The Project Gutenberg eBook ofThe Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 28: JeremiasThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.Title: The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 28: JeremiasRelease date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8328]Most recently updated: December 26, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: This eBook was produced by David Widger from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIBLE, DOUAY-RHEIMS, BOOK 28: JEREMIAS ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 28: JeremiasRelease date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8328]Most recently updated: December 26, 2020Language: EnglishCredits: This eBook was produced by David Widger from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome
Title: The Bible, Douay-Rheims, Book 28: Jeremias
Release date: June 1, 2005 [eBook #8328]Most recently updated: December 26, 2020
Language: English
Credits: This eBook was produced by David Widger from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BIBLE, DOUAY-RHEIMS, BOOK 28: JEREMIAS ***
This eBook was produced by David Widger
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.
Translated from the Latin Vulgate
Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek, and Other Editions in Divers Languages
THE OLD TESTAMENTFirst Published by the English College at DouayA.D. 1609 & 1610
and
THE NEW TESTAMENTFirst Published by the English College at RheimsA.D. 1582
With Annotations
The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner A.D. 1749-1752
Jeremias was a priest, a native of Anathoth, a priestly city in the tribe of Benjamin: and was sanctified from his mother's womb, to be a prophet of God; which office he began to execute when he was yet a child in age. He was in his whole life, according to the signification of his name, Great before the Lord; and a special figure of Jesus Christ, in the persecutions he underwent for discharging his duty; in his charity for his persecutors; and in the violent death he suffered at their hands: it being an ancient tradition of the Hebrews, that he was stoned to death by the remnant of the Jews who had retired into Egypt.
Jeremias Chapter 1
The time, and the calling, of Jeremias: his prophetical visions. God encourages him.
1:1. The words of Jeremias the son of Helcias, of the priests that were in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin.
1:2. The word of the Lord which came to him in the days of Josias the son of Amon king of Juda, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
1:3. And which came to him in the days of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, unto the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias king of Juda, even unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive, in the fifth month.
1:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
1:5. Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.
1:6. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, Lord God: behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child.
1:7. And the Lord said to me: Say not: I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee: and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak.
1:8. Be not afraid at their presence: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
1:9. And the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth: and the Lord said to me: Behold I have given my words in thy mouth:
1:10. Lo, I have set thee this day over the nations, and over kingdoms, to root up, and to pull down, and to waste, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant.
1:11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said: I see a rod watching.
1:12. And the Lord said to me: Thou hast seen well: for I will watch over my word to perform it.
1:13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time saying: What seest thou? And I said: I see a boiling caldron, and the face thereof from the face of the north.
1:14. And the Lord said to me: From the north shall an evil break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.
1:15. For behold I will call together all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord: and they shall come, and shall set every one his throne in the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all the walls thereof round about, and upon all the cities of Juda.
1:16. And I will pronounce my judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to strange gods, and have adored the work of their own hands.
1:17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I command thee. Be not afraid at their presence: for I will make thee not to fear their countenance.
1:18. For behold I have made thee this day a fortified city, and a pillar of iron, and a wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of Juda, to the princes thereof, and to the priests, and to the people of the land.
1:19. And they shall fight against them, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee.
Jeremias Chapter 2
God expostulates with the Jews for their ingratitude and infidelity.
2:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2:2. Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: I have remembered thee, pitying thy youth, and the love of thy espousals, when thou followedst me in the desert, in a land that is not sown.
2:3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his increase: all they that devour him offend: evils shall come upon them, saith the Lord.
2:4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel:
2:5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
2:6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?
2:7. And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.
Carmel… That is, a fruitful, plentiful land.
2:8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
2:9. Therefore will I yet contend in judgment with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children.
2:10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar, and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like this.
2:11. If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not gods: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.
2:12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be very desolate, saith the Lord.
2:13. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
2:14. Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become a prey?
2:15. The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down, and there is none to dwell in them.
2:16. The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have defloured thee, even to the crown of the head.
