shall the saw exalt itself against him by whom it is drawn? as if a rod should lift itself up against him that lifteth it up, and a staff exalt itself, which is but wood.
16 Therefore, the sovereign Lord, the Lord of hosts, shall send leanness among his fat ones: and under his glory shall be kindled a burning, as it were the burning of a fire.
17 And the light of Israel shall be as a fire, and the holy One thereof as a flame: and his thorns and his briers shall be set on fire, and shall be devoured in one day.
18 And the glory of his forest, and of his beautiful hill, shall be consumed from the soul even to the flesh, and he shall run away through fear.
19 And they that remain of the trees of his forest shall be so few, that they shall easily be numbered, and a child shall write them down.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the remnant of Israel, and they that shall escape of the house of Jacob, shall lean no more upon him that striketh them: but they shall lean upon the Lord, the holy One of Israel in truth.
21 The remnant shall be converted, the remnant, I say, of Jacob, to the mighty God.
22 *For if thy people, O Israel, shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them shall be converted, the consumption abridged shall overflow with justice.
23 For the Lord God of hosts shall make a consumption, and an abridgment in the midst of all the land.
24 Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts: O my people, that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian: he shall strike thee with his rod, and he shall lift up his staff over thee in the way of Egypt.
25 For yet a little, and a very little while, and my indignation shall cease, and my wrath shall be upon their wickedness.
26 *And the Lord of hosts shall raise up a scourge against him, **according to the slaughter of Madian in the rock of Oreb, and his rod over the sea, and he shall lift it up in the way of Egypt.
27 And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall putrefy at the presence of the oil.
28 He shall come into Aiath, he shall pass into Magron: at Machmas he shall lay up his carriages.
29 They have passed in haste, Gaba is our lodging: Rama was astonished, Gabaath of Saul fled away.
30 Lift up thy voice, O daughter of Gallim; attend, O Laisa, poor Anathoth.
31 Medemena is removed: ye inhabitants of Gabim, take courage.
32 It is yet day enough, to remain in Nobe: he shall shake his hand against the mountain of the daughter of Sion, the hill of Jerusalem.
33 Behold the sovereign Lord of hosts shall break the earthen vessel with terror, and the tall of stature shall be cut down, and the lofty shall be humbled.
34 And the thickets of the forest shall be cut down with iron, and Libanus, with its high ones, shall fall.
____________________
*
12:  4 Kings xix. 35.; Infra xxxvii. 36.
22:  Infra xi. 11.; Rom. ix. 27.
26:  Infra xxxvii. 36. --- ** Judges vii. 25.
====================

ISAIAS 11
CHAPTER XI.

Of the spiritual kingdom of Christ, to which all nations shall repair.

1 And *there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.
2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness.
3 And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes, nor reprove according to the hearing of the ears.
4 But he shall judge the poor with justice, and shall reprove with equity, for the meek of the earth: *and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
5 And justice shall be the girdle of his loins: and faith the girdle of his reins.
6 *The wolf shall dwell with the lamb: and the leopard shall lie down with the kid: the calf, and the lion, and the sheep, shall abide together, and a little child shall lead them.
7 The calf, and the bear shall feed: their young ones shall rest together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp: and the weaned child shall thrust his hand into the den of the basilisk.
9 They shall not hurt, nor shall they kill in all my holy mountain, for the earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the covering waters of the sea.
10 *In that day the root of Jesse, who standeth for an ensign of people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the second time to possess the remnant of his people, which shall be left from the Assyrians, and from Egypt, and from Phetros, and from Ethiopia, and from Elam, and from Sennaar, and from Emath, and from the islands of the sea.
12 And he shall set up a standard unto the nations, and shall assemble the fugitives of Israel, and shall gather together the dispersed of Juda from the four quarters of the earth.
13 And the envy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Juda shall perish: Ephraim shall not envy Juda, and Juda shall not fight against Ephraim.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines by the sea, they together shall spoil the children of the east: Edom, and Moab, shall be under the rule of their hand, and the children of Ammon shall be obedient.
15 And the Lord shall lay waste the tongue of the sea of Egypt, and shall lift up his hand over the river in the strength of his spirit: and he shall strike it in the seven streams, so that men may pass through it in their shoes.
16 And there shall be a highway for the remnant of my people, which shall be left from the Assyrians: as there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
____________________
*
1:  Acts xiii. 23.; Infra liii. 2.
4:  2 Thes. ii. 8.
6:  Infra lxv. 25.
10:  Rom. xv. 12.
====================

ISAIAS 12
CHAPTER XII.

A canticle of thanksgiving for the benefits of Christ.

1 And thou shalt say in that day: I will give thanks to thee, O Lord, for thou wast angry with me: thy wrath is turned away, and thou hast comforted me.
2 Behold, God is my Saviour, I will deal confidently, and will not fear: *because the Lord is my strength, and my praise, and he is become my salvation.
3 You shall draw waters with joy out of the Saviour's fountains:
4 And you shall say in that day: Praise ye the Lord, and call upon his name: make his works known among the people: remember that his name is high.
5 Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath done great things: shew this forth in all the earth.
6 Rejoice, and praise, O thou habitation of Sion: for great is he that is in the midst of thee, the holy one of Israel.
____________________
*
2:  Ex. xv. 2.; Ps. cxvii. 14.
====================

ISAIAS 13
CHAPTER XIII.

The desolation of Babylon.

1 The burden of Babylon, which Isaias, the son of Amos, saw.
2 Upon the dark mountain lift ye up a banner, exalt the voice, lift up the hand, and let the rulers go into the gates.
3 I have commanded my sanctified ones, and have called my strong ones in my wrath, them that rejoice in my glory.
4 The noise of a multitude in the mountains, as it were of many people, the noise of the sound of kings, of nations gathered together: the Lord of hosts hath given charge to the troops of war.
5 To them that come from a country afar off, from the end of heaven: the Lord, and the instruments of his wrath, to destroy the whole land.
6 Howl ye, for the day of the Lord is near: it shall come as a destruction from the Lord.
7 Therefore shall all hands be faint, and every heart of man shall melt,
8 And shall be broken.  Gripings and pains shall take hold of them, they shall be in pain as a woman in labour.  Every one shall be amazed at his neighbour, their countenances shall be as faces burnt.
9 Behold, the day of the Lord shall come, a cruel day, and full of indignation, and of wrath, and fury, to lay the land desolate, and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
10 *For the stars of heaven, and their brightness, shall not display their light: the sun shall be darkened in his rising, and the moon shall not shine with her light.
11 And I will visit the evils of the world, and against the wicked for their iniquity: and I will make the pride of infidels to cease, and will bring down the arrogancy of the mighty.
12 A man shall be more precious than gold; yea, a man than the finest of gold.
13 For this I will trouble the heaven: and the earth shall be moved out of her place, for the indignation of the Lord of hosts, and for the day of his fierce wrath.
14 And they shall be as a doe fleeing away, and as a sheep: and there shall be none to gather them together: every man shall turn to his own people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
15 Every one that shall be found, shall be slain: and every one that shall come to their aid, shall fall by the sword.
16 *Their infants shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes: their houses shall be pillaged, and their wives shall be ravished.
17 Behold I will stir up the Medes against them, who shall not seek silver, nor desire gold:
18 But with their arrows they shall kill the children, and shall have no pity upon the sucklings of the womb, and their eye shall not spare their sons.
19 And that Babylon, glorious among kingdoms, the famous pride of the Chaldeans, *shall be even as the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrha.
20 It shall no more be inhabited for ever, and it shall not be founded unto generation and generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch his tents there, nor shall shepherds rest there.
21 But wild beasts shall rest there, and their houses shall be filled with serpents, and ostriches shall dwell there, and the hairy ones shall dance there:
22 And owls shall answer one another there, in the houses thereof, and sirens in the temples of pleasure.
____________________
*
10:  Ezec. xxxii. 7.; Joel ii. 10. and iii. 15.; Mat. xxiv. 29.; Mark xiii. 24.; Luke xxi. 25.
16:  Ps. cxxxvi. 9.
19:  Gen. xix. 24.
====================

ISAIAS 14
CHAPTER XIV.

The restoration of Israel after their captivity.  The parable or song insulting over the king of Babylon.  A prophecy against the Philistines.

1 Her time is near at hand, and her days shall not be prolonged.  For the Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose out of Israel, and will make them rest upon their own ground: and the stranger shall be joined with them, and shall adhere to the house of Jacob.
2 And the people shall take them, and bring them into their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall make them captives that had taken them, and shall subdue their oppressors.
3 And it shall come to pass in that day, that when God shall give thee rest from thy labour, and from thy vexation, and from the hard bondage, wherewith thou didst serve before,
4 Thou shalt take up this parable against the king of Babylon, and shalt say: How is the oppressor come to nothing, the tribute hath ceased?
5 The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, the rod of the rulers,
6 That struck the people in wrath with an incurable wound, that brought nations under in fury, that persecuted in a cruel manner.
7 The whole earth is quiet and still; it is glad, and hath rejoiced.
8 The fir-trees also have rejoiced over thee, and the cedars of Libanus, saying: Since thou hast slept, there hath none come up to cut us down.
9 Hell below was in an uproar to meet thee at thy coming, it stirred up the giants for thee.  All the princes of the earth are risen up from their thrones, all the princes of nations.
10 All shall answer, and say to thee: Thou also art wounded, as well as we, thou art become like unto us.
11 Thy pride is brought down to hell, thy carcass is fallen down: under thee shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be thy covering.
12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?
13 And thou saidst in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit in the mountain of the covenant, in the sides of the north.
14 I will ascend above the height of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.
15 But yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, into the depth of the pit.
16 They that shall see thee, shall turn toward thee, and behold thee: Is this the man that troubled the earth, that shook kingdoms,
17 That made the world a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof, that opened not the prison to his prisoners?
18 All the kings of the nations have all of them slept in glory, every one in his own house.
19 But thou art cast out of thy grave, as an unprofitable branch defiled, and wrapped up among them that were slain by the sword, and art gone down to the bottom of the pit as a rotten carcass.
20 Thou shalt not keep company with them, even in burial: for thou hast destroyed thy land, thou hast slain thy people: the seed of the wicked shall not be named for ever.
21 Prepare his children for slaughter, for the iniquity of their fathers: they shall not rise up, nor inherit the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
22 And I will rise up against them, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the bud, and the offspring, saith the Lord.
23 And I will make it a possession for the ericius and pools of waters, and I will sweep it, and wear it out with a besom, saith the Lord of hosts.
24 The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying: Surely as I have thought, so shall it be: and as I have purposed,
25 So shall it fall out: That I will destroy the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: and his yoke shall be taken away from them, and his burden shall be taken off their shoulder.
26 This is the counsel, that I have purposed upon all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.
27 For the Lord of hosts hath decreed, and who can disannul it? and his hand is stretched out: and who shall turn it away?
28 In the *year that king Achaz died, was this burden:
29 Rejoice not thou, whole Philistia, that the rod of him that struck thee is broken in pieces: for out of the root of the serpent shall come forth a basilisk, and his seed shall swallow the bird.
30 And the first-born of the poor shall be fed, and the poor shall rest with confidence: and I will make thy root perish with famine, and I will kill thy remnant.
31 Howl, O gate, cry, O city: all Philistia is thrown down: for a smoke shall come from the north, and there is none that shall escape his troop.
32 And what shall be answered to the messengers of the nations?  That the Lord hath founded Sion, and the poor of his people shall hope in him.
____________________
*
28:  A.M. 3277, A.C. 727.
====================

ISAIAS 15
CHAPTER XV.

A prophecy of the desolation of the Moabites.

1 The burden of Moab.  Because in the night Ar of Moab is laid waste it is silent: because the wall of Moab is destroyed in the night, it is silent.
2 The house is gone up, and Dibon to the high places, to mourn over Nabo, and over Medaba, Moab hath howled: *on all their heads shall be baldness, and every beard shall be shaven.
3 In their streets they are girded with sackcloth: on the tops of their houses, and in their streets all shall howl, and come down weeping.
4 Hesebon shall cry, and Eleale, their voice is heard even to Jasa.  For this shall the well appointed men of Moab howl: his soul shall howl to itself.
5 My heart shall cry to Moab, the bars thereof shall flee unto Segor, a heifer of three years old: for by the ascent of Luith they shall go up weeping: and in the way of Oronaim they shall lift up a cry of destruction.
6 For the waters of Nemrim shall be desolate, for the grass is withered away, the spring is faded, all the greenness is perished.
7 According to the greatness of their work, is their visitation also: they shall lead them to the torrent of the willows.
8 For the cry is gone round about the border of Moab: the howling thereof unto Gallim, and unto the well of Elim the cry thereof.
9 For the waters of Dibon are filled with blood: for I will bring more upon Dibon: the lion upon them that shall flee of Moab, and upon the remnant of the land.
____________________
*
2:  Jer. xlviii. 37.; Ezec. vii. 18.
====================

ISAIAS 16
CHAPTER XVI.

The prophet prayeth for Christ's coming.  The affliction of the Moabites for their pride.

1 Send forth, O Lord, the lamb, the ruler of the earth, from Petra of the desert, to the mount of the daughter of Sion.
2 And it shall come to pass, that as a bird fleeing away, and as young ones flying out of the nest, so shall the daughters of Moab be in the passage of Arnon.
3 Take counsel, gather a council: make thy shadow as the night in the mid-day: hide them that flee, and betray not them that wander about.
4 My fugitives shall dwell with thee: O Moab, be thou a covert to them from the face of the destroyer: for the dust is at an end, the wretch is consumed: he hath failed, that trod the earth under foot.
5 And a throne shall be prepared in mercy, and one shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking judgment, and quickly rendering that which is just.
6 *We have heard of the pride of Moab, he is exceedingly proud: his pride and his arrogancy, and his indignation, is more than his strength.
7 Therefore shall Moab howl to Moab, every one shall howl: to them that rejoice upon the brick walls, tell ye their stripes.
8 For the suburbs of Hesebon are desolate, and the lords of the nations have destroyed the vineyard of Sabama: the branches thereof have reached even to Jazer: they have wandered in the wilderness, the branches thereof are left, they are gone over the sea.
9 Therefore, I will lament with the weeping of Jazer, the vineyard of Sabama: I will water thee with my tears, O Hesebon, and Eleale: for the voice of the treaders hath rushed in upon thy vintage, and upon thy harvest.
10 And gladness and joy shall be taken away from Carmel, and there shall be no rejoicing nor shouting in the vineyards.  He shall not tread out wine in the press that was wont to tread it out: the voice of the treaders I have taken away.
11 Wherefore my bowels shall sound like a harp for Moab, and my inward parts for the brick wall.
12 And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab is wearied on his high places, that he shall go into his sanctuaries to pray, and shall not prevail.
13 This is the word, that the Lord spoke to Moab from that time:
14 And now the Lord hath spoken, saying: In three years, as the years of a hireling, the glory of Moab shall be taken away for all the multitude of the people, and it shall be left small and feeble, not many.
____________________
*
6:  Jer. xlviii. 29.
====================

ISAIAS 17
CHAPTER XVII.

Judgments upon Damascus and Samaria.  The overthrow of the Assyrians.

1 The burden of Damascus.  Behold Damascus shall cease to be a city, and shall be as a ruinous heap of stones.
2 The cities of Aroer shall be left for flocks, and they shall rest there, and there shall be none to make them afraid.
3 And aid shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus: and the remnant of Syria shall be as the glory of the children of Israel: saith the Lord of hosts.
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.
5 And it shall be as when one gathereth in the harvest that which remaineth, and his arm shall gather the ears of corn: and it shall be as he that seeketh ears in the vale of Raphaim.
6 And the fruit thereof, that shall be left upon it, shall be as one cluster of grapes, and as the shaking of the olive-tree, two or three berries in the top of a bough, or four or five upon the top of the tree, saith the Lord, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man shall bow down himself to his Maker, and his eyes shall look to the holy One of Israel.
8 And he shall not look to the altars which his hands made: and he shall not have respect to the things that his fingers wrought, such as groves and temples.
9 In that day his strong cities shall be forsaken, as the ploughs and the corn that were left before the face of the children of Israel, and thou shalt be desolate.
10 Because thou hast forgotten God, thy Saviour, and hast not remembered thy strong helper: therefore shalt thou plant good plants, and shalt sow strange seed.
11 In the day of thy planting shall be the wild grape, and in the morning thy seed shall flourish: the harvest is taken away in the day of inheritance, and shall grieve thee much.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, like the multitude of the roaring sea: and the tumult of crowds, like the noise of many waters.
13 Nations shall make a noise like the noise of waters overflowing, but he shall rebuke them, and they shall flee afar off: and they shall be carried away as the dust of the mountains before the wind, and as a whirlwind before a tempest.
14 In the time of the evening, behold there shall be trouble: the morning shall come, and he shall not be: this is the portion of them that have wasted us, and the lot of them that spoiled us.
====================

ISAIAS 18
CHAPTER XVIII.

A woe to the Ethiopians, who fed Israel with vain hopes: their future conversion.

1 Woe to the land, the winged cymbal, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia.
2 That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, and in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters.  Go, ye swift angels, to a nation rent and torn in pieces: to a terrible people, after which there is no other: to a nation expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled.
3 All ye inhabitants of the world, who dwell on the earth, when the sign shall be lifted up on the mountains, you shall see, and you shall hear the sound of the trumpet:
4 For thus saith the Lord to me: I will take my rest, and consider in my place, as the noon light is clear, and as a cloud of dew in the day of harvest.
5 For before the harvest, it was all flourishing, and it shall bud without perfect ripeness, and the sprigs thereof shall be cut off with pruning-hooks: and what is left shall be cut away, and shaken out.
6 And they shall be left together to the birds of the mountains, and the beasts of the earth: and the fowls shall be upon them all the summer, and all the beasts of the earth shall winter upon them.
7 At that time shall a present be brought to the Lord of hosts, from a people rent and torn in pieces: from a terrible people, after which there hath been no other; from a nation expecting, expecting and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, to Mount Sion.
====================

ISAIAS 19
CHAPTER XIX.

The punishment of Egypt: their call to the Church.

1 The burden of Egypt.  Behold the Lord will ascend upon a swift cloud, and will enter into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be moved at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst thereof.
2 And I will set the Egyptians to fight against the Egyptians: and they shall fight brother against brother, and friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom.
3 And the spirit of Egypt shall be broken in the bowels thereof, and I will cast down their counsel: and they shall consult their idols, and their diviners, and their wizards and soothsayers.
4 And I will deliver Egypt into the hand of cruel masters, and a strong king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the God of hosts.
5 And the water of the sea shall be dried up, and the rivers shall be wasted and dry.
6 And the rivers shall fail: the streams of the banks shall be diminished, and be dried up.  The reed and the bulrush shall wither away.
7 The channel of the river shall be laid bare from its fountain; and every thing sown by the water shall be dried up; it shall wither away, and shall be no more.
8 The fishers also shall mourn: and all that cast a hook into the river shall lament; and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish away.
9 They shall be confounded that wrought in flax, combing and weaving fine linen.
10 And its watery places shall be dry; all they shall mourn that made pools to take fishes.
11 The princes of Tanis are become fools; the wise counsellors of Pharao have given foolish counsel: how will you say to Pharao: I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
12 Where are now thy wise men? let them tell thee, and shew what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt.
13 The princes of Tanis are become fools; the princes of Memphis are gone astray; they have deceived Egypt, the stay of the people thereof.
14 The Lord hath mingled in the midst thereof the spirit of giddiness: and they have caused Egypt to err in all his works, as a drunken man staggereth and vomiteth.
15 And there shall be no work for Egypt, to make head or tail, him that bendeth down, or that holdeth back.
16 In that day Egypt shall be like unto women, and they shall be amazed, and afraid, because of the moving of the hand of the Lord of hosts, which he shall move over it.
17 And the land of Juda shall be a terror to Egypt: every one that shall remember it shall tremble, because of the counsel of the Lord of hosts, which he hath determined concerning it.
18 *In that day there shall be five cities in the land of Egypt, speaking the language of Chanaan, and swearing by the Lord of hosts: one shall be called the city of the sun.
19 In that day there shall be an altar of the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a monument of the Lord at the borders thereof:
20 It shall be for a sign, and for a testimony to the Lord of hosts in the land of Egypt.  For they shall cry to the Lord, because of the oppressor, and he shall send them a Saviour and a defender to deliver them.
21 And the Lord shall be known by Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the Lord in that day, and shall worship him with sacrifices and offerings: and they shall make vows to the Lord, and perform them.
22 And the Lord shall strike Egypt with a scourge, and shall heal it, and they shall return to the Lord, and he shall be pacified towards them, and heal them.
23 In that day there shall be a way from Egypt to the Assyrians; and the Assyrian shall enter into Egypt; and the Egyptian to the Assyrians; and the Egyptians shall serve the Assyrian.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third to the Egyptian and the Assyrian: a blessing in the midst of the land,
25 Which the Lord of hosts hath blessed, saying: Blessed be my people of Egypt, and the work of my hands to the Assyrian: but Israel is my inheritance.
____________________
*
18:  Ezec. cap. xxx.
====================

ISAIAS 20
CHAPTER XX.

The ignominious captivity of the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians.

1 In *the year that Tharthan entered into Azotus, when Sargon, the king of the Assyrians, had sent him, and he had fought against Azotus, and had taken it:
2 At that same time the Lord spoke by the hand of Isaias, the son of Amos, saying: *Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and take off thy shoes from thy feet.  And he did so, and went naked, and barefoot.
3 And the Lord said: As my servant, Isaias, hath walked, naked and barefoot, it shall be a sign and a wonder of three years upon Egypt, and upon Ethiopia,
4 So shall the king of the Assyrians lead away the prisoners of Egypt, and the captivity of Ethiopia, young and old. naked and barefoot, with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.
5 And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia, their hope, and of Egypt, their glory.
6 And the inhabitants of this isle shall say in that day: Lo, this was our hope, to whom we fled for help, to deliver up from the face of the king of the Assyrians: and how shall we be able to escape?
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3291, A.C. 713.
2:  Zach. xiii. 4.; Matt. iii. 4.
====================

ISAIAS 21
CHAPTER XXI.

The destruction of Babylon by the Medes and Persians: a prophecy against the Edomites and the Arabians.

1 The burden of the desert of the sea.  As whirlwinds come from the south, it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.
2 A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth.  Go up, O Elam, besiege, O Mede: I have made all the mourning thereof to cease.
3 Therefore are my loins filled with pain; anguish hath taken hold of me, as the anguish of a woman in labour: I fell down at the hearing of it: I was troubled at the seeing of it.
4 My heart failed; darkness amazed me: Babylon, my beloved, is become a wonder to me.
5 Prepare the table; behold in the watch-tower them that eat and drink: arise, ye princes, take up the shield.
6 For thus hath the Lord said to me: Go, and set a watchman; and whatsoever he shall see, let him tell.
7 And he saw a chariot, with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed.
8 And a lion cried out, I am upon the watch-tower of the Lord, standing continually by day; *and I am upon my ward, standing whole nights.
9 Behold this man cometh; the rider upon the chariot, with two horsemen, and he answered, and said: *Babylon is fallen, she is fallen, and all the graven gods thereof are broken unto the ground.
10 O my threshing, and the children of my floor, that which I have heard of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, I have declared unto you.
11 The burden of Duma calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night?
12 The watchman said: The morning cometh, also the night: if you seek, seek: return, come.
13 The burden in Arabia.  In the forest at evening you shall sleep, in the paths of Dedanim.
14 Meeting the thirsty, bring him water, you that inhabit the land of the south; meet with bread him that fleeth.
15 For they are fled from before the swords, from the sword that hung over them, from the bent bow, from the face of a grievous battle.
16 For thus saith the Lord to me: Within a year, according to the years of a hireling, all the glory of Cedar shall be taken away.
17 And the residue of the number of strong archers of the children of Cedar shall be diminished: for the Lord, the God of Israel, hath spoken it.
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*
8:  Habac. ii. 1.
9:  Jer. li. 8.; Apoc. xiv. 8.
====================

ISAIAS 22
CHAPTER XXII.

The prophet laments the destruction of Juda.  He foretells the deprivation of Sobna, and substitution of Eliacim, a figure of Christ.

1 The burden of the valley of vision.  What aileth thee also, that thou too art wholly gone up to the house tops?
2 Full of clamour, a populous city, a joyous city: thy slain are not slain by the sword, nor dead in battle.
3 All the princes are fled together, and are bound hard: all that were found, are bound together, they are fled far off.
4 Therefore have I said: Depart from me, I will weep bitterly: labour not to comfort me, for the devastation of the daughter of my people.
5 For it is a day of slaughter, and of treading down, and of weeping to the Lord, the God of hosts, in the valley of vision, searching the wall, and magnificent upon the mountain.
6 And Elam took the quiver, the chariot of the horseman, and the shield was taken down from the wall.
7 And thy choice valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall place themselves in the gate.
8 And the covering of Juda shall be discovered, and thou shalt see in that day the armoury of the house of the forest.
9 And you shall see the breaches of the city of David, that they are many: and you have gathered together the waters of the lower pool.
10 And have numbered the houses of Jerusalem, and broken down houses to fortify the wall.
11 *And you made a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: and you have not looked up to the maker thereof, nor regarded him even at a distance, that wrought it long ago.
12 And the Lord, the God of hosts, in that day shall call to weeping, and to mourning, to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
13 And behold joy and gladness, killing calves, and slaying rams, eating flesh, and drinking wine: *Let us eat, and drink; for to-morrow we shall die.
14 And the voice of the Lord of hosts was revealed in my ears: Surely this iniquity shall not be forgiven you till you die, saith the Lord God of hosts.
15 Thus saith the Lord God of hosts: Go, get thee in to him that dwelleth in the tabernacle, to Sobna, who is over the temple: and thou shalt say to him:
16 What dost thou here, or as if thou wert somebody here? for thou hast hewed thee out a sepulchre here, thou hast hewed out a monument carefully in a high place, a dwelling for thyself in a rock.
17 Behold the Lord will cause thee to be carried away, as a cock is carried away, and he will lift thee up as a garment.
18 He will crown thee with a crown of tribulation; he will toss thee like a ball into a large and spacious country: there shalt thou die, and there shall the chariot of thy glory be, the shame of the house of thy Lord.
19 And I will drive thee out From thy station, and depose thee from thy ministry.
20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliacim the son of Helcias.
21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and will strengthen him with thy girdle, and will give thy power into his hand: and he shall be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Juda.
22 *And I will lay the key of the house of David upon his shoulder: and he shall open, and none shall shut: and he shall shut, and none shall open.
23 And I will fasten him as a peg in a sure place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to the house of his father.
24 And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, divers kinds of vessels, every little vessel, from the vessels of cups, even to every instrument of music.
25 In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the peg be removed, that was fastened in the sure place: and it shall be broken and shall fall: and that which hung thereon, shall perish, because the Lord hath spoken it.
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*
11:  4 K. xx. 20.; 2 Par. xxxii. 30.
13:  Wisd. ii. 6.; Infra lvi. 12.; 1 Cor. xv. 32.
22:  Apoc. iii. 7.; Job xii. 14.
====================

ISAIAS 23
CHAPTER XXIII.

The destruction of Tyre.  It shall be repaired again after seventy years.

1 The burden of Tyre.  Howl, ye ships of the sea, for the house is destroyed, from whence they were wont to come: from the land of Cethim it is revealed to them.
2 Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the merchants of Sidon passing over the sea, have filled thee.
3 The seed of the Nile, in many waters, the harvest of the river, is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.
4 Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins.
5 When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry when they shall hear of Tyre:
6 Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.
7 Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in her antiquity? her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.
8 Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders the nobles of the earth?
9 The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth.
10 Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a girdle no more.
11 He stretched out his hand over the sea: he troubled kingdoms: the Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to destroy the strong ones thereof,
12 And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin, daughter of Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over to Cethim, there also thou shalt have no, rest.
13 Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such a people, the Assyrian founded it: they have led away the strong ones thereof into captivity; they have destroyed the houses thereof; they have brought it to ruin.
14 Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is laid waste.
15 And it shall come to pass in that day, that thou, O Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king: but after seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.
16 Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot, that hast been forgotten: sing well, sing many a song, that thou mayst be remembered.
17 And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to her traffic: and she shall commit fornication again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
18 And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord: they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up: for her merchandise shall be for them that shall dwell before the Lord, that they may eat unto fulness, and be clothed for a continuance.
====================

ISAIAS 24
CHAPTER XXIV.

The judgments of God upon all the sinners of the world.  A remnant shall joyfully praise him.

1 Behold, the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.
2 *And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest: and as with the servant, so with his master: as with the handmaid, so with her mistress: as with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower: as with him that calleth for his money, so with him that oweth.
3 With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened.
5 And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left.
7 The vintage hath mourned; the vine hath languished away; all the merry hearted have sighed.
8 The mirth of timbrels hath ceased; the noise of them that rejoice is ended; the melody of the harp is silent.
9 They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
10 The city of vanity is broken down; every house is shut up, no man cometh in.
11 There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away.
12 Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the gates.
13 For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive-tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended.
14 These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea.
15 Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one.  And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, wo is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, *that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.
19 With breaking shall the earth be broken; with crushing shall the earth be crushed; with trembling shall the earth be moved.
20 With shaking shall the earth be shaken, as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited.
23 *And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients.
____________________
*
2:  Osee iv. 9.
18:  Jer. xlviii. 44.
23:  Joel ii. 31.; Acts ii. 20.
====================

ISAIAS 25
CHAPTER XXV.

A canticle of thanksgiving for God's judgments and benefits.

1 O Lord, thou art my God, I will exalt thee, and give glory to thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things, thy designs of old, faithful, Amen.
2 For thou hast reduced the city to a heap, the strong city to ruin, the house of strangers to be no city, and to be no more built up for ever.
3 Therefore shall a strong people praise thee; the city of mighty nations shall fear thee.
4 Because thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress: a refuge from the whirlwind, a shadow from the heat.  For the blast of the mighty is like a whirlwind beating against a wall.
5 Thou shalt bring down the tumult of strangers, as heat in thirst: and as with heat under a burning cloud, thou shalt make the branch of the mighty to wither away.
6 And the Lord of hosts shall make unto all people in this mountain, a feast of fat things, a feast of wine, of fat things full of marrow, of wine purified from the lees.
7 And he shall destroy in this mountain the face of the bond with which all people were tied, and the web that he began over all nations.
8 He shall cast death down headlong for ever: *and the Lord God shall wipe away tears from every face; and the reproach of his people he shall take away from off the whole earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 And they shall say in that day: Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord, we have patiently waited for him, we shall rejoice and be joyful in his salvation.
10 For the hand of the Lord shall rest in this mountain: and Moab shall be trodden down under him, as straw is broken in pieces with the wain.
11 And he shall stretch forth his hands under him, as he that swimmeth stretcheth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down his glory with the dashing of his hands.
12 And the bulwarks of thy high walls shall fall, and be brought low, and shall be pulled down to the ground, even to the dust.
____________________
*
8:  Apoc. vii. 17. and xxi. 4.
====================

ISAIAS 26
CHAPTER XXVI.

