For our backsliding^ are many, We have sinned against Thee. 80 Thou hope of Israel, The Saviour thereof in time of trouble, Why shouldest Thou be as a stran- ger in the land, And as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? 9Why shouldest Thou be as a man overcome, As a mighty man that cannot save? Yet Thou, O LORD, art in the midst of us, And Thy name is called upon us; Leave us not.
10Thus saith the LOED unto this people: Even so have they loved to wander, They have not refrained their feet; Therefore the LORD doth not accept them, Now will He remember their in- iquity, And punish then* sins.
"And the LORD said unto me: Tray not for this people for their good. 12When they fast, I will not hear their cry- and when they offer burnt-offering and meal-offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence/ ^Thensaidl: 'Ah, Lord GOD! behold, the prophets say unto them: Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.' 14Then the LORD said unto me: 'The prophets prophesy lies in My name; I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I unto them; they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divina- tion, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their own heart, "Therefore thus saith the LORD: As for the prophets that prophesy in My name, and I sent them not, yet they say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land, by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed; 16and the peo- ple to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters; for I will pour their evil upon them.'
17And thou shalt say this word unto them: Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, And let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my peo- ple is broken with a great breach With a very grievous blow. 18If I go forth into the field, Then behold the slain with the sword!
And if I enter into the city, Then behold them that are sick witt famine!
For both the prophet and the priesi are gone about to a land, anc knew it not.
19Hast Thou utterly rejected Judah' Hath Thy soul loathed Zion? Why hast Thou smitten us, anc there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no goot * came; And for a time of healing, and be hold terror! 20We acknowledge, 0 LORD, our wick edness, Even the iniquity of our fathers; For we have sinned against Thee.
JEREMIAH not contemn us, for Thy name's sake, Do not dishonour the throne of Thy glory; Remember, break not Thy covenant with us.
^Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Art not Thou He, O LOED our God, and do we not wait for Thee?
For Thou hast made all these things. 1 £ Then said the LORD unto me. xt/ * Though Moses and Samuel stood before MeT>yet My mind could not be toward this people; cast them out of My eight, and let them go forth. 2And it shall come to pass, when they say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell 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 the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. 3And I will appoint over them four kinds, saith the LOED: the sword to slay, and the dogs to drag, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. 4And I will cause them to be a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth, because; of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king i of Judah, for that which he did in; Jerusalem.!
4For who shall have pity upon thec, j O Jerusalem?
Or who shall bemoan thee? Or who shall turn aside to ask of thy welfare? 6Thou hast cast Me off, saith the LORD, Thou art gone backward; Therefore do I stretch out My hand against thee, and destroy thee; I am weary with repenting.
7And I fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I bereave them of children, I de- stroy My people, Since they return not from their ways.
8Their widows are increased to Me above the sand of the seas; I bring upon them, against the moth- er, a chosen one, Even a spoiler at noonday; I cause anguish and terrors to fall upon her suddenly.
9She that hath borne seven languish- eth; Her spirit droopeth; Her sun is gone down while it was yet day, She is ashamed and confounded; And the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before4 thoir enemies, Suith the LORD.'
10Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me A man of strife and a man of con- tention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; Yet every one of them doth curse me.
nThe LORD said: 'Verily I will re- lease thee for good; verily I will cause the enemy to make supplication unto thee in the time of evil and in the time of affliction, ^Can iron break iron from the north and brass? 33Thy substance and thy treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, even in all thy borders. 14And Ir will make thee to pass with thine enemies into a land which thou knowest not; for a fire is kindled in My nostril, which shall burn upon you; JEREMIAH T l5Thou, O LORD, knowest; j 1 ft The word of the LORD came also Remember me, and think of me, j unto me, saying: and avenge me of my persecutors, i 2Thou shalt not take thee a wife, Take me not away because* of Thy | Neither shalt thou have sons or long-suffering; > daughters in this place.