2:17. Hath not this been done to thee, because thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God at that time, when he led thee by the way?
2:18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river?
2:19. Thy own wickedness shall reprove thee, and thy apostasy shall rebuke thee. Know thou, and see that it is an evil and a bitter thing for thee, to have left the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not with thee, saith the Lord the God of hosts.
2:20. Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself.
2:21. Yet, I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange vineyard?
2:22. Though thou wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thyself the herb borith, thou art stained in thy iniquity before me, saith the Lord God.
Borith… An herb used to clean clothes, and take out spots and dirt.
2:23. How canst thou say: I am not polluted, I have not walked after Baalim? see thy ways in the valley, know what thou hast done: as a swift runner pursuing his course.
2:24. A wild ass accustomed to the wilderness in the desire of his heart, snuffed up the wind of his love: none shall turn her away: all that seek her shall not fail: in her monthly filth they shall find her.
2:25. Keep thy foot from being bare, and thy throat from thirst. But thou saidst: I have lost all hope, I will not do it: for I have loved strangers, and I will walk after them.
2:26. As the thief is confounded when he is taken, so is the house of Israel confounded, they and their kings, their princes and their priests, and their prophets.
2:27. Saying to a stock: Thou art my father: and to a stone: Thou hast begotten me: they have turned their back to me, and not their face: and in the time of their affliction they will say: Arise, and deliver us.
2:28. Where are the gods, whom thou hast made thee? let them arise and deliver thee in the time of thy affliction: for according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda.
2:29. Why will you contend with me in judgment? you have all forsaken me, saith the Lord.
2:30. In vain have I struck your children, they have not received correction: your sword hath devoured your prophets, your generation is like a ravaging lion.
2:31. See ye the word of the Lord: Am I become a wilderness to Israel, or a lateward springing land? why then have my people said: We are revolted, we will come to thee no more?
2:32. Will a virgin forget her ornament, or a bride her stomacher? but my people hath forgotten me days without number.
2:33. Why dost thou endeavour to shew thy way good to seek my love, thou who hast also taught thy malices to be thy ways,
2:34. And in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor and innocent? not in ditches have I found them, but in all places, which I mentioned before.
2:35. And thou hast said: I am without sin and am innocent: and therefore let thy anger be turned away from me. Behold, I will contend with thee in judgment, because thou hast said: I have not sinned.
2:36. How exceeding base art thou become, going the same ways over again! and thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
2:37. For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have nothing prosperous therein.
Jeremias Chapter 3
God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.
3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.
3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.
3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:
3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.
3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.
3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,
3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.
3:9. And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
3:10. And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
3:11. And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
3:12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.
3:13. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.
3:14. Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.
3:15. And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
3:16. And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.
3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.
3:18. In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.
3:19. But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.
3:20. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
3:21. A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
3:22. Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
3:23. In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
3:24. Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
3:25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.
Jeremias Chapter 4
And admonition to sincere repentance, and circumcision of the heart, with threats of grievous punishment to those that persist in sin.
4:1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved.
4:2. And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him.
4:3. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:
4:4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it because of the wickedness of your thoughts.
4:5. Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.
4:6. Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.
4:7. The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.
4:8. For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.
4:9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed.
4:10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reacheth even to the soul?
4:11. At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.
4:12. A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.
4:13. Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.
4:14. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?
4:15. For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from mount Ephraim.
4:16. Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.
4:17. They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.
4:18. Thy ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy heart.
4:19. My bowels, my bowels are in part, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.
4:20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.
4:21. How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?
4:22. For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
4:23. I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.
4:24. I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.
4:25. I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.
4:26. I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.
4:27. For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.
4:28. The Earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.
4:29. At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away: they have entered into thickets and climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.
4:30. But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.
4:31. For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as of a woman in labour of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain.
Jeremias Chapter 5
The judgments of God shall fall upon the Jews for their manifold sins.
5:1. Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.
5:2. And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.