A canticle of thanks for the deliverance of God's people.

1 In that day shall this canticle be sung the land of Juda.  Sion, the city of our strength, a Saviour, a wall, and a bulwark, shall be set therein.
2 Open ye the gates, and let the just nation, that keepeth the truth, enter in.
3 The old error is passed away: thou wilt keep peace: peace, because we have hoped in thee.
4 You have hoped in the Lord for evermore, in the Lord God, mighty for ever.
5 For he shall bring down them that dwell on high; the high city he shall lay low.  He shall bring it down even to the ground; he shall pull it down even to the dust.
6 The foot shall tread it down; the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.
7 The way of the just is right; the path of the just is right to walk in.
8 And in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, we have patiently waited for thee: thy name, and thy remembrance are the desire of the soul.
9 My soul hath desired thee in the night: yea, and with my spirit within me, in the morning early, I will watch to thee.  When thou shalt do thy judgments on the earth, the inhabitants of the world shall learn justice.
10 Let us have pity on the wicked; but he will not learn justice: in the land of the saints he hath done wicked things, and he shall not see the glory of the Lord.
11 Lord, let thy hand be exalted, and let them not see: let the envious people see, and be confounded: and let fire devour thy enemies.
12 Lord, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works for us.
13 O Lord, our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us, only in thee let us remember thy name.
14 Let not the dead live, let not the giants rise again: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and best destroyed all their memory.
15 Thou hast been favourable to the nation, O Lord, thou hast been favourable to the nation: art thou glorified? thou hast removed all the ends of the earth far off.
16 Lord, they have sought after thee in distress; in the tribulation of murmuring thy instruction was with them.
17 As a woman with child, when she draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs, so are we become in thy presence, O Lord.
18 We have conceived, and been as it were in labour, and have brought forth wind: we have not wrought salvation on the earth, therefore the inhabitants of the earth have not fallen.
19 Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again: awake, and give praise, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is the dew of the light: and the land of the giants thou shalt pull down into ruin.
20 Go, my people, enter into thy chambers, shut thy doors upon thee, hide thyself a little for a moment, until the indignation pass away.
21 *For behold the Lord will come out of his place, to visit the iniquity of the inhabitant of the earth against him: and the earth shall disclose her blood, and shall cover her slain no more.
____________________
*
21:  Micheas i. 3.
====================

ISAIAS 27
CHAPTER XXVII.

The punishment of the oppressors of God's people.  The Lord's favour to his Church.

1 In that day the, Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword, shall visit Leviathan, the bar serpent, and Leviathan, the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea.
2 In that day there shall be singing to the vineyard of pure wine.
3 I am the Lord that keep it, I will suddenly give it drink: lest any hurt come to it, I keep it night and day.
4 There is no indignation in me: who shall make me a thorn and a brier in battle: shall march against it, shall I set it on fire together.
5 Or rather, shall it take hold of my strength, shall it make peace with me, shall it make peace with me?
6 When they shall rush in unto Jacob, Israel shall blossom and bud, and they shall fill the face of the world with seed.
7 Hath he struck him according to the stroke of him that struck him? or is he slain, as he killed them that were slain by him?
8 In measure against measure, when it shall be cast off, thou shalt judge it.  He hath meditated with his severe spirit in the day of heat.
9 Therefore upon this shall the iniquity of the house of Jacob be forgiven; and this is all the fruit, that the sin thereof should be taken away, when he shall have made all the stones of the altar, as burnt stones broken in pieces, the groves and temples shall not stand.
10 For the strong city shall be desolate, the beautiful city shall be forsaken, and shall be left as a wilderness: there the calf shall feed, and there shall he lie down, and shall consume its branches.
11 Its harvest shall be destroyed with drought, women shall come and teach it; for it is not a wise people, therefore he that made it, shall not have mercy on it: and he that formed it, shall not spare it.
12 And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord will strike from the channel of the river even to the torrent of Egypt, and you shall be gathered together one by one, O ye children of Israel.
13 And it shall come to pass, that in that day a noise shall be made with a great trumpet, and they that were lost shall come from the land of the Assyrians, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they shall adore the Lord in the holy mount in Jerusalem.
====================

ISAIAS 28
CHAPTER XXVIII.

The punishment of the Israelites, for their pride, intemperance and contempt of religion.  Christ the corner-stone.

1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower, the glory of his joy, who were on the head of the fat valley, staggering with wine.
2 Behold, the Lord is mighty and strong, as a storm of hail; a destroying whirlwind, as the violence of many waters overflowing, and sent forth upon a spacious land.
3 The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under feet.
4 And the fading flower, the glory of his joy, who is on the head of the fat valley, shall be as a hasty fruit before the ripeness of autumn: which, when he that seeth it shall behold, as soon as he taketh it in his hand, he will eat it up.
5 In that day the Lord of hosts shall be a crown of glory, and a garland of joy to the residue of his people:
6 And a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and strength to them that return out of the battle to the gate.
7 But these also have been ignorant through wine, and through drunkenness have erred: the priest and the prophet have been ignorant through drunkenness; they are swallowed up with wine; they have gone astray in drunkenness; they have not known him that seeth; they have been ignorant of judgment.
8 For all tables were full of vomit and filth, so that there was no more place.
9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the hearing? them that are weaned from the milk, that are drawn away from the breasts.
10 For command, command again, command, command again; expect, expect again, expect, expect again; a little there, a little there.
11 *For with the speech of lips, and with another tongue he will speak to this people.
12 To whom he said: This is my rest, refresh the weary, and this is my refreshing: and they would not hear.
13 And the word of the Lord shall be to them: Command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there: that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Wherefore, hear the word of the Lord; ye scornful men, rule over my people that is in Jerusalem.
15 For you have said: We have entered into a league with death, and we have made a covenant with hell.  When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us: for we have placed our hope in lies, and by falsehood we are protected.
16 *Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner-stone, a precious stone, founded in the foundation.  He that believeth, let him not hasten.
17 And I will set judgment in weight, and justice in measure: and hail shall overturn the hope of falsehood: and waters shall overflow its protection.
18 And your league with death shall be abolished, and your covenant with hell shall not stand: when the overflowing scourge shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it.
19 Whensoever it shall pass through, it shall take you away; because in the morning early it shall pass through, in the day and in the night, and vexation alone shall make you understand what you hear.
20 For the bed is straitened, so that one must fall out, and a short covering cannot cover both.
21 *For the Lord shall stand up as in the mountain of divisions: **he shall be angry as in the valley which is in Gabaon: that he may do his work, his strange work: that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him.
22 And now do not mock, lest your bonds be tied strait.  For I have heard of the Lord, the God of hosts, a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.
23 Give ear, and hear my voice, hearken, and hear my speech.
24 Shall the ploughman plough all the day to sow? shall he open and harrow his ground?
25 Will he not, when he hath made plain the surface thereof, sow gith, and scatter cummin, and put wheat in order, and barley, and millet, and vetches in their bounds.
26 For he will instruct him in judgment: his God will teach him.
27 For gith shall not be thrashed with saws, neither shall the cart wheel turn about upon cummin: but gith shall be beaten out with a rod, and cummin with a staff.
28 But bread-corn shall be broken small: but the thresher shall not thresh it for ever; neither shall the cart wheel hurt it, nor break it with its teeth.
29 This also is come forth from the Lord God of hosts, to make his counsel wonderful, and magnify justice.
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*
11:  1 Cor. xiv. 21.
16:  Ps. cxvii. 22.; Mat. xxi. 42.; Acts iv. 11.; Rom. ix. 33.; 1 Peter ii. 6.
21:  2 Kings v. 20.; 1 Par. xiv. 11. --- ** Josue x. 13.
====================

ISAIAS 29
CHAPTER XXIX.

God's heavy judgments upon Jerusalem, for their blind obstinacy: with a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles.

1 Woe to Ariel, to Ariel the city which David took: year is added to year: the solemnities are at an end.
2 And I will make a trench about Ariel, and it shall be in sorrow and mourning, and it shall be to me as Ariel.
3 And I will make a circle round about thee, and will cast up a rampart against thee, and raise up bulwarks to besiege thee.
4 Thou shalt be brought down, thou shalt speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground: and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the Python, and out of the ground thy speech shall mutter.
5 And the multitude of them that fan thee, shall be like small dust: and as ashes passing away, the multitude of them that have prevailed against thee.
6 And it shall be at an instant suddenly.  A visitation shall come from the Lord of hosts in thunder, and with earthquake, and with a great noise of whirlwind and tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire.
7 And the multitude of all nations that have fought against Ariel, shall be as the dream of a vision by night, and all that have fought, and besieged, and prevailed against it.
8 And as he that is hungry dreameth, and eateth, but when he is awake, his soul is empty: and as he that is thirsty dreameth, and drinketh, and after he is awake, is yet faint with thirst, and his soul is empty: so shall be the multitude of all the Gentiles that have fought against Mount Sion.
9 Be astonished, and wonder, waver, and stagger: be drunk, and not with wine: stagger, and not with drunkenness.
10 For the Lord hath mingled for you the spirit of a deep sleep; he will shut up your eyes; he will cover your prophets and princes, that see visions.
11 And the vision of all shall be unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which when they shall deliver to one that is learned, they shall say: Read this: and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.
12 And the book shall be given to one that knoweth no letters, and it shall be said to him: Read: and he shall answer: I know no letters.
13 *And the Lord said: Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips glorify me, but their heart is far from me, and they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men:
14 Therefore, behold I will proceed to cause an admiration in this people, by a great and wonderful miracle: *for wisdom shall perish from their wise men, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
15 Woe to you that are deep of heart, to hide your counsel from the Lord: and their works are in the dark, and they say: *Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?
16 This thought of yours is perverse: as if the clay should think against the potter, and the work should say to the maker thereof: Thou madest me not: or the thing framed should say to him that fashioned it: Thou understandest not.
17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Libanus shall be turned into charmel, and charmel shall be esteemed as a forest?
18 And in that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and out of darkness and obscurity the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 And the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor men shall rejoice in the holy One of Israel.
20 For he that did prevail hath failed, the scorner is consumed, and they are all cut off that watched for iniquity:
21 That made men sin by word, and supplanted him that reproved them in the gate, and declined in vain from the just.
22 Therefore, thus saith the Lord to the house of Jacob, he that redeemed Abraham: Jacob shall not now be confounded, neither shall his countenance now be ashamed.
23 But when he shall see his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him sanctifying my name, and they shall sanctify the holy One of Jacob, and shall glorify the God of Israel:
24 And they that erred in spirit, shall know understanding; and they that murmured, shall learn the law.
____________________
*
13:  Mat. xv. 8.; Mark vii. 6.
14:  1 Cor. i. 19.; Abdias i. 8.
15:  Eccli. xxiii. 26.
====================

ISAIAS 30
CHAPTER XXX.

The people are blamed for their confidence in Egypt.  God's mercies towards his Church: the punishment of sinners.

1 Woe to you, apostate children, saith the Lord, that you would take counsel, and not of me: and would begin a web, and not by my spirit, that you might add sin upon sin:
2 Who walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, hoping for help in the strength of Pharao, and trusting in the shadow of Egypt.
3 And the strength of Pharao shall be to your confusion: and the confidence of the shadow of Egypt to your shame.
4 For thy princes were in Tanis, and thy messengers came even to Hanes.
5 They were all confounded at a people that could not profit them: they were no help, nor to any profit, but to confusion and to reproach.
6 The burden of the beasts of the south.  In a land of trouble and distress, from whence come the lioness, and the lion, the viper and the flying basilisk, they carry their riches upon the shoulders of beasts, and their treasures upon the bunches of camels to a people that shall not be able to profit them.
7 *For Egypt shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this: It is pride only, sit still.
8 Now therefore go in and write for them upon box, and note it diligently in a book, and it shall be in the latter days for a testimony for ever.
9 For it is a people that provoketh to wrath, and lying children, children that will not hear the law of God.
10 Who say to the seers: See not: and to them that behold: Behold not for us those things that are right: speak unto us pleasant things; see errors for us.
11 Take away from me the way; turn away the path from me; let the holy One of Israel cease from before us.
12 Therefore thus saith the holy One of Israel: Because you have rejected this word, and have trusted in oppression and tumult, and have leaned upon it:
13 Therefore shall this iniquity be to you as a breach that falleth, and is found wanting in a high wall; for the destruction thereof shall come on a sudden, when it is not looked for.
14 And it shall be broken small, as the potter's vessel is broken all to pieces with mighty breaking, and there shall not a shard be found of the pieces thereof, wherein a little fire may be carried from the hearth, or a little water be drawn out of the pit.
15 For thus saith the Lord God, the holy One of Israel: If you return and be quiet, you shall be saved: in silence and in hope shall your strength be.  And you would not:
16 But have said: No, but we will flee to horses: therefore shall you flee.  And we will mount upon swift ones: therefore shall they be swifter that shall pursue after you.
17 A thousand men shall flee for fear of one: and for fear of five shall you flee, till you be left as the mast of a ship on the top of a mountain, and as an ensign upon a hill.
18 Therefore the Lord waiteth, that be may have mercy on you: and therefore shall he be exalted sparing you: because the Lord is the God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.
19 For the people of Sion shall dwell in Jerusalem: weeping, thou shalt not weep, he will surely have pity on thee: at the voice of thy cry, as soon as he shall hear, he will answer thee.
20 And the Lord will give you spare bread, and short water: and will not cause thy teacher to flee away from thee any more: and thy eyes shall see thy teacher.
21 And thy ears shall hear the word of one admonishing thee behind thy back: This is the way, walk ye in it: and go not aside neither to the right hand, nor to the left.
22 And thou shalt defile the plates of thy graven things of silver, and the garment of thy molten things of gold, and shalt cast them away as the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.  Thou shalt say to it: Get thee hence.
23 And rain shall be given to thy seed, wheresoever thou shalt sow in the land: and the bread of the corn of the land shall be most plentiful, and fat.  The lamb in that day shall feed at large in thy possession:
24 And thy oxen, and the ass-colts that till the ground, shall eat mingled provender, as it was winnowed in the floor.
25 And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every elevated hill, rivers of running waters in the day of the slaughter of many, when the tower shall fall.
26 And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day when the Lord shall bind up the wound of his people, and shall heal the stroke of their wound.
27 Behold the name of the Lord cometh from afar, his wrath burneth and is heavy to bear: his lips are filled with indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire.
28 His breath as a torrent overflowing even to the midst of the neck, to destroy the nations unto nothing, and the bridle of error that was in the jaws of the people.
29 You shall have a song as in the night of the sanctified solemnity, and joy of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe, to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty One of Israel.
30 And the Lord shall make the glory of his voice to be heard, and shall shew the terror of his arm, in the threatening of wrath, and the flame of devouring fire: he shall crush to pieces with whirlwind, and hailstones.
31 For at the voice of the Lord the Assyrian shall fear being struck with the rod.
32 And the passage of the rod shall be strongly grounded, which the Lord shall make to rest upon him with timbrels and harps, and in great battles he shall over throw them.
33 For Topheth is prepared from yesterday, prepared by the king, deep, and wide.  The nourishment thereof is fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord as a torrent of brimstone kindling it.
____________________
*
7:  Jer. xxxvii. 7.
====================

ISAIAS 31
CHAPTER XXXI.

The folly of trusting to Egypt, and forgetting God.  He will fight for his people against the Assyrians.

1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help, trusting in horses, and putting their confidence in chariots, because they me many; and in horsemen, because they me very strong; and have not trusted in the holy One of Israel, and have not sought after the Lord.
2 But he that is the wise one hath brought evil, and hath not removed his words: and he will rise up against the house of the wicked, and against the aid of them that work iniquity.
3 Egypt is man, and not God: and their horses, flesh, and not spirit: and the Lord shall put down his hand, and the helper shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall, and they shall al be confounded together.
4 For thus saith the Lord to me: Like as the lion roareth, and the lion's whelp upon his prey, and when a multitude of shepherds shall come against him, he will not fear at their voice, nor be afraid of their multitude: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight upon Mount Sion, and upon the hill thereof.
5 As birds dying, so will the Lord of hosts protect Jerusalem, protecting and delivering, passing over and saving.
6 Return as you had deeply revolted, O children of Israel.
7 For in that day a man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your hands have made for you to sin.
8 *And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of a man; and the sword not of a man, shall devour him; and he shall flee not at the face of the sword: and his young men shall be tributaries.
9 And his strength shall pass away with dread, and his princes fleeing shall be afraid: the Lord hath said it, whose fire is in Sion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.
____________________
*
8:  Infra xxvii. 36.; 4 Kings xix. 35.; 2 Par. xxxii. 21.
====================

ISAIAS 32
CHAPTER XXXII.

The blessings of the reign of Christ.  The desolation of the Jews, and prosperity of the Church of Christ.

1 Behold, a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2 And a man shall be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth himself from a storm, as rivers of waters in drought, and the shadow of a rock that standeth out in a desert land.
3 The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken diligently.
4 And the heart of fools shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily and plain.
5 The fool shall no more be called prince: neither shall the deceitful be called great:
6 For the fool will speak foolish things, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and speak to the Lord deceitfully, and to make empty the soul of the hungry, and take away drink from the thirsty.
7 The vessels of the deceitful are most wicked: for he hath framed devices to destroy the meek, with lying words, when the poor man speaketh judgment.
8 But the prince will devise such things as are worthy of a prince, and he shall stand above the rulers.
9 Rise up, ye rich women, and hear my voice: ye confident daughters, give ear to my speech,
10 For after days and a year, you that are confident shall be troubled: for the vintage is at an end, the gathering shall come no more.
11 Be astonished, ye rich women, be troubled, ye confident ones: strip you, and be confounded, gird your loins.
12 Mourn for your breasts, for the delightful country, for the fruitful vineyard.
13 Upon the land of my people shall thorns and briers come up: how much more upon all the houses of joy, of the city that rejoiced?
14 For the house is forsaken, the multitude of the city is left, darkness and obscurity are come upon its dens for ever.  A joy of wild asses, the pastures of flocks.
15 Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high: and the desert shall be as a charmel, and charmel shall be counted for a forest.
16 And judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and justice shall sit in charmel.
17 And the work of justice shall be peace, and the service of justice quietness, and security for ever.
18 And my people shall sit in the beauty of peace, and in the tabernacles of confidence, and in wealthy rest.
19 But hail shall be in the descent of the forest, and the city shall be made very low.
20 Blessed are ye that sow upon all waters, sending thither the foot of the ox and the ass.
====================

ISAIAS 33
CHAPTER XXXIII.

God's revenge against the enemies of his Church.  The happiness of the heavenly Jerusalem.

1 Woe to thee that spoilest, shalt not thou thyself also be spoiled? and thou that despisest, shalt not thyself also be despised? when thou shalt have made an end of spoiling, thou shalt be spoiled: when being wearied, thou shalt cease to despise, thou shalt be despised.
2 O Lord, have mercy on us: for we have waited for thee: be thou our arm in the morning, and our salvation in the time of trouble.
3 At the voice of the angel the people fled, and at the lifting up thyself the nations are scattered.
4 And your spoils shall be gathered together as the locusts are gathered, as when the ditches are full of them.
5 The Lord is magnified, for he hath dwelt on high: he hath filled Sion with judgment and justice.
6 And there shall be faith in thy times: riches of salvation, wisdom and knowledge: the fear of the Lord is his treasure.
7 Behold, they that see shall cry without: the angels of peace shall weep bitterly.
8 The ways are made desolate; no one passeth by the road; the covenant is made void; he hath rejected the cities; he hath not regarded the men.
9 The land hath mourned, and languished: Libanus is confounded, and become foul, and Saron is become as a desert: and Basan and Carmel are shaken.
10 Now will I rise up, saith the Lord: now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself.
11 You shall conceive heat, you shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
12 And the people shall be as ashes after a fire; as a bundle of thorns, they shall be burnt with fire.
13 Hear, you that are far off, what I have done; and you that are near, know my strength.
14 The sinners in Sion are afraid; trembling hath seized upon the hypocrites.  Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
15 *He that walketh in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice by oppression, and shaketh his hands from all bribes, that stoppeth his ears lest he hear blood, and shutteth his eyes that he may see no evil,
16 He shall dwell on high, the fortifications of rocks shall be his highness: bread is given him, his waters are sure.
17 His eyes shall see the king in his beauty, they shall see the land far off.
18 Thy heart shall meditate fear: *where is the learned? where is he that pondereth the words of the law? where is the teacher of little ones?
19 The shameless people thou shalt not see, the people of profound speech: so that thou canst not understand the eloquence of his tongue, in whom there is no wisdom.
20 Look upon Sion, the city of our solemnity: thy eyes shall see Jerusalem, a rich habitation, a tabernacle that cannot be removed: neither shall the nails thereof be taken away for ever, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken:
21 Because only there our Lord is magnificent: a place of rivers, very broad and spacious streams: no ship, with oars, shall pass by it, neither shall the great galley pass through it.
22 For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king: he will save us.
23 Thy tacklings are loosed, and they shall be of no strength: thy mast shall be in such condition, that thou shalt not be able to spread the flag.  Then shall the spoils of much prey be divided: the lame shall take the spoil.
24 Neither shall he that is near, say: I am feeble.  The people that dwell therein, shall have their iniquity taken away from them.
____________________
*
15:  Ps. xiv. 2.
18:  1 Cor. i. 20.
====================

ISAIAS 34
CHAPTER XXXIV.

The general judgment of the wicked.

1 Come near, ye Gentiles, and hear, and hearken, ye people: let the earth hear, and all that is therein, the world, and every thing that cometh forth of it.
2 For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies: he hath killed them, and delivered them to slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast forth, and out of their carcasses shall rise a stink: the mountains shall be melted with their blood.
4 And all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and the heavens shall be folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, and from the fig-tree.
5 For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment.
6 The sword of the Lord is filled with blood; it is made thick with the blood of lambs and buck-goats, with the blood of rams full of marrow: for there is a victim of the Lord in Bosra, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 And the unicorns shall go down with them, and the bulls with the mighty: their land shall be soaked with blood, and their ground with the fat of fat ones.
8 For it is the day of the vengeance of the Lord, the year of recompenses of the judgment of Sion.
9 And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the ground thereof into brimstone: and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste, none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 The bittern and ericius shall possess it: and the ibis and the raven shall dwell in it: and a line shall be stretched out upon it, to bring it to nothing, and a plummet, unto desolation.
12 The nobles thereof shall not be there: they shall call rather upon the king, and all the princes thereof shall be nothing.
13 And thorns and nettles shall grow up in its houses, and the thistle in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be the habitation of dragons, and the pasture of ostriches.
14 And demons and monsters shall meet, and the hairy ones shall cry out one to another, there hath the lamia lain down, and found rest for herself.
15 There hath the ericius had its hole, and brought up its young ones, and hath dug round about, and cherished them in the shadow thereof: thither are the kites gathered together one to another.
16 Search ye diligently in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of them was wanting, one hath not sought for the other: for that which proceedeth out of my mouth, he hath commanded, and his spirit it hath gathered them.
17 And he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided it to them by line: they shall possess it for ever; from generation to generation they shall dwell therein.
====================

ISAIAS 35
CHAPTER XXXV.

The joyful flourishing of Christ's kingdom: in his Church shall be a holy and secure way.

1 The land that was desolate and impassable, shall be glad, and the wilderness shall rejoice, and shall flourish like the lily.
2 It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Libanus is given to it: the beauty of Carmel, and Saron, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of our God.
3 Strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees.
4 Say to the faint-hearted: Take courage, and fear not: behold, your God will bring the revenge of recompense: God himself will come and will save you.
5 Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6 Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free: for waters are broken out in the desert, and streams in the wilderness.
7 And that which was dry land, shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water.  In the dens, where dragons dwelt before, shall rise up the verdure of the reed and the bulrush.
8 And a path and a way shall be there, and it shall be called the holy way: the unclean shall not pass over it, and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools shall not err therein.
9 No lion shall be there, nor shall any mischievous beast go up by it, nor be found there: but they shall walk there that shall be delivered.
10 And the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and shall come into Sion with praise, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
====================

ISAIAS 36
CHAPTER XXXVI.

Sennacherib invades Juda: his blasphemies.

1 And it came to pass in the fourteenth year *of king Ezechias, that Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians, came up against all the fenced cities of Juda, and took them.
2 And the king of the Assyrians sent Rabsaces from Lachis to Jerusalem, to king Ezechias, with a great army, and he stood by the conduit of the upper pool, in the way of the fuller's field.
3 And there went out to him Eliacim, the son of Helcias, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder.
4 And Rabsaces said to them: Tell Ezechias: Thus saith the great king, the king of the Assyrians: What is this confidence wherein thou trustest?
5 Or with what counsel or strength dost thou prepare for war? on whom dost thou trust, that thou art revolted from me?
6 Lo, thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharao, king of Egypt, to all that trust in him.
7 But if thou wilt answer me: We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he whose high places and altars Ezechias hath taken away, and hath said to Juda and Jerusalem: You shall worship before this altar?
8 And now deliver thyself up to my lord, the king of the Assyrians, and I will give thee two thousand horses, and thou wilt not be able, on thy part, to find riders for them.
9 And how wilt thou stand against the face of the judge of one place, of the least of my master's servants?  But if thou trust in Egypt, in chariots and in horsemen:
10 And am I now come up without the Lord against this land to destroy it?  The Lord said to me: Go up against this land, and destroy it.
11 And Eliacim, and Sobna, and Joahe, said to Rabsaces: Speak to thy servants in the Syrian tongue: for we understand it: Speak not to us in the Jews' language, in the hearing of the people, that are upon the wall.
12 And Rabsaces said to them: Hath my master sent me to thy master and to thee, to speak all these words; and not rather to the men that sit on the wall; that they may eat their own dung, and drink their urine with you?
13 Then Rabsaces stood, and cried out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said: Hear the words of the great king, the king of the Assyrians.
14 Thus saith the king: Let not Ezechias deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you.
15 And let not Ezechias make you trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.
16 Do not hearken to Ezechias: for thus said the king of the Assyrians: Do with me that which is for your advantage, and come out to me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of his fig-tree, and drink ye every one the water of his cistern,
17 Till I come and take you away to a land, like to your own; a land of corn and of wine; a land of bread and vineyards.
18 Neither let Ezechias trouble you, saying: The Lord will deliver us.  Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their land out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians?
19 Where is the god of Emath, and of Arphad? where is the god of Sepharvaim? have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
20 Who is there among all the gods of these lands, that hath delivered his country out of my hand, that the Lord may deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?
21 *And they held their peace, and answered him not a word.  For the king had commanded, saying: Answer him not.
22 And Eliacim, the son of Helcias, that was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and Joahe, the son of Asaph, the recorder, went in to Ezechias, with their garments rent, and told him the words of Rabsaces.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3291, A.C. 713.; 4 Kings xviii. 13.; 2 Par. xxxii. 1.; Eccli. xlviii. 20.
21:  4 Kings xviii. 36.
====================

ISAIAS 37
CHAPTER XXXVII.

Ezechias, his mourning and prayer.  God's promise of protection.  The Assyrian army is destoryed.  Sennacherib is slain.

1 And *it came to pass, when king Ezechias had heard it, that he rent his garments and covered himself with sackcloth, and went in to the house of the Lord.
2 And he sent Eliacim, who was over the house, and Sobna, the scribe, and the ancients of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaias, the son of Amos, the prophet.
3 And they said to him: Thus saith Ezechias: This day is a day of tribulation, and of rebuke, and of blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.
4 It may be the Lord thy God will hear the words of Rabsaces, whom the king of the Assyrians, his master, hath sent to blaspheme the living God, and to reproach with words which the Lord thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that is left.
5 And the servants of Ezechias came to Isaias.
6 And Isaias said to them: Thus shall you say to your master: Thus saith the Lord: Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, with which the servants of the king of the Assyrians have blasphemed me.
7 Behold, I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a message, and shall return to his own country, and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own country.
8 And Rabsaces returned, and found the king of the Assyrians besieging Lobna.  *For he had heard that he was departed from Lachis.
9 And he heard say about Tharaca, the king of Ethiopia: He is come forth to fight against thee.  And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Ezechias, saying:
10 Thus shall you speak to Ezechias, the king of Juda, saying: Let not thy God deceive thee, in whom thou trustest, saying: Jerusalem shall not be given into the hands of the king of the Assyrians.
11 Behold, thou hast heard all that the kings of the Assyrians have done to all countries which they have destroyed, and canst thou be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozam, and Haram, and Reseph, and the children of Eden, that were in Thalassar?
13 Where is the king of Emath, and the king of Arphad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Ana, and of Ava?*
14 And Ezechias took the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of the Lord, and Ezechias spread it before the Lord.
15 And Ezechias prayed to the Lord, saying:
16 O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, who sittest upon the Cherubims, thou alone art the God of all the kingdoms of the earth, thou hast made heaven and earth.
17 Incline, O Lord, thy ear, and hear: open, O Lord, thy eyes, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he hath sent to blaspheme the living God.
18 For of a truth, O Lord, the kings of the Assyrians have laid waste lands, and their countries.
19 And they have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the works of men's hands, of wood and stone: and they broke them in pieces.
20 And now, O Lord, our God, save us out of his hand: and let all the kingdoms of the earth know, that thou only art the Lord.
21 And Isaias, the son of Amos, sent to Ezechias, saying: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: For the prayer thou hast made to me concerning Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians:
22 This is the word which the Lord hath spoken of him: The virgin, the daughter of Sion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem hath wagged the head after thee.
23 Whom hast thou reproached, and whom hast thou blasphemed, and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thy eyes on high?  Against the holy One of Israel.
24 By the hand of thy servants thou hast reproached the Lord: and hast said: With the multitude of my chariots I have gone up to the height of the mountains, to the top of Libanus: and I will out down its tall cedars, and its choice fir-trees, and will enter to the top of its height, to the forest of its Carmel.
25 I have digged, and drunk water, and have dried up with the sole of my foot all the rivers shut up in banks.
26 Hast thou not heard what I have done to him of old? from the days of old I have formed it: and now I have brought it to effect: and it hath come to pass that hills fighting together, and fenced cities, should be destroyed.
27 The inhabitants of them were weak of hand, they trembled, and were confounded: they became like the grass of the field, and the herb of the pasture, and like the grass of the house-tops, which withered before it was ripe.
28 I know thy dwelling, and thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me.
29 When thou wast mad against me, thy pride came up to my ears: therefore I will put a ring in thy nose, and a bit between thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
30 But to thee this shall be a sign: Eat this year the things that spring of themselves, and in the second year eat fruits: but in the third year sow and reap, and giant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
31 And that which shall be saved of the house of Juda, and which is left, shall take root downward, and shall bear fruit upward:
32 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a, remnant, and salvation from Mount Sion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.
33 Wherefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of the Assyrians: He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow into it, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a trench about it.
34 By the way that he came, he shall return, and into this city he shall not come, saith the Lord.
35 And I will protect this city, and will save it for my own sake, and for the sake of David, my servant.
36 *And the angel of the Lord went out, and slew in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and eighty-five thousand.  And they arose in the morning, and behold they were all dead corpses.
37 And Sennacherib, the king of the Assyrians, went out and departed, and returned, and dwelt in Ninive.
38 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nesroch, his god, that Adramelech and Sarasar, his sons, slew him with the sword: and they fled into the land of Ararat, and Asarhaddon, his son, reigned in his stead.
____________________
*
1:  4 Kings xix. 1.; A.M. 3294, A.C. 710.
8:  4 K. xix. 8.
13:  4 Kings xviii. 34. and xix. 23.
36:  Supra xxxi. 8.; 4 Kings xix. 35.; Tobias i. 21.; Eccli. xlviii. 24.; 1 Mac. vii. 41.; 2 Mac. viii. 19.
====================

ISAIAS 38
CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Ezechias being advertised that he shall die, obtains by prayer a prolongation of his life: in confirmation of which the sun goes back.  The canticle of Ezechias.