Know that for Thy sake I have suf- *For thus saith the LORD concerning i the sons and concerning the daughters did that are born in this place, and con- cerning their mothers that bore them, and concerning their fathers fered taunts. 16Thy words were found, and eat them; And Thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart; j Because Thy name was called on me, i 0 LORD God of hosts. j 17I sat not in the assembly of them [ that make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of Thy hand; For Thou hast filled me with indig- nation.
n\Vhy is my pain perpetual, And my wound incurable, so that it refuseth to be healed? Wilt Thou indeed be unto me as a deceitful brook, As waters that fail?
10Therefore thus saith the LORD: If thou return, and I bring thee back, Thou shalt stand before Me; And if thou bring forth the precious out of the vile, Thou shalt be as My mouth; Let them return unto thee, But thou shalt not return unto them. 20And I will make thee unto this people a fortified brazen wall; And they shall fight against thee, But they shall not prevail against thee; 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 terrible.
concerning tfceir fathers that begot them in this land: 4They shall die of grievous deaths; They shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried, They shall be as dung upon the face of the ground; And they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; And their carcasses shall be nieat for the fowls of heaven, And for the beasts of the earth. BFor thus saith the LORD: Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people, saith the LORD, even mercy and compassion. 6Both the great and the small shall die in thi« land; they shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; 7neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to com- fort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. 8And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. 9For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, Before your eyes and in your days, The voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
JEREMIAH 10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt tell this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee: 'Where- fore hath the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' llthen shalt thou say unto them: l Because t your fathers have forsaken Me, saith the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have wor- shipped them, and have forsaken Me, and have not kept My law; 12and ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that ye hearken not unto Me; "therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye have not known, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; forasmuch as I will show you no favour.'
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said: 'As the LORD hveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt', I5but: 'As the LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries whither He had driven them'; and I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16Behold, I will send for many fish- ers, saith the LORD, and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
17For Mine eyes are upon all their ways, They are not hid from My face; Neither is their iniquity concealed from Mine eyes.
18And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sm double; Because they have profaned My land; They have filled Mine inheritance With the carcasses of their detest- able things and their abomina- tions.
190 LORD, my strength, and my strong- hold, And my refuge, in the day of afflic- tion, Unto Thee shall the nations come From the ends of the earth, and shall say: 'Our fathers have inherited nought but lies, Vanity and things wherein there is no profit.'
20Shall a man make unto himself gods, And they are no gods?
"Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, This once will I cause them to know My hand and My might, And they shall know that My name is the LORD.
~i 7 The sin of Judah is written With a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond; It is graven upon the tablet of their heart, And upon the horns of your al- tars.
2Like the symbols of their sons are their altars, And their Asherim are by the leafy trees, Upon the high hills.
30 thou that sittest upon the moun- tain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil, JEREMIAH And thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders. 4And thou, even of thyself, shait discontinue from thy heritage That I gave thee; And I will cause thee to serve thine enemies In the land which thou knowest not; For ye have kindled a fire in My nostril, Which shall burn for ever.
i sThus saith the LORD: Cursed is the man that trusteth in j man, And maketh flesh his arm, And whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6For he shall be like a tamarisk in the desert, And shall not see when good cometh; But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, A salt land and not inhabited. 7Blessed is the man that trusteth in j the LORD, And whose trust the LORD is. 8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, And that spreadeth out its roots by the river, And shall not see when heat com- eth, But its foliage shall be luxuriant; And shall not be anxious in the year of drought, Neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things, And it is exceeding weak — who can know it?
10I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his do- ings.
"As the partridge that broodeth over young which she hath not brought forth, So is he that getteth riches, and not by right; In the midst of his days he sliall leave them, And at his end he shall be a fool.
12Thou throne of glory, on high from the beginning, Thou place of our sanctuary, 13Thou hope of Israel, the LORD! All that forsake Thee shall be ashamed; They that depart from Thee shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters.