5:3. O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.
5:4. But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.
5:5. I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.
5:6. Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.
5:7. How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot's house.
5:8. They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.
5:9. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
5:10. Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord's.
5:11. For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.
5:12. They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.
5:13. The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.
5:14. Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.
5:15. Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.
5:16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.
5:17. And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.
5:18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.
5:19. And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.
5:20. Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:
5:21. Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.
5:22. Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.
5:23. But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.
5:24. And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.
5:25. Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.
5:26. For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.
5:27. As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.
5:28. They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the judgment of the poor.
5:29. Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?
5:30. Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.
5:31. The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?
Jeremias Chapter 6
The evils that threaten Jerusalem. She is invited to return, and walk in the good way, and not to rely on sacrifices without obedience.
6:1. Strengthen yourselves, ye sons of Benjamin, in the midst of Jerusalem, and sound the trumpet in Thecua, and set up the standard over Bethacarem: for evil is seen out of the north, and a great destruction.
6:2. I have likened the daughter of Sion to a beautiful and delicate woman.
6:3. The shepherds shall come to her with their flocks: they have pitched their tents against her round about: every one shall feed them that are under his hand.
6:4. Prepare ye war against her: arise, and let us go up at midday: woe unto us, for the day is declined, for the shadows of the evening are grown longer.
6:5. Arise, and let us go up in the night, and destroy her houses.
6:6. For thus saith the Lord of hosts: Hew down her trees, cast up a trench about Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited, all oppression is in the midst of her.
6:7. As a cistern maketh its water cold, so hath she made her wickedness cold: violence and spoil shall be heard in her, infirmity and stripes are continually before me.
6:8. Be thou instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from thee, lest I make thee desolate, a land uninhabited.
6:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: They shall gather the remains of Israel, as in a vine, even to one cluster: turn back thy hand, as a grapegatherer into the basket.
6:10. To whom shall I speak? and to whom shall I testify, that he may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear: behold the word of the Lord is become unto them a reproach: and they will not receive it.
6:11. Therefore am I full of the fury of the Lord, I am weary with holding in: pour it out upon the child abroad, and upon the council of the young men together: for man and woman shall be taken, the ancient and he that is full of days.
6:12. And their houses shall be turned over to others, with their lands and their wives together: for I will stretch forth my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the Lord.
6:13. For from the least of them even to the greatest, all are given to covetousness: and from the prophet even to the priest, all are guilty of deceit.
6:14. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: and there was no peace.
6:15. They were confounded, because they committed abomination: yea, rather they were not confounded with confusion, and they knew not how to blush: wherefore they shall fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall fall down, saith the Lord.
6:16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for your souls. And they said: We will not walk.
6:17. And I appointed watchmen over you, saying: Hearken ye to the sound of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hearken.
6:18. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, O congregation, what great things I will do to them.
6:19. Hear, O earth: Behold I will bring evils upon this people, the fruits of their own thoughts: because they have not heard my words, and they have cast away my law.
6:20. To what purpose do you bring me frankincense from Saba, and the sweet smelling cane from a far country? your holocausts are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices pleasing to me.
6:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring destruction upon this people, by which fathers and sons together shall fall, neighbour and kinsman shall perish.
6:22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the land of the north, and a great nation shall rise up from the ends of the earth.
6:23. They shall lay hold on arrow and shield: they are cruel, and will have no mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea: and they shall mount upon horses, prepared as men for war, against thee, O daughter of Sion.
6:24. We have heard the fame thereof, our hands grow feeble: anguish hath taken hold of us, as a woman in labour.
6:25. Go not out into the fields, nor walk in the highway: for the sword of the enemy, and fear is on every side.
6:26. Gird thee with sackcloth, O daughter of my people, and sprinkle thee with ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, a bitter lamentation, because the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
6:27. I have set thee for a strong trier among my people: and thou shalt know, and prove their way.
6:28. All these princes go out of the way, they walk deceitfully, they are brass and iron: they are all corrupted.