1 In *those days Ezechias was sick, even to death, and Isaias, the son of Amos, the prophet, came unto him, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord: Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 And Ezechias turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord,
3 And said: I beseech thee, O Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight.  And Ezechias wept with great weeping.
4 And the word of the Lord came to Isaias, saying:
5 Go and say to Ezechias: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David, thy father: I have heard thy prayer, and I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add to thy days fifteen years:
6 And I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of the Assyrians, and I will protect it.
7 And this shall be a sign to thee from the Lord, that the Lord will do this word which he hath spoken:
8 *Behold, I will bring again the shadow of the lines, by which it is now gone down in the sun-dial of Achaz, with the sun, ten lines backward.  And the sun returned ten lines by the degrees by which it was gone down.
9 The writing of Ezechias, king of Juda, when he had been sick, and was recovered of his sickness.
10 I said: In the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of hell: I sought for the residue of my years.
11 I said: I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living.  I shall behold man no more, nor the inhabitant of rest.
12 My generation is at an end, and it is rolled away from me, as a shepherd's tent.  My life is cut off, as by a weaver: whilst I was yet but beginning, he cut me off: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
13 I hoped till morning; as a lion so hath he broken all my bones: from morning even to night thou wilt make an end of me.
14 I will cry like a young swallow; I will meditate like a dove: my eyes are weakened looking upward: Lord, I suffer violence, answer thou for me.
15 What shall I say, or what shall he answer for me, whereas he himself hath done it?  I will recount to thee all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
16 O Lord, if man's life be such, and the life of my spirit be in such things as these, thou shalt correct me, and make me to live.
17 Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter: but thou best delivered my soul that it should not perish; thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
18 For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee: nor shall they that go down into the pit, look for thy truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall give praise to thee, as I do this day: the father shall make thy truth known to the children.
20 O Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord.
21 Now Isaias had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as it plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed.
22 And Ezechias had said: What shall be the sign that I shall go up to the house of the Lord?
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3291, A.C. 713.; 4 Kings xx. 1.; 2 Par. xxxii. 24.
8:  Eccli. xlviii. 26.
====================

ISAIAS 39
CHAPTER XXXIX.

Ezechias shews all his treasures to the ambassadors of Babylon; upon which Isaias foretells the Babylonian captivity.

1 At *that time Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and presents to Ezechias: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.
2 And Ezechias rejoiced at their coming, and he shewed them the storehouses of his aromatical spices, and of the silver, and of the gold, and of the sweet odours, and of the precious ointment, and all the storehouses of his furniture, and all things that were found in his treasures.  There was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion that Ezechias shewed them not.
3 Then Isaias, the prophet, came to king Ezechias, and said to him: What said these men, and from whence came they to thee?  And Ezechias said: From a far country they came to me, from Babylon.
4 And he said: What saw they in thy house?  And Ezechias said: All things that are in my house have they seen; there was not any thing which I have not shewn them in my treasures.
5 And Isaias said to Ezechias: Hear the word of the Lord of hosts.
6 Behold the days shall come, that all that is in thy house, and that thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried away into Babylon: there shall not any thing be left, saith the Lord.
7 And of thy children, that shall issue from thee, whom thou shalt beget, they shall take away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
8 And Ezechias said to Isaias: The word of the Lord, which he hath spoken, is good.  And he said: Only let peace and truth be in my days.
____________________
*
1:  4 Kings xx. 12.
====================

ISAIAS 40
CHAPTER XL.

The prophet comforts the people with the promise of the coming of Christ to forgive their sins.  God's almighty power and majesty.

1 Be comforted, be comforted, my people, saith your God.
2 Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her: for her evil is come to an end, her iniquity is forgiven: *she hath received of the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.
3 *The voice of one crying in the desert: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain.
5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh together shall see, that the mouth of the Lord hath spoken.
6 The voice of one, saying: Cry.  And I said: What shall I cry?  *All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field.
7 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen, because the spirit of the Lord hath blown upon it.  Indeed, the people is grass:
8 The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen: but the word of our Lord endureth for ever.
9 Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion: lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem: lift it up, fear not.  Say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God:
10 Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm shall rule: behold his reward is with him, and his work is before him.
11 *He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather together the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with young.
12 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 *Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor, and hath taught him?
14 With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him, and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and shewed him the way of understanding?
15 Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the smallest grain of a balance: behold, the islands are as a little dust.
16 And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering.
17 All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.
18 *To whom then have you likened God? or what image will you make for him?
19 Hath the workman cast a graven statue? or hath the goldsmith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of silver?
20 He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot: the skilful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not be moved.
21 Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as locusts: *he that stretcheth out the heavens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.
23 He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath made the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor rooted in the earth: suddenly he hath blown upon them, and they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith the holy One?
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth them all by their names: by the greatness of his might, and strength, and power, not one of them was missing.
27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel: My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom.
29 It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force and might to them that are not.
30 Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by infirmity.
31 But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength; *they shall take wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
____________________
*
2:  Apoc. xviii.
3:  Mat. iii. 3.; Mark i. 3.; Lu. iii. 4.; John i. 23.
6:  Eccli. xiv. 18.; Jam. i. 10.; 1 Pet. i. 24.
11:  Ezec. xxxiv. 23. and xxxvii. 24.; John x. 11.
13:  Wisd. ix. 13.; Rom. xi. 34.
18:  Acts vii. 40.
22:  Gen. i. 6.; Ps. xiv. 2.
31:  Ps. x. 5.
====================

ISAIAS 41
CHAPTER XLI.

The reign of the just one: the vanity of idols.

1 Let the islands keep silence before me, and the nations take new strength: let them come near, and then speak: let us come near to judgment together.
2 Who hath raised up the just one from the east, hath called him to follow him? he shall give the nations in his sight, and he shall rule over kings: he shall give them as the dust to his sword, as stubble driven by the wind, to his bow.
3 He shall pursue them, he shall pass in peace, no path shall appear after his feet.
4 Who hath wrought and done these things, calling the generations from the beginning?  *I, the Lord, I am the first and the last.
5 The islands saw it, and feared, the ends of the earth were astonished, they drew near, and came.
6 Every one shall help his neighbour, and shall say to his brother: Be of good courage.
7 The coppersmith striking with the hammer encouraged him that forged at that time, saying: It is ready for soldering: and he strengthened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend:
9 In whom I have taken thee from the ends of the earth, and from the remote parts thereof have called thee, and said to thee: Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away.
10 Fear not, for I am with thee: turn not aside, for I am thy God: I have strengthened thee, and have helped thee, and the right hand of my just One hath upheld thee.
11 Behold, all that fight against thee shall be confounded and ashamed, they shall be as nothing, and the men shall perish that strive against thee.
12 Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find, the men that resist thee: they shall be as nothing: and as a thing consumed the men that war against thee.
13 For I am the Lord thy God, who take thee by the hand, and say to thee: Fear not, I have helped thee.
14 Fear not, thou worm of Jacob, you that are dead of Israel: I have helped thee, saith the Lord: and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel.
15 I have made thee as a new threshing wain, with teeth like a saw: thou shall thresh the mountains, and break them in pieces: and shalt make the hills as chaff.
16 Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, in the holy One of Israel, thou shalt be joyful.
17 The needy and the poor seek for waters, and there are none: their tongue hath been dry with thirst.  I, the Lord, will hear them; I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
18 I will open rivers in the high bills, and fountains in the midst of the plains: I will turn the desert into pools of waters, and the impassable land into streams of waters.
19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the thorn, and the myrtle, and the olive-tree: I will set in the desert the fir-tree, the elm, and the box-tree together:
20 That they may see and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the holy One of Israel hath created it.
21 Bring your cause near, saith the Lord: bring hither, if you have any thing to allege, said the king of Jacob.
22 Let them come, and tell us all things that are to come: tell us the former things, what they were: and we will set our heart upon them, and shall know the latter end of them, and tell us the things that are to come.
23 Shew the things that are to come hereafter, and we shall know that ye are gods.  Do ye also good or evil, if you can: and let us speak, and see together.
24 Behold, you are of nothing, and your work of that which hath no being: he that hath chosen you is an abomination.
25 I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun: he shall call upon my name, and he shall make princes to be as dirt, and as the potter treading clay.
26 Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know: and from time of old, that we may say: Thou art just.  There is none that sheweth, nor that foretelleth, nor that heareth your words.
27 The first shall say to Sion: Behold, they are here, and to Jerusalem, I will give an evangelist.
28 And I saw, and there was no one even among them to consult, or who, when I asked, could answer a word.
29 Behold, they are all in the wrong, and their works are vain: their idols are wind and vanity.
____________________
*
4:  Infra xliv. 6. and xlviii. 12.; Apoc. i. 8. 17. and xxii. 13.
====================

ISAIAS 42
CHAPTER XLII.

The office of Christ.  The preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles.  The blindness and reprobation of the Jews.

1 Behold, *my servant, I will uphold him: my elect, my soul delighteth in him: I have given my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
2 He shall not cry, nor have respect to person, neither shall his voice be heard abroad.
3 The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
4 He shall not be sad, nor troublesome, till he set judgment in the earth: and the islands shall wait for his law.
5 Thus saith the Lord God, that created the heavens, and stretched them out; that established the earth, and the things that spring out of it; that giveth breath to the people upon it, and spirit to them that tread thereon.
6 I, the Lord, have called thee in justice, and taken thee by the hand, and preserved thee.  *And I have given thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles:
7 That thou mightest open the eyes of the blind, and bring forth the prisoner out of prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.
8 *I, the Lord, this is my name: I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to graven things.
9 The things that were first, behold they are come: and new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I will make you hear them.
10 Sing ye to the Lord a new song, his praise is from the ends of the earth: you that go down to the sea, and all that are therein: ye islands, and ye inhabitants of them.
11 Let the desert and the cities thereof be exalted: Cedar shall dwell in houses: ye inhabitants of Petra, give praise, they shall cry from the top of the mountains.
12 They shall give glory to the Lord, and shall declare his praise in the islands.
13 The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man; as a man of war shall he stir up zeal: he shall shout and cry: he shall prevail against his enemies.
14 I have always held my peace, I have I kept silence, I have been patient, I will speak now as a woman in labour.  I will destroy, and swallow up at once.
15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills, and will make all their grass to wither: and I will turn rivers into islands, and will dry up the standing pools.
16 And I will lead the blind into the way which they know not: and in the paths which they were ignorant of I will make them walk: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things have I done to them, and have not forsaken them.
17 They are turned back: let them be greatly confounded, that trust in a graven thing, that say to a molten thing: You are our gods.
18 Hear, ye deaf, and, ye blind behold that you may see.
19 Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, but he to whom I have sent my messengers?  Who is blind, but he that is sold? or who is blind but the servant of the Lord?
20 Thou that seest many things, wilt thou not observe them? thou that hast ears open, wilt thou not hear?
21 And the Lord was willing to sanctify him, and to magnify the law, and exalt it.
22 But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore.
23 Who is there among you that will give ear to this, that will attend and hearken for times to come?
24 Who hath given Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to robbers? hath not the Lord himself, against whom we have sinned?  And they would not walk in his ways, and they have not hearkened to his law.
25 And he hath poured out upon him the indignation of his fury, and a strong battle, and hath burnt him round about, and he knew not: and set him on fire, and he understood not.
____________________
*
1:  Matt. xii. 18.
6:  Infra xlix. 6.
8:  Infra xlviii. 11.
====================

ISAIAS 43
CHAPTER XLIII.

God comforts his Church, promising to protect her for ever: he expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude.

1 And now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee, and called thee by thy name: thou art mine.
2 When thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and the rivers shall not cover thee: when thou shalt walk in the fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn in thee:
3 For I am the Lord thy God, the holy One of Israel, thy Saviour, I have given Egypt for thy atonement, Ethiopia, and Saba for thee.
4 Since thou becamest honourable in my eyes, thou art glorious: I have loved thee, and I will give men for thee, and people for thy life.
5 Fear not, for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west.
6 I will say to the north: Give up: and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.
7 And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him.
8 Bring forth the people that are blind, and have eyes: that are deaf, and have ears.
9 All the nations are assembled together, and the tribes are gathered: who among you can declare this, and shall make us hear the former things? let them bring forth their witnesses, let them be justified, and hear, and say: It is truth.
10 You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen: that you may know, and believe me and understand that I myself am.  Before me there was no God formed, and after me there shall be none.
11 *I am, I am the Lord: and there is no Saviour besides me.
12 I have declared, and have saved: I have made it heard, and there was no strange one among you.  You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and I am God.
13 And from the beginning I am the same, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall turn it away?
14 Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the holy One of Israel: For your sake I sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their bars, and the Chaldeans glorying in their ships.
15 I am the Lord, your holy One, the Creator of Israel, your king.
16 Thus saith the Lord, who made a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.
17 Who brought forth the chariot and the horse, the army and the strong: they lay down to sleep together, and they shall not rise again: they are broken as flax, and are extinct.
18 Remember not former things, and look not on things of old.
19 *Behold, I do new things, and now they shall spring forth; verily you shall know them: I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall glorify me, the dragons and the ostriches: because I have given waters in the wilderness: rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, to my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself: they shall shew forth my praise.
22 But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, neither hast thou laboured about me, O Israel.
23 Thou hast not offered me the ram of thy holocaust, nor hast thou glorified me with thy victims: I have not caused thee to serve with oblations, nor wearied thee with incense.
24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy victims.  But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thy iniquities.
25 I am, I am he that blot out thy iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember thy sins.
26 Put me in remembrance, and let us plead together: tell, if thou hast any thing to justify thyself.
27 Thy first father sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me.
28 And I have profaned the holy princes, I have given Jacob to slaughter, and Israel to reproach.
____________________
*
11:  Osee xiii. 4.
19:  2 Cor. v. 17.; Apoc. xxi. 5.
====================

ISAIAS 44
CHAPTER XLIV.

God's favour to his Church.  The follow of idolatry.  The people shall be delivered from captivity.

1 And *now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.
2 Thus saith the Lord, that made and formed thee, thy helper from the womb: Fear not, O my servant, Jacob, and thou most righteous whom I have chosen.
3 For I will pour out waters upon the thirsty ground, and streams upon the dry land: I will pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy stock.
4 And they shall spring up among the herbs, as willows beside the running waters.
5 One shall say: I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand, To the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel.
6 Thus saith the Lord, the king of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: *I am the brat, and I am the last, and besides me there is no God.
7 Who is like to me? let him call and declare: and let him set before me the order, since I appointed the ancient people: and the things to come, and that shall be hereafter, let them shew unto them.
8 Fear ye not, neither be ye troubled, from that time I have made thee to hear, and have declared: you are my witnesses.  Is there a God besides me, a Maker, whom I have not known?
9 The makers of idols are all of them nothing; and their best beloved things shall not profit them.  They are their witnesses, that they do not see, nor understand, that they may be ashamed.
10 Who hath formed a god, and made a graven thing that is profitable for nothing?
11 Behold, all the partakers thereof shall be confounded: for the makers are men: they shall all assemble together, they shall stand and fear, and shall be confounded together.
12 *The smith hath wrought with his file, with coals, and with hammers he hath formed it, and hath wrought with the strength of his arm: he shall hunger and faint, he shall drink no water, and shall be weary.
13 The carpenter hath stretched out his rule, he hath formed it with a plane: he hath made it with corners, and hath fashioned it round with the compass: and he hath made the image of a man as it were a beautiful man dwelling in a house.
14 He hath cut down cedars, taken the holm, and the oak that stood among the trees of the forest: he hath planted the pine-tree, which the rain hath nourished.
15 And it hath served men for fuel: he took thereof, and warmed himself: and he kindled it, and baked bread: but of the rest he made a god, and adored it: he made a graven thing, and bowed down before it.
16 Part of it he burnt with fire, and with part of it he dressed his meat: he boiled pottage, and was filled, and was warmed, and said: Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire.
17 But the residue thereof he made a god, and a graven thing for himself: he boweth down before it, and adoreth it, and prayeth unto it, saying: Deliver me, for thou art my god.
18 They have not known, nor understood: for their eyes are covered, that they may not see, and that they may not understand with their heart.
19 They do not consider in their mind, nor know, nor have the thought to say: I have burnt part of it in the fire, and I have baked bread upon the coals thereof: I have broiled flesh, and have eaten, and of the residue thereof shall I make an idol: shall I fall down before the stock of a tree?
20 Part thereof is ashes: his foolish heart adoreth it, and he will not save his soul, nor say: Perhaps there is a lie in my right hand.
21 Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for thou art my servant.  I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel, forget me not.
22 I have blotted out thy iniquities as a cloud, and thy sins as a mist: return to me, for I have redeemed thee.
23 Give praise, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath shewn mercy: shout with joy, ye ends of the earth: ye mountains, resound with praise, thou, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and Israel shall be glorified.
24 Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and thy Maker, from the womb: I am the Lord, that make all things: that alone stretch out the heavens, that establish the earth, and there is none with me.
25 That make void the tokens of diviners, and make the soothsayers mad.  That turn the wise backward, and that make their knowledge foolish.
26 That raise up the word of my servant, and perform the counsel of my messengers, who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be inhabited: and to the cities of Juda: You shall be built, and I will raise up the wastes thereof.
27 Who say to the deep: Be thou desolate, and I will dry up thy rivers.
28 Who say to Cyrus: Thou art my shepherd, and thou shalt perform all my pleasure.  Who say to Jerusalem: Thou shalt be built: and to the temple: Thy foundations shall be laid.
____________________
*
1:  Jer. xxx. 10. and xlvi. 27.
6:  Supra xli. 4.; Infra xlviii. 12.; Apoc. i. 8. 17. and xxii. 13.
12:  Wisd. xiii. 11.
====================

ISAIAS 45
CHAPTER XLV.

A prophecy of Cyrus, as a figure of Christ, the great deliverer of God's people.

1 Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.
2 I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones of the earth: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and will burst the bars of iron.
3 And I will give thee hidden treasures, and the concealed riches of secret places: that thou mayest know that I am the Lord who call thee by thy name, the God of Israel.
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have made a likeness of thee, and thou hast not known me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God, besides me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me:
6 That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none besides me.  I am the Lord, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, that do all these things.
8 Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a Saviour; and let justice spring up together: I, the Lord, have created him.
9 *Woe to him that gainsayeth his Maker, a sherd of the earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?
10 Woe to him that saith to his father: Why begettest thou: and to the woman: Why dost thou bring forth?
11 Thus saith the Lord, the holy One of Israel, his Maker: Ask me of things to come, concerning my children, and concerning the work of my hands give ye charge to me.
12 I made the earth: and I created man upon it: my hand stretched forth the heavens, and I have commanded all their host.
13 I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for ransom, nor for presents, saith the Lord, the God of hosts.
14 Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and shall be thine: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to thee: only in thee is God, and there is no God besides thee.
15 Verily, thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel, the Saviour.
16 They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of errors are gone together into confusion.
17 Israel is saved in the Lord with as eternal salvation: you shall not be confounded, and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.
18 For thus saith the Lord, that created the heavens, God himself, that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited.  I am the Lord, and there is no other.
19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain.  I am the Lord, that speak justice, that declare right things.
20 Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save.
21 Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time?  Have not I, the Lord, and there is no God else besides me?  A just God, and a Saviour, there is none besides me.
22 Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other.
23 I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my mouth, and shall not return:
24 *For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear.
25 Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire: they shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.
26 In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.
____________________
*
9:  Jer. xviii. 6.; Rom. ix. 20.
24:  Rom. xiv. 11.; Philip. ii. 10.
====================

ISAIAS 46
CHAPTER XLVI.

The idols of Babylon shall be destroyed.  Salvation is promised through Christ.

1 Bel is broken, Nebo is destroyed: their idols are put upon beasts and cattle, your burdens of heavy weight even unto weariness.
2 They are consumed, and are broken together: they could not save him that carried them, and they themselves shall go into captivity.
3 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb.
4 Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey hairs I will carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I will carry and will save.
5 To whom have you likened me, and made me equal, and compared me, and made me like?
6 You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh out silver in the scales: and hire a goldsmith to make a god: and they fall down and worship.
7 *They bear him on their shoulders and carry him, and set him in his place, and he shall stand, and shall not stir out of his place.  Yea, when they shall cry also unto him, he shall not hear: he shall not save them from tribulation.
8 Remember this, and be ashamed: return, ye transgressors, to the heart.
9 Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God beside, neither is there the like to me:
10 Who shew from the beginning the things that shall be at last, and from ancient times the things that as yet are not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done:
11 Who call a bird from the east, and from a far country the man of my own will, and I have spoken, and will bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it.  Hear me, O ye hard-hearted, who are far from justice.
12 I have brought my justice near, it shall not be far off: and my salvation shall not tarry.  I will give salvation in Sion, and my glory in Israel.
____________________
*
7:  Baruch vi. 15.
====================

ISAIAS 47
CHAPTER XLVII.

God's judgment upon Babylon.

1 Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender.
2 Take a mill-stone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.
3 *Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall resist me.
4 Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the holy One of Israel.
5 Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.
6 I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy hand: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceedingly heavy.
7 And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou remembered thy latter end.
8 And now hear these things, thou that art delicate, and dwellest confidently, that sayest in thy heart: *I am, and there is none else besides me: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know barrenness.
9 *These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood.  All things are come upon thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great hardness of thy enchanters.
10 And thou best trusted in thy wickedness, and hast said: There is none that seeth me.  Thy wisdom, and thy knowledge, this hath deceived thee.  And thou best said in thy heart: I am, and besides me there is no other.
11 Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt not know the rising thereof: and calamity shall fall violently upon thee, which thou canst not keep off: misery shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
12 Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger.
13 Thou hast failed in the multitude of thy counsels: let now the astrologers stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars, and counted the months, that from them they might tell the things that shall come to thee.
14 Behold, they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them, they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flames: there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed, nor fire, that they may sit thereat.
15 Such are all the things become to thee, in which thou hast laboured: thy merchants, from thy youth, every one hath erred in his own way, there is none that can save thee.
____________________
*
3:  Nahum iii. 5.
8:  Apoc. xviii. 7.
9:  Infra li. 19.
====================

ISAIAS 48
CHAPTER XLVIII.

He reproaches the Jews for their obstinacy: he will deliver them out of their captivity, for his own name's sake.

1 Hear ye these things, O house of Jacob, you that are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Juda, you who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice.
2 For they are called of the holy city, and are established upon the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is his name.
3 The former things of old I have declared, and they went forth out of my mouth, and I have made them to be heard: I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.
4 For I knew that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is as an iron sinew, and thy forehead as brass.
5 I foretold thee of old: before they came to pass I told thee, lest thou shouldst say: My idols have done these things, and my graven and molten things have commanded them.
6 See now all the things which thou hast heard: but have you declared them?  I have shewn thee new things from that time, and things are kept which thou knowest not:
7 They are created now, and not of old: and before the day, when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say: Behold, I knew them.
8 Thou hast neither heard, nor known, neither was thy ear opened of old.  For I know that transgressing thou wilt transgress, and I have called thee a transgressor from the womb.
9 For my name's sake I will remove my wrath far off: and for my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish.
10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not as silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty.
11 For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it, that I may not be blasphemed: *and I will not give my glory to another.
12 Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel, whom I call: *I am he, I am the first, and I am the last.
13 My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together.
14 Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who among them hath declared these things? the Lord hath loved him, he will do his pleasure in Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.
15 I, even I, have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made prosperous.
16 Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before it was done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit.
17 Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest.
18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments: thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea,
19 And thy seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have perished, nor have been destroyed from before my face:
20 *Come forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, declare it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, and speak it out even to the ends of the earth.  Say: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
21 They thirsted not in the desert, when he led them out: *he brought forth water out of the rock for them, and he clove the rock, and the waters gushed out.
22 *There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
11:  Supra xlii. 8.
12:  Supra xli. 4. and xliv. 6.; Apoc. i. 8. 17. and xxii. 13.
20:  Jer. li. 6.; Apoc. xviii. 4.
21:  Exod. xvii. 6.; Num. xx. 11.
22:  Infra lvii. 21.
====================

ISAIAS 49
CHAPTER XLIX.

Christ shall bring the Gentiles to salvation.  God's love to his Church is perpetual.

1 Give ear, ye islands, and hearken, ye people from afar.  *The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother he hath been mindful of my name.
2 *And he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword: in the shadow of his hand he hath protected me, and hath made me as a chosen arrow: in his quiver he hath hidden me.
3 And he said to me: Thou art my servant, Israel, for in thee will I glory.
4 And I said: I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength without cause and in vain: therefore my judgment is with the Lord, and my work with my God.
5 And now saith the Lord, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, that I may bring back Jacob unto him, and Israel will not be gathered together: and I am glorified in the eyes of the Lord, and my God is made my strength.
6 And he said: It is a small thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to convert the dregs of Israel.  *Behold, I have given thee to be the light of the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my salvation even to the farthest part of the earth.
7 Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, his holy One, to the soul that is despised, to the nation that is abhorred, to the servant of rulers: Kings shall see, end princes shall rise up, and adore, for the Lord's sake, because he is faithful, and for the holy One of Israel, who hath chosen thee.
8 Thus saith the Lord: *In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed:
9 That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth: and to them that are in darkness: Shew yourselves.  They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain.
10 *They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink.
11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be exalted.
12 Behold, these shall come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country.
13 Give praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.
14 And Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me.
15 Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.
16 Behold, I have graven thee in my hands: *thy walls are always before my eyes.
17 Thy builders are come: they that destroy thee and make thee waste, shall go out of thee.
18 *Lift up thy eyes round about, and see all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: as I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee.
19 For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be chased far away.
20 The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: The place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in.
21 And thou shalt say in thy heart: Who hath begotten these?  I was barren, and brought not forth, led away, and captive: and who hath brought up these?  I was destitute and alone: and these where were they?
22 Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and will set up my standard to the people.  And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and carry thy daughters upon their shoulders.
23 And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses: they shall worship thee with their face toward the earth, and they shall lick up the dust of thy feet.  *And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be confounded that wait for him.
24 Shall the prey be taken from the strong? or can that which was taken by the mighty be delivered?
25 For thus saith the Lord: Yea verily, even the captivity shall be taken away from the strong: and that which was taken by the mighty, shall be delivered.  But I will judge those that have judged thee, and thy children I will save.
26 And I will feed thy enemies with their own flesh: and they shall be made drunk with their own blood, as with new wine: and all flesh shall know, that I am the Lord that save thee, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
____________________
*
1:  Jer. i. 5.; Gal. i. 15.
2:  Infra li. 16.; Ephes. vi. 16.; Heb. iv. 12.; Apoc. i. 16.
6:  Supra xlii. 6.; Acts xiii. 47.
8:  2 Cor. vi. 2.
10:  Apoc. vii. 16.
16:  Exod. xiii. 9.
18:  Infra lx. 4.
23:  Ps. lxxi. 9.; Infra xl. 14.
====================

ISAIAS 50
CHAPTER L.

The synagogue shall be divorced for her iniquities.  Christ, for her sake, will endure ignominious afflictions.

1 Thus saith the Lord: What is this bill of the divorce of your mother, with which I have put her away? or who is my creditor, to whom I sold you: behold, you are sold for your iniquities, and for your wicked deeds have I put your mother away.
2 Because I came, and there was not a man: I called, and there was none that would hear.  *Is my hand shortened and become little, that I cannot redeem? or is there no strength in me to deliver?  Behold, at my rebuke I will make the sea a desert, I will turn the rivers into dry land: the fishes shall rot for want of water, and shall die for thirst.
3 I will clothe the heavens with darkness, and will make sackcloth their covering.
4 The Lord hath given me a learned tongue, that I should know how to uphold by word him that is weary: he wakeneth in the morning, in the morning he wakeneth my ear, that I may hear him as a master.
5 The Lord God hath opened my ear, and I do not resist: I have not gone back.
6 *I have given my body to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: I have not turned away my face from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me.
7 The Lord God is my helper, therefore am I not confounded: therefore have I set my face as a most hard rock, and I know that I shall not be confounded.
8 *He is near that justifieth me, who will contend with me? let us stand together, who is my adversary? let him come near to me.
9 Behold, the Lord God is my helper: who is he that shall condemn me?  Lo, they shall all be destroyed as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.
10 Who is there among you that feareth the Lord, that heareth the voice of his servant, that hath walked in darkness, and hath no light? let him hope in the name of the Lord, and lean upon his God.
11 Behold, all you that kindle a fire, encompassed with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled: this is done to you by my hand, you shall sleep in sorrows.
____________________
*
2:  Infra lix. 1.
6:  Mat. xxvi. 67.
8:  Rom. viii. 33.
====================

ISAIAS 51
CHAPTER LI.

An exhortation to trust in Christ.  He shall protect the children of his Church.

1 Give ear to me, you that follow that which is just, and you that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit from which you are dug out.
2 Look unto Abraham, your father, and to Sara, that bore you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and multiplied him.
3 The Lord therefore will comfort Sion, and will comfort all the ruins thereof: and he will make her desert as a place of pleasure, and her wilderness as the garden of the Lord.  Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of praise.
4 Hearken unto me, O my people, and give ear to me, O my tribes: *for a law shall go forth from me, and my judgment shall rest to be a light of the nations.
5 My just one is near at hand, my Saviour is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people: the islands shall look for me, and shall patiently wait for my arm.
6 Lift up your eyes to heaven, and look down to the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish like smoke, and the earth shall be worn away like a garment, and the inhabitants thereof shall perish in like manner: *but my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice shall not fail.
7 Hearken to me, you that know what is just, my people who have my law in your heart: fear ye not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their blasphemies.
8 For the worm shall eat them up as a garment: and the moth shall consume them as wool: but my salvation shall be for ever, and my justice from generation to generation.
9 Arise, arise, put on strength, O thou arm of the Lord, arise as in the days of old, in the ancient generations.  Hast not thou struck the proud one, and wounded the dragon?
10 *Hast not thou dried up the sea, the water of the mighty deep, who madest the depth of the sea a way, that the delivered might pass over?
11 And now they that are redeemed by the Lord, shall return, and shall come into Sion singing praises, and joy everlasting shall be upon their heads, they shall obtain joy, and gladness, sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
12 I, I myself will comfort you: who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a mortal man, and of the son of man, who shall wither away like grass?
13 And thou hast forgotten the Lord, thy Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and founded the earth: and thou hast been afraid continually, all the day, at the presence of his fury who afflicted thee, and had prepared himself to destroy thee: where is now the fury of the oppressor?
14 He shall quickly come that is going to open unto you, and he shall not kill unto utter destruction, neither shall his bread fail.
15 But I am the Lord thy God, who trouble the sea, and the waves thereof swell: the Lord of hosts is my name.
16 *I have put my words in thy mouth, and have protected thee in the shadow of my hand, that thou mightest plant the heavens, and found the earth: and mightest say to Sion: Thou art my people.
17 Arise, arise, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath: thou hast drunk even to the bottom of the cup of dead sleep, and thou hast drunk even to the dregs.
18 There is none that can uphold her among all the children that she hath brought forth: and there is none that taketh her by the hand among all the children that she hath brought up.
19 *There are two things that have happened to thee? who shall be sorry for thee? desolation and destruction, and the famine, and the sword, who shall comfort thee?
20 Thy children are cast forth, they have slept at the head of all the ways, as the wild ox that is snared: full of the indignation of the Lord, of the rebuke of thy God.
21 Therefore hear this, thou poor little one, and thou that art drunk, but no with wine.
22 Thus saith thy Sovereign, the Lord, and thy God, who will fight for his people: Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of dead sleep, the dregs of the cup of my indignation, thou shalt not drink it again any more.
23 And I will put it in the hand of them that have oppressed thee, and have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over: and thou hast laid thy body as the ground, and as a way to them that went over.
____________________
*
4:  Supra ii. 3.
6:  Ps. xxxvi. 31.
10:  Exod. xiv. 21.
16:  Supra xlix. 2.
19:  Supra xlvii. 9.
====================

ISAIAS 52
CHAPTER LII.

