The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 28: Jeremias

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23:18. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath seen and
heard his word? Who hath considered his word and heard it?

23:19. Behold the whirlwind of the Lord's indignation shall come forth,
and a tempest shall break out and come upon the head of the wicked.

23:20. The wrath of the Lord shall not return till he execute it, and
till he accomplish the thought of his heart: in the latter days you
shall understand his counsel.

23:21. I did not send prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them,
yet they prophesied.

23:22. If they had stood in my counsel, and had made my words known to
my people, I should have turned them from their evil way, and from their
wicked doings.

23:23. Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar
off?

23:24. Shall a man be hid in secret places, and I not see him, saith the
Lord? do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?

23:25. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my
name, and say: I have dreamed, I have dreamed.

23:26. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy
lies, and that prophesy the delusions of their own heart?

23:27. Who seek to make my people forget my name through their dreams,
which they tell every man to his neighbour: as their fathers forgot my
name for Baal.

23:28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream: and he that
hath my word, let him speak my word with truth: what hath the chaff to
do with the wheat, saith the Lord?

23:29. Are not my words as a fire, saith the Lord: and as a hammer that
breaketh the rock in pieces?

23:30. Therefore behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who
steal my words every one from his neighbour.

23:31. Behold I am against the prophets, saith the Lord: who use their
tongues, and say: The Lord saith it.

23:32. Behold I am against the prophets that have lying dreams, saith
the Lord: and tell them, and cause my people to err by their lying, and
by their wonders: when I sent them not, nor commanded them, who have not
profited this people at all, saith the Lord.

23:33. If therefore this people, or the prophet, or the priest shall ask
thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt say to them:
You are the burden: for I will cast you away, saith the Lord.

23:34. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people that shall
say: The burden of the Lord: I will visit upon that man, and upon his
house.

Burden of the Lord... This expression is here rejected and disallowed,
at least for those times: because it was then used in mockery and
contempt by the false prophets, and unbelieving people, who ridiculed
the repeated threats of Jeremias under the name of his burdens.

23:35. Thus shall you say every one to his neighbour, and to his
brother, What hath the Lord answered? and what hath the Lord spoken?

23:36. And the burden of the Lord shall be mentioned no more, for every
man's word shall be his burden: for you have perverted the words of the
living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

23:37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered
thee? and what hath the Lord spoken?

23:38. But if you shall say: The burden of the Lord: therefore thus
saith the Lord: Because you have said this word: The burden of the Lord:
and I have sent to you, saying: Say not, The burden of the Lord:

23:39. Therefore behold I will take you away carrying you, and will
forsake you, and the city which I gave to you, and to your fathers, out
of my presence.

Out of my presence... That is, the Lord declares that out of his
presence he will cast them, and bring them to captivity for their
transgressions.

23:40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a
perpetual shame which shall never be forgotten.

Jeremias Chapter 24

Under the type of good and bad figs, he foretells the restoration of the
Jews that had been carried away captive with Jechonias, and the
desolation of those that were left behind.

24:1. The Lord shewed me: and behold two baskets full of figs, set
before the temple of the Lord: after that Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon
had carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, and his
chief men, and the craftsmen, and engravers of Jerusalem, and had
brought them to Babylon.

24:2. One basket had very good figs, like the figs of the first season:
and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten,
because they were bad.

24:3. And the Lord said to me: What seest thou, Jeremias? And I said:
Figs, the good figs, very good: and the bad figs, very bad, which cannot
be eaten because they are bad.

24:4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

24:5. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so
will I regard the captives of Juda, whom I have sent forth out of this
place into the land of the Chaldeans, for their good.

24:6. And I will set my eyes upon them to be pacified, and I will bring
them again into this land: and I will build them up, and not pull them
down: and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

24:7. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and
they shall be my people, and I will be their God: because they shall
return to me with their whole heart.

24:8. And as the very bad figs, that cannot be eaten, because they are
bad: thus saith the Lord: So will I give Sedecias the king of Juda, and
his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that have remained in this
city, and that dwell in the land of Egypt.

24:9. And I will deliver them up to vexation, and affliction, to all the
kingdoms of the earth: to be a reproach, and a byword, and a proverb,
and to be a curse in all places, to which I have cast them out.

24:10. And I will send among them the sword, and the famine, and the
pestilence: till they be consumed out of the land which I gave to them,
and their fathers.

Jeremias Chapter 25

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

25:1. The word that came to Jeremias concerning all the people of Juda,
in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda, (the same
is the first year of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon,)

25:2. Which Jeremias the prophet spoke to all the people of Juda, and to
all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

25:3. From the thirteenth year of Josias the son of Ammon king of Juda
until this day: this is the three and twentieth year, the word of the
Lord hath come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising before day, and
speaking, and you have not hearkened.