6:29. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the founder hath melted in vain: for their wicked deeds are not consumed.
6:30. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them.
Jeremias Chapter 7
The temple of God shall not protect a sinful people, without a sincere conversion. The Lord will not receive the prayers of the prophet for them: because they are obstinate in their sins.
7:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:
7:2. Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord, and proclaim there this word, and say: Hear ye the word of the Lord, all ye men of Juda, that enter in at these gates, to adore the Lord.
7:3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Make your ways and your doings good: and I will dwell with you in this place.
7:4. Trust not in lying words, saying: The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, it is the temple of the Lord.
7:5. For if you will order well your ways, and your doings: if you will execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,
7:6. If you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, and walk not after strange gods to your own hurt,
7:7. I will dwell with you in this place: in the land, which I gave to your fathers from the beginning and for evermore.
7:8. Behold you put your trust in lying words, which shall not profit you:
7:9. To steal, to murder, to commit adultery, to swear falsely, to offer to Baalim, and to go after strange gods, which you know not.
7:10. And you have come, and stood before me in this house, in which my name is called upon, and have said: We are delivered, because we have done all these abominations.
7:11. Is this house then, in which my name hath been called upon, in your eyes become a den of robbers? I, I am he: I have seen it, saith the Lord.
7:12. Go ye to my place in Silo, where my name dwelt from the beginning: and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel:
7:13. And now, because you have done all these works, saith the Lord: and I have spoken to you rising up early, and speaking, and you have not heard: and I have called you, and you have not answered:
7:14. I will do to this house, in which my name is called upon, and in which you trust, and to the place which I have given you and your fathers, as I did to Silo.
7:15. And I will cast you away from before my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
7:16. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, nor take to thee praise and supplication for them: and do not withstand me: for I will not hear thee.
7:17. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
7:18. The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to offer libations to strange gods, and to provoke me to anger.
Queen of heaven… That is, the moon, which they worshipped under that name.
7:19. Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own countenance?
7:20. Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Behold my wrath and my indignation is enkindled against this place, upon men and upon beasts, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruits of the land, and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
7:21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat ye the flesh.
7:22. For I spoke not to your fathers, and I commanded them not, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the matter of burnt offerings and sacrifices.
I commanded them not… Viz., such sacrifices as the Jews at this time offered, without obedience; which was the thing principally commanded: so that in comparison with it, the offering of the holocausts and sacrifices was of small account.
7:23. But this thing I commanded them, saying: Hearken to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.
7:24. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear: but walked in their own will, and in the perversity of their wicked heart: and went backward and not forward,
7:25. From the day that their fathers came out of the land of Egypt, even to this day. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, from day to day, rising up early and sending.
7:26. And they have not hearkened to me: nor inclined their ear: but have hardened their neck, and have done worse than their fathers.
7:27. And thou shalt speak to them all these words, but they will not hearken to thee: and thou shalt call them, but they will not answer thee.
7:28. And thou shalt say to them: This is a nation which hath not hearkened to the voice of the Lord their God, nor received instruction: faith is lost, and is taken away out of their mouth.
7:29. Cut off thy hair, and cast it away: and take up a lamentation on high: for the Lord hath rejected, and forsaken the generation of his wrath,
7:30. Because the children of Juda have done evil in my eyes, saith the Lord. They have set their abominations in the house in which my name is called upon, to pollute it;
7:31. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Ennom, to burn their sons, and their daughters in the fire: which I commanded not, nor thought on in my heart.
7:32. Therefore behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and it shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom: but the valley of slaughter: and they shall bury in Topheth, because there is no place.
7:33. And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to drive them away.
7:34. And I will cause to cease out of the cities of Juda, and out of the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.
Jeremias Chapter 8
Other evils that shall fall upon the Jews for their impenitence.
8:1. At that time, saith the Lord, they shall cast out the bones of the kings of Juda, and the bones of the princes thereof, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
8:2. And they shall spread them abroad to the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom have walked, and whom they have sought, and adored: they shall not be gathered, and they shall not be buried: they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth.