Under the figure of the deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, the Church is invited to rejoice for her redemption from sin.  Christ's kingsdom shall be exalted.

1 Arise, arise, put on thy strength, O Sion, put on the garments of thy glory, O Jerusalem, the city of the holy One: for henceforth the uncircumcised, and unclean, shall no more pass through thee.
2 Shake thyself from the dust, arise, sit up, O Jerusalem: loose the bonds from off thy neck, O captive daughter of Sion.
3 For thus saith the Lord: You were sold gratis, and you shall be redeemed without money.
4 For thus saith the Lord God: *My people went down into Egypt at the beginning to sojourn there: and the Assyrian hath oppressed them without any cause at all.
5 And now, what have I here, saith the Lord: for my people is taken away gratis?  They that rule over them, treat them unjustly, saith the Lord, *and my name is continually blasphemed all the day long.
6 Therefore my people shall know my name in that day: for I myself that spoke, behold, I am here.
7 *How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: of him that sheweth forth good, that preacheth salvation, that saith to Sion: Thy God shall reign.
8 The voice of thy watchmen: they have lifted up their voice, they shah praise together: for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall convert Sion
9 Rejoice, and give praise together, O ye deserts of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people: he hath redeemed Jerusalem.
10 The Lord hath prepared his holy arm in the sight of all the Gentiles: *and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.
11 Depart, depart, go ye out from thence, *touch no unclean thing: go out of the midst of her, be ye clean, you that carry the vessels of the Lord.
12 For you shall not go out in a tumult, neither shall you make haste by flight: For the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will gather you together.
13 Behold, my servant shall understand, he shall be exalted, and extolled, and shall be exceedingly high.
14 As many have been astonished at thee, so shall his visage be inglorious among men, and his form among the sons of men.
15 He shall sprinkle many nations, kings shall shut their mouth at him: *for they to whom it was not told of him, have seen: and they that heard not, have beheld.
____________________
*
4:  Gen. xlvi. 6.
5:  Ezec. xxxvi. 20.; Rom. ii. 24.
7:  Nahum i. 15.; Rom. x. 15.
10:  Ps. xcvii. 3.
11:  2 Cor. vi. 17.
15:  Rom. xv. 21.
====================

ISAIAS 53
CHAPTER LIII.

A prophecy of the Passion of Christ.

1 Who *hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
2 And he shall grow up as a tender plant before him, and as a root out of a thirsty ground: there is no beauty in him, nor comeliness: and we have seen him, and there was no sightliness, that we should be desirous of him:
3 *Despised, and the most abject of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity: and his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him not.
4 *Surely he hath borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows: and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God and afflicted.
5 *But he was wounded for our iniquities, he was bruised for our sins: the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his bruises we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray, every one hath turned aside into his own way: and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.
7 He was offered because it was his own will, and he opened not his mouth: he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter, and shall be dumb as a lamb before his shearer, *and he shall not open his mouth.
8 He was taken away from distress, and from judgment: who shall declare his generation? because he is cut off out of the land of the living: for the wickedness of my people have I struck him.
9 And he shall give the ungodly for his burial, and the rich for his death: *because he hath done no iniquity, neither was there deceit in his mouth.
10 And the Lord was pleased to bruise him in infirmity: if he shall lay down his life for sin, he shall see a long-lived seed, and the will of the Lord shall be prosperous in his hand.
11 Because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be filled: by his knowledge shall this my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I distribute to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he hath delivered his soul unto death, *and was reputed with the wicked: and he hath borne the sins of many, **and hath prayed for the transgressors.
____________________
*
1:  John xii. 38.; Rom. x. 16.
3:  Mark ix. 11.
4:  Mat. viii. 17.
5:  1 Cor. xv. 3.
7:  Mat. xxvi. 63.; Acts viii. 32.
9:  1 Peter ii. 22.; 1 John iii. 5.
12:  Mark xv. 28.; Lu. xxii. 37. --- ** Lu. xxiii. 34.
====================

ISAIAS 54
CHAPTER LIV.

The Gentiles, who were barren before, shall multiply in the Church of Christ: from which God's mercy shall never depart.

1 Give *praise, O thou barren, that bearest not: sing forth praise, and make a joyful noise, thou that didst not travail with child: for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband, saith the Lord.
2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and stretch out the skins of thy tabernacles, spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes.
3 For thou shalt pass on to the right hand, and to the left: and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and shall inhabit the desolate cities.
4 Fear not, for thou shalt not be confounded, nor blush: for thou shalt not be put to shame, because thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt remember no more the reproach of thy widowhood.
5 For he that made thee shall rule over thee, *the Lord of hosts is his name: and thy Redeemer, the holy One of Israel, shall be called the God of all the earth.
6 For the Lord hath called thee as woman forsaken and mourning in spirit, and as a wife cast off from her youth, said thy God.
7 For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.
8 In a moment of indignation have I hid my face a little while from thee; but with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on thee, said the Lord, thy Redeemer.
9 *This thing is to me as in the days of Noe, to whom I swore, that I would no more bring in the waters of Noe upon the earth: so have I sworn not to be angry with thee, and not to rebuke thee.
10 For the mountains shall be moved, and the hills shall tremble; but my mercy shall not depart from thee, and the covenant of my peace shall not be moved: said the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
11 O poor little one, tossed with tempest, without all comfort, behold I will lay thy stones in order, and will lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make thy bulwarks of jasper: and thy gates of graven stones, and all thy borders of desirable stones.
13 *All thy children shall be taught of the Lord: and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14 And thou shalt be founded in justice: depart far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear; and from terror, for it shall not come near thee.
15 Behold, an inhabitant shall come, who was not with me,;he that was a stranger to thee before, shall be joined to thee.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the killer to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against thee, shall prosper: and every tongue that resisteth thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn.  This is the inheritance of the servants of the Lord, and their justice with me, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  Lu. xxiii. 9.; Gal. iv. 27.
5:  Lu. xi. 32.
9:  Gen. ix. 15.
13:  John vi. 45.
====================

ISAIAS 55
CHAPTER LV.

God promises abundance of spiritual graces to the faithful, that shall believe in Christ out of all nations, and sincerely serve him.

1 All *you that thirst, come to the waters: and you that have no money, make haste, buy, and eat: come ye, buy wine, and milk, without money, and without any price.
2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which doth not satisfy you?  Hearken diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and your soul shall be delighted in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come to me: hear and your soul shall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, *the faithful mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people; for a leader and a master to the Gentiles.
5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation, which thou knewest not: and the nations that knew not thee, shall run to thee, because of the Lord thy God, and for the holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee.
6 Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unjust man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God: for he is bountiful to forgive.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts: nor your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are exalted above the earth, so are my ways exalted above your ways, and my thoughts above your thoughts.
10 And as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and return no more thither, but soak the earth, and water it, and make it to spring, and give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be, which shall go forth from my mouth: it shall not return to me void, but it shall do whatsoever I please, and shall prosper in the things for which I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall sing praise before you, and all the trees of the country shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the shrub, shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle, shall come up the myrtle-tree: and the Lord shall be named for an everlasting sign, that shall not be taken away.
____________________
*
1:  John vii. 37.; Eccli. li. 33.; Apoc. xxii. 17.; Jer. xv. 16.; Ezec. iii. 3.; Prov. ix. 5.
3:  Acts xiii. 34.
====================

ISAIAS 56
CHAPTER LVI.

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

1 Thus *saith the Lord: Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my justice to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that shall lay hold on this: that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, that keepeth his hands from doing any evil.
3 And let not the son of the stranger, that adhereth to the Lord, speak, saying: The Lord will divide and separate me from his people.  And let not the eunuch say: Behold, I am a dry tree.
4 For thus saith the Lord to the eunuchs: They that shall keep my sabbaths, and shall choose the things that please me, and shall hold fast my covenant:
5 I will give to them in my house, and within my walls, a place, and a name better than sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, which shall never perish.
6 And the children of the stranger that adhere to the Lord, to worship him, and to love his name, to be his servants: every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and that holdeth fast my covenant:
7 I will bring them into my holy mount, and will make them joyful in my house of prayer: their holocausts, and their victims shall please me upon my altar: *for my house shall be called the house of prayer for all nations.
8 The Lord God, *who gathereth the scattered of Israel, saith: I will still gather unto him his congregation.
9 All ye beasts of the field come to devour, all ye beasts of the forest.
10 *His watchmen are all blind, they are all ignorant: dumb dogs not able to bark, seeing vain things, sleeping and loving dreams.
11 And most impudent dogs, they never had enough: the shepherds themselves knew no understanding: all have turned aside into their own way, *every one after his own gain, from the first even to the last.
12 Come, let us take wine, and be filled with drunkenness: and it shall be as to-day, so also to-morrow, and much more.
____________________
*
1:  Wisd. i. 1.; Mat. xxiii. 23.
7:  Jer. vii. 11.; Mat. xxi. 13.; Mark xi. 17.; Luke xix. 46.
8:  John xi. 52.
10:  Ezec. iii. 17. and xxxiii. 2. and vi. 7.
11:  Jer. vi. 13. and viii. 10.
====================

ISAIAS 57
CHAPTER LVII.

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

1 The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and men of mercy are taken away, because there is none that understandeth; for the just man is taken away from before the face of evil.
2 Let peace come, let him rest in his bed that hath walked in his uprightness.
3 But draw near hither, you sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer, and of the harlot.
4 Upon whom have you jested? upon whom have you opened your mouth wide, and put out your tongue? are not you wicked children, a false seed?
5 Who seek your comfort in idols under every green tree, sacrificing children in the torrents, under the high rocks?
6 In the parts of the torrent is thy portion, this is thy lot: and thou hast poured out libations to them, thou hast offered sacrifice.  Shall I not be angry at these things?
7 Upon a high and lofty mountain thou hast laid thy bed, and hast gone up thither to offer victims.
8 And behind the door, and behind the post, thou best set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself near me, and hast received an adulterer: thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made a covenant with them: thou hast loved their bed with open hand.
9 And thou hast adorned thyself for the king, with ointment, and hast multiplied thy perfumes.  Thou hast sent thy messengers far off, and wast debased even to hell.
10 Thou hast been wearied in the multitude of thy ways: yet thou saidst not: I will rest: thou hast found life of thy hand, therefore thou hast not asked.
11 For whom hast thou been solicitous and afraid, that thou hast lied, and hast not been mindful of me, nor thought on me in thy heart? for I am silent, and as one that seeth not, and thou hast forgotten me.
12 I will declare thy justice, and thy works shall not profit thee.
13 When thou shalt cry, let thy companies deliver thee, but the wind shall carry them all off, a breeze shall take them away: but he that putteth his trust in me, shall inherit the land, and shall possess my holy mount.
14 And I will say: *Make a way: give free passage, turn out of the path, take away the stumbling-blocks out of the way of my people.
15 For thus saith the High and the eminent that inhabiteth eternity: and his name is Holy, who dwelleth in the high and holy place, and with a contrite and humble spirit: to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.
16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be angry unto the end: because the spirit shall go forth from my face, and breathings I will make.
17 For the iniquity of his covetousness I was angry, and I struck him: I hid my face from thee, and was angry: and he went away wandering in his own heart.
18 I saw his ways, and I healed him, and brought him back, and restored comforts to him, and to them that mourn for him.
19 I created the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, said the Lord, and I healed him.
20 But the wicked are like the raging sea, which cannot rest, and the waves thereof cast up dirt and mire.
21 *There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God.
____________________
*
14:  Infra lxii. 10.
21:  Supra xlviii. 22.
====================

ISAIAS 58
CHAPTER LVIII.

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

1 Cry, cease not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked doings, and the house of Jacob their sins.
2 For they seek me from day to day, and desire to know my ways, as a nation that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgment of their God: they ask of me the judgments of justice: they are willing to approach to God.
3 Why have we fasted, and thou hast not regarded: why have we humbled our souls, and thou hast not taken notice?  Behold, in the day of your fast, your own will is found, and you exact of all your debtors.
4 Behold, you fast for debates and strife, and strike with the fist wickedly.  Do not fast as you have done until this day, to make your cry to be heard on high.
5 *Is this such a fast as I have chosen: for a man to afflict his soul for a day? is this it, to wind his head about like a circle, and to spread sackcloth and ashes? wilt thou call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord?
6 Is not this rather the fast that I have chosen? loose the bands of wickedness, undo the bundles that oppress, let them that are broken, go free, and break asunder every burden.
7 *Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and the harbourless into thy house: when thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and despise not thy own flesh.
8 Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thy face, and the glory of the Lord shall gather thee up.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.  If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not.
10 When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noon-day.
11 And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water, whose waters shall not fail
12 *And the places that have been desolate for ages, shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundations of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest.
13 If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found, to speak a word:
14 Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob, thy father.  For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
____________________
*
5:  Zach. vii. 5.
7:  Ezec. xviii. 7. and 16.; Mat. xxv. 35.
12:  Infra lxi. 4.
====================

ISAIAS 59
CHAPTER LIX.

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

1 Behold, *the hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have divided between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he should not hear.
3 *For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity: your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue uttereth iniquity.
4 There is none that calleth upon justice, neither is there any one that judgeth truly: but they trust in a mere nothing, and speak vanities: they have conceived labour, and brought forth iniquity.
5 They have broken the eggs of asps, *and have woven the webs of spiders: he that shall eat of their eggs, shall die: and that which is brought out, shall be hatched into a basilisk.
6 Their webs shall not be for clothing, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are unprofitable works, and the work of iniquity is in their hands.
7 *Their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are unprofitable thoughts: wasting and destruction are in their ways.
8 They have not known the way of peace, and there is no judgment in their steps: their paths are become crooked to them: every one that treadeth in them, knoweth no peace.
9 Therefore is judgment far from us, and justice shall not overtake us.  We looked for light, and behold darkness: brightness, and we have walked in the dark.
10 We have groped for the wall, and like the blind we have groped as if we had no eyes: we have stumbled at noon-day, as in darkness, we are in dark places, as dead men.
11 We shall roar all of us like bears, and shall lament as mournful doves.  We have looked for judgment, and there is none: for salvation, and it is far from us.
12 For our iniquities are multiplied before thee, and our sins have testified against us: for our wicked doings are with us, and we have known our iniquities,
13 In sinning and lying against the Lord: and we have turned away so that we went not after our God, but spoke calumny and transgression: we have conceived, and uttered from the heart, words of falsehood.
14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice hath stood far off: because truth hath fallen down in the street, and equity could not come in.
15 And truth hath been forgotten: and he that departed from evil, lay open to be a prey: and the Lord saw, and it appeared evil in his eyes, because there is no judgment.
16 And he saw that there is not a man: and he stood astonished, because there is none to oppose himself: and his own arm brought salvation to him, and his own justice supported him.
17 *He put on justice as a breast-plate, and a helmet of salvation upon his head: he put on the garments of vengeance, and was clad with zeal as with a cloak.
18 As unto revenge, as it were to repay wrath to his adversaries, and a reward to his enemies: he will repay the like to the islands.
19 And they from the west, shall fear the name of the Lord: and they from the rising of the sun, his glory: when he shall come as a violent stream, which the spirit of the Lord driveth on:
20 *And there shall come a Redeemer to Sion, and to them that return from iniquity in Jacob, saith the Lord.
21 This is my covenant with them, saith the Lord: My spirit that is in thee, and my words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth, and for ever.
____________________
*
1:  Num. i. 23.; Supra l. 2.
3:  Supra i. 15.
5:  Job viii. 4.
7:  Prov. i. 16.; Rom. iii. 15.
17:  Ephes. vi. 17.; 1 Thes. v. 8.
20:  Rom. xi. 26.
====================

ISAIAS 60
CHAPTER LX.

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

1 Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
2 For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
3 And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising.
4 *Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side.
5 Then shalt thou see, and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee.
6 The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and shewing forth praise to the Lord.
7 All the flocks of Cedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nabaioth shall minister to thee: they shall be offered upon my acceptable altar, and I will glorify the house of my majesty.
8 Who are these, that fly as clouds, and as doves to their windows?
9 For the islands wait for me, and the ships of the sea in the beginning: that I may bring thy sons from afar: their silver, and their gold with them, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee.
10 And the children of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister to thee: for in my wrath have I struck thee, and in my reconciliation have I had mercy upon thee.
11 *And thy gates shall be open continually: they shall not be shut day nor night, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to thee, and their kings may be brought.
12 For the nation and the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish: and the Gentiles shall be wasted with desolation.
13 The glory of Libanus shall come to thee, the fir-tree, and the box-tree, and the pine-tree together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary: and I will glorify the place of my feet.
14 And the children of them that afflicted thee, shall come bowing down to thee, and all that slandered thee shall worship the steps of thy feet, and shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Sion of the holy One of Israel.
15 Because thou wast forsaken, and hated, and there was none that passed through thee, I will make thee to be an everlasting glory, a joy unto generation and generation:
16 And thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles, and thou shalt be nursed with the breasts of kings: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord, thy Saviour, and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.
17 For brass, I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver: and for wood, brass, and for stones, iron: and I will make thy visitation peace, and thy overseers justice.
18 Iniquity shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction in thy borders, and salvation shall possess thy walls, and praise thy gates.
19 *Thou shalt no more have the sun for thy light by day, neither shall the brightness of the moon enlighten thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and thy God for thy glory.
20 Thy sun shall go down no more, and thy moon shall not decrease: for the Lord shall be unto thee for an everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.
21 And thy people shall be all just, they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hand to glorify me.
22 The least shall become a thousand, and a little one a most strong nation: I, the Lord, will suddenly do this thing in its time.
____________________
*
4:  Supra xlix. 18.
11:  Apoc. xxi. 25.
19:  Apoc. xxi. 23. and xxii. 5.
====================

ISAIAS 61
CHAPTER LXI.

The office of Christ: the mission of the apostles: the happiness of their converts.

1 The *spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me: he hath sent me to preach to the meek, to heal the contrite of heart, and to preach a release to the captives, and deliverance to them that are shut up.
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God: *to comfort all that mourn:
3 To appoint to the mourners of Sion, and to give them a crown for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of grief: and they shall be called in it the mighty ones of justice, the planting of the Lord to glorify him.
4 *And they shall build the places that have been waste from of old, and shall raise up ancient ruins, and shall repair the desolate cities, that were destroyed for generation and generation.
5 And strangers shall stand and shall feed your flocks: and the sons of strangers shall be your husbandmen, and the dressers of your vines.
6 But you shall be called the priests of the Lord: to you it shall be said: Ye ministers of our God: you shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and you shall pride yourselves in their glory.
7 For your double confusion and shame, they shall praise their part: therefore shall they receive double in their land, everlasting joy shall be unto them.
8 For I am the Lord that love judgment, and hate robbery in a holocaust: and I will make their work in truth, and I will make a perpetual covenant with them.
9 And they shall know their seed among the Gentiles, and their offspring in the midst of peoples: all that shall see them, shall know them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed.
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, and my soul shall be joyful in my God: for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation: and with the robe of justice he hath covered me, as a bridegroom decked with a crown, and as a bride adorned with her jewels.
11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth her seed to shoot forth: so shall the Lord God make justice to spring forth, and praise before all the nations.
____________________
*
1:  Luke iv. 8.
2:  Mat. v. 5.
4:  Supra lviii. 12.
====================

ISAIAS 62
CHAPTER LXII.

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

1 For Sion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for the sake of Jerusalem, I will not rest, till her just one come forth as brightness, and her Saviour be lighted as a lamp.
2 And the Gentiles shall see thy just One, and all kings thy glorious one: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name.
3 And thou shalt be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
4 Thou shalt no more be called forsaken: and thy land shall no more be called desolate: but thou shalt be called My pleasure in her, and thy land inhabited.  Because the Lord hath been well pleased with thee: and thy land shall be inhabited.
5 For the young man shall dwell with the virgin, and thy children shall dwell in thee.  And the bridegroom shall rejoice over the bride, and thy God shall rejoice over thee.
6 Upon thy wails, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all the day, and all the night; they shall never hold their peace.  You that are mindful of the Lord, hold not your peace,
7 And give him no silence till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
8 The Lord hath sworn by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength: Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thy enemies: and the sons of the strangers shall not drink thy wine, for which thou hast laboured.
9 For they that gather it, shall eat it, and shall praise the Lord: and they that bring it together, shall drink it in my holy courts.
10 Go through, go through the gates, *prepare the way for the people, make the road plain, pick out the stones, and lift up the standard to the people.
11 *Behold, the Lord hath made it to be heard in the ends of the earth, tell the daughter of Sion: Behold, thy Saviour cometh: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
12 And they shall call them, The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord.  But thou shalt be called: A city sought after, and not forsaken.
____________________
*
10:  Supra lvii. 14.
11:  Zach. ix. 9.; Mat. xxi. 5.
====================

ISAIAS 63
CHAPTER LXIII.

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

1 Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this beautiful one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength.  I, that speak justice, and am a defender to save.
2 *Why then is thy apparel red, and thy garments like theirs that tread in the wine-press?
3 I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the Gentiles there is not a man with me: I have trampled on them in my indignation, and have trodden them down in my wrath, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments, and I have stained all my apparel.
4 *For the day of vengeance is in my heart, the year of my redemption is come.
5 I looked about, and there was none to help: I sought, and there was none to give aid: and my own arm hath saved for me, and my indignation itself hath helped me.
6 And I have trodden down the people in my wrath, and have made them drunk in my indignation, and have brought down their strength to the earth.
7 I will remember the tender mercies of the Lord, the praise of the Lord for all the things that the Lord hath bestowed upon us, and for the multitude of his good things to the house of Israel, which he hath given them according to his kindness, and according to the multitude of his mercies.
8 And he said: Surely, they are my people, children that will not deny: so he became their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction he was not troubled, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love, and in his mercy he redeemed them, and he carried them and lifted them up all the days of old.
10 But they provoked to wrath, and afflicted the spirit of his holy One: and he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.
11 And he remembered the days of old of Moses, and of his people: *Where is he that brought them up out of the sea, with the shepherds of his flock? where is he that put in the midst of them the spirit of his holy One?
12 He that brought out Moses by the right hand, by the arm of his majesty: that divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name.
13 He that led them out through the deep, as a horse in the wilderness that stumbleth not.
14 As a beast that goeth down in the field, the spirit of the Lord was their leader: so didst thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name.
15 *Look down from heaven, and behold from thy holy habitation and the place of thy glory: where is thy zeal, and thy strength, the multitude of thy bowels, and of thy mercies: they have held back themselves from me.
16 For thou art our father, and Abraham hath not known us, and Israel hath been ignorant of us: thou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer, from everlasting is thy name.
17 Why hast thou made us to err, O Lord, from thy ways: why hast thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear thee? return, for the sake of thy servants, the tribes of thy inheritance.
18 They have possessed thy holy people as nothing: our enemies have trodden down thy sanctuary.
19 We are become as in the beginning, when thou didst not rule over us, and when we were not called by thy name.
____________________
*
2:  Apoc. xix. 13.
4:  Supra xxxiv. 8.
11:  Exod. xiv. 29.
15:  Deut. xxvi. 45.; Baruch ii. 16.
====================

ISAIAS 64
CHAPTER LXIV.

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

1 O that thou wouldst rend the heavens, and wouldst come down: the mountains would melt away at thy presence.
2 They would melt as at the burning of fire, the waters would burn with fire, that thy name might be made known to thy enemies: that the nations might tremble at thy presence.
3 When thou shalt do wonderful things, we shall not bear them: thou didst come down, and at thy presence the mountains melted away.
4 From the beginning of the world they have not heard, nor perceived with the ears: *the eye hath not seen, O God, besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee.
5 Thou hast met him that rejoiceth, and doth justice: in thy ways they shall remember thee: behold, thou art angry, and we have sinned: in them we have been always, and we shall be saved.
6 And we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman: and we have all fallen as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
7 There is none that calleth upon thy name: that riseth up, and taketh hold of thee: thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast crushed us in the hand of our iniquity.
8 And now, O Lord, thou art our Father, and we are clay: and thou art our Maker, and we all are the works of thy hands.
9 *Be not very angry, O Lord, and remember no longer our iniquity: behold, see we are all thy people.
10 The city of thy sanctuary is become a desert, Sion is made a desert, Jerusalem is desolate.
11 The house of our holiness, and of our glory, where our fathers praised thee, is burnt with fire, and all our lovely things are turned into ruins.
12 Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord, upon these things, wilt thou hold thy peace and afflict us vehemently?
____________________
*
4:  1 Cor. ii. 9.
9:  Ps. lxxviii. 8.
====================

ISAIAS 65
CHAPTER LXV.

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

1 They *have sought me that before asked not for me, they have found me that sought me not.  I said: Behold me, behold me, to a nation that did not call upon my name.
2 I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts.
3 A people that continually provoke me to anger before my face: that immolate in gardens, and sacrifice upon bricks.
4 That dwell in sepulchres, and sleep in the temple of idols: that eat swine's flesh, and profane broth is in their vessels.
5 That say: Depart from me, come not near me, because thou art unclean: these shall be smoke in my anger, a fire burning all the day.
6 Behold it is written before me: I will not be silent, but I will render and repay into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the Lord, who have sacrificed upon the mountains, and have reproached me upon the hills; and I will measure back their first work in their bosom.
8 Thus saith the Lord: As if a grain be found in a cluster, and it be said: Destroy it not, because it is a blessing: so will I do for the sake of my servants, that I may not destroy the whole.
9 And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Juda a possessor of my mountains: and my elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there.
10 And the plains shall be turned to folds of flocks, and the valley of Achor into a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.
11 And you, that have forsaken the Lord, that have forgotten my holy mount, that set a table for fortune, and offer libations upon it.
12 I will number you in the sword, and you shall all fall by slaughter: *because I called, and you did not answer: I spoke, and you did not hear: and you did evil in my eyes, and you have chosen the things that displease me.
13 Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold my servants shall eat, and you shall be hungry: behold my servants shall drink, and you shall be thirsty.
14 Behold my servants shall rejoice, and you shall be confounded: behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for grief of spirit.
15 And you shall leave your name for an execration to my elect: and the Lord God shall slay thee, and call his servants by another name.
16 In which he that is blessed upon the earth, shall be blessed in God, amen: and he that sweareth in the earth, shall swear by God, amen: because the former distresses are forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes.
17 *For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth: and the former things shall not be in remembrance, and they shall not come upon the heart.
18 But you shall be glad, and rejoice for ever in these things, which I create: for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and the people thereof joy.
19 And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
20 There shall no more be an infant of days there, nor an old man that shall not fill up his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner being a hundred years old, shall be accursed.
21 And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruits of them.
22 They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree, so shall be the days of my people, and the works of their hands shall be of long continuance.
23 My elect shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth in trouble: for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their posterity with them.
24 *And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will hear: as they are yet speaking, I will hear.
25 *The wolf and the lamb shall feed together; the lion and the ox shall eat straw: and dust shall be the serpent's food: they shall not hurt, nor kill in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  Rom. x. 20.
12:  Prov. i. 24.; Infra lxvi.; Jer. vii.
17:  Infra lxvi. 22.; Apoc. xxi. 1.
24:  Ps. xxxi. 5.
25:  Supra xxxi. 6.
====================

ISAIAS 66
CHAPTER LXVI.

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

1 Thus *saith the Lord: Heaven is my throne, and the earth my foot-stool: what is this house that you will build to me? and what is this place of my rest?
2 My hand made all these things, and all these things were made, saith the Lord.  But to whom shall I have respect, but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my words?
3 He that sacrificeth an ox, is as if he slew a man: he that killeth a sheep in sacrifice, as if he should brain a dog: he that offereth an oblation, as if he should offer swine's blood: he that remembereth incense, as if he should bless an idol.  All these things have they chosen in their ways, and their soul is delighted in their abominations.
4 Wherefore I also will choose their mockeries: and will bring upon them the things they feared: *because I called, and there was none that would answer: I have spoken, and they heard not: and they have done evil in my eyes, and have chosen the things that displease me.
5 Hear the word of the Lord, you that tremble at his word: Your brethren that hate you, and cast you out for my name's sake, have said: Let the Lord be glorified, and we shall see in your joy: but they shall be confounded.
6 A voice of the people from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord, that rendereth recompense to his enemies.
7 Before she was in labour, she brought forth; before her time came to be delivered she brought forth a man-child.
8 Who hath ever heard such a thing? and who hath seen the like to this? shall the earth bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be brought forth at once, because Sion hath been in labour, and hath brought forth her children?
9 Shall not I, that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God?
10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all you that mourn for her.
11 That you may suck, and be filled with the breasts of her consolations: that you may milk out, and flow with delights, from the abundance of her glory.
12 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring upon her, as it were, a river of peace, and as an overflowing torrent, the glory of the Gentiles, which you shall suck: you shall be carried at the breasts, and upon the knees they shall caress you.
13 As one whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.
14 You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, *and your bones shall flourish like an herb; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall be angry with his enemies.
15 For behold the Lord will come with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind, to render his wrath in indignation, and his rebuke with flames of fire.
16 For the Lord shall judge by fire, and by his sword unto all flesh, and the slain of the Lord shall be many.
17 They that were sanctified, and thought themselves clean in the gardens behind the gate within, they that did eat swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse: they shall be consumed together, saith the Lord.
18 But I know their works, and their thoughts: I come that I may gather them together with all nations and tongues: and they shall come and shall see my glory.
19 And I will set a sign among them, and I will send of them, that shall be saved, to the Gentiles into the sea, into Africa, and Lydia them that draw the bow: into Italy, and Greece, to the islands afar off, to them that have not heard of me, and have not seen my glory.  And they shall declare my glory to the Gentiles:
20 And they shall bring all your brethren out of all nations, for a gift to the Lord, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and on mules, and in coaches, to my holy mountain, Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as if the children of Israel should bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.
21 And I will take of them to be priests, and Levites, saith the Lord.
22 *For as the new heavens, and the new earth, which I will make to stand before me, saith the Lord: so shall your seed stand, and your name.
23 And there shall be month after month, and sabbath after sabbath: and all flesh shall come to adore before my face, saith the Lord.
24 And they shall go out, and see the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me: *their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched: and they shall be a loathsome sight to all flesh.
____________________
*
1:  Acts vii. 49. and xvii. 24.
4:  Prov. i. 24.; Supra lxv. 12.; Jer. vii. 13.
14:  Ezec. cap. xxxvii.
22:  Apoc. xxi. 1.
24:  Mark ix. 45.
====================
====================

JEREMIAS
THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS.