25:4. And the Lord hath sent to you all his servants the prophets,
rising early, and sending, and you have not hearkened, nor inclined your
ears to hear.

25:5. When he said: Return ye, every one from his evil way, and from
your wicked devices, and you shall dwell in the land which the Lord hath
given to you, and your fathers for ever and ever.

25:6. And go not after strange gods to serve them, and adore them: nor
provoke me to wrath by the works of your hands, and I will not afflict
you.

25:7. And you have not heard me, saith the Lord, that you might provoke
me to anger with the works of your hands, to your own hurt.

25:8. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard
my words:

25:9. Behold I will send, and take all the kindreds of the north, saith
the Lord, and Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon my servant: and I will
bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and
against all the nations that are round about it: and I will destroy
them, and make them an astonishment and a hissing, and perpetual
desolations.

My servant... So this wicked king is here called; because God made him
his instrument in punishing the sins of his people.

25:10. And I will take away from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
the sound of the mill and the light of the lamp.

25:11. And all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment: and
all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

25:12. And when the seventy years shall be expired, I will punish the
king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity,
and the land of the Chaldeans: and I will make it perpetual desolations.

Punish... Literally, visit upon.

25:13. And I will bring upon that land all my words, that I have spoken
against it, all that is written in this book, all that Jeremias hath
prophesied against all nations:

25:14. For they have served them, whereas they were many nations, and
great kings: and I will repay them according to their deeds, and
according to the works of their hands.

25:15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take the cup
of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to
drink thereof, into which I shall send thee.

25:16. And they shall drink, and be troubled, and be mad because of the
sword, which I shall send among them.

25:17. And I took the cup at the hand of the Lord, and I presented it to
all the nations to drink of it, to which the Lord sent me:

25:18. To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Juda, and the kings thereof,
and the princes thereof: to make them a desolation, and an astonishment,
and a hissing, and a curse, as it is at this day.

25:19. Pharao the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and
all his people,

25:20. And all in general: all the kings of the land of Ausitis, and all
the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ascalon, and Gaza, and
Accaron, and the remnant of Azotus.

25:21. And Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon.

25:22. And all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon: and the
kings of the land of the islands that are beyond the sea.

25:23. And Dedan, and Thema, and Buz, and all that have their hair cut
round.

25:24. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the west, that
dwell in the desert.

25:25. And all the kings of Zambri, and all the kings of Elam, and all
the kings of the Medes:

25:26. And all the kings of the north far and near, every one against
his brother: and all the kingdoms of the earth, which are upon the face
thereof: and the king of Sesac shall drink after them.

Sesac... That is, Babel, or Babylon; which after bringing all these
people under her yoke, should quickly fall and be destroyed herself.

25:27. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God
of Israel: Drink ye, and be drunken, and vomit: and fall, and rise no
more, because of the sword, which I shall send among you.

25:28. And if they refuse to take the cup at thy hand to drink, thou
shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Drinking you shall
drink:

25:29. For behold I begin to bring evil on the city wherein my name is
called upon: and shall you be as innocent and escape free? you shall
not escape free: for I will call for the sword upon all the inhabitants
of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts.

25:30. And thou shalt prophesy unto them all these words, and thou shalt
say to them: I The Lord shall roar from on high, and shall utter his
voice from his holy habitation: roaring he shall roar upon the place of
his beauty: the shout as it were of them that tread grapes shall be
given out against all the inhabitants of the earth.

25:31. The noise is come even to the ends of the earth: for the Lord
entereth into judgment with the nations: he entereth into judgment with
all flesh; the wicked I have delivered up to the sword, saith the Lord.

25:32. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold evil shall go forth from
nation to nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the ends of
the earth.

25:33. And the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of
the earth even to the other end thereof: they shall not be lamented, and
they shall not be gathered up, nor buried: they shall lie as dung upon
the face of the earth.

25:34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry: and sprinkle yourselves with ashes,
ye leaders of the flock: for the days of your slaughter and your
dispersion are accomplished, and you shall fall like precious vessels.

25:35. And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the leaders of
the flock to save themselves.

25:36. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and a howling of the
principal of the flock: because the Lord hath wasted their pastures.

25:37. And the fields of peace have been silent because of the fierce
anger of the Lord.

25:38. He hath forsaken his covert as the lion, for the land is laid
waste because of the wrath of the dove, and because of the fierce anger
of the Lord.

The dove... This is commonly understood of Nabuchodonosor, whose
military standard, it is said, was a dove. But the Hebrew word Jonah,
which is here rendered a dove, may also signify a waster or oppressor,
which name better agrees to that unmerciful prince; or by comparison, as
a dove's flight is the swiftest, so would their destruction come upon
them.

