The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 28: Jeremias

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This eBook was produced by David Widger [widger@cecomet.net]
from etext #1581 prepared by Dennis McCarthy, Atlanta, Georgia
and Tad Book, student, Pontifical North American College, Rome.

THE HOLY BIBLE

Translated from the Latin Vulgate

Diligently Compared with the Hebrew, Greek,
and Other Editions in Divers Languages

THE OLD TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Douay
A.D. 1609 & 1610

and

THE NEW TESTAMENT
First Published by the English College at Rheims
A.D. 1582

With Annotations

The Whole Revised and Diligently Compared with
the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner
A.D. 1749-1752

THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAS

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.

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