JEREMIAS 1
CHAPTER I.

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

1 The words of Jeremias, the son of Helcias, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
2 The word of the Lord, which came to him in the days of Josias, the son of Amon, king of Juda, in the thirteenth year *of his reign.
3 And which came to him in the days of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias, the son of Josias, king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the fifth month.
4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
6 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
7 And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.
8 Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
9 And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: *and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words in thy mouth:
10 Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, *to root up, and pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant.
11 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias?  And I said: I see a rod watching.
12 And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch over my word to perform it.
13 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: What seest thou?  And I said: *I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.
14 And the Lord said to me: *From the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
15 For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north: saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.
16 And I will pronounce my judgements against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, and have adored the work of their own hands.
17 Thou, therefore, gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee.  Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make thee not to fear their countenance.
18 *For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.
19 And they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
____________________
*
2:  A.M. 3375, A.C. 629.
9:  Isai. vi. 7.
10:  Infra xviii.
13:  Ezec. xi. 7.
14:  Infra iv. 6.
18:  Infra vi. 27.
====================

JEREMIAS 2
CHAPTER II.

God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and infidelity.

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not sown.
3 Israel is holy to the Lord, the first-fruits of his increase: all they that devour him, offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
4 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel.
5 Thus saith the Lord: *What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
6 And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the image of death, through a land, wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?
7 And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination.
8 The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
9 Therefore will I yet contend in judgement with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children.
10 Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar, and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like this.
11 If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.
12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be very desolate, saith the Lord.
13 For my people have done two evils: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14 Is Israel a bondman, or a home-born slave? why then is he become a prey?
15 The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is none to dwell in them.
16 The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have deflowered thee, even to the crown of the head.
17 Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?
18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water?  And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river?
19 Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee.  Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord, the God of hosts.
20 Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve.  *For on every high hill, and under every green tree, thou didst prostitute thyself.
21 *Yet I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange vineyard?
22 Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord God.
23 How canst thou say: I am not polluted, and I have not walked after Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a swift runner pursuing his course.
24 A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.
25 Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst.  But thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them.
26 As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets.
27 Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast begotten me: *they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.
28 Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: *for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.
29 Why will you contend with me in judgement? you have all forsaken me, saith the Lord.
30 In vain have I struck your children, they have not received correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is like a ravaging lion.
31 See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are revolted, we will come to thee no more?
32 Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but my people hath forgotten me days without number.
33 Why dost thou endeavor to shew thy way good to seek my love, thou who has also taught thy malices to be thy ways.
34 And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I mentioned before.
35 And thou hast said: I am without sin, and am innocent: and therefore let thy anger be turned away from me.  Behold, I will contend with thee in judgement, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.
36 How exceedingly base art thou become, going the same ways over again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
37 For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have nothing prosperous therein.
____________________
*
5:  Micheas vi. 3.
20:  Infra iii. 6.
21:  Isai. v. 1.; Mat. xxi. 33.
27:  Infra xxxii. 33.
28:  Infra xi. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 3
CHAPTER III.

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

1 It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.
2 Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: Thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them, as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.
3 Therefore, the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
4 Therefore, at the least, from this time, call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:
5 Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue until the end?  Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.
6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: *Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hast done? she hath gone out of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.
7 And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return.  And her treacherous sister, Juda, saw,
8 That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister, Juda, was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.
9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
10 And after all this, her treacherous sister, Juda, hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.
13 But yet, acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.
14 Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.
15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
16 And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.
18 In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.
19 But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles?  And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.
20 But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
21 A voice was heard in the high ways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions.  Behold, we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
23 In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly, in the Lord our God, is the salvation of Israel.
24 Confusion hath devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth, even to this day: and we have not hearkened to the voice of theLord our God.
____________________
*
6:  Supra ii. 20.
====================

JEREMIAS 4
CHAPTER IV.

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

1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumbling-blocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved.
2 And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgement, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him.
3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: *Break up anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:
4 Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it: because of the wickedness of your thoughts.
5 Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.
6 Set up the standard in Sion.  Strengthen yourselves, stay not, *for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
7 The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.
8 For this, gird yourselves with hair-cloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed
10 And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reacheth even to the soul?
11 At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.
12 A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.
13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.
14 Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?
15 For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from Mount Ephraim.
16 Say ye to the nations: Behold, it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.
17 They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.
18 *Thy ways and thy devices have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy heart.
19 My bowels, my bowels are in pain, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.
20 Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.
21 How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?
22 For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
23 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.
24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.
25 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.
26 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.
27 For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.
28 The earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.
29 At the voice of the horsemen, and the archer, all the city is fled away: they have entered into thickets, and have climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.
30 But when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, and paintest thy eyes with stibic-stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.
31 For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail; anguishes, as of a woman in labour of a child.  The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain.
____________________
*
3:  Osee x. 12.
6:  Supra i. 14.
18:  Wis. i. 3. and 5.
====================

JEREMIAS 5
CHAPTER V.

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

1 Go about, through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can fins a man that executeth judgement, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.
2 And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.
3 O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.
4 But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God.
5 I will go therefore to the great men, and I will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgement of their God: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.
6 Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence, shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.
7 How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.
8 They are become as amorous horses and stallions: *every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.
9 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
10 Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord's.
11 For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda, have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
12 They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.
13 The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.
14 Thus saith the Lord, the God of hosts: Because you have spoken this word: behold, I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.
15 Behold, I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.
17 And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trusteth.
18 Nevertheless, in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.
19 *And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.
20 Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:
21 Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.
22 Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord? and will you not repent at my presence?  I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.
23 But the heart of this people is become hard of belief, and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
24 And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.
25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
26 For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
27 As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.
28 They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words.  *They have not judged the cause of the widow; they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, they have not judged the judgement of the poor.
29 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
30 Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.
31 The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?
____________________
*
8:  Ezec. xxii. 11.
19:  Infra xvi. 10.
28:  Isai. i. 23.; Zach. vii. 10.
====================

JEREMIAS 6
CHAPTER VI.

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

1 Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great destruction.
2 I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate woman.
3 The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them that are under his hand.
4 Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at mid-day: woe unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are grown longer.
5 Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.
6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression is in the midst of her.
7 As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity and stripes are continually before me.
8 Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a grape-gatherer into the basket.
10 To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold, the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and and they will not receive it.
11 Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient, and he that is full of days.
12 And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch for my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
13 *For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty of deceit.
14 And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.
15 They were confounded, because they commmitted abomination: yea, rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.
16 Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: *and you shall find refreshment for your souls.  And they said: We will not walk.
17 And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet.  And they said: We will not hearken.
18 Therefore, hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great things I will do to them.
19 Hear, O earth: Behold, I will bring evils upon this people, the fruit of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and they have cast away my law.
20 *To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will bring destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall, neighbor and kinsman shall perish.
22 Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the north country, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.
23 They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will have no mercy.  Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of Sion.
24 We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.
26 Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
27 I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt know, and prove their way.
28 All of these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.
29 The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.
30 Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.
____________________
*
13:  Isai. lvi. 11.; Infra viii. 10.
16:  Mat. xi. 29.
20:  Isai. i. 11.
====================

JEREMIAS 7
CHAPTER VII.

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

1 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
2 Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.
3 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: *Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.
4 Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.
5 For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will execute judgement between a man and his neighbor.
6 If you opress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt:
7 I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to your fathers from the beginning, and for evermore.
8 Behold, you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit you:
9 To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.
10 And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations.
11 *Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in your eyes become a den of robbers?  I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the Lord.
12 Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the beginning: and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel:
13 And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord: and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have not heard: *and I have called you, and you have not answered:
14 *I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in which you trust, and to the place which I have given you and your fathers, as I did to Silo.
15 And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 *Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them, and do not withstand me: for I will not hear thee.
17 Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.
19 Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? is it not themselves, to the confusion of their owncontenance?
20 Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, my wrath and my indignation was enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.
22 For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt-offerings and sacrifices.
23 But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way, that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.
24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward,
25 From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, even to this day.  And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, from day to day, rising up early and sending.
26 And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but have hardened their neck, *and have done worse than their fathers.
27 And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer thee.
28 And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.
29 Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his wrath,
30 Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the Lord.  They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon, to pollute it:
31 And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters, in the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.
32 Therefore, behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the Valley of the son of Ennom: but the Valley of slaughter, and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no place.
33 And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive them away.
34 *And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
____________________
*
3:  Infra xxvi. 13.
11:  Mat. xxi. 13.; Mark xi. 17.; Lu. xix. 46.
13:  Prov. i. 24.; Isai. lxv. 12.
14:  1 Kings iv. 2. and 10.
16:  Infra xi. 14. and xiv. 11.
26:  Infra xvi. 12.
34:  Zach. xii. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 8
CHAPTER VIII.

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

1 At that time, saith the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the kings of Juda, and the bones of the princes thereof, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
2 And they shall spread them abroad to the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and adored: they shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried: they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life, by all that shall remain of this wicked kindred in all places, which are left, to which I have cast them out, saith the Lord of hosts.
4 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Shall not he that falleth, rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not turn again?
5 Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn revolting? they have laid hold on lying, and have refused to return.
6 I attended, and hearkened: no man speaketh what is good, there is none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done?  They are all turned to their own course, as a horse rushing to the battle.
7 The kite in the air hath known her time: the turtle, and the swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming: but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord.
8 How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us?  Indeed, the lying pen of the scribes hath wrought falsehood.
9 The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.
10 *Therefore will I give their women to strangers, their fields to others for an inheritance: because from the least, even to the greatest, all follow covetousness: from the prophet, even to the priest, all deal deceitfully.
11 And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: when there was no peace.
12 They are confounded, because they have committed abomination: yea, rather, they are not confounded with confusion, and they have not know how to blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall fall, saith the Lord.
13 Gathering, I will gather them together, saith the Lord: there is no grape on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig-tree, the leaf is fallen: and I have given them the things that are passed away.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced city, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and hath given us *water of gall to drink: for we have sinned against the Lord.
15 *We looked for peace, and no good came: for a time of healing, and behold fear.
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; all the land was moved at the sound of the neighing of his warriors: and they came and devoured the land, and all that was in it: the city and its inhabitants.
17 For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
18 My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.
19 Behold the voice of the daughter of my people, from a far country: Is not the Lord in Sion, or is not her king in her? why then have they provoked me to wrath with their idols, and strange vanities?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21 For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am afflicted, and made sorrowful, astonishment hath taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Galaad? or is no physician there?  Why then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?
____________________
*
10:  Isai. lvi. 11.; Supra vi. 13.
14:  Infra ix. 15.
15:  Infra xiv. 10.
====================

JEREMIAS 9
CHAPTER IX.

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

1 Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.
2 Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.
3 And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
4 Let every man take heed of his neighbor, and let his not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
5 And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have laboured to commit iniquity.
6 Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.
7 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and try them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?
8 *Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait for him.
9 Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
10 For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts, they are gone away and departed.
11 And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.
12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come, that he may declare this, why the land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none passeth through?
13 And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.
14 But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
15 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: *Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
16 And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them, till they be consumed.
17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste:
18 Let them hasten, and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our dwellings are cast down.
20 Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and every one her neighbor mourning.
21 For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our houses, to destroy the children from without, the young men from the streets.
22 Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the mower, and there is none to gather it.
23 Thus saith the Lord: *Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
25 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
26 Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
____________________
*
8:  Psalm xxvii. 3.
15:  Infra xxiii. 15.
23:  1 Cor. i. 31.; 2 Cor. x. 17.
====================

JEREMIAS 10
CHAPTER X.

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

1 Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.
2 Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear:
3 For the laws of the people are vain: *for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.
4 He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.
5 They are framed after the likeness of a palm-tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go.  Therefore, fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.
6 *There is none like to thee, O Lord; thou art great, and great is thy name in might.
7 *Who shall fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.
8 They shall be all proved together, to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.
9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith: violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.
10 But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.
11 Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those places that are under heaven.
12 *He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.
13 At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: *he maketh lightnings for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
14 Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.
15 They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
16 The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
17 Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege.
18 For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that they may be found.
19 Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous.  But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.
20 My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
21 Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered.
22 Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the north country: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.
23 I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.
24 Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgement: and not in thy fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.
____________________
*
3:  Wis. xiii. 11. and xiv. 8.
6:  Micheas vii. 18.
7:  Apoc. xv. 4.
12:  Gen. i. 1.; Infra li. 15.
13:  Psalm cxxxiv. 7.; Infra li. 16.
====================

JEREMIAS 11
CHAPTER XI.

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

1 The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, saying:
2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
3 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man that shall not hearken to the words of this covenant.
4 Which I commanded your fathers, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying: Hear ye my voice, and do all things that I command you: and you shall be my people, and I will be your God:
5 That I may accomplish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.  And I answered, and said: Amen, O Lord.
6 And the Lord said to me: Proclaim aloud all these words in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of the covenant, and do them:,
7 For protesting I conjured your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, even to this day: rising early, I conjured them, and said: Hearken ye to my voice:
8 And they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear: but walked every one in the perverseness of his own wicked heart: and I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.
9 And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of Juda, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear my words: so these likewise have gone after strange gods, to serve them: the house of Israel, and the house of Juda, have made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers.
11 Wherefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring in evils upon them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to me, and I will not hearken to them.
12 And the cities of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer sacrifice, and they shall not save them in the time of their affliction.
13 *For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda: and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem, thou hast set up altars of confusion, altars to offer sacrifice to Baalim.
14 *Therefore do not thou pray for this people, and do not take up praise and prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time of their cry to me, in the time of their affliction.
15 What is the meaning, that my beloved hath wrought muck wickedness in my house? shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy crimes, in which thou hast boasted?
16 The Lord called thy name, a plentiful olive-tree, fair, fruitful, and beautiful: at the noise of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and the branches thereof are burnt.
17 And the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee: for the evils of the house of Israel, and the house of Juda, which they have done to themselves, to provoke me, offering sacrifice to Baalim.
18 But thou, O Lord, hast shewn me, and I have known: then thou shewedst me their doings.
19 And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.
20 *But thou, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judgest justly, and triest the reins and hearts, let me see thy revenge on them: for to thee have I revealed my cause.
21 Therefore thus saith the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek thy life, and say: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and thou shalt not die in our hands.
22 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon them: and their young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine.
23 And there shall be no remains of them: for I will bring in evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation.
____________________
*
13:  Supra ii. 28.
14:  Supra vii. 16.; Infra xiv. 11.
20:  Infra xvii. 10. and xx. 12.
====================

JEREMIAS 12
CHAPTER XII.

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.

1 Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, *but yet I will speak what is just to thee: **Why doth the way of the wicked prosper: why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?
2 Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
3 And thou, O Lord, hast known me; thou hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee: gather them together as sheep for a sacrifice, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein?  The beasts and the birds are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.
5 If thou hast 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?
6 For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe them not when they speak good things to thee.
7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given my dear soul into the hand of her enemies.
8 My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: is hath cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.
9 Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth; make haste to devour.
10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a desolate wilderness.
11 They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me.  With desolation is all the land made desolate: because there is none that considereth in the heart.
12 The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.
13 They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.
14 Thus saith the Lord, against all my wicked neighbors, that touch the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold, I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of the midst of them.
15 And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have mercy on them: and I will bring them back every man to his inheritance, and every man into his land.
16 And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name, The Lord liveth; as they have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built up in the midst of my people.
17 But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  Psal. li. 6. --- ** Job xxi. 7.; Habac. i. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 13
CHAPTER XIII.

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

1 Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.
2 And I got a girdle accoding to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.
3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:
4 Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
5 And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.
6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.
7 And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it: and behold, the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.
8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
9 Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.
10 This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle, which is fit for no use.
11 For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all of the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
12 Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine.  And they shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
13 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
14 And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but destroy them.
15 Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.
16 Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.
17 But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: *weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down the tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.
18 Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.
19 The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.
20 Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?
21 What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?
22 And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come upon me?  *For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.
23 If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: youalso may do well, when you have learned evil.
24 And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.
25 This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.
26 Wherefore I have also bared my thighs against thy face, and thy shame hath appeared.
27 I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of thy fornication, and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field.  Woe to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?
____________________
*
17:  Lament. i. 2.
22:  Infra xxx. 14.
====================

JEREMIAS 14
CHAPTER XIV.

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

1 The word of the Lord, that came to Jeremias, concerning the words of the drought.
2 Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
3 The great ones sent their inferiors to the water, they came to draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.
4 For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandmen were confounded, they covered their heads.
5 Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it: because there was no grass.
6 And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.
7 If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned against thee.
8 O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt thou be a stranger in the land, and as a way-faring man turning in to lodge?
9 Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us, forsake us not.
10 Thus saith the Lord to his people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.
11 And the Lord said to me: *Pray not for this people for their good.
12 When they fast I will not hear their prayers; and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.
13 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God: the prophets say to them: *You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he will give you true peace in this place.
14 And the Lord said to me: *The prophets prophesy falsely in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.
15 Therefore, thus saith the Lord, concerning the prophets, that 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.
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 wickedness upon them.
17 And thou shalt speak this word to them: *Let my eyes shed down tears night and day, and let them not cease because the virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an exceedingly grievous evil.
18 If I go forth into the fields, behold the slain with the sword: and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with famine.  The prophet also, and the priest, are gone into a land which they knew not.
19 Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred Sion? why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us? *we have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and behold trouble.
20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
21 Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name's sake, and do not disgrace in us the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.
____________________
*
11:  Supra vii. 16. and xi. 14.
13:  Supra v. 12.; Infra xxiii. 17.
14:  Infra xxix. 9.
17:  Lament. i. 16. and ii. 18.
19:  Supra viii. 15.
====================

JEREMIAS 15
CHAPTER XV.

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

1 And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel shall stand before me, my soul is not towards this people: cast them out from my sight, and let them go forth.
2 And if they shall say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: *Such as are for death, to death: and such as are for the sword, to the sword: and such as are for famine, to famine: and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
3 And I will visit them with four kinds, saith the Lord: The sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4 And I will give them up to the rage of all the kingdoms of the earth: *because of Manasses, the son of Ezechias, the king of Juda, for all that he did in Jerusalem.
5 For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go to pray for thy peace?
6 Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee: I am weary of intreating thee.
7 And I will scatter them with a fan in the gates of the land: I have killed and destroyed my people, and yet they are not returned from their ways.
8 Their widows are multiplied unto me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young man, a spoiler at noon-day: I have cast a terror on a sudden upon the cities.
9 *She that hath borne seven is become weak, her soul hath fainted away: **her sun is gone down, while it was yet day: she is confounded, and ashamed: and the residue of them I will give up to the sword in the sight of their enemies, saith the Lord.
10 Woe is me, my mother: why hast thou borne me a man of strife, a man of contention to all the earth?  I have not lent on usury, neither hath any man lent to me on usury, yet all curse me.
11 The Lord saith to me: Assuredly it shall be well with thy remnant, assuredly I shall help thee in the time of affliction, and in the time of tribulation, against the enemy.
12 Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the brass?
13 Thy riches and thy treasures I will give unto spoil for nothing, because of all thy sins, even in all thy borders.
14 And I will bring thy enemies out of a land which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in my rage, it shall burn upon you.
15 O Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and defend me from them that persecute me, do not defend me in thy patience: know that for thy sake I have suffered reproach.
16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me a joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts.
17 *I sat not in the assembly of jesters, nor did I make a boast of the presence of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with threats.
18 *Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate, so as to refuse to be healed? it is become to me as the falsehood of deceitful waters that cannot be trusted.
19 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted, I will convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face: and if thou wilt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.
20 And I will make thee to this people as a strong wall of brass: and they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
21 And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty.
____________________
*
2:  Zach. xi. 9.
4:  4 Kings xxi. 7. and 12.
9:  1 Kings ii. 5. --- ** Amos viii. 9.
17:  Ps. i. 1. and xxv. 4.
18:  Infra xxx. 15.
====================

JEREMIAS 16
CHAPTER XVI.

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.

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have thee sons, and daughters, in this place.
3 For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and daughters, that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bore them: and concerning their fathers, of whom they were born in this land:
4 They shall die by the death of grievous illnesses: they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be buried, they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed with the sword, and with famine: and their carcasses shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.
5 For thus saith the Lord: Enter not into the house of feasting, neither go thou to mourn, nor to comfort them: because I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, my mercy and commiserations.
6 Both the great and the little shall die in this land: they shall not be buried nor lamented, and men shall not cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
7 And they shall not break bread among them to him that mourneth, to comfort him for the dead: neither shall they give them to drink of the cup, to comfort them for their father and mother.
8 And do not thou go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, and to eat and drink:
9 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will take away out of this place in your sight, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
10 And when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they shall say to thee: *Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced against us all this great evil? what is our iniquity? and what is our sin, that we have sinned against the Lord our God?
11 Thou shalt say to them: Because your fathers forsook me, saith the Lord: and went after strange gods, and served them, and adored them: and they forsook me, and kept not my law.
12 *And you also have done worse than your fathers: for behold every one of you walketh after the perverseness of his evil heart, so as not to hearken to me.
13 So I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land which you know not, nor your fathers: and there you shall serve strange gods day and night, which shall not give you any rest.
14 Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, when it shall be said no more: The Lord liveth, that brought for the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt:
15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought the children of Israel out of the land of the north, and out of all the lands to which I cast them out: and I will bring them again into their land, which I gave to their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them: and after this I will send them many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For my eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, and their iniquity hath not been hid from my eyes.
18 And I will repay first their double iniquities, and their sins: because they have defiled my land with the carcasses of their idols, and they have filled my inheritance with their abominations.
19 O Lord, my might, and my strength, and my refuge in the day of tribulation: to thee the Gentiles shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have possessed lies, a vanity which hath not profited them.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold I will this once cause them to know, I will shew them my hand and my power: and they shall know that my name is the Lord.
____________________
*
10:  Supra v. 19.
12:  Supra vii. 26.
====================

JEREMIAS 17
CHAPTER XVII.

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.

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, and upon the horns of their altars.
2 When their children shall remember their altars, and their groves, and their green trees upon high mountains,
3 Sacrificing in the field: I will give thy strength, and all thy treasures to the spoil, and thy high places for sin in all thy borders.
4 And thou shalt be left stript of thy inheritance, which I gave thee: and I will make thee serve thy enemies in a land which thou knowest not: because thou hast kindled a fire in my wrath, it shall burn for ever.
5 Thus saith the Lord: *Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
6 *For he shall be like tamaric in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come: but he shall dwell in dryness in the desert in a salt land, and not inhabited.
7 Blessed be the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence.
8 *And he shall be as a tree that is planted by the waters, that spreadeth out its roots towards moisture: and it shall not fear when the heat cometh.  And the leaf thereof shall be green, and in the time of drought it shall not be solicitous, neither shall it cease at any time to bring forth fruit.
9 The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable, who can know it?
10 I am the Lord *who search the heart, and prove the reins: who give to every one according to his way, and according to the fruit of his devices.
11 As the partridge hath hatched eggs which she did not lay: so is he that hath gathered riches, and not by right: in the midst of his days he shall leave them, and in his latter end he shall be a fool.
12 A high and glorious throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctification:
13 O Lord, the hope of Israel: all that forsake thee, shall be confounded: they that depart from thee, shall be written in the earth: because they have forsaken the Lord, the vein of living waters.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me: Where is the word of the Lord? let it come.
16 And I am not troubled, following thee for my pastor, and I have not desired the day of man, thou knowest.  That which went out of my lips, hath been right in thy sight.
17 Be not thou a terror unto me, thou art my hope in the day of affliction.
18 Let them be confounded that persecute me, and let not me be confounded: let them be afraid, and let not me be afraid: bring upon them the day of affliction, and with a double destruction, destroy them.
19 Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Juda come in, and go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem:
20 And thou shalt say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, ye kings of Juda, and all Juda, and all the inhabitant of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates.
21 Thus saith the Lord: Take heed to your souls, and carry no burdens on the sabbath-day: and bring them not in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22 And do not bring burdens out of your houses on the sabbath-day, neither do ye any work: sanctify the sabbath-day, as I commanded your fathers.
23 But they did not hear, nor inclined their ear: but hardened their neck, that they might not hear me, and might not receive instruction.
24 And it shall come to pass: if you will hearken to me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burdens by the gates of this city on the sabbath-day: and if you will sanctify the sabbath-day, to do no work therein:
25 Then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes, sitting upon the throne of David, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever.
26 And they shall come from the cities of Juda, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plains, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing holocausts, and victims, and sacrifices, and frankincense, and they shall bring in an offering into the house of the Lord.
27 But if you will not hearken to me, to sanctify the sabbath-day, and not to carry burdens, and not to bring them in by the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath-day: I will kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the houses of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
____________________
*
5:  Isai. xxx. 2. and xxxi. 1.; Infra xlviii. 7.
6:  Infra xlviii. 6.
8:  Ps. i. 3.
10:  1 Kings xvi. 7.; Ps. vii. 10.; Apoc. ii. 23.
====================

JEREMIAS 18
CHAPTER XVIII.

As 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.

1 The word that came from Jeremias to the Lord, saying:
2 Arise, and go down into the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words.
3 And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.
4 And the vessel was broken which he was making of clay with his hands: and turning, he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6 *Cannot I do with you, as this potter, 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.
7 I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, *to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.
8 If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.
9 And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.
10 If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.
11 Now, therefore, tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: *let every man of you return from his evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.
12 And they said: We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.
13 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?
14 Shall now the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?
15 Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:
16 *That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.
17 As a burning 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 And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.
19 Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.
20 Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul?  Remember that I have stood in thy sight, to speak good for them, and to turn away thy indignation from them.
21 Therefore, deliver up their children to famine, and bring them into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children, and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young men be stabbed with the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me, and have hid snares for my feet.
23 But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death: forgive not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy wrath do thou destroy them.
____________________
*
6:  Isai. xlv. 9.; Rom. ix. 20.
7:  Supra i. 10.
11:  4 Kings xvii. 13.; Infra xxv. 5. and xxxv. 15.; Jonas iii. 9.
16:  Infra xix. 8. and xlix. 3. and l. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 19
CHAPTER XIX.

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

1 Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:
2 And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that I shall tell thee.
3 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place: so that whosoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:
4 Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place: and have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents.
5 And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command, nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.
6 Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter.
7 And I will defeat the counsel of Juda, and of Jerusalem, in this place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.
8 *And I will make this city an astonishent, and a hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss, because of all the plagues thereof.
9 And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10 And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee.
11 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter's vessel is broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.
12 Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.
13 And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of Juda, shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses, upon whose roofs they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings to strange gods.
14 Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all people:
15 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof, all the evils that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
____________________
*
8:  Supra xviii. 16.; Infra xlix. 13. and l. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 20
CHAPTER XX.

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

1 Now Phassur, the son of Emmer, the priest, who was appointed chief in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremias prophesying these words.
2 And Phassur struck Jeremias, the prophet, and put him in the stocks, that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, in the house of the Lord.
3 And when it was light the next day, Phassur brought Jeremias out of the stocks.  And Jeremias said to him: The Lord hath not called thy name Phassur, but fear on every side.
4 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver thee up to fear, thee and all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thy eyes shall see it, and I will give all Juda into the hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall carry them away to Babylon, and shall strike them with the sword.
5 And I will give all the substance of this city, and all its labour, and every precious thing thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Juda will I give into the hands of their enemies: and they shall pillage them, and take them away, and carry them to Babylon.
6 But thou, Phassur, and all that dwell in thy house, shall go into captivity, and thou shalt go to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there thou shalt be buried, thou and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied a lie.
7 Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I am deceived: thou hast been stronger than I, and thou hast prevailed. I am become a laughing-stock all the day, all scoff at me.
8 For I am speaking now this long time, crying out against iniquity, and I often proclaim devastation: and the word of the Lord is made a reproach to me, and a derision all the day.
9 Then I said: I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name: and there came in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was wearied, not being able to bear it.
10 For I heard the reproaches of many, and terror on every side: Persecute him, and let us persecute him: from all the men that were my familiars, and continued at my side: if by any means he may be deceived, and we may prevail against him, and be revenged on him.
11 But the Lord is with me as a strong warrior: therefore, they that persecute me, shall fall, and shall be weak: they shall be greatly confounded, *because they have not understood the everlasting reproach, which never shall be effaced.
12 And thou, O Lord of hosts, *prover of the just, who seest the reins and the heart: let me see, I beseech thee, thy vengeance on them: for to thee I have laid open my cause.
13 Sing ye to the Lord, praise the Lord: because he hath delivered the soul of the poor out of the hand of the wicked.
14 *Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day in which my mother bore me, be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man that brought the tidings to my father, saying: A man-child is born to thee: and made him greatly rejoice.
16 Let that man be as the cities that the Lord hath overthrown, and hath not repented: let him hear a cry in the morning, and howling at noon-tide:
17 Who slew me not from the womb, that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb an everlasting conception.
18 Why came I out of the womb, to see labour and sorrow, and that my days should be spent in confusion?
____________________
*
11:  Infra xxiii. 40.
12:  Supra xi. 20. and xvii. 10.
14:  Job iii. 2.
====================

JEREMIAS 21
CHAPTER XXI.

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

1 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of Maasias, the priest, saying:
2 Enquire of the Lord for us, for Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, maketh war against us: if so be, the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us.
3 And Jeremias said to them: Thus shall you say to Sedecias:
4 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and the Chaldeans, that besiege you round about the walls: and I will gather them together in the midst of this city.
5 And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand, and with a strong arm, and in fury, and in indignation, and in great wrath.
6 And I will strike the inhabitants of this city: men and beasts shall die of a great pestilence.
7 And, after this, saith the Lord, I will give Sedecias, the king of Juda, and his servants, and his people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, and the sword , and the famine, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword, and he shall not be moved to pity, nor spare them, nor shew mercy on them.
8 And to this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
9 *He that shall abide in this city, shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that shall go out, and flee over to the Chaldeans, that besiege you, shall live, and his life shall be to him as a spoil.
10 For I have set my face against this city, for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
11 And to the house of the king of Juda: Hear ye the word of the Lord,
12 O house of David, this saith the Lord: *Judge ye judgement in the morning, and deliver him that is oppressed by violence out of the hand of the oppressor: lest my indignation go forth like a fire, and be kindled, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your ways.
13 Behold, I come to thee that dwelleth in a valley, upon a rock, above a plain, saith the Lord: and you say: Who shall strike us? and who shall enter into our houses?
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 forests thereof: and it shall devour all things round about it.
____________________
*
9:  Infra xxxviii. 2.
12:  Infra xxii. 3.
====================

JEREMIAS 22
CHAPTER XXII.