14Heal me, 0 LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved; For Thou art my praise. 13Behold, they say unto me: * Where is the word of the LORD?
let it come now.' 16As for me, I have not hastened f rorr being a shepherd after Thee; Neither have I desired the woefu day; Thou knowest it; That which came out of my lips was manifest before Thee. 17Be not a ruin unto me; Thou art my refuge in the day of evil 18Let them be ashamed that persecute me, but let not me be ashamed; Let them be dismayed, but let noi me be dismayed; Bring upon them the day of evil, And destroy them with doubl* destruction.
JEREMIAH I3Thussaul the LORD unto me: Go, Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then and stand in the gate of the children will I kindle a fire in the gates there- of the people, whereby the kings of of, and it shall devour the palaces Judah come in, and by which they go of Jerusalem, and it shall not be out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; quenched. 2l)and say unto them: I Hear ye the word of the LOKD, ' 1 Q The word which came to Jere- ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, miah from the LORD, saying and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, **Arise, and go down to the potter's that enter in by these gates; 21thus| house, and there I will cause thee to the LORD*: Take hood for the t hear My words.' 3Then I wen t. went down sake of your souls, and bear no bur- ( to the potter's house, and, behold, den on the sabbath day, nor bring he was at his work on the wheels it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ^neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers; ^but* they hearkened 'not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction. 24And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; 20then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on hort>es, theyt and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall be inhabited for ever. ^And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the Lowland, and from the mountains, and from the South, bring- ing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of the LORD. 27But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of I 4And whensoever the vessel that ho made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
^hen the word of the LORD came to me, saying. Ql 0 house of Israel, can- not I do with you as this potter'5 saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay m the potter's hand, so are ye in My hand, 0 house of Israel. 7At one instant I may speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to §luck up and to break down and to estroy it; sbut if that nation turn from their evil, because of which I have spoken against it, I repent of the evil that I thought to do unto it. 9And at one instant I may speak concern- ing a nation, and concerning a king- dom, to build and to plant it; 10but if it do evil in My sight, that it heark- en not to My voice, then I repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit it. "Now therefore do thou speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus.saith the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. 12But they say: There is no hope, Dut we will walk after our own devices, JEREMIAH JEREMIAH and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart/ 13Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ask ye now among the nations, Who hath heard such things; The virgin of Israel hath done A very horrible thing. 14Doth the snow of Lebanon fail From the rock of the field9 Or are the strange cold flowing waters Plucked up? "For My people hath forgotten Me, They offer unto vanity; And they have been made to stum- ble in their ways, In the ancient paths, To walk in bypaths, In a way not cast up; I6To make their land an astonish- ment, And a perpetual hissing; Every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, And shake his head. 17 1 will scatter them as with an east wind Before the enemy; I will look upon their back, and not their face, In the day of their calamity.
18Then said they: 'Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; For instruction shall not perish from the priest, Nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, And let us not give heed to any of his words/ 19Give heed to me, 0 LORD, And hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.
20Shall evil be recompensed for good? I For they have digged a pit for my soul.
Remember how I stood before Thee i To «peak good for them.
To turn away Thy wrath from them. 21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, And hurl them to the power of the sword; And let their wix*es be bereaved of their children, and widows; And let their men be slain of death, And their young men smitten of the sword in battle. * ^Let a cry be heard from their houses, When thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; For they have digged a pit to take me, ; And hid snares for my feet/ 23Yet, LORD, Thou knowest i All their counsel against me to slay me; Forgive not their iniquity, i Neither blot out their sin from Thy sight; ; But let them be made to stumble before Thee; Deal Thou with them in the time of Thine anger.
1 1 Q Thus said the LORD: Go, and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests; 2and I go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the I gate Harsith, and proclaim there the 1 words that I shall tell thee; 3and say: Hear ye the word of the LORD, 0 kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle; 4because they have forsak- JEREMIAH eu Me, and have estranged this place, «nd have offered in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Juduh; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; ^ind have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spoke it, neither came it into My mind. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place bhall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter; 7and I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of them that seek their life; and their carcasses will I give to be food for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; sand I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; every one that pa&seth thereby shall be aston- ished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof; °and I will cause them to eat the fle»h of their sons and the fle&h of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall straiten them* 10Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, "and shalt say unto them: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Even i>o will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's ves- sel, that cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, for want of room to bury. 12Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth; "and the houses of Jerusalem, and the nouses of the kings of Judah, which » That is, Terror on every aide.
are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have offered unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink-offerings unto other gods.