Jeremias Chapter 26

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

26:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, came this word from the Lord, saying:

26:2. Thus saith the Lord: stand in the court of the house of the Lord,
and speak to all the cities of Juda, out of which they come, to adore in
the house of the Lord, all the words which I have commanded thee to
speak unto them: leave not out one word.

26:3. If so be they will hearken and be converted every one from his
evil way; that I may repent me of the evil that I think to do unto them
for the wickedness of their doings.

26:4. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: If you will not
hearken to me to walk in my law, which I have given you:

26:5. To give ear to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent
to you rising up early: and sending, and you have not hearkened:

26:6. I will make this house like Silo: and I will make this city a
curse to all the nations of the earth.

26:7. And the priests, and the prophets, and all the people heard
Jeremias speaking these words in the house of the Lord.

26:8. And when Jeremias had made an end of speaking all that the Lord
had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests, and the
prophets, and all the people laid hold on him, saying: Let him be put to
death.

26:9. Why hath he prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying: This house
shall be like Silo; and this city shall be made desolate, without an
inhabitant? And all the people were gathered together against Jeremias
in the house of the Lord.

26:10. And the princes of Juda heard these words: and they went up from
the king's house into the house of the Lord, and sat in the entry of the
new gate of the house of the Lord.

26:11. And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes, and to all
the people, saying: The judgment of death is for this man: because he
hath prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.

26:12. Then Jeremias spoke to all the princes, and to all the people,
saying: The Lord sent me to prophesy concerning this house, and
concerning this city all the words that you have heard.

26:13. Now therefore amend your ways, and your doings, and hearken to
the voice of the Lord your God: and the Lord will repent him of the evil
that he hath spoken against you.

26:14. But as for me, behold I am in your hands: do with me what is good
and right in your eyes:

26:15. But know ye, and understand, that if you put me to death, you
will shed innocent blood against your own selves, and against this city,
and the inhabitants thereof. For in truth the Lord sent me to you, to
speak all these words in your hearing.

26:16. Then the princes, and all the people said to the priests, and to
the prophets: There is no judgment of death for this man: for he hath
spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.

26:17. And some of the ancients of the land rose up: and they spoke to
all the assembly of the people, saying:

26:18. Micheas of Morasthi was a prophet in the days of Ezechias king of
Juda, and he spoke to all the people of Juda, saying: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts: Sion shall be ploughed like a field, and Jerusalem shall
be a heap of stones: and the mountain of the house the high places of
woods.

26:19. Did Ezechias king of Juda, and all Juda, condemn him to death?
did they not fear the Lord, and beseech the face of the Lord: and the
Lord repented of the evil that he had spoken against them? therefore we
are doing a great evil against our souls.

26:20. There was also a man that prophesied in the name of the Lord,
Urias the son of Semei of Cariathiarim: and he prophesied against this
city, and against this land, according to all the words of Jeremias.

26:21. And Joakim, and all his men in power, and his princes heard these
words: and the king sought to put him to death. And Urias heard it, and
was afraid, and fled and went into Egypt.

26:22. And king Joakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achobor,
and men with him into Egypt.

26:23. And they brought Urias out of Egypt: and brought him to king
Joakim, and he slew him with the sword: and he cast his dead body into
the graves of the common people.

26:24. So the hand of Ahicam the son of Saphan was with Jeremias, that
he should not be delivered into the hands of the people, to put him to
death.

Jeremias Chapter 27

The prophet sends chains to divers kings, signifying that they must bend
their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon. The vessels of the
temple shall not be brought back till all the rest are carried away.

27:1. In the beginning of the reign of Joakim the son of Josias king of
Juda, this word came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

Joakim... This revelation was made to the prophet in the beginning of
the reign of Joakim: but the bands were not sent to the princes here
named before the reign of Sedecias, ver. 3.

27:2. Thus saith the Lord to me: Make thee bands, and chains: and thou
shalt put them on thy neck.

27:3. And thou shalt send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of
Moab, and to the king of the children of Ammon, and to the king of Tyre,
and to the king of Sidon: by the hand of the messengers that are come to
Jerusalem to Sedecias the king of Juda.

27:4. And thou shalt command them to speak to their masters: Thus saith
the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters:

27:5. I made the earth, and the men and the beasts that are upon the
face of the earth, by my great power, and by my stretched out arm: and I
have given it to whom it seemed good in my eyes.

27:6. And now I have given all these lands into the hand of
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon my servant: moreover also the beasts of
the field I have given him to serve him.

27:7. And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son:
till the time come for his land and himself: and many nations and great
kings shall serve him.