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

1 Thus saith the Lord: Go down to the house of the king of Juda, and there thou shalt speak this word.
2 And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest upon the throne of David: thou and thy servants, and thy people, who enter in by these gates.
3 Thus saith the Lord: *Execute judgement and justice, and deliver him that is oppressed out of the hand of the oppressor: and afflict not the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, nor oppress them unjustly: and shed not innocent blood in this place.
4 For if you will do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in, by the gates of this house, kings of the race of David sitting upon his throne, and riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants, and their people.
5 But if you will not hearken to these words: I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation.
6 For thus saith the Lord to the house of the king of Juda: Thou art to me Galaad, the head of Libanus: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities not habitable.
7 And I will prepare against thee the destroyer and his weapons: and they shall cut down thy chosen cedars, and shall cast them headlong into the fire.
8 And many nations shall pass by this city: and they shall say every man to his neighbor: *Why hath the Lord done so to this great city?
9 And they shall answer: Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and have adored strange gods, and served them.
10 Weep not for him that is dead, nor bemoan him with your tears: lament him that goeth away, for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11 For thus saith the Lord to Sellum, the son of Josias, the king of Juda, who reigned instead of his father, who went forth out of this place: He shall return hither no more:
12 But in the place, to which I have removed him, there shall he die, and he shall not see this land any more.
13 Woe to him that buildeth up his house by injustice, and his chambers not in judgement: that will oppress his friend without cause, and will not pay him his wages.
14 Who saith: I will build me a wide house, and large chambers: who openeth to himself windows, and maketh roofs of cedar, and painteth them with vermilion.
15 Shalt thou reign, because thou comparest thyself to the cedar? did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and it was then well with him?
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy for his own good: was it not, therefore, because he knew me, saith the Lord?
17 But thy eyes and thy heart are set upon covetousness, and upon shedding innocent blood, and upon oppression, and running after evil works.
18 Therefore, thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda: They shall not mourn for him, Alas! my brother, and alas! sister: they shall not lament for him, Alas! my lord, or, alas! the noble one.
19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, rotten and cast forth *without the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Libanus, and cry: and lift up thy voice in Basan, and cry to them that pass by, for all thy lovers are destroyed.
21 I spoke to thee in thy properity: and thou saidst: I will not hear: this hath been thy way from thy youth, because thou hast not heard my voice.
22 The wind shall feed all thy pastors, and thy lovers shall go into captivity: and then shalt thou be confounded, and ashamed of all thy wickedness.
23 Thou that sittest in Libanus, and makest thy nest in the cedars, how hast thou mourned when sorrows came upon thee, as the pains of a woman in labour?
24 As I live, saith the Lord, if Jechonias, the son of Joakim, the king of Juda, were a ring on my right hand, I would pluck him thence.
25 And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will send thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a strange country, in which you were not born, and there you shall die:
27 And they shall not return into the land, whereunto they lift up their mind to return thither.
28 Is this man, Jechonias, an earthen and a broken vessel? is he a vessel wherein there is no pleasure? why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.
30 Thus saith the Lord: Write this man barren, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for there shall not be a man of his seed that shall sit upon the throne of David, and have power any more in Juda.
____________________
*
3:  Supra xxi. 12.
8:  Deut. xxix. 24.; 3 Kings ix. 8.
19:  Infra xxxvi. 30.
====================

JEREMIAS 23
CHAPTER XXIII.

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.

1 Woe *to the pastors, that destroy and tear the sheep of my pasture, saith the Lord.
2 Therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to the pastors that feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you for the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.
3 And I will gather together the remnant of my flock, out of all the lands into which I have cast them out: and I will make them return to their own fields, and they shall increase and be multiplied.
4 *And I will set up pastors over them, and they shall feed them: they shall fear no more, and they shall not be dismayed: and none shall be wanting of their number, saith the Lord.
5 *Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will raise up to David a just branch: and a king shall reign, and shall be wise: and shall execute judgement and justice in the earth.
6 In those *days shall Juda be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: the Lord, our just one.
7 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and they shall say no more: The Lord liveth, who brought up the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt:
8 But, *the Lord liveth, who hath brought out, and brought hither the seed of the house of Israel, from the land of the north, and out of all the lands, to which I had cast them forth: and they shall dwell in their own land.
9 To the prophets: My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble: I am become as a drunken man, and as a man full of wine, at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of his holy words.
10 Because the land is full of adulterers, because the land hath mourned by reason of cursing, the fields of the desert are dried up: and their course is become evil, and their strength unlike.
11 For the prophet and the priest are defiled: and in my house I have found their wickedness, saith the Lord.
12 Therefore their way shall be as a slippery way in the dark: for they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evils upon them, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied in Baal, and deceived my people Israel.
14 And I have seen the likeness of adulterers, and the way of lying in the peophets of Jerusalem: and they strengthened the hands of the wicked, that no man should return from his evil doings: that are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gamorrha.
15 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, to the prophets: *Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and will give them gall to drink: for, from the prophets of Jerusalem, corruption has gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: *Hearken not to the words of the prophets that prophesy to you, and deceive you: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
17 They say 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 to you.
18 For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and heard his word?  Who hath considered his word and heard it?
19 *Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth, and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.
20 The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand his counsel.
21 *I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22 If they stood in my counsel, and had made my words known to my people, I should have turned them from their evil way and from their wicked doings.
23 Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?
24 Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith the Lord? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?
25 I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
26 How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their own heart.
27 Who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor: as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.
28 The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream: and he that hath my word, let him speak my word with truth: what hath the chaff to do with the wheat, saith the Lord?
29 Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
30 Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who steal my words every one from his neighbor.
31 Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use their tongues, and say: The Lord saith it.
32 Behold I am against the prophets that have lying dreams, saith the Lord: and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lying, and by their wonders: when I sent them not, nor commanded them, who have not profited this people at all, saith the Lord.
33 If therefore this people, or the prophet, or the priest, shall ask thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to them: You are the burden: for I will cast you away, saith the Lord.
34 And, as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say: The burden of the Lord: I will visit upon that man, and upon his house.
35 Thus shall you say every one to his neighbor, and to his brother: What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken?
36 And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, for every man's word shall be his burden: for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God.
37 Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered thee? and what hath the Lord spoken?
38 But if you shall say: The burden of the Lord: therefore, thus saith the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden of the Lord: and I have sent to you, saying: Say not the burden of the Lord:
39 Therefore, behold I will take you away, carrying you, and will forsake you, and the city which I gave to you, and to your fathers, out of my presence.
40 *And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten.
____________________
*
1:  Ezec. xiii. 3. and xxxiv. 2.
4:  Supra iii. 15.
5:  Isai. iv. 2. and xl. 11. and xlv. 8.; Infra xxxiii. 14.; Ezec. xxxiv. 23. 24.; Dan. ix. 24. and John i. 45.
6:  Deut. xxxiii. 28.
8:  Supra xvi. 14.
15:  Supra ix. 15.
16:  Infra xxvii. 9. and xxix. 8.
17:  Supra v. 12. and xiv. 13.
19:  Infra xxx. 14.
21:  Infra xxvii. 15. and xxix. 9.
40:  Supra xx. 11.
====================

JEREMIAS 24
CHAPTER XXIV.

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.

1 The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set before the temple of the Lord, after that *Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, had carried away Jechonias, the son of Joakim, the king of Juda, and his chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.
2 One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season: and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, because they were bad.
3 And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias?  And I said: Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad.
4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
5 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.
6 And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring them again into this land: and I will build them up, and not pull them down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.
7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: *and they shall be my people, and I will be their God: because they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8 *And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias, the king of Juda, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.
9 And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a bye-word, and a proverb, and to be a curse in all places to which I have cast them out.
10 And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them, and their fathers.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3405, A.C. 599.
7:  Supra vii. 23.; Infra xviii. 6.
8:  Infra xxix. 17.
====================

JEREMIAS 25
CHAPTER XXV.

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

1 The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people of Juda, in the *fourth year of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, (the same is the first year of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon.)
2 Which Jeremias, the prophet, spoke to all the people of Juda, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:
3 From the thirteenth year of Josias, the son of Ammon, king of Juda, until this day: this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you rising before day, and speaking, and you have not hearkened.
4 And the Lord hath sent to you all his servants, the prophets, rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined your ears to hear.
5 When he said: *Return ye, every one, from his evil way, and from your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord hath given to you, and your fathers, for ever and ever.
6 And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict you.
7 And you have not heard me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.
8 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard my words:
9 Behold, I will send and take all the kindreds of the north, saith the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon, my servant: and I will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
10 And I will take away from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the mill, and the light of the lamp.
11 *And all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment: and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12 And when the seventy years shall be expired, I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans: and I will make it perpetual desolations.
13 And I will bring upon the land all my words, that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, all that Jeremias hath prophesied against all nations:
14 For they have served them, whereas they were many nations, and great kings: and I will repay them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their hands.
15 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take the cup of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all nations to drink thereof, unto which I shall send thee.
16 And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because of the sword, which I shall send among them.
17 And I took the cup at the hand of the Lord, and I presented it to all the nations to drink of it, to which the Lord sent me:
18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof: to make them a desolation, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a curse, as it is at this day.
19 Pharao, the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people,
20 And all in general: all the kings of the land of Ausitis, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus.
21 And Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon.
22 And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon: and the kings of the land of the islands that are beyond the sea.
23 And Dedan, and Thema, and Buz, and all that have their hair cut round.
24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the west, that dwell in the desert.
25 And all the kings of Zambri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Medes:
26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, every one against his brother: and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face thereof: and the king of Sesac shall drink after them.
27 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit: and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword, which I shall send among you.
28 And if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall drink:
29 *For behold I begin to bring evil on the city wherein my name is called upon, and shall you be as innocent, and escape free? you shall not escape free: for I will call for the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.
30 And thou shalt prophesy unto them all these words, and thou shalt say to them: *The Lord shall roar from on high, and shall utter his voice from his holy habitation: roaring he shall roar upon the place of his beauty: the shout as it were of them that tread grapes shall be given out against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 The noise is come even to the ends of the earth: for the Lord entereth into judgement with the nations: he entereth into judgement with all flesh; the wicked I have delivered up to the sword, saith the Lord.
32 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the ends of the earth.
33 And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end thereof: they shall not be lamented, and they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon the face of the earth.
34 Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and sprinkle yourselves with ashes, ye leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and your dispersion are accomplished, and you shall fall like precious vessels.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the leaders of the flock to save themselves.
36 A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the principal of the flock: because the Lord hath watsed their pastures.
37 And the fields of peace have been silent, because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has forsaken his covert as the lion, for their land is laid waste because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3397, A.C. 607.
5:  4 Kings xvii. 13.; Supra xviii. 11.; Infra xxxv. 15.
11:  2 Par. xxxvi. 22.; 1 Esd. i. 1.; Infra xxvi. 6. and xxix. 10.; Dan. ix. 2.
29:  1 Peter iv. 17.
30:  Joel iii. 16.; Amos i. 2.
====================

JEREMIAS 26
CHAPTER XXVI.

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

1 In *the beginning of the reign of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, came this word from the Lord, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord, and speak to all the cities of Juda, out of which they come, to adore in the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee to speak unto them: leave not out one word.
3 If so be they will hearken, and be converted every one from his evil way; that I may repent me of the evil that I think to do unto them for the wickedness of their doings.
4 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If you will not hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have given to you,
5 To give ear to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I sent to you rising up early, and sending, and you have not hearkened:
6 *I will make this house like Silo: **and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.
7 And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, heard Jeremias speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
8 And when Jeremias made an end of speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people: the priests, and the prophets, and all the people laid hold on him, saying: Let him be put to death.
9 Why hath he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This house shall be like Silo: and this city shall be made desolate, without an inhabitant?  And all the people were gathered together against Jeremias, in the house of the Lord.
10 And the princes of Juda heard these words: and they went up from the king's house into the house of the Lord, and sat in the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord.
11 And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and to all the people, saying: The judgement of death is for this man: because he hath prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.
12 Then Jeremias spoke to all the princes, and to all the people, saying: *The Lord sent me to prophesy concerning this house, and concerning this city, all the words you have heard.
13 *Now, therefore, amend your ways, and your doings, and hearken to the voice of the Lord your God: and the Lord will repent of the evil that he hath spoken against you.
14 But, as for me, behold I am in your hands: do with me what is good and right in your eyes:
15 But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you will shed innocent blood against your ownselves, and against this city, and the inhabitants thereof.  For, in truth, the Lord sent me to you, to speak all these words in your hearing.
16 Then the princes, and all the people said to the priests, and to the prophets: There is no judgement of death for this man: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.
17 And some of the ancients of the land rose up: and they spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying:
18 Micheas, of Morasthi, was a prophet, in the days of Ezechias, king of Juda, and he spoke to all the people of Juda, saying: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: *Sion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall be a heap of stones: and the mountain of the house the high places of woods.
19 Did Ezechias, king of Juda, and all Juda, condemn him to death? did they not fear the Lord, and beseech the face of the Lord: and the Lord repented of the evil that they had spoken against them? therefore, we are doing a great evil against our souls.
20 There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord, Urias, the son of Semei, of Cariathiarim, and he prophesied against this city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremias.
21 And king Joakim, and all his men in power, and his princes, heard these words: and the king sought to put him to death.  And Urias heard it, and was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt.
22 And king Joakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan, the son of Achobor, and men with him into Egypt.
23 And they brought Urias out of Egypt: and brought him to king Joakim, and he slew him with the sword: and he cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.
24 So the hand of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, was with Jeremias, that he should not be delivered into the hands of the people, to put him to death.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3395, A.C. 609.
6:  1 Kings iv. 2. and 10. --- ** Supra vii. 22.
12:  Supra xxv. 11.
13:  Supra vii. 3.
18:  Micheas iii. 12.
====================

JEREMIAS 27
CHAPTER XXVII.

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 their temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried away.

1 In *the beginning of the reign of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, this word came to Jeremias, from the Lord, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains: and thou shalt put them on thy neck.
3 And thou shalt send them to the of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon: by the hand of the messengers that are come to Jerusalem, to Sedecias, the king of Juda.
4 And thou shalt command them to speak to their masters: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters:
5 I made the earth, and the men, and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth, by my great power, and by my stretched out arm: and I have given it to whom it seemed good in my eyes.
6 And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, my servant: moreover also the beasts of the field I have given him to serve him.
7 And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son: till the time come for his land and himself: and many nations and great kings shall serve him.
8 But the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and whosoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon: I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with famine, and with pestilence, saith the Lord: till I consume them by his hand.
9 *Therefore, hearken not to your prophets and diviners, and dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall not serve the king Babylon.
10 For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your country, and cast you out, and to make you perish.
11 But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the yoke of the king Babylon, and shall serve him: I will let them remain in their own land, saith the Lord: and they shall till it, and dwell in it.
12 And I spoke to Sedecias, the king of Juda according to all these words, saying: Bend down your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and you shall live.
13 Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoke against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
14 Hearken not to the words of the prophets that say to you: You shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they tell you a lie.
15 *For I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy in my name falsely: to drive you out, and that you may perish, both you and the prophets, that prophesy to you.
16 I spoke also to the priests, and to this people, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that prophesy to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the Lord shall now in a short time be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.
17 Therefore, hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon, that you may live.  Why should this city be given up to desolation?
18 But if they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them: let them interpose themselves before the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Juda, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.
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:
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.
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:
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.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3395, A.C. 609.
9:  Supra xxiii. 16.; Infra xxix. 8.
15:  Supra xiv. 14. and xxiii. 21.; Infra xxix. 9.
19:  4 Kings xxv. 13.
====================

JEREMIAS 28
CHAPTER XXVIII.

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

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:
2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
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.
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.
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:
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.
7 Nevertheless, hear this word, that I speak in thy ears, and in the ears of all the people:
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.
9 The prophet that prophesied peace: when his word shall come to pass, the prophet shall be known, whom the Lord hath sent in truth.
10 And Hananias, the prophet, took the chain from the neck of Jeremias, the prophet, and broke it.
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.
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:
13 Go, and tell Hananias: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron.
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.
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.
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.
17 And Hananias, the prophet, died in that year, in the seventh month.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3408, A.C. 596.
====================

JEREMIAS 29
CHAPTER XXIX.

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 the Achab, Sedecias, and Semeias, false prophets, shall die miserably.

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:
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:
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:
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:
5 Build ye houses, and dwell in them: and plant orchards, and eat the fruit of them.
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.
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.
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:
9 For they prophesy falsely to you in my name: and I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
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.
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.
12 And you shall call upon me, and you shall go: and you shall pray to me, and I will hear you.
13 You shall seek me, and shall find me: when you shall seek me with all your heart.
14 And I will be found by you, saith the Lord: and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you out of all nations, and from all the places to which I have driven you out, saith the Lord: and I will bring you back from the place to which I caused you to be carried away captive.
15 Because you have said: The Lord hath raised us up prophets in Babylon:
16 For thus saith the Lord to the king that sitteth upon the throne of David, and to all the people that dwell in this city, to your brethren that are not gone forth with you into captivity.
17 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: *Behold, I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and I will make them like bad figs that cannot be eaten, because they are very bad.
18 And I will persecute them with the sword, and with famine, and with the pestilence: and I will give them up unto affliction to all the kingdoms of the earth: to be a curse, and an astonishment, and a hissing, and a reproach to all the nations to which I have driven them out:
19 Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord: which I sent to them by my servants, the prophets, rising by night, and sending: and you have not heard, saith the Lord.
20 Hear ye, therefore, the word of the Lord, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent out from Jerusalem to Babylon.
21 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to Achab, the son of Colias, and to Sedecias, the son of Maasias, who prophesy unto you in my name, falsely: Behold I will deliver them up into the hands of Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon: and he shall kill them before your eyes.
22 And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Juda, that are in Babylon, saying: The Lord make thee like Sedecias, and like Achab, whom the king of Babylon fried in the fire:
23 Because they have acted folly in Israel, and have committed adultery with the wives of their friends, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I commanded them not: I am the judge, and the witness, saith the Lord.
24 And to Semeias, the Nehelamite, thou shalt say:
25 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because thou hast sent letters in thy name to all the people that are in Jerusalem, and to Sophonias, the son of Maasias, the priest, and to all the priests, saying:
26 The Lord hath made thee priest in stead of Joiada, the priest, that thou shouldst be ruler in the house of the Lord, over every man that raveth and prophesieth, to put him in the stocks, and into prison.
27 And now why hast thou not rebuked Jeremias, the Anathothite, who prophesieth to you?
28 For he hath also sent to us, in Babylon, saying: It is a long time: Build ye houses, and dwell in them: and plant gardens, and eat the fruits of them.
29 So Sophonias, the priest, read this letter, in the hearing of Jeremias, the prophet.
30 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
31 Send to all them of the captivity, saying: Thus saith the Lord to Semeias, the Nehelamite: Because Semeias hath prophesied to you, and I sent him not: and hath caused you to trust in a lie:
32 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will visit upon Semeias, the Nehelamite, and upon his seed: he shall not have a man to sit in the midst of this people, and he shall not see the good that I will do to my people, saith the Lord: because he hath spoken treason against the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3405, A.C. 599.
8:  Supra xiv. 14. and xxiii. 16. and xxvii. 15.
10:  Supra xxv. 12.; 2 Par. xxxvi. 21.; 1 Esd. i. 1.; Dan. ix. 2.
17:  Supra xxiv. 9. and 10.
====================

JEREMIAS 30
CHAPTER XXX.

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

1 This *is the word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: Write thee all the words that I have spoken to thee, in a book.
3 For behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Juda, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to return to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.
4 And these are the words that the Lord hath spoken to Israel and to Juda:
5 For thus saith the Lord: We have heard a voice of terror: there is fear and no peace.
6 Ask ye, and see if a man bear children? why then have I seen every man with his hands on his loins, like a woman in labour, and all faces are turned yellow?
7 *Alas, for that day is great, neither is there the like to it; and it is the time of tribulation to Jacob, but he shall be saved out of it.
8 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst his bands: and strangers shall no more rule over him:
9 But they shall serve the Lord, their God, and David, their king, whom I will raise up to them.
10 *Therefore, fear thou not, my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from a country afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity: and Jacob shall return, and be at rest, and abound with all good things, and there shall be none whom he may fear:
11 For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee: for I will utterly consume all the nations among which I have scattered thee: but I will not utterly consume thee: but I will chastise thee in judgment, that thou mayst not seem to thyself innocent.
12 For thus saith the Lord: Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is very grievous.
13 There is none to judge thy judgment to bind it up: thou hast no healing medicines.
14 All thy lovers have forgotten thee, and will not seek after thee: *for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement: by reason of the multitude of thy iniquities, thy sins are hardened.
15 Why criest thou for thy affliction? thy sorrow is incurable: for the multitude of thy iniquity, and for thy hardened sins, I have done these things to thee.
16 Therefore, all they that devour thee, shall be devoured: and all thy enemies shall be carried into captivity: and they that waste thee shall be wasted; and all that prey upon thee, will I give for a prey.
17 For I will close up thy scar, and will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord.  Because they have called thee, O Sion, an outcast: This is she that hath none to seek after her.
18 Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I bring back the captivity of the pavilions of Jacob, and will have pity on his houses, and the city shall be built in her place, and the temple shall be found according to the order thereof.
19 And out of them shall come forth praise, and the voice of them that play: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be made few: and I will glorify them, and they shall not be lessened.
20 And their children shall be as from the beginning, and their assembly shall be permanent before me: and I will against all that afflict them.
21 And their leader shall be of themselves: and their prince shall come forth from the midst of them: and I will bring him near, and he shall come to me: for who is this that setteth his heart to approach to me, saith the Lord?
22 And you shall be my people: and I will be your God.
23 Behold the whirlwind of the Lord, his fury going forth, a violent storm, it shall rest upon the head of the wicked.
24 The Lord will not turn away the wrath of his indignation, till he hath executed and performed the thought of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand these things.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3406, A.C. 598.
7:  Joel ii. 11.; Amos v. 18.; Sophon. i. 15.
10:  Isai. xliii. 1. and xliv. 2.; Luke i. 70.
14:  Supra xxiii. 19.
====================

JEREMIAS 31
CHAPTER XXXI.

The restoration of Israel.  Rachel shall cease from mourning.  The new covenant.  The Church shall never fail.

1 At that time, *saith the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
2 Thus saith the Lord: The people that were left and escaped from the sword, found grace in the desert: Israel shall to his rest.
3 The Lord hath appeared from afar to me.  Yea, I have loved thee with everlasting love: therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee.
4 And I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy timbrels, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
5 Thou shalt yet plant vineyards in the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and they shall not gather the vintage before the time:
6 For there shall be a day, in which the watchmen on Mount Ephraim, shall cry: *Arise, and let us go up to Sion, to the Lord our God.
7 For thus saith the Lord: Rejoice ye in the joy of Jacob, and neigh before the head of the Gentiles: shout ye, and sing, and say: Save, O Lord, thy people, the remnant of Israel.
8 Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and will gather them from the ends of the earth: and among them shall be the blind and the lame, the woman with child, and she that is bringing forth together, a great company of them returning hither.
9 They shall come with weeping: and I will bring them back in mercy: and I will bring them through the torrents of waters in a right way, and they shall not stumble in it: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
10 Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the islands that are afar off, and say: He that scattered Israel will gather him: and he will keep him as the shepherd doth his flock.
11 For the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and delivered him out of the hand of one that was mightier than he.
12 And they shall come, and shall give praise inMmount Sion: and they shall flow together to the good things of the Lord, for the corn, and wine, and oil, and the increase of cattle and herds, and their soul shall be as a watered garden, and they shall be hungry no more.
13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, the young men and old men together: and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them joyful after their sorrow.
14 And I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness: and my people shall be filled with my good things, saith the Lord.
15 Thus saith the Lord: *A voice was heard on high of lamentation, of mourning, and weeping, of Rachel, weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted for them, because they are not.
16 Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thy eyes from tears: for there is a reward for thy work, saith the Lord: and they shall return out of the land of the enemy.
17 And here is hope for thy last end, saith the Lord: and the children shall return to their own borders.
18 Hearing, I heard Ephraim, when he went into captivity: thou hast chastised me, and I was instructed as a young bullock unaccustomed to the yoke.  Convert me, and I shall be converted: for thou art the Lord my God.
19 For, after thou didst convert me, I did penance: and, after thou didst shew unto me, I struck my thigh: I am confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach of my youth.
20 Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to me, surely he is a tender child: for, since I spoke of him, I will still remember him.  Therefore are my bowels troubled for him: pitying, I will pity him, saith the Lord.
21 Set thee up a watch-tower, make to thee bitterness: direct thy heart into the right way, wherein thou hast walked: return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities.
22 How long wilt thou be dissolute in deliciousness, O wandering daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth: a woman shall compass a man.
23 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As yet shall they say this word in the land of Juda, and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring back their captivity: The Lord bless thee, the beauty of justice, the holy mountain.
24 And Juda and all his cities shall dwell therein together: the husbandmen, and they that drive the docks.
25 For I have inebriated the weary soul: and I have filled every hungry soul.
26 Upon this I was as it were awaked out of a sleep, and I saw, and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord: and I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Juda, with the seed of men, and with the seed of beasts.
28 And, as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to throw down, and to scatter, and destroy, and afflict; so will I watch over them, to build up, and to plant them, saith the Lord.
29 In those days they shall say no more: *The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man that shall eat the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 *Behold, the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda:
33 Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; the covenant which they made void, and I had dominion over them, saith the Lord.
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: *I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest, saith the Lord: *for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
35 Thus saith the Lord, who giveth the sun for the light of the day, the order of the moon and of the stars, for the light of the night; who stirreth up the sea, and the waves thereof roar, the Lord of hosts is his name.
36 If these ordinances shall fail before me, saith the Lord; then also the seed of Israel shall fail, so as not to be a nation before me for ever.
37 Thus saith the Lord: If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath; I also will cast away all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord.
38 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the city shall be built to the Lord, from the tower of Hanameel, even to the gate of the corner.
39 And the measuring line shall go out farther in his sight upon the hill Gareb; and it shall compass Goatha,
40 And the whole valley of dead bodies, and of ashes, and all the country of death, even to the torrent Cedron, and the corner of the horse-gate towards the east, the Holy of the Lord: it shall not be plucked up, and it shall not be destroyed any more for ever.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3406.
6:  Isai. ii. 3.; Mich. iv. 2.
15:  Mat. ii. 18.
29:  Ezec. xviii. 2.
31:  Heb. viii. 8.
33:  Heb. x. 16.
34:  Acts x. 43.
====================

JEREMIAS 32
CHAPTER XXXII.

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

1 The *word that came to Jeremias, from the Lord, in the tenth year of Sedecias, king of Juda; the same is eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor.
2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon besieged Jerusalem; and Jeremias, the prophet, was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Juda.
3 For Sedecias, king of Juda, had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?
4 And Sedecias, king of Juda, shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans; but he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon; and he shall speak to him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.
5 And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon; and he shall be there till I visit him, saith the Lord.  But if you will fight against the Chaldeans, you shall have no success.
6 And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:
7 Behold, Hanameel, the son of Sellum, thy cousin, shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field, which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being next akin.
8 And Hanameel, my uncle's son, came to me, according to the word of the Lord, to the entry of the prison, and said me: Buy my held, which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is thine, and thou art next of kin to possess it.  And I understood that this was the word of the Lord.
9 And I bought the field of Hanameel, my uncle's son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver.
10 And I wrote it in a book and sealed it, and took witnesses; and I weighed him the money in the balances.
11 And I took the deed of the purchase, that was sealed, and the stipulations, and the ratifications, with the seals, that were on the outside.
12 And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch, the son of Neri, the son of Maasias, in the sight of Hanameel, my uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, and before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.
13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying:
14 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed that is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.
15 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses, and fields, and vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land.
16 And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:
17 Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm; no word shall be hard to thee.
18 *Thou shewest mercy unto thousands, and returnest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them; O most mighty, great, and powerful, the Lord of hosts is thy name.
19 Great in counsel, and incomprehensible in thought; whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam, to render unto every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his devices.
20 Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even until this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and hast made thee a name as at this day.
21 And hast brought forth thy people Israel, out of the land of Egypt, with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, and with great terror.
22 And hast given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.
23 And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, and they walked not in thy law: and they did not any of those things that thou didst command them to do, and all these evils are come upon them.
24 Behold works are built up against the city to take it: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, by the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken, is all come to pass, as thou thyself seest.
25 And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for money, and take witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans?
26 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
27 Behold I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: shall any thing be hard for me?
28 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.
29 And the Chaldeans that fight against this city, shall come and set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses upon whose roofs they offered sacrifice to Baal, and poured out drink-offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath.
30 For the children of Israel, and the children of Juda, have continually done evil in my eyes from their youth: the children of Israel, who even till now provoke me with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.
31 For this city hath been to me a provocation and indignation from the day that they built it, until this day, in which it shall be taken out of my sight.
32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel, and of the children of Juda, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
33 And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces: when I taught them early in the morning, and instructed them, and they would not hearken to receive instruction.
34 *And they have set their idols in the house, in which my name is called upon, to defile it.
35 And they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and cause Juda to sin.
36 And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to this city, whereof you say that it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence:
37 Behold I will gather them together out of all the lands to which I have cast them out, in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation: and I will bring them again into this place, and will cause them to dwell securely.
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
39 And I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me all days: and that it may be well with them, and with their children after them.
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me.
41 And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.
42 For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all this great evil: so will I bring upon them all the good that I now speak to them.
43 And fields shall be purchased in this land: whereof you say that it is desolate, because there remaineth neither man nor beast, and it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
44 Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: for I will bring back their captivity, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3415, A.C. 589.
18:  Exod. xxxiv. 7.
34:  4 Kings xxi. 4.
====================

JEREMIAS 33
CHAPTER XXXIII.

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

1 And *the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord, who will do, and will form it, and prepare it, the Lord is his name.
3 Cry to me, and I will hear thee: and I will shew thee great things, and sure things, which thou knowest not.
4 For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to the houses of this city, and to the houses of the king of Juda, which are destroyed, and to the bulwarks, and to the sword,
5 Of them that come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of the men whom I have slain in my wrath, and in my indignation, hiding my face from this city because of all their wickedness.
6 Behold I will close their wounds and give them health, and I will cure them: and I will reveal to them the prayer of peace and truth.
7 And I will bring back the captivity of Juda, and the captivity of Jerusalem: and I will build them as from the beginning.
8 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me: and I will forgive all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned against me, and despised me.
9 And it shall be to me a name, and a joy, and a praise, and a gladness before all the nations of the earth, that shall hear of all the good things which I will do to them: and they shall fear and be troubled for all the good things, and for all the peace that I will make for them.
10 Thus saith the Lord: There shall be heard again in this place, (which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast: in the cities of Juda, and without Jerusalem, which are desolate without man, and without inhabitant, and without beast)
11 The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say: Give ye glory to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring their vows into the house of the Lord: for I will bring back the captivity of the land as at the first, saith the Lord.
12 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall be again in this place, that is desolate without man, and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, an habitation of shepherds, causing their flocks to lie down.
13 And in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: and in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Juda shall the flocks pass again under the hand of him that numbereth them, saith the Lord.
14 Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform the good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel, and to the house of Juda.
15 In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the earth.
16 In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell securely: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our just one.
17 For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.
18 Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a man before my face, to offer holocausts, and to burn sacrifice, and to kill victims continually:
19 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
20 Thus saith the Lord: If my covenant with the day can be made void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and night in their season:
21 My covenant also with David, my servant, may be made void, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites and priests, my ministers.
22 As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea be measured: so will I multiply the seed of David, my servant, and the Levites, my ministers.
23 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
24 Hast thou not seen what this people hath spoken, saying: The two families which the Lord had chosen, are cast off: and they have despised my people, so that it is no more a nation before them?
25 Thus saith the Lord: If I have not set my covenant between day and night, and laws to heaven and earth:
26 Surely I will also cast off the seed of Jacob, and of David, my servant, so as not to take any of his seed to be rulers of the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will bring back their captivity, and will have mercy on them.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3414, A.C. 590.
====================

JEREMIAS 34
CHAPTER XXXIV.

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

1 The *word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, (when Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth, that were under the power of his hand, and all the people fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof) saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Sedecias, king of Juda, and say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
3 And thou shalt not escape out of his hand; but thou shalt surely be taken, and thou shalt be delivered into his hand: and thy eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
4 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Sedecias, king of Juda: Thus saith the Lord to thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword.
5 But thou shalt die in peace, and according to the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so shall they burn thee: and they shall mourn for thee, saying: Alas, Lord: for I have spoken the word, saith the Lord.
6 And Jeremias, the prophet, spoke all these words to Sedecias, the king of Juda, in Jerusalem.
7 And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Juda that were left, against Lachis, and against Azecha: for these remained of the cities of Juda, fenced cities.
8 The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that king Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem making a proclamation:
9 That every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, being a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free: and that they should not lord it over them; to wit, over the Jews, their brethren.
10 And all the princes, and all the people, who entered into the covenant, heard that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant go free, and should no more have dominion over them: and they obeyed, and let them go free.
11 But afterwards they turned: and brought back again their servants and their handmaids, whom they had let go free, and brought them into subjection as men-servants and maid-servants.
12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
13 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying:
14 *At the end of seven years, let ye go every man, his brother being a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee, so he shall serve thee six years: and thou shalt let him go free from thee: and your fathers did not hearken to me, nor did they incline their ear.
15 And you turned to-day, and did that which was right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother: and you made a covenant in my sight, in the house upon which my name is invocated.
16 And you are fallen back, and have defiled my name: and you have brought back again every man his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, whom you had let go free, and set at liberty: and you have brought them into subjection to be your servants and handmaids.
17 Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not hearkened to me, in proclaiming liberty every man to his brother, and every man to his friend: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine: and I will cause you to be removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, and have not performed the words of the covenant, which they agreed to in my presence, when they cut the calf in two *and passed between the parts thereof:
19 The princes of Juda, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts of the calf:
20 And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth.
21 And Sedecias, the king of Juda, and his princes, I will give into the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which are gone from you.
22 Behold I will command, saith the Lord, and I will bring them again to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Juda a desolation, without an inhabitant.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3414, A.C. 590.
14:  Exod. xxi. 2.; Deut. xv. 12.
18:  Gen. xv. 20.
====================

JEREMIAS 35
CHAPTER XXXV.

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

1 The *word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the days of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, saying:
2 Go to the house of the Rechabites: and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers of the treasures, and thou shalt give them wine to drink.
3 And I took Jezonias, the son of Jeremias, the son of Habsanias, and his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.
4 And I brought them into the house of the Lord, to the treasure-house of the sons of Hanan, the son of Jegedelias, the man of God, which was by the treasure-house of the princes, above the treasure of Maasias, the son of Sellum, who was keeper of the entry.
5 And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full of wine, and cups: and I said to them: Drink ye wine.
6 And they answered: We will not drink wine; because Jonadab, the son of Rechab, *our father, commanded us, saying: You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your children, for ever:
7 Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyards, nor have any: but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are strangers.
8 Therefore we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, our father, in all things that he commanded us, so as to drink no wine all our days: neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our daughters:
9 Nor to build houses to dwell in, nor to have vineyard, or field, or seed:
10 But we have dwelt in tents, and have been obedient according to all that Jonadab, our father, commanded us.
11 But when Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came up to our land, we said: Come, let us go into Jerusalem, from the face of the army of the Chaldeans, and from the face of the army of Syria: and we have remained in Jerusalem.
12 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:
13 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not receive instruction, to obey my words, saith the Lord?
14 The words of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, by which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, have prevailed: and they have drunk none to this day, because they have obeyed the commandment of their father: but I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, and you have not obeyed me.
15 And I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising early, and sending and saying: *Return ye every man from his wicked way, and make your ways good: and follow not strange gods, nor worship them, and you shall dwell in the land, which I gave you and your fathers: and you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.
16 So the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, have constantly kept the commandment of their father, which he commanded them: but this people hath not obeyed me.
17 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, and they have not heard: I have called to them, and they have not answered me.
18 And Jeremias said to the house of the Rechabites: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab, your father, and have kept all his precepts, and have done all that he commanded you:
19 Therefore thus saith the Lord of host, the God of Israel: There shall not be wanting a man of the race of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, standing before me for ever.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3398, A.C. 606.
6:  4 Kings x. 15.
15:  Supra xviii. 11. and xxv. 5.
====================

JEREMIAS 36
CHAPTER XXXVI.

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

1 And it came to pass *in the fourth year of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, that this word came to Jeremias by the Lord, saying:
2 Take thee a roll of a book, and thou shalt write in it all the words that I have spoken to thee against Israel and Juda, and against all the nations from the day that I spoke to thee, from the days of Josias even to this day.
3 If so be, when the house of Juda shall hear all the evils that I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his wicked way: and I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin.
4 So Jeremias called Baruch, the son of Nerias: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremias, all the words of the Lord, which he spoke to him, upon the roll of a book.
5 And Jeremias commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up, and cannot go into the house of the Lord.
6 Go thou in, therefore, and read out of the volume, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people in the house of the Lord, on the fasting day; and also, thou shalt read them in the hearing of all Juda, that come out of their cities:
7 If so be, they may present their supplication before the Lord, and may return every one from his wicked way; for great is the wrath and indignation which the Lord hath pronounced against this people.
8 And Baruch, the son of Nerias, did according to all that Jeremias, the prophet, had commanded him, reading out of the volume the words of the Lord, in the house of the Lord.
9 And it came to pass in the fifth year of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that were come together out of the cities of Juda to Jerusalem.
10 And Baruch read out of the volume the words of Jeremias, in the house of the Lord, in the treasury of Gamarias, the son of Saphan, the scribe, in the upper court, in the entry of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people.
11 And when Micheas, the son of Gamarias, the son of Saphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
12 He went down into the king's house, to the secretary's chamber; and behold all the princes sat there; Elisama, the scribe, and Dalaias, the son of Semeias, and Elnathan, the son of Achobor, and Gamarias, the son of Saphan, and Sedecias, the son of Hananias, and all the princes.
13 And Micheas told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read out of the volume in the hearing of the people.
14 Therefore all the princes sent Judi, the son of Nathanias, the son of Selemias, the son of Chusi, to Baruch, saying: Take in thy hand the volume in which thou hast read in the hearing of the people, and come.  So Baruch, the son of Nerias, took the volume in his hand, and came to them.
15 And they said to him: Sit down and read these things in our hearing.  And Baruch read in their hearing.
16 And when they had heard all the words, they looked upon one another with astonishment, and they said to Baruch: We must tell the king all these words.
17 And they asked him, saying: Tell us how didst thou write all these words from his mouth.
18 And Baruch said to them: With his mouth he pronounced all these words as if he were reading to me: and I wrote in a volume with ink.
19 And the princes said to Baruch: Go, and hide thee, both thou and Jeremias, and let no man know where you are.
20 And they went in to the king, into the court; but they laid up the volume in the chamber of Elisama, the scribe; and they told all the words in the hearing of the king.
21 And the king sent Judi that he should take the volume: who, bringing it out of the chamber of Elisama, the scribe, read it in the hearing of the king, and of all the princes that stood about the king.
22 Now the king sat in the winter-house, In the ninth month; and there was a hearth before him, full of burning coals.
23 And when Judi had read three or four pages, he cut it with the penknife, and he cast it into the fire that was upon the hearth, till all the volume was consumed with the fire that was on the hearth.
24 And the king, and all his servants that heard all these words, were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.
25 But yet Elnathan, and Dalaias, and Gamarias spoke to the king, not to burn. the book; and he heard them not.
26 And the king commanded Jeremiel, the son of Amelech, and Saraias the son of Ezriel, and Selemias, the son of Abdeel, to take up Baruch, the scribe, and Jeremias, the prophet: but the Lord hid them.
27 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, the prophet, after that the king had burnt the volume, and the words that Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremias, saying:
28 Take thee again another volume: and write in it all the former words that were in the first volume, which Joakim, the king of Juda, hath burnt.
29 And thou shalt say to Joakim, the king of Juda: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast burnt that volume, saying: Why hast thou written therein, and said: The king of Babylon shall come speedily, and shall lay waste this land: and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?
30 Therefore thus saith the Lord against Joakim, the king of Juda: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night.
31 And I will punish him, and his seed: and his servants for their iniquities, and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Juda, all the evil that I have pronounced against them: but they have not heard.
32 And Jeremias took another volume, and gave it to Baruch, the son of Nerias, the scribe; who wrote in it, from the mouth of Jeremias, all the words of the book which Joakim, the king of Juda, had burnt with fire; and there were added besides, many more words than had been before.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3398, A.C. 606.
====================

JEREMIAS 37
CHAPTER XXXVII.

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

1 Now king Sedecias, the *son of Josias, reigned instead of Jechonias, the son of Joakim; whom Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, made king in the land of Juda.
2 *But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, did obey the words of the Lord, that he spoke in the hand of Jeremias, the prophet.
3 And *king Sedecias sent Juchal, the son of Selemias, and Sophonias, the son of Maasias, the priest, to Jeremias, the prophet, saying: Pray to the Lord, our God, for us.
4 Now Jeremias walked freely in the midst of the people; for they had not as yet cast him into prison.  And the army of Pharao was come out of Egypt: and the Chaldeans, that besieged Jerusalem, hearing these tidings, departed from Jerusalem.
5 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, saying:
6 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me: Behold the army of Pharao, which is come forth to help you, shall return into their own land, into Egypt.
7 And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
8 Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not your souls, saying: The Chaldeans shall surely depart and go away from us: for they shall not go away.
9 But if you should even beat all the army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there should be left of them some wounded men; they shall rise up, every man from his tent, and burn this city with fire.
10 Now, when the army of the Chaldeans was gone away from Jerusalem, because of Pharao's army,
11 Jeremias went forth out of Jerusalem, to go into the land of Benjamin, and to divide a possession there in the presence of the citizens.
12 And when he was come to the gate of Benjamin, the captain of the gate, who was there in his turn, was one named Jerias, the son of Selemias, the son of Hananias: and he took hold of Jeremias, the prophet, saying: Thou art fleeing to the Chaldeans.
13 And Jeremias answered: It is not so; I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans.  But he hearkened not to him: so Jerias took Jeremias, and brought him to the princes.
14 Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremias: and they beat him, and cast him into the prison that was in the house of Jonathan, the scribe; for he was chief over the prison.
15 So Jeremias went into the house of the prison, and into the dungeon: and Jeremias remained there many days.
16 Then Sedecias, the king, sending, took him: and asked him secretly in his house, and said: Is there, thinkest thou, any word from the Lord?  And Jeremias said: There is.  And he said: Thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.
17 And Jeremias said to king Sedecias: In what have I offended against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that thou hast cast me into prison?
18 Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and said: The king of Babylon shall not come against you, and against this land?
19 Now therefore hear, I beseech thee, my lord the king; let my petition be accepted in thy sight; and send me not back into the house of Jonathan, the scribe, lest I die there.
20 Then king Sedecias commanded that Jeremias should be committed into the entry of the prison, and that they should give him daily a piece of bread, beside broth, till all the bread in the city were spent: and Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.
____________________
*
1:  4 Kings xxiv. 17.; Infra lii. 1.
2:  2 Par. xxxvi. 15.
3:  A.M. 3414, A.C. 590.
====================

JEREMIAS 38
CHAPTER XXXVIII.

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

1 Now *Saphatias, the son of Mathan, and Gedelias, the son of Phassur, and Juchal, the son of Selemias, and Phassur, the son of Melchias, heard the words that Jeremias spoke to all the people, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord: *Whosoever shall remain in this city, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: but he that shall go forth to the Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be safe, and he shall live.
3 Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.
4 And the princes said to the king: We beseech thee that this man may be put to death: for on purpose he weakeneth the hands of the men of war, that remain in this city, and the hands of the people, speaking to them according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to this people, but evil.
5 And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands: for it is not lawful for the king to deny you any thing.
6 Then they took Jeremias, and cast him into the dungeon of Melchias, the son of Amelech, which was in the entry of the prison: and they let down Jeremias by ropes into the dungeon, wherein there was no water, but mire.  And Jeremias sunk into the mire.
7 Now Abdemelech, the Ethiopian, an eunuch that was in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremias in the dungeon: but the king was sitting in the gate of Benjamin.
8 And Abdemelech went out of the king's house, and spoke to the king, saying:
9 My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done against Jeremias, the prophet, casting him into the dungeon to die there with hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.
10 Then the king commanded Abdemelech, the Ethiopian, saying: Take from hence thirty men with thee, and draw up Jeremias, the prophet, out of the dungeon, before he die.
11 So Abdemelech, taking the men with him, went into the king's house that was under the storehouse; and he took from thence old rags, and old rotten things, and he let them down by cords to Jeremias, into the dungeon.
12 And Abdemelech, the Ethiopian, said to Jeremias: Put these old rags, and these rent and rotten things, under thy arms, and upon the cords: and Jeremias did so.
13 And they drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth out of the dungeon.  And Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.
14 And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias, the prophet, to him to the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremias: I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.
15 Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.
16 Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private, saying: As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.
17 And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire; and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.
18 But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire; and thou shalt not escape out of their hands.
19 And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid, because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they should abuse me.
20 But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee; hearken, I beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I speak to thee, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.
21 But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord hath shewn me:
22 Behold, all the women that are left in the house of the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place, and they have departed from thee.
23 And all thy wives, and thy children, shall be brought out to the Chaldeans; and thou shalt not escape their hands, but thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon; and he shall burn this city with fire.
24 Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know these words, and thou shalt not die.
25 But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken with thee, and shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not kill thee: and also what the king said to thee:
26 Thou shalt say to them: I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not command me to be carried back into the house of Jonathan, to die there.
27 So all the princes came to Jeremias, and asked him: and he spoke to them according to all the words that the king had commanded him: and they left him: for nothing had been heard.
28 But Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison, until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and it came to pass that Jerusalem was taken.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3415, A.C. 589.
2:  Supra xxi. 9.
====================

JEREMIAS 39
CHAPTER XXXIX.

After two years' siege, Jerusalem is taken.  Sedecias is carried before Nabuchodonosor, who kills his sons in his sight, and then puts out his eyes.  Jeremias is set at liberty.

1 In the ninth year *of Sedecias, king of Juda, in the tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and all his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.
2 And in the *eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.
3 And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Sereser, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.
4 And when Sedecias, the king of Juda, and all the men of war, saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city, by the way of the king's garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to the way of the desert.
5 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them; and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho; and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.
6 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda.
7 He also put out the eyes of Sedecias, and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.
8 And the Chaldeans burnt the king's house, and the houses of the people, with fire; and they threw down the wall of Jerusalem.
9 And Nabuzardan, the general of the army, carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him, and the rest of the people that remained.
10 But Nabuzardan, the general, left some of the poor people, that had nothing at all in the land of Juda, and he gave them vineyards and cisterns at that time.
11 Now Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, had given charge to Nabuzardan, the general, concerning Jeremias, saying:
12 Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no harm; but as he hath a mind, so do with him.
13 Therefore Nabuzardan, the general, sent; and Nabusezban, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,
14 Sent, and took Jeremias out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, that he might go home and dwell among the people.
15 But the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, when he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: Go, and tell Abdemelech, the Ethiopian, saying:
16 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring my words upon this city unto evil, and not unto good: and they shall be accomplished in thy sight, in that day.
17 And I will deliver thee in that day, saith the Lord; and thou shalt not be given into the hands of the men whom thou fearest:
18 But delivering, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword; but thy life shall be saved for thee, because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3414.; 4 Kings xxv. 1.; Infra v. 21.
2:  A.M. 3416, A.C. 588.
====================

JEREMIAS 40
CHAPTER XL.

Jeremias remains with Godolias, the governor; who receives all the Jews that resort to him.

1 The *word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that Nabuzardan, the general, had let him go from Rama, when he had taken him, being bound with chains, among all them that were carried away from Jerusalem and Juda, and were carried to Babylon.
2 And the general of the army taking Jeremias, said to him: The Lord, thy God, hath pronounced this evil upon this place.
3 And he hath brought it: and the Lord hath done as he hath said: because you have sinned against the Lord, and have not hearkened to his voice, and this word is come upon you.
4 Now then, behold I have loosed thee this day from the chains which were upon thy hands: if it please thee to come with me to Babylon, come: and I will set my eyes upon thee: but if it do not please thee to come with me to Babylon, stay here: behold all the land is before thee, as thou shalt choose, and whither it shall please thee to go, thither go.
5 And come not with me: but dwell with Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Juda: dwell, therefore, with him in the midst of the people: or whithersoever it shall please thee to go, go.  And the general of the army gave him victuals and presents, and let him go.
6 And Jeremias went to Godolias, the son of Ahicam, to Masphath: and dwelt with him in the midst of the people, that were left in the land.
7 And when all the captains of the army that were scattered through the countries, they and their companions, had heard that the king of Babylon had made Godolias, the son of Ahicam, governor of the country, and that he had committed unto him men and women, and children, and of the poor of the land, them that had not been carried away captive to Babylon:
8 They came to Godolias, to Masphath: and Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, and Johanan, and Jonathan, the sons of Caree, and Sareas, the son of Thanehumeth, and the children of Ophi, that were of Netophathi, and Jezonias, the son of Maachati, they and their men.
9 *And Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, swore to them and to their companions, saying: Fear not to serve the Chaldeass: dwell in the land, and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you.
10 Behold, I dwell in Masphath, that I may answer the commandment of the Chaldeans that are sent to us; but as for you, gather ye the vintage, and the harvest, and the oil, and lay it up in your vessels, and abide in your cities which you hold.
11 Moreover, all the Jews that were in Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and in Edom, and in all the countries, when they heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judea, and that he had made Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan ruler over them:
12 All the Jews, I say, returned out of all the places to which they had fled, and they came into the land of Juda, to Godolias, to Masphath; and they gathered wine, and a very great harvest.
13 Then Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the army, that had been scattered about the countries, came to Godolias, to Masphath.
14 And they said to him: Know that Baalis, the king of the children of Ammon, hath sent Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, to kill thee.  And Godolias, the son of Ahicam, believed them not.
15 But Johanan, the son of Caree, spoke to Godolias privately in Masphath, saying: I will go, and I will kill Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, and no man shall know it, lest he kill thee, and all the Jews be scattered, that are gathered unto thee, and the remnant of Juda perish.
16 And Godolias, the son of Ahicam, said to Johanan, the son of Caree: Do not this thing: for what thou sayst of Ismahel is false.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3416.
9:  4 Kings xxv. 24.
====================

JEREMIAS 41
CHAPTER XLI.

Godolias is slain: the Jews that were with him are apprehensive of the Chaldeans.

1 And *it came to pass in the seventh month, that Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, the son of Elisama, of the royal blood, and the nobles of the king, and ten men with him, came to Godolias, the son of Ahicam, into Masphath: and they eat bread there together in Masphath.
2 And Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, arose, and the ten men that were with him, and they struck Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, with the sword, and slew him whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.
3 Ismahel slew also all the Jews that were with Godolias in Masphath, and the Chaldeans that were found there, and the soldiers.
4 And on the second day after he had killed Godolias, no man yet knowing it,
5 There came some from Sichem, and from Silo, and from Samaria, fourscore men, with their beards shaven, and their clothes rent, and mourning: and they had offerings and incense in their hand, to offer in the house of the Lord.
6 And Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, went forth from Masphath to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and when he had met them, he said to them: Come to Godolias, the son of Ahicam.
7 And when they were come to the midst of the city, Ismahel the son of Nathanias, slew them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he and the men that were with him.
8 But ten men were found among them, that said to Ismahel: Kill us not; for we have stores in the field, of wheat, and barley, and oil, and honey.  And he forbore, and slew them not with their brethren.
9 And the pit into which Ismahel cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he slew, because of Godolias, is the same that king Asa made, for fear of Baasa, the king of Israel: the same did Ismahel, the son of Nathanias fill, with them that were slain.
10 Then Ismahel carried away captive all the remnant of the people that were in Masphath: the king's daughters, and all the people that remained in Masphath; whom Nabuzardan, the general of the army, had committed to Godolias, the son of Ahicam.  And Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, took them, and he departed, to go over to the children of Ammon.
11 But Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the fighting men that were with him, heard of the evil that Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, had done.
12 And taking all the men, they went out to fight against Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, and they found him by the great waters that are in Gabaon.
13 And when all the people that were with Ismahel, had seen Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the fighting men that were with him, they rejoiced.
14 And all the people whom Ismahel had taken, went back to Masphath: and they returned and went to Johanan, the son of Caree.
15 But Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, fled with eight men, from the face of Johanan, and went to the children of Ammon.
16 Then Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the soldiers that were with him, took all the remnant of the people, whom they had recovered from Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, from Masphath, after that he had slain Godolias, the son of Ahicam: valiant men for war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gabaon:
17 And they departed, and sat as sojourners in Chamaam, which is near Bethlehem: in order to go forward, and enter into Egypt,
18 From the face of the Chaldeans: for they were afraid of them, because Ismahel, the son of Nathanias, had slain Godolias, the son of Ahicam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor in the land of Juda.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3417, A.C. 587.
====================

JEREMIAS 42
CHAPTER XLII.

Jeremias assures the remnant of the people, that if they will stay in Juda, they shall be safe: but if they go down into Egypt, they shall perish.

1 Then *all the captains of the warriors, and Johanan, the son of Caree, and Jezonias, the son of Osaias, and the rest of the people, from the least to the greatest, came near:
2 And they said to Jeremias, the prophet: Let our supplication fall before thee: and pray thou for us to the Lord, thy God, for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us.
3 And let the Lord, thy God, shew us the way by which we may walk, and the thing that we must do.
4 And Jeremias, the prophet, said to them: I have heard you: behold I will pray to the Lord, your God, according to your words: and whatsoever thing he shall answer me, I will declare it to you: and I will hide nothing from you.
5 And they said to Jeremias: The Lord be witness between us of truth and faithfulness, if we do not according to every thing for which the Lord, thy God, shall send thee to us.
6 Whether it be good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord, our God, to whom we send thee: that it may be well with us when we shall hearken to the voice of the Lord, our God.
7 Now, after ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremias.
8 And he called Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the fighting men that were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.
9 And he said to them: Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me, to present your supplications before him:
10 If you will be quiet and remain in this land, I will build you up, and not pull you down: I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for now I am appeased for the evil that I have done to you.
11 Fear not, because of the king of Babylon, of whom you are greatly afraid: fear him not, saith the Lord; for I am with you, to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
12 And I will shew mercies to you, and will take pity on you, and will cause you to dwell in your own land.
13 But if you say: We will not dwell in this land, neither will we hearken to the voice of the Lord our God,
14 Saying: No, but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor suffer hunger: and there we will dwell.
15 For this now hear the word of the Lord, ye remnant of Juda: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your faces to go into Egypt, and enter in to dwell there:
16 The sword which you fear, shall overtake you there, in the land of Egypt: and the famine, whereof you are afraid, shall cleave to you in Egypt, and there you shall die.
17 And all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt, to dwell there, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: none of them shall remain, nor escape from the face of the evil that I will bring upon them.
18 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my anger and my indignation hath been kindled against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my indignation be kindled against you, when you shall enter into Egypt, and you shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.
19 This is the word of the Lord concerning you, O ye remnant of Juda: Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have adjured you this day.
20 For you have deceived your own souls; for you sent me to the Lord our God, saying: Pray for us to the Lord our God, and according to all that the Lord our God shall say to thee, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
21 And now I have declared it to you this day, and ;you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God, with regard to all the things for which he hath sent me to you.
22 Now, therefore, know certainly that you shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence in the place to which you desire to go to dwell there.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3417.
====================

JEREMIAS 43
CHAPTER XLIII.

The Jews, contrary to the orders of God, by the prophet, go into Egypt, carrying Jeremias with them.  He foretells the devastation of that land by the king of Babylon.

1 And *it came to pass, that when Jeremias had made an end of speaking to the people all the words of the Lord their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them, all these words:
2 Azarias, the son of Osaias, and Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the proud men, made answer, saying to Jeremias: Thou tellest a lie; the Lord our God hath not sent thee, saying: Go not into Egypt, to dwell there.
3 But Baruch, the son of Nerias setteth thee on against us, to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, to kill us, and to cause us to be carried away captives to Babylon.
4 So Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the soldiers, and all the people, obeyed not the voice of the Lord, to remain in the land of Juda.
5 But Johanan, the son of Caree, and all the captains of the soldiers, took all the remnant of Juda, that were returned out of all nations, to which they had before been scattered, to dwell in the land of Juda:
6 Men, and women, and children, and the king's daughters, and every soul, which Nabuzardan, the general, had left with Godolias, the son of Ahicam, the son of Saphan, and Jeremias, the prophet, and Baruch, the son of Nerias.
7 And they went into the land of Egypt, for they obeyed not the voice of the Lord: and they came as far as Taphnis.
8 And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, in Taphnis, saying:
9 Take great stones in thy hand, and thou shalt hide them in the vault that is under the brick wall at the gate of Pharao's house in Taphnis: in the sight of the men of Juda.
10 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send, and take Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon, my servant; and I will set his throne over these stones which I have hid, and he shall set his throne over them.
11 And he shall come and strike the land of Egypt: such as are for death, to death; and such as are for captivity, to captivity; and such as are for the sword, to the sword.
12 And he shall kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and he shall burn them, and he shall carry them away captives; and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
13 And he shall break the statues of the house of the sun, that are in the land of Egypt; and the temples of the gods of Egypt he shall burn with fire.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3417.
====================

JEREMIAS 44
CHAPTER XLIV.

The prophet's admonition to the Jews, in Egypt, against idolatry, is not regarded: he denounces to them their destruction.

1 The word that came to Jeremias, concerning all the Jews that dwelt in the land of Egypt, dwelling in Magdal, and in Taphnis, and in Memphis, and in the land of Phatures, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all this evil that I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Juda; and behold they are desolate this day, and there is not an inhabitant in them:
3 Because of the wickedness which they have committed, to provoke me to wrath, and to go and offer sacrifice, and worship other gods, which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew.
4 And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising early, and sending, and saying: Do not commit this abominable thing, which I hate.
5 But they heard not, nor inclined their ear to turn from their evil ways, and not to sacrifice to strange gods.
6 Wherefore my indignation and my fury was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem: and they are turned to desolation and waste, as at this day.
7 And now thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against your own souls, that there should die of you man and woman, child and suckling out of the midst of Juda, and no remnant should be left you:
8 In that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, by sacrificing to other gods, in the land of Egypt, into which you are come to dwell there: and that you should perish, and be a curse, and a reproach to all the nations of the earth?
9 Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Juda, and the evils of their wives, and your evils, and the evils of your wives, that they have done in the land of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
10 They are not cleansed even to this day; neither have they feared, nor walked in the law of the Lord, nor in my commandments, which I set before you and your fathers.
11 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: *Behold, I will set my face upon you for evil; and I will destroy all Juda.
12 And I will take the remnant of Juda that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt, and to dwell there: and they shall be all consumed in the land of Egypt: they shall fall by the sword, and by the famine: and they shall be consumed, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword, and by the famine shall they die: and they shall be for an execration, and for a wonder, and for a curse, and for a reproach.
13 And I will visit them that dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have visited Jerusalem by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence.
14 And there shall be none that shall escape, and remain, of the remnant of the Jews that are gone to sojourn in the land of Egypt: and that shall return into the land of Juda, to which they have a desire to return, to dwell there: there shall none return but they that shall flee.
15 Then all the men that knew that their wives sacrificed to other gods: and all the women, of whom there stood by a great multitude, and all the people of them that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Phatures, answered Jeremias, saying:
16 As for the word which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken to thee:
17 But we will certainly do every word that shall proceed out of our own mouth, to sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, as we and our fathers have done, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem: and we were filled with bread, and it was well with us, and we saw no evil.
18 But since we left off to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword, and by famine.
19 And if we offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and pour out drink-offerings to her: did we make cakes to worship her, to pour out drink-offerings to her, without our husbands?
20 And Jeremias spoke to all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying:
21 Was it not the sacrifice that you offered in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, which the Lord hath remembered, and hath it not entered into his heart?
22 So that the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed: therefore your land is become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day.
23 Because you have sacrificed to idols, and have sinned against the Lord: and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have not walked in his law, and in his commandments, and in his testimonies: therefore are these evils come upon you, as at this day.
24 And Jeremias said to all the people, and to all the women: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda, you that dwell in the land of Egypt:
25 Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have spoken with your mouth, and fulfilled with your hands, saying: Let us perform our vows which we have made, to offer sacrifice to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to her: you have fulfilled your vows, and have performed them indeed.
26 Therefore, hear ye the word of the Lord, all Juda, you that dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold I have sworn by my great name, saith the Lord: that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Juda, in the land of Egypt, saying: The Lord God liveth.
27 Behold I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Juda that are in the land of Egypt, shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, till there be an end of them.
28 And a few men that shall flee from the sword, shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Juda: and all the remnant of Juda that are gone into the land of Egypt, to dwell there, shall know, whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.
29 And this shall be a sign to you, saith the Lord, that I will punish you in this place: that you may know that my words shall be accomplished indeed against you for evil.
30 Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver Pharao Ephree, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life: as I delivered Sedecias, king of Juda, into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon, his enemy, and that sought his life.
____________________
*
11:  Amos ix. 4.
====================

JEREMIAS 45
CHAPTER XLV.

The prophet comforts Baruch in his affliction.

1 The word that Jeremias, the prophet, spoke to Baruch, the son of Nerias, when he had written there words in a book, out of the mouth of Jeremias, in the fourth year of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda, saying:
2 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, to thee, Baruch:
3 Thou hast said: Woe is me, wretch that I am, for the Lord hath added sorrow to my sorrow; I am wearied with my groans, and I find no rest.
4 Thus saith the Lord: Thus shalt thou say to him: Behold, them whom I have built, I do destroy; and them whom I have planted, I do pluck up, and all this land.
5 And dost thou seek great things for thyself?  Seek not: for behold I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord: but I will give thee thy life, and save thee in all places whithersoever thou shalt go.
====================

JEREMIAS 46
CHAPTER XLVI.

A prophecy against Egypt.  The Jews shall return from captivity.

1 The word of the Lord, that came to Jeremias, the prophet, against the Gentiles,
2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao, king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates, in Charcamis, whom Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon, defeated, in the fourth year *of Joakim, the son of Josias, king of Juda.
3 Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.
4 Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand forth with helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of mail.
5 What then?  I have seen them dismayed, and turning their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the Lord.
6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the north, by the river Euphrates.
7 Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like those of rivers?
8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and the waves thereof shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up, and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city and its inhabitants.
9 Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Lybians, that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot arrows.
10 For this is the day of the Lord, the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river Euphrates.
11 Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall be no cure for thee.
12 The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled against the strong, and both are fallen together.
13 The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias, the prophet, how Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, should come and strike the land of Egypt:
14 Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, *and let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all round about thee.
15 Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.
16 He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land our nativity, from the sword of the dove.
17 Call ye the name of Pharao, king of Egypt, a tumult time hath brought.
18 As I live (saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts) as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
19 Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.
20 Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.
21 Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her, like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away together, and they could not stand: for the day of their slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.
22 Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.
23 They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.
24 The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, hath said: Behold, I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharao, upon them that trust in him.
26 And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited *as in the days of old, saith the Lord.
27 *And thou, my servant, Jacob, fear not and be not thou dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and Jacob shall return, and be at rest, and prosper: and there shall be none to terrify him.
28 And thou, my servant, Jacob, fear not, saith the Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will I spare thee, as if thou wert innocent.
____________________
*
2:  A.M. 3397, A.C. 607.
14:  Supra xliv. 1.
26:  Ezec. xxix. 13.
27:  Isai. xliii. 1. and xliv. 2.
====================

JEREMIAS 47
CHAPTER XLVII.

A prophecy of the desolation of the Philistines, of Tyre, Sidon, Gaza, and Ascalon.

1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias, the prophet, against the people of Palestine, before Pharao took Gaza:
2 Thus saith the Lord: Behold there come up waters out of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the city, and the inhabitants thereof: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl,
3 At the noise of the marching of arms, and of his soldiers, at the rushing of his chariots, and the multitude of his wheels.  The fathers have not looked back to the children, for feebleness of hands,
4 Because of the coming of the day, in which all the Philistines shall be laid waste, and Tyre, and Sidon shall be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers.  For the Lord hath wasted the Philistines, *the remnant of the isle of Cappadocia.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza: Ascalon hath held her peace, with the remnant of their valley: how long shalt thou cut thyself?
6 O thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be quiet?  Go into thy scabbard, rest and be still.
7 How shall it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it a charge against Ascalon, and against the countries thereof by the sea side, and there hath made an appointment for it?
____________________
*
4:  Deut. ii. 23.; Amos ix. 7.
====================

JEREMIAS 48
CHAPTER XLVIII.

A prophecy of the desolation of Moab, for their pride: but their captivity shall at last be released.

1 Against *Moab thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nabo, for it is laid waste, and confounded: Cariathaim is taken: the strong city is confounded, and hath trembled.
2 There is no more rejoicing in Moab over Hesebon: they have devised evil.  Come, and let us cut it off from being a nation.  Therefore, shalt thou in silence hold thy peace, and the sword shall follow thee.
3 A voice of crying from Oronaim: waste and great destruction.
4 Moab is destroyed; proclaim a cry for her little ones.
5 For by the ascent of Luith shall the mourner go up with weeping; for in the descent of Oronaim, the enemies have heard a howling of destruction:
6 Flee, save your lives; and be *as heath in the wilderness.
7 For because thou hast trusted in thy bulwarks, and in thy treasures, thou also shalt be taken; and Chamos shall go into captivity, his priests, and his princes together.
8 And the spoiler shall come upon every city, and no city shall escape; and the valleys shall perish, and the plains shall be destroyed, for the Lord hath spoken:
9 Give a flower to Moab, for in its flower it shall go out; and the cities thereof shall be desolate, and uninhabited.
10 Cursed be he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully; and cursed be he that withholdeth his sword from blood.
11 Moab hath been fruitful from his youth, and hath rested upon his lees; and hath not been poured out from vessel to vessel, nor hath gone into captivity: therefore his taste hath remained in him, and his scent is not changed.
12 Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will send him men that shall order and overturn his bottles, and they shall cast him down, and shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles one against another.
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chamos, *as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.
14 *How do you say: We are valiant, and stout men in battle?
15 Moab is laid waste, and they have cast down her cities; and her choice young men are gone down to the slaughter, saith the king, whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 The destruction of Moab is near to come: the calamity thereof shall come on exceeding swiftly.
17 Comfort him, all you that are round about him; and all you that know his name, say: How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod?
18 Come down from thy glory, and sit in thirst, O dwelling of the daughter of Dibon; because the spoiler of Moab is come up to thee, he hath destroyed thy bulwarks.
19 Stand in the way, and look out, O habitation of Aroer: enquire of him that fleeth, and say to him that hath escaped: What Is done?
20 Moab is confounded, because he is overthrown: howl ye, and cry, tell ye it in Arnon, that Moab is wasted.
21 And judgment is come upon the plain country; upon Helon, and upon Jasa, and upon Mephaath;
22 And upon Dibon, and upon Nabo, and upon the house of Deblathaim;
23 And upon Cariathaim, and upon Bethgamul, and upon Bethmaon;
24 And upon Carioth, and upon Bosra, and upon all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, saith the Lord.
26 Make him drunk, because he lifted up himself against the Lord; and Moab shall dash his hand in his own vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
27 For Israel hath been a derision unto thee: as though thou hadst found him amongst thieves: for thy words, therefore, which thou hast spoken against him, thou shalt be led away captive.
28 Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock, you that dwell in Moab; and be ye Iike the dove, that maketh her nest in the mouth of the hole in the highest place.
29 *We have heard the pride of Moab; he is exceedingly proud; his haughtiness, and his arrogancy, and his pride, and the loftiness of his heart.
30 I know, saith the Lord, his boasting: and that the strength thereof is not according to it, neither hath it endeavoured to do according as it was able.
31 Therefore will I lament for Moab, and I will cry out to all Moab, for the men of the brick wall that mourn.
32 O vineyard of Sabama, I will weep for thee, with the mourning of Jazer; thy branches are gone over the sea, they are come even to the sea of Jazer: the robber hath rushed in upon thy harvest, and thy vintage.
33 *Joy and gladness is taken away from Carmel, and from the land of Moab, and I have taken away the wine out of the presses: the treader of the grapes shall not sing the accustomed cheerful tune.
34 From the cry of Hesebon, even to Eleale, and to Jasa, they have uttered their voice; from Segor to Oronaim, as a heifer of three years old; the waters also of Nemrin shall be very bad.
35 And I will take away from Moab, saith the Lord, him that offereth in the high places, and that sacrificeth to his gods.
36 Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes; and my heart a sound like pipes for the men of the brick wall; because he hath done more than he could, therefore they have perished.
37 *For every head shall be bald, and every beard shall be shaven: all hands shall be tied together, and upon every back there shall be haircloth.
38 Upon all the house-tops of Moab, and in the streets thereof general mourning; because I have broken Moab as an useless vessel, saith the Lord.
39 How is it overthrown, and they have howled?  How hath Moab bowed down the neck, and is confounded?  And Moab shall be a derision, and an example to all round about him.
40 Thus saith the Lord: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall stretch forth his wings to Moab.
41 Carioth is taken, and the strong holds are won: and the heart of the valiant men of Moab, in that day, shall be as the heart of a woman in labour.
42 And Moab shall cease to be a people: because he hath gloried against the Lord.
43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare come upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord.
44 *He that shall flee from the fear, shall fall into the pit; and he that shall get up out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare; for I will bring upon Moab the year of their visitation, saith the Lord.
45 They that fled from the snare stood in the shadow of Hesebon, but there came a fire out of Hesebon, and a flame out of the midst of Seon, and it shall devour part of Moab, and the crown of the head of the children of tumult.
46 Woe to thee, Moab, thou hast perished, O people of Chamos; for thy sons, and thy daughters are taken captives.
47 And I will bring back the captivity of Moab in the last days, saith the Lord.  Hitherto the judgments of Moab.
____________________
*
1:  Supra xxvii.; Ezec. xxv.
6:  Supra xvii. 6.
13:  3 Kings xii. 29.
14:  Isaiah xvi. 6.
29:  Isaiah xvi. 6.
33:  Isaiah xvi. 10.
37:  Isaiah xv. 2.; Ezec. vii. 18.
44:  Isaiah xxiv. 18.
====================

JEREMIAS 49
CHAPTER XLIX.

The like desolation of Ammon, of Idumea, of the Syrians, of the Agarenes, and of the Elamites.

1 Against *the children of Ammon.  Thus saith the Lord: Hath Israel no sons? or hath he no heir?  Why then hath Melchom inherited Gad: and his people dwelt in his cities?
2 Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will cause the noise of war to be heard in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon, and it shall be destroyed into a heap, and her daughters shall be burnt with fire, and Israel shall possess them that have possessed him, saith the Lord.
3 Howl, O Hesebon, for Hai is wasted.  Cry, ye daughters of Rabbath; gird yourselves with haircloth; mourn, and go about by the hedges; for Melchom shall be carried into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
4 Why gloriest thou in the valleys? thy valley hath flowed away, O delicate daughter, that hast trusted in thy treasures, and hast said: Who shall come to me?
5 Behold, I will bring a fear upon thee, saith the Lord God of hosts, from all that are round about thee; and you shall be scattered every one out of one another's sight, neither shall there be any to gather together them that flee.
6 And afterwards I will cause the captives of the children of Ammon to return, saith the Lord.
7 Against Edom.*  Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Is wisdom no more in Theman? counsel is perished from her children: their wisdom is become unprofitable.
8 Flee, and turn your backs, go down into the deep hole, ye inhabitants of Dedan; for I have brought the destruction of Esau upon him, the time of his visitation.
9 If grape-gatherers had come to thee, would they not have left a bunch? if thieves in the night, they would have taken what was enough for them.
10 But I have made Esau bare, I have revealed his secrets, and he cannot be hid: his seed is laid waste, and his brethren and his neighbours, and he shall not be.
11 Leave thy fatherless children: I will make them live; and thy widows shall hope in thee.
12 For thus saith the Lord: Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup, shall certainly drink; and shalt thou come off as innocent? thou shalt not come off as innocent, but drinking thou shalt drink.
13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the Lord, that Bosra shall become a desolation: and a reproach, and a desert, and a curse, and all her cities shall be everlasting wastes.
14 *I have heard a rumour from the Lord, and an ambassador is sent to the nations: Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and let us rise up to battle.
15 For behold I have made thee a little one among the nations, despicable among men.
16 Thy arrogancy hath deceived thee, and the pride of thy heart; O thou that dwellest in the clifts of the rock, and endeavourest to lay hold on the height of the hill; *but though thou shouldst make thy nest as high as an eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord.
17 And Edom shall be desolate: every one that shall pass by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues.
18 *As Sodom was overthrown and Gomorrha, and the neighbours thereof, saith the Lord: there shall not a man dwell there, and there shall no son of man inhabit it.
19 Behold one shall come up as a lion from the swelling of the Jordan, against the strong and beautiful: for I will make him run suddenly upon her: and who shall be the chosen one whom I may appoint over her? for who is like to me? and who shall abide me? *and who is that shepherd that can withstand my countenance?
20 Therefore, hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he hath taken concerning Edom: and his thoughts, which he hath thought concerning the inhabitants of Theman: surely the little ones of the flock shall cast them down, of a truth they shall destroy them with their habitation.
21 The earth is moved at the noise of their fall: the cry of their voice is heard in the Red Sea.
22 Behold he shall come up as an eagle, and fly: and he shall spread his wings over Bosra: and in that day the heart of the valiant ones of Edom shall be as the heart of a woman in labour.
23 Against Damascus.  Emath is confounded, and Arphad: for they have heard very bad tidings, they are troubled as in the sea: through care they could not rest.
24 Damascus is undone, she is put to flight, trembling hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her as a woman in labour.
25 How have they forsaken the city of renown, the city of joy?
26 Therefore, her young men shall fall in her streets: and all the men of war shall be silent in that day, saith the Lord of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the strong holds of Benadad.
28 Against Cedar, and against the kingdoms of Asor, which Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, destroyed.  Thus saith the Lord: Arise, and go ye up to Cedar, and waste the children of the east.
29 They shall take their tents, and their flocks: and shall carry off for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels: and they shall call fear upon them round about.
30 Flee ye, get away speedily, sit in deep holes, you that inhabit Asor, saith the Lord: for Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived designs against you.
31 Arise, and go up to a nation that is at ease, and that dwelleth securely, saith the Lord: they have neither gates, nor bars: they dwell alone.
32 And their camels shall be for a spoil, and the multitude of their cattle for a booty: and I will scatter into every wind them that have their hair cut round, and I will bring destruction upon them from all their confines, saith the Lord.
33 And Asor shall be a habitation for dragons, desolate for ever: no man shall abide there, nor son of man inhabit it.
34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias, the prophet, against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Sedecias, king of Juda, saying:
35 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will break the bow of Elam, and their chief strength.
36 And I will bring upon Elam the four winds from the fear quarters of heaven: and I will scatter them into all these winds: and there shall be no nation to which the fugitives of Elam shall not come.
37 And I will cause Elam to be afraid before their enemies, and in the sight of them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, my fierce wrath, saith the Lord: and will send the sword after them, till I consume them.
38 And I will set my throne in Elam, and destroy kings and princes from thence, saith the Lord.
39 But in the latter days I will cause the captives of Elam to return, saith the Lord.
____________________
*
1:  Supra xxvii.; Ezec. xxv.
7:  A.M. 3417.
14:  Abdias i. 1.
16:  Abdias i. 4.
18:  Gen. xix. 20.
19:  Job xli. 1.
====================

JEREMIAS 50
CHAPTER L.

Babylon, which hath afflicted the Israelites, after their restoration, shall be utterly destroyed.

1 The word *that the Lord hath spoken against Babylon, and against the land of the Chaldeans, in the hand of Jeremias the prophet.
2 Declare ye among the nations, and publish it, lift up a standard: proclaim, and conceal it not: say: Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is overthrown, their graven things are confounded, their idols are overthrown.
3 For a nation is come up against her out of the north, which shall make her land desolate: and there shall be none to dwell therein, from man even to beast: yea, they are removed, and gone away.
4 In these days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together: going and weeping, they shall make haste, and shall seek the Lord their God.
5 They shall ask the way to Sion, their faces are hitherward.  They shall come, and shall be joined to the Lord by an everlasting covenant, which shall never be forgotten.
6 My people have been a lost flock, their shepherds have caused them to go astray, and have made them wander in the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.
7 All that found them, have devoured them: and their enemies said: We have not sinned in so doing: because they have sinned against the Lord, the beauty of justice, and against the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans: and be ye as kids at the head of the flock.
9 For behold I raise up, and will bring against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the land of the north: and they shall be prepared against her, and from thence she shall be taken: their arrows, like those of a mighty man, a destroyer, shall not return in vain.
10 And Chaldea shall be made a prey: all that waste her shall be filled, saith the Lord.
11 Because you rejoice, and speak great things, pillaging my inheritance: because you are spread abroad as calves upon the grass, and have bellowed as bulls.
12 Your mother is confounded exceedingly, and she that bore you is made even with the dust: behold she shall be the last among the nations, a wilderness unpassable, and dry.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord, it shall not be inhabited, but shall be wholly desolate: every one that shall pass by Babylon, shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
14 Prepare yourselves against Babylon, round about, all you that bend the bow: fight against her, spare not arrows: because she hath sinned against the Lord.
15 Shout against her, she hath everywhere given her hand, her foundations are fallen, her walls are thrown down, for it is the vengeance of the Lord.  Take vengeance upon her: as she hath done, so do to her.
16 Destroy the sower out of Babylon, and him that holdeth the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the sword of the dove every man shall return to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
17 Israel is a scattered flock, the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria devoured him: and last this Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, hath broken his bones.
18 Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will visit the king of Babylon and his land, as I have visited the king of Assyria.
19 And I will bring Israel again to his habitation: and he shall feed on Carmel, and Basan, and his soul shall be satisfied in Mount Ephraim, and Galaad.
20 In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none: and the sin of Juda, and there shall none be found: for I will be merciful to them, whom I shall leave.
21 Go up against the land of the rulers, and punish the inhabitants thereof, waste, and destroy all behind them, saith the Lord: and do according to all that I have commanded thee.
22 A noise of war in the land, and a great destruction.
23 How is the hammer of the whole earth broken, and destroyed? how is Babylon turned into a desert among the nations?
24 I have caused thee to fall into a snare, and thou art taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware of it: thou art found and caught, because thou hast provoked the Lord.
25 The Lord hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of his wrath: for the Lord, the God of hosts, hath a work to be done in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come ye against her from the uttermost borders: open, that they may go forth that shall tread her down: take the stones out of the way, and make heaps, and destroy her: and let nothing of her be left.
27 Destroy all her valiant men, let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them, for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
28 The voice of them that flee, and of them that have escaped out of the land of Babylon: to declare in Sion the revenge of the Lord, our God, the revenge of his temple.
29 Declare to many against Babylon, to all that bend the bow: stand together against her round about, and let none escape: pay her according to her work: *according to all that she hath done, do ye to her: for she hath lifted up herself against the Lord, against the holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets: and all her men of war shall hold their peace in that day, saith the Lord.
31 Behold I come against thee, O proud one, saith the Lord, the God of hosts: for thy day is come, the time of thy visitation.
32 And the proud one shall fall, he shall fall down, and there shall be none to lift him up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round about him.
33 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel, and the children of Juda are oppressed together: all that have taken them captives, hold them fast, they will not let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong, the Lord of hosts is his name, he will defend their cause in judgment, to terrify the land, and to disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men.
36 A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be foolish: a sword upon her valiant ones, and they shall be dismayed.
37 A sword upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and upon all the people that are in the midst of her: and they shall become as women: a sword upon her treasures, and they shall be made a spoil.
38 A drought upon her waters, and they shall be dried up: because it is a land of idols, and they glory in monstrous things.
39 Therefore shall dragons dwell there with the fig-fauns: and ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever, neither shall it be built up from generation to generation.
40 *As the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrha, and their neighbour cities, saith the Lord: no man shall dwell there, neither shall the son of man inhabit it.
41 Behold a people cometh from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall rise from the ends of the earth.
42 They shall take the bow and the shield: they are cruel and unmerciful: their voice shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses: like a man prepared for battle against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands are grown feeble: anguish hath taken hold of him, pangs as a woman in labour.
44 *Behold he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of the Jordan to the strong and beautiful: for I will make him run suddenly upon her: and who shall be the chosen one whom I may appoint over her? for who is like to me? and who shall bear up against me? **and who is that shepherd that can withstand my countenance?
45 Therefore, hear ye the counsel of the Lord, which he hath taken against Babylon: and his thoughts which he hath thought against the land of the Chaldeans: surely the little ones of the flocks shall pull them down, of a truth their habitation shall be destroyed with them.
46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard amongst the nations.
____________________
*
1:  A.M. 3409, A.C. 595.
29:  Infra li. 49.
40:  Gen. xix. 24.
44:  Supra xlix. 19. --- ** Job xli. 1.
====================

JEREMIAS 51
CHAPTER LI.

The  miseries that shall fall upon Babylon, from the Medes: the destruction of her idols.

1 Thus saith the Lord: *Behold I will raise up as it were a pestilential wind against Babylon, and against the inhabitants thereof, who have lifted up their heart against me.
2 And I will send to Babylon fanners, and they shall fan her, and shall destroy her land: for they are come upon her on every side in the day of her affliction.
3 Let not him that bendeth, bend his bow, and let not him go up that is armed with a coat of mail: spare not her young men, destroy all her army.
4 And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the wounded in the regions thereof.
5 For Israel and Juda have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord of hosts: but their land hath been filled with sin against the holy One of Israel.
6 Flee ye from the midst of Babylon, and let every one save his own life: be not silent upon her iniquity: for it is the time of revenge from the Lord, he will I render unto her what she hath deserved.
7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, that made all the earth drunk: the nations have drunk of her wine, and therefore they have staggered.
8 *Babylon is suddenly fallen, and destroyed: howl for her, take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed.
9 We would have cured Babylon, but she is not healed: let us forsake her, and let us go every man to his own land: because her judgment hath reached even to the heavens, and is lifted up to the clouds.
10 The Lord hath brought forth our justices: come, and let us declare in Sion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers: the Lord hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: and his mind is against Babylon, to destroy it, because it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of his temple.
12 Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard, strengthen the watch: set up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the Lord hath both purposed, and done all that he spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O thou that dwellest upon many waters, rich in treasures, thy end is come for thy entire destruction.
14 *The Lord of hosts hath sworn by himself, saying: I will fill thee with men as with locusts, and they shall lift up a joyful shout against thee.
15 *He that made the earth by his power, that hath prepared the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
16 When he uttereth his voice the waters are multiplied in heaven: he lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth; he hath turned lightning into rain; and hath brought forth the wind out of his treasures.
17 Every man is become foolish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by his idol, for what he hath cast is a lie, and there is no breath in them.
18 They are vain works, and worthy to be laughed at; in the time of their visitation, they shall perish.
19 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he that made all things, he it is, and Israel is the sceptre of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
20 Thou dashest together for me the weapons of war, and with thee I will dash nations together, and with thee I will destroy kingdoms:
21 And with thee I will break in pieces the horse, and his rider: and with thee I will break in pieces the chariot, and him that getteth up into it.
22 And with thee I will break in pieces man and woman, and with thee I will break in pieces the old man and the child, and with thee I will break in pieces the young man and the virgin:
23 And with thee I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, and with thee I will break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen, and with thee I will break in pieces captains and rulers.
24 And I will render to Babylon, and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea, all their evil that they have done in Sion, before your eyes, saith the Lord.
25 Behold I come against thee, thou destroying mountain, saith the Lord, which corruptest the whole earth: and I will stretch out my hand upon thee, and will roll thee down from the rocks, and will make thee a burnt mountain.
26 And they shall not take of thee a stone for the corner, nor a stone for foundations, but thou shalt be destroyed for ever, saith the Lord.
27 Set ye up a standard in the land; sound with the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations against her; call together against her the kings of Ararat, Menni, and Ascenez: number Taphsar against her; bring the horse as the stinging locust.
28 Prepare the nations against her, the kings of Media, their captains, and all the rulers, and all the land of their dominion.
29 And the land shall be in a commotion, and shall be troubled; for the design of the Lord against Babylon shall awake, to make the land of Babylon desert and uninhabitable.
30 The valiant men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they have dwelt in holds: their strength hath failed, and they are become as women; her dwelling places are burnt, her bars are broken.
31 One running post shall meet another, and messenger shall meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is taken from one end to the other:
32 And that the fords are taken, and the marshes are burnt with fire, and the men of war are affrighted.
33 For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a thrashing-floor; this is the time of her thrashing: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come.
34 Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, hath eaten me up, he hath devoured me; he hath made me as an empty vessel; he hath swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicate meats, and he hath cast me out.
35 The wrong done to me, and my flesh, be upon Babylon, saith the habitation of Sion; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, saith Jerusalem.
36 Therefore, thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will judge thy cause, and will take vengeance for thee, and I will make her sea desolate, *and will dry up her spring.
37 And Babylon shall be reduced to heaps, a dwelling-place for dragons, an astonishment and a hissing, because there is no inhabitant.
38 They shall roar together like lions, they shall shake their manes like young lions.
39 In their heat I will set them drink; and I will make them drunk, *that they may slumber, and sleep an everlasting sleep, and awake no more, saith the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with kids.
41 How is Sesach taken, and the renowned one of all the earth surprised?  How is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations?
42 The sea is come up over Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves thereof.
43 Her cities are become an astonishment, a land uninhabited and desolate, a land wherein none can dwell, nor son of man pass through it.
44 And I will visit against Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he had swallowed down: and the nations shall no more flow together to him, for the wall also of Babylon shall fall.
45 Go out of the midst of her, my people; that every man may save his life from the fierce wrath of the Lord.
46 And lest your hearts faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land: and a rumour shall come in one year, and after this year another rumour: and iniquity in the land, and ruler upon ruler.
47 Therefore, behold the days come, and I will visit the idols of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.
48 And the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them shall give praise for Babylon: for spoilers shall come to her from the north, saith the Lord.
49 And as Babylon caused that there should fall slain in Israel; so of Babylon there shall fall slain in all the earth.
50 You that have escaped the sword, come away, stand not still; remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; shame hath covered our faces; because strangers are come upon the sanctuary of the house of the Lord.
52 Therefore, behold the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit her graven things, and in all her land the wounded shall groan.
53 If Babylon should mount up to heaven, and establish her strength on high; from me there should come spoilers upon her, saith the Lord.
54 The noise of a cry from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans:
55 Because the Lord hath laid Babylon waste, and destroyed out of her the great voice; and their wave shall roar like many waters; their voice hath made a noise:
56 Because the spoiler is come upon her, that is, upon Babylon, and her valiant men are taken, and their bow is weakened, because the Lord, who is a strong revenger, will surely repay.
57 And I will make her princes drunk, and her wise men, and her captains, and her rulers, and her valiant men; and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall awake no more, saith the king, whose name is Lord of hosts.
58 Thus saith the Lord of hosts: That broad wall of Babylon shall be utterly broken down, and her high gates shall be burnt with fire, and the labours of the people shall come to nothing, and of the nations shall go to the fire and shall perish.
59 The word that Jeremias, the prophet, commanded Saraias, the son of Nerias, the son of Naasias, when he went with king Sedecias, to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign: now Saraias was chief over the prophecy.
60 And Jeremias wrote in one book all the evil that was to come upon Babylon: all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremias said to Saraias: When thou shalt come into Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all these words,
62 Thou shalt say, O Lord, thou hast spoken against this place to destroy it; so that there should be neither man nor beast to dwell therein, and that it should be desolate for ever.
63 And when thou shalt have made an end of reading this book, thou shalt tie a stone to it, and shalt throw it into the midst of the Euphrates:
64 And thou shalt say: Thus shall Babylon sink, and she shall not rise up from the affliction that I will bring upon her, and she shall be utterly destroyed.  Thus far are the words of Jeremias.
____________________
*
1:  A. 3409.
8:  Isa. xxi. 9.; Apoc. xiv. 8.
14:  Amos vi. 8.
15:  Gen. i. 1.
36:  Supra l. 38.
39:  Infra v. 57.
====================

JEREMIAS 52
CHAPTER LII.

A recapitulation of the reign of Sedecias, and the destruction of Jerusalem.  The number of the captives.

1 Sedecias *was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Amital, the daughter of Jeremias, of Lobna.
2 And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that Joakim had done.
3 For the wrath of the Lord was against Jerusalem, and against Juda, till he cast them out from his presence; and Sedecias revolted from the king of Babylon.
4 *And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, the tenth day of the month, that Nabuchodonosor, the king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and they besieged it, and built forts against it round about.
5 And the city was besieged until the eleventh year of king Sedecias.
6 And in the fourth month, the ninth day of the month, a famine overpowered the city; and there was no food for the people of the land.
7 And the city was broken up, and the men of war fled, and went out of the city in the night by the way of the gate that is between the two walls, and leadeth to the king's garden, (the Chaldeans besieging the city round about) and they went by the way that leadeth to the wilderness.
8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king; and they overtook Sedecias in the desert which is near Jericho: and all his companions were scattered from him.
9 And when they had taken the king, they carried him to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath; and he gave judgment upon him.
10 And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias before his eyes; and he slew all the princes of Juda, in Reblatha.
11 And he put out the eyes of Sedecias, and bound him with fetters, and the king of Babylon brought him into Babylon, and he put him in prison till the day of his death.
12 And in the fifth month, the tenth day of the month, the same is the nineteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, came Nabuzardan, the general of the army, who stood before the king of Babylon, in Jerusalem.
13 And he burnt the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great house he burnt with fire.
14 And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the general, broke down all the wall of Jerusalem, round about.
15 But Nabuzardan, the general, carried away captives some of the poor people, and of the rest of the common sort, who remained in the city, and of the fugitives that were fled over to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the multitude.
16 But of the poor of the land, Nabuzardan, the general, left some for vine-dressers, and for husbandmen.
17 The Chaldeans also broke in pieces the brazen pillars that were in the house of the Lord, and the bases, and the sea of brass that was in the house of the Lord: and they carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
18 And they took the cauldrons, and the flesh-hooks, and the psalteries, and the bowls, and the little mortars, and all the brazen vessels that had been used in the ministry: and
19 The general took away the pitchers, and the censers, and the pots, and the basins, and the candlesticks, and the mortars, and the cups; as many as were of gold, in gold; and as many as were of silver, in silver:
20 And the two pillars, and one sea, and twelve oxen of brass that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the Lord: there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels.
21 And concerning the pillars, one pillar was eighteen cubits high, and a cord of twelve cubits compassed it about; but the thickness thereof was four fingers, and it was hollow within.
22 And chaptrels of brass were upon both: and the height of one chaptrel was five cubits; and net-work, and pomegranates were upon the chaptrels round about, all of brass.  The same of the second pillar, and the pomegranates.
23 And there were ninety-six pomegranates hanging down; and the pomegranates, being a hundred in all, were compassed with net-work.
24 And the general took Saraias the chief priest, and Sophonias, the second priest, and the three keepers of the entry.
25 He also took out of the city, one eunuch, that was chief over the men of war; and seven men of them that were near the king's person, that were found in the city; and a scribe, an officer of the army, who exercised the young soldiers; and threescore men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.
26 And Nabuzardan, the general, took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon, to Reblatha.
27 And the king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death, in Reblatha, in the land of Emath: and Juda was carried away captive out of his land.
28 This is the people whom Nabuchodonosor carried away captive: In the seventh year, three thousand and twenty-three Jews.
29 In the eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor, eight hundred and thirty-two souls from Jerusalem.
30 In the three and twentieth year of Nabuchodonosor, Nabuzardan, the general, carried away of the Jews, seven hundred and forty-five souls.  So all the souls were four thousand six hundred.
31 And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth *year of the captivity of Joachin, king of Juda, in the twelfth month, the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach, king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Joachin, king of Juda, and brought him forth out of prison.
32 And he spoke kindly to him, and he set his throne above the thrones of the kings that were with him in Babylon.
33 And he changed his prison-garments, and he eat bread before him always all the days of his life.
34 And for his diet a continual provision was allowed him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion, until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
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*
1:  A.M. 3414, A.C. 590.; 4 Kings xxiv. 18.; 2 Par. xxxvi. 11.
4:  4 Kings xxv. 1.; Supra xxxix. 1.
31:  4 Kings xxv. 27.; A.M. 3442, A.C. 562.
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This blog is for serious exhortation to faith in this time of the Great Apostasy.