The Bible, Douay Rheims, Book 28: Jeremias

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Jeremias Chapter 33

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

33:1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the second time, while
he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying:

33:2. Thus saith the Lord, who will do, and will form it, and prepare
it, the Lord is his name.

33:3. Cry to me and I will hear thee: and I will shew thee great things,
and sure things which thou knowest not.

33:4. For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to the houses of this
city, and to the houses of the king of Juda, which are destroyed, and to
the bulwarks, and to the sword.

33:5. Of them that come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them
with the dead bodies of the men whom I have slain in my wrath, and in my
indignation, hiding my face from this city because of all their
wickedness.

33:6. Behold I will close their wounds and give them health, and I will
cure them: and I will reveal to them the prayer of peace and truth.

The prayer of peace... That is, the peace and welfare which they pray
for.

33:7. And I will bring back the captivity of Juda, and the captivity of
Jerusalem: and I will build them as from the beginning.

33:8. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have
sinned against me: and I will forgive all their iniquities, whereby they
have sinned against me, and despised me.

33:9. And it shall be to me a name, and a joy, and a praise, and a
gladness before all the nations of the earth, that shall hear of all the
good things which I will do to them: and they shall fear and be troubled
for all the good things, and for all the peace that I will make for
them.

33:10. Thus saith the Lord: There shall be heard again in this place
(which you say is desolate, because there is neither man nor beast: in
the cities of Juda, and without Jerusalem, which are desolate without
man, and without inhabitant, and without beast)

33:11. The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say:
Give ye glory to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy
endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring their vows into the
house of the Lord: for I will bring back the captivity of the land as at
the first, saith the Lord.

33:12. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: There shall be again in this place
that is desolate without man, and without beast, and in all the cities
thereof, an habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

33:13. And in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the
plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: and in the land of
Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Juda shall the
flocks pass again under the hand of him that numbereth them, saith the
Lord.

33:14. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform the
good word that I have spoken to the house of Israel, and to the house of
Juda.

33:15. In those days, and at that time, I will make the bud of justice
to spring forth unto David, and he shall do judgment and justice in the
earth.

33:16. In those days shall Juda be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
securely: and this is the name that they shall call him, The Lord our
just one.

33:17. For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a
man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.

There shall not be cut off from David, etc... This was verified in
Christ, who is of the house of David; and whose kingdom in his church
shall have no end.

33:18. Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a man
before my face to offer holocausts, and to burn sacrifices, and to kill
victims continually.

Neither shall there be cut off from the priests, etc... This promise
relates to the Christian priesthood; which shall also continue for ever:
the functions of which (more especially the great sacrifice of the
altar) are here expressed by the name of holocausts, and other offerings
of the law, which were so many figures of the Christian sacrifice.

33:19. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

33:20. Thus saith the Lord: if my covenant, with the day can be made
void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and
night in their season:

33:21. Also my covenant with David my servant may be made void, that he
should not have a son to reign upon his throne, and with the Levites and
priests my ministers.

33:22. As the stars of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the
sea be measured: so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and
the Levites my ministers.

33:23. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

33:24. Hast thou not seen what this people hath spoken, saying: The two
families which the Lord had chosen, are cast off: and they have despised
my people, so that it is no more a nation before them?

Two families, etc... Viz., the families of the kings and priests.

33:25. Thus saith the Lord. If I have not set my covenant between day
and night, and laws to heaven and earth:

33:26. Surely I will also cast off the seed of Jacob, and of David my
servant, so as not to take any of his seed to be rulers of the seed of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will bring back their captivity, and
will have mercy on them.

Jeremias Chapter 34

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

34:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when Nabuchodonosor
king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth,
that were under the power of his hand, and all the people fought against
Jerusalem and against all the cities thereof, saying:

34:2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Sedecias
king of Juda, and say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver
this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it
with fire.

34:3. And thou shalt not escape out of his hand: but thou shalt surely
be taken, and thou shalt be delivered into his hand: and thy eyes shall
see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy
mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.

34:4. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Sedecias king of Juda: Thus saith
the Lord to thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword.

34:5. But thou shalt die in peace, and according to the burnings of thy
fathers, the former kings that were before thee, so shall they burn
thee: and they shall mourn for thee, saying: Alas, Lord: for I have
spoken the word, saith the Lord.

Die in peace... That is, by a natural death.

34:6. And Jeremias the prophet spoke all these words to Sedecias the
king of Juda in Jerusalem.

34:7. And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and
against all the cities of Juda that were left, against Lachis, and
against Azecha: for these remained of the cities of Juda, fenced cities.

34:8. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that king
Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem making a
proclamation:

34:9. That every man should let his manservant, and every man his
maidservant, being Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free: and that they
should not lord it over them, to wit, over the Jews their brethren.