8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all that shall remain of this wicked kindred in all places, which are left, to which I have cast them out, saith the Lord of hosts.
8:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Shall not he that falleth, rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not turn again?
8:5. Why then is this people in Jerusalem turned away with a stubborn revolting? they have laid hold on lying, and have refused to return.
8:6. I attended, and hearkened; no man speaketh what is good, there is none that doth penance for his sin, saying: What have I done? They are all turned to their own course, as a horse rushing to the battle.
8:7. The kite in the air hath known her time: the turtle, and the swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming: but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord.
8:8. How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Indeed the lying pens of the scribes hath wrought falsehood.
8:9. The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.
8:10. Therefore will I give their women to strangers, their fields to others for an inheritance: because from the least even to the greatest all follow covetousness: from the prophet even to the priest all deal deceitfully.
8:11. And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: when there was no peace.
8:12. They are confounded, because they have committed abomination: yea rather they are not confounded with confusion, and they have not known how to blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall; in the time of their visitation they shall fall, saith the Lord.
8:13. Gathering I will gather them together, saith the Lord, there is no grape on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig tree, the leaf is fallen: and I have given them the things that are passed away.
8:14. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced city, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and hath given us water of gall to drink: for we have sinned against the Lord.
8:15. We looked for peace and no good came: for a time of healing, and behold fear.
8:16. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan, all the land was moved at the sound of the neighing of his warriors: and they came and devoured the land, and all that was in it: the city and its inhabitants.
8:17. For behold I will send among you serpents, basilisks, against which there is no charm: and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.
8:18. My sorrow is above sorrow, my heart mourneth within me.
8:19. Behold the voice of the daughter of my people from a far country: Is not the Lord in Sion, or is not her king in her? why then have they provoked me to wrath with their idols, and strange vanities?
8:20. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
8:21. For the affliction of the daughter of my people I am afflicted, and made sorrowful, astonishment hath taken hold on me.
8:22. Is there no balm in Galaad? or is there no physician there? Why then is not the wound of the daughter of my people closed?
Jeremias Chapter 9
The prophet laments the miseries of his people: and their sins, which are the cause of them. He exhorts them to repentance.
9:1. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.
9:2. Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors.
9:3. And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
9:4. Let every man take heed of his neighbour, and let him not trust in any brother of his: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every friend will walk deceitfully.
9:5. And a man shall mock his brother, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies: they have laboured to commit iniquity.
9:6. Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit: through deceit they have refused to know me, saith the Lord.
9:7. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will melt, and try them: for what else shall I do before the daughter of my people?
9:8. Their tongue is a piercing arrow, it hath spoken deceit: with his mouth one speaketh peace with his friend, and secretly he lieth in wait for him.
9:9. Shall I not visit them for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul be revenged on such a nation?
9:10. For the mountains I will take up weeping and lamentation, and for the beautiful places of the desert, mourning: because they are burnt up, for that there is not a man that passeth through them: and they have not heard the voice of the owner: from the fowl of the air to the beasts they are gone away and departed.
9:11. And I will make Jerusalem to be heaps of sand, and dens of dragons: and I will make the cities of Juda desolate, for want of an inhabitant.
9:12. Who is the wise man, that may understand this, and to whom the word of the mouth of the Lord may come that he may declare this, why the land hath perished, and is burnt up like a wilderness, which none passeth through?
9:13. And the Lord said: Because they have forsaken my law, which I gave them, and have not heard my voice, and have not walked in it.
9:14. But they have gone after the perverseness of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.
9:15. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
9:16. And I will scatter them among the nations, which they and their fathers have not known: and I will send the sword after them till they be consumed.
9:17. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, and let them come: and send to them that are wise women, and let them make haste:
9:18. Let them hasten and take up a lamentation for us: let our eyes shed tears, and our eyelids run down with waters.