His son... Viz., Evilmerodach; and his son's son, Nabonydus, or
Nabonadius, the Baltassar of Daniel, chap. 5., and the last of the
Chaldean kings.

27:8. But the nation and kingdom that will not serve Nabuchodonosor king
of Babylon, and whosoever will not bend his neck under the yoke of the
king of Babylon: I will visit upon that nation with the sword, and with
famine, and with pestilence, saith the Lord: till I consume them by his
hand.

27:9. Therefore hearken not to your prophets, and diviners, and
dreamers, and soothsayers, and sorcerers, that say to you: You shall not
serve the king of Babylon.

27:10. For they prophesy lies to you: to remove you far from your
country, and cast you out, and to make you perish.

27:11. But the nation that shall bend down their neck under the yoke of
the king of Babylon, and shall serve him: I will let them remain in
their own land, saith the Lord: and they shall till it, and dwell in it.

27:12. And I spoke to Sedecias the king of Juda according to all these
words, saying: Bend down your necks under the yoke of the king of
Babylon, and serve him, and his people, and you shall live.

27:13. Why will you die, thou and thy people by the sword, and by
famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord hath spoken against the
nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

27:14. Hearken not to the words of the prophets that say to you: You
shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they tell you a lie.

27:15. For I have not sent them, saith the Lord: and they prophesy in my
name falsely: to drive you out, and that you may perish, both you, and
the prophets that prophesy to you.

27:16. I spoke also to the priests, and to this people, saying: Thus
saith the Lord: Hearken not to the words of your prophets, that prophesy
to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the Lord shall now in a short time
be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you.

27:17. Therefore hearken not to them, but serve the king of Babylon,
that you may live. Why should this city be given up to desolation?

27:18. But if they be prophets, and the word of the Lord be in them: let
them interpose themselves before the Lord of hosts, that the vessels
which were left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king
of Juda, and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon.

27:19. For thus saith the Lord of hosts to the pillars, and to the sea,
and to the bases, and to the rest of the vessels that remain in this
city:

27:20. Which Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon did not take, when he
carried away Jechonias the son of Joakim the king of Juda, from
Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the great men of Juda and Jerusalem.

27:21. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel, to the
vessels that are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the
king of Juda and Jerusalem:

27:22. They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until
the day of their visitation, saith the Lord: and I will cause them to be
brought, and to be restored in this place.

Jeremias Chapter 28

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

28:1. And it came to pass in that year, in the beginning of the reign of
Sedecias king of Juda, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, that
Hananias the son of Azur, a prophet of Gabaon spoke to me, in the house
of the Lord before the priests, and all the people, saying:

28:2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: I have broken the
yoke of the king of Babylon.

28:3. As yet two years of days, and I will cause all the vessels of the
house of the Lord to be brought back into this place, which
Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried
them to Babylon.

28:4. And I will bring back to this place Jechonias the son of Joakim
king of Juda, and all the captives of Juda, that are gone to Babylon,
saith the Lord: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.

28:5. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the prophet in the
presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that
stood in the house of the Lord:

28:6. And Jeremias the prophet said: Amen, the Lord do so: the Lord
perform thy words, which thou hast prophesied: that the vessels may be
brought again into the house of the Lord, and all the captives may
return out of Babylon to this place.

28:7. Nevertheless hear this word that I speak in thy ears, and in the
ears of all the people:

28:8. The prophets that have been before me, and before thee from the
beginning, and have prophesied concerning many countries, and concerning
great kingdoms, of war, and of affliction, and of famine.

28:9. The prophet that prophesied peace: when his word shall come to
pass, the prophet shall be known, whom the hath sent in truth.

28:10. And Hananias the prophet took the chain from the neck of Jeremias
the prophet, and broke it.

28:11. And Hananias spoke in the presence of all the people, saying:
Thus saith the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke of Nabuchodonosor the
king of Babylon after two full years from off the neck of all the
nations.

28:12. And Jeremias the prophet went his way. And the word of the Lord
came to Jeremias, after that Hananias the prophet had broken the chain
from off the neck of Jeremias the prophet, saying:

28:13. Go, and tell Hananias: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast broken
chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron.

28:14. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: I have put a
yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, to serve Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, and they shall serve him: moreover also I have given
him the beasts of the earth.

28:15. And Jeremias the prophet said to Hananias the prophet: Hear now,
Hananias: the Lord hath not sent thee, and thou hast made this people to
trust in a lie.

28:16. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will send thee away from
off the face of the earth: this year shalt thou die: for thou hast
spoken against the Lord.

28:17. And Hananias the prophet died in that year, in the seventh month.

Jeremias Chapter 29

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