34:10. And all the princes, and all the people who entered into the
covenant, heard that every man should let his manservant, and every man
his maidservant go free, and should no more have dominion over them: and
they obeyed, and let them go free.

34:11. But afterwards they turned: and brought back again their servants
and their handmaids, whom they had let go free, and brought them into
subjection as menservants and maidservants.

34:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias from the Lord, saying:

34:13. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I made a covenant with
your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage, saying:

34:14. At the end of seven years, let ye go every man his brother being
a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee, so he shall serve thee six years:
and thou shalt let him go free from thee: and your fathers did not
hearken to me, nor did they incline their ear.

34:15. And you turned to day, and did that which was right in my eyes,
in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother: and you made a covenant
in my sight, in the house upon which my name is invocated.

34:16. And you are fallen back, and have defiled my name: and you have
brought back again every man his manservant, and every man his
maidservant, whom you had let go free, and set at liberty: and you have
brought them into subjection to be your servants and handmaids.

34:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not hearkened to me, in
proclaiming liberty every man to his brother and every man to his
friend: behold I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine: and I will cause you to be
removed to all the kingdoms of the earth.

34:18. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, and
have not performed the words of the covenant which they agreed to in my
presence, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts
thereof:

34:19. The princes of Juda, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs,
and the priests, and all the people of the land that passed between the
parts of the calf:

34:20. And I will give them into the hands of their enemies, and into
the hands of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be
for meat to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth.

34:21. And Sedecias the king of Juda, and his princes, I will give into
the hands of their enemies, and into the hands of them that seek their
lives, and into the hands of the armies of the king of Babylon, which
are gone from you.

34:22. Behold I will command, saith the Lord, and I will bring them
again to this city, and they shall fight against it, and take it, and
burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Juda a desolation,
without an inhabitant.

Jeremias Chapter 35

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

35:1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the days of Joakim
the son of Josias king of Juda, saying:

35:2. Go to the house of the Rechabites: and speak to them, and bring
them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers of the
treasures, and thou shalt give them wine to drink.

Rechabites... These were of the race of Jethro, father in law to Moses.

35:3. And I took Jezonias the son of Jeremias the son of Habsanias, and
his brethren, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites.

35:4. And I brought them into the house of the Lord, to the treasure
house of the sons of Hanan, the son of Jegedelias the man of God, which
was by the treasure house of the princes, above the treasure of Maasias
the son of Sellum, who was keeper of the entry.

35:5. And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pots full
of wine, and cups: and I said to them: Drink ye wine.

35:6. And they answered: We will not drink wine: because Jonadab the
son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying: You shall drink no
wine, neither you, nor your children, for ever:

35:7. Neither shall ye build houses, nor sow reed, nor plant vineyards,
nor have any: but you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may
live many days upon the face of the earth, in which you are strangers.

35:8. Therefore we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab,
our father, in all things that he commanded us: so as to drink no wine
all our days: neither we, nor our wives, nor our sons, nor our
daughters:

35:9. Nor to build houses to dwell in, nor to have vineyard, or field,
or seed:

35:10. But we have dwelt in tents, and have been obedient according to
all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

35:11. But when Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up to our land, we
said: Come, let us go into Jerusalem from the face of the army of the
Chaldeans, and from the face of the army of Syria: and we have remained
in Jerusalem.

35:12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

35:13. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Go, and say to
the men of Juda, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not
receive instruction, to obey my words, saith the Lord?

35:14. The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, by which he commanded his
sons not to drink wine, have prevailed: and they have drunk none to this
day, because they have obeyed the commandment of their father: but I
have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, and you have not obeyed
me.

35:15. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising
early, and sending and saying: Return ye every man from his wicked way,
and make your ways good: and follow not strange gods, nor worship them,
and you shall dwell in the land, which I gave you and your fathers: and
you have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened to me.

35:16. So the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have constantly kept the
commandment of their father, which he commanded them: but this people
hath not obeyed me.

35:17. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Behold
I will bring upon Juda, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all
the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to
them, and they have not heard: I have called to them, and they have not
answered me.

35:18. And Jeremias said to the house of the Rechabites: Thus saith the
Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment
of Jonadab your father, and have kept all his precepts, and have done
all that he commanded you:

35:19. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: There
shall not be wanting a man of the race of Jonadab the son of Rechab,
standing before me for ever.

Jeremias Chapter 36

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

36:1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias
king of Juda, that this word came to Jeremias by the Lord, saying:

36:2. Take thee a roll of a book, and thou shalt write in it all the
words that I have spoken to thee against Israel and Juda, and against
all the nations from the day that I spoke to thee, from the days of
Josias even to this