9:19. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion: How are we wasted and greatly confounded? because we have left the land, because our dwellings are cast down.
9:20. Hear therefore, ye women, the word of the Lord: and let your ears receive the word of his mouth: and teach your daughters wailing: and every one her neighbour mourning.
9:21. For death is come up through our windows, it is entered into our houses to destroy the children from without, the young men from the streets.
9:22. Speak: Thus saith the Lord: Even the carcass of man shall fall as dung upon the face of the country, and as grass behind the back of the mower, and there is none to gather it.
9:23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches:
9:24. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord.
9:25. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised.
9:26. Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.
Jeremias Chapter 10
Neither stars nor idols are to be feared, but the great Creator of all things. The chastisement of Jerusalem for her sins.
10:1. Hear ye the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning you, O house of Israel.
10:2. Thus saith the Lord: Learn not according to the ways of the Gentiles: and be not afraid of the signs of heaven, which the heathens fear:
10:3. For the laws of the people are vain: for the works of the hand of the workman hath cut a tree out of the forest with an axe.
10:4. He hath decked it with silver and gold: he hath put it together with nails and hammers, that it may not fall asunder.
10:5. They are framed after the likeness of a palm tree, and shall not speak: they must be carried to be removed, because they cannot go. Therefore fear them not, for they can neither do evil nor good.
10:6. There is none like to thee, O Lord: thou art great, and great is thy name in might.
10:7. Who shall not fear thee, O king of nations? for thine is the glory: among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms there is none like unto thee.
10:8. They shall be all proved together to be senseless and foolish: the doctrine of their vanity is wood.
10:9. Silver spread into plates is brought from Tharsis, and gold from Ophaz: the work of the artificer, and of the hand of the coppersmith: violet and purple is their clothing: all these things are the work of artificers.
10:10. But the Lord is the true God: he is the living God, and the everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his threatening.
10:11. Thus then shall you say to them: The gods that have not made heaven and earth, let them perish from the earth, and from among those places that are under heaven.
10:12. He that maketh the earth by his power, that prepareth the world by his wisdom, and stretcheth out the heavens by his knowledge.
10:13. At his voice he giveth a multitude of waters in the heaven, and lifteth up the clouds from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings for rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
10:14. Every man is become a fool for knowledge, every artist is confounded in his graven idol: for what he hath cast is false, and there is no spirit in them.
10:15. They are vain things, and a ridiculous work: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
10:16. The portion of Jacob is not like these: for it is he who formed all things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name.
10:17. Gather up thy shame out of the land, thou that dwellest in a siege.
10:18. For thus saith he Lord: Behold I will cast away far off the inhabitants of the land at this time: and I will afflict them, so that they may be found.
10:19. Woe is me for my destruction, my wound is very grievous. But I said: Truly this is my own evil, and I will bear it.
10:20. My tabernacle is laid waste, all my cords are broken: my children are gone out from me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
10:21. Because the pastors have done foolishly, and have not sought the Lord: therefore have they not understood, and all their flock is scattered.
10:22. Behold the sound of a noise cometh, a great commotion out of the land of the north: to make the cities of Juda a desert, and a dwelling for dragons.
10:23. I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not his: neither is it in a man to walk, and to direct his steps.
The way of a man is not his… The meaning is, that notwithstanding man's free will, yet he can do no good without God's help, nor evil without his permission. So that, in the present case, all the evils which Nabuchodonosor was about to bring upon Jerusalem, could not have come but by the will of God.
10:24. Correct me, O Lord, but yet with judgment: and not in thy fury, lest thou bring me to nothing.
10:25. Pour out thy indignation upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the provinces that have not called upon thy name: because they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have destroyed his glory.
Jeremias Chapter 11
The prophet proclaims the covenant of God: and denounces evils to the obstinate transgressors of it. The conspiracy of the Jews against him, a figure of their conspiracy against Christ.