"Then came Jeremiah from To- pheth, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD'S house, and said to all the people: 15'Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pro- nounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they might not hear My words.' Of) Now Pashhur the son of Immer ^u the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jere- miah prophesying these things. 2Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the LORD. 3And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him: l The LORD hath not called thy name Pashhur, but aMagor- missabib. 4For thus saith the LORD: Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it; and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. 6Morepver I will give all the store of this city, and all the gains thereof, and all the wealth thereof, yea, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, who shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Baby- ion. 6And thou, Pashhur, and all that JEREMIAH dwell in thy house shall go into cap- tivity; and thou shalt come to Baby- lon, and there thou shalt die, and there shalt thou be buried, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied falsely.7 70 LORD, Thou hast enticed me, and I was enticed, Thou hast overcome me, and hast prevailed; I am become a laughing-stock all the day, Every one mocketh me. 8For as often as I "speak, I cry out, I cry: ' Violence and spoil'; Because the word of the LORD is made A reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day. 9And if I say: 'I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak any more in His name', Then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire Shut up in my bones, And I weary myself to hold it in, But cannot. 10For I have heard the whispering of many, Terror on every side: 'Denounce, and we will denounce him'; Even of all my familiar friends, Them that watch for my halting: 'Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, And we shall take our revenge on him/ llBut the LORD is with me as a mighty warrior; Therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not pre- vail; They shall be greatly ashamed, because they have not prospered, Even with an everlasting confusion which shall never be forgotten. 12But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, That seest the reins and the heart, Let me see Thy vengeance on them; For unto Thee have I revealed my cause.
18Smg unto the LORD, Praise ye the LORD; For He hath delivered the soul of the needy From the hand of evil-doers.
"Cursed be the day Wherein I was born; The day wherein my mother bore me, Let it not be blessed. 15Cursed be the man who brought tidings To my father, saying: 'A man-child is born unto thee'; Making him very glad. I6And let that man be as the cities Which the LORD overthrew, and repented not; And let him, hear a cry in the morn- ing, And an alarm at noontide; 17Because He slew me not from the womb; And so my mother would have been my grave, And her womb always great. 18Wherefore came I forth out of the womb To see labour and sorrow, That my days should be consumed in shame?
O1 The word which came unto ^ x Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, say- JEREMIAH mg: 2< Inquire, I pray thee, of th<» LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; perad venture the LORD will deal with u$ according to all His wondrous works, that ho may go up from us.'
3Then said Jeremiah unto them' Thus shall yo say to Zedekiah 4Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn hack the weap- ons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, that besiege you without the walls, und I will gather them into the midst i of this cily. "And I myself will fight I against YOU with an outstretched; hand an<{ with u strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. *And I will Mnite tho inhabit- j ants of this city, both man and beast, they bhall die* of a great pestilence. TAnd aftmvard, saith the LORD, I will deliver Xedekiah king of Judah, and his servant N and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchad- rezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life; and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have compassion.
sion.
8And unto this people thou shalt say: Thus saith the LORD. Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9He*that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and falleth away to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall ,vuu,.uc: auau live, anu. juis JJULG biuui be unto him for a prey. 10For I have s€t 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 mill fire. "And unto the house of the king of Judah: Hear ye the word of the LOUD; 120 house of David, thus saith the LORD: Execute justice in the morning, And deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, Lest My fury go forth like fire, And burn that none can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings.
"Behold, I am against thee, 0 in- habitant of the valley, And rock of the plain, saith the LORD; Ye that say: 'Who shall come down against us?
Or who shall enter into our habita- tions?7 14And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, Saith the LORD; And I will kindle a fire in her forest, And it shall devour all that is round about her.