11:1. The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, saying:
11:2. Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
11:3. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Cursed is the man that shall not hearken to the words of this covenant,
11:4. Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying: Hear ye my voice, and do all things that I command you: and you shall be my people, and I will be your God:
11:5. That I may accomplish the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered and said: Amen, O Lord.
11:6. And the Lord said to me: Proclaim aloud all these words in the cities of Juda, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: Hear ye the words of the covenant, and do them:
11:7. For protesting I conjured your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt even to this day: rising early I conjured them, and said: Hearken ye to my voice:
11:8. And they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear: but walked every one in the perverseness of his own wicked heart: and I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.
11:9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found among the men of Juda, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
11:10. They are returned to the former iniquities of their fathers, who refused to hear my words: so these likewise have gone after strange gods, to serve them: the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers.
11:11. Wherefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring in evils upon them, which they shall not be able to escape: and they shall cry to me, and I will not hearken to them.
11:12. And the cities of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer sacrifice, and they shall not save them in the time of their affliction.
11:13. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Juda: and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem thou hast set up altars of confusion, altars to offer sacrifice to Baalim.
11:14. Therefore do not thou pray for this people, and do not take up praise and prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time of their cry to me, in the time of their affliction.
11:15. What is the meaning that my beloved hath wrought much wickedness in my house? shall the holy flesh take away from thee thy crimes, in which thou hast boasted?
11:16. The Lord called thy name, a plentiful olive tree, fair, fruitful, and beautiful: at the noise of a word, a great fire was kindled in it, and the branches thereof are burnt.
11:17. And the Lord of hosts that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee: for the evils of the house of Israel, and of the house of Juda, which they have done to themselves, to provoke me, offering sacrifice to Baalim.
11:18. But thou, O Lord, hast shewn me, and I have known: then thou shewedst me their doings.
11:19. And I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim: and I knew not that they had devised counsels against me, saying: Let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more.
11:20. But thou, O Lord of Sabaoth, who judgest justly, and triest the reins and the hearts, let me see thy revenge on them: for to thee have I revealed my cause.
Sabaoth… That is, of hosts or armies, a name frequently given to God in the scriptures.-Ibid. Thy revenge… This was rather a prediction of what was to happen, with an approbation of the divine justice, than an imprecation.
11:21. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek thy life, and say: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and thou shalt not die in our hands.
11:22. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine.
11:23. And there shall be no remains of them: for I will bring in evil upon the men of Anathoth, the year of their visitation.
Jeremias Chapter 12
The prosperity of the wicked shall be but for a short time. The desolation of the Jews for their sins. Their return from their captivity.
12:1. Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, but yet I will speak what is just to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper: why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?
12:2. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
12:3. And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee: gather them together as for the day of slaughter.
12:4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts and the birds are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.
12:5. If thou hast been wearied with running with footmen, how canst thou contend with horses? and if thou hast been secure in a land of peace, what wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?
12:6. For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe them not when they speak good things to thee.
12:7. I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given my dear soul into the hand of her enemies.
12:8. My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: it hath cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.
12:9. Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth, make haste to devour.
12:10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a desolate wilderness.
12:11. They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart.
12:12. The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.
12:13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.
12:14. Thus saith the Lord against all wicked neighbours, that touch the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of the midst of them.
12:15. And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have mercy on them: and will bring them back, every man to his inheritance, and every man into his land.
12:16. And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as they have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built up in the midst of my people.
12:17. But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.
Jeremias Chapter 13
Under the figure of a linen girdle is foretold the destruction of theJews. Their obstinacy in sin brings all miseries upon them.
13:1. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.
13:2. And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.
13:3. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:
13:4. Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.
13:5. And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.
13:6. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.
13:7. And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it and behold the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.
13:8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
13:9. Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.
13:10. This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle which is fit for no use.
13:11. For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.
13:12. Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. And they shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?
13:13. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.
13:14. And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.
13:15. Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.
13:16. Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.
13:17. But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.
13:18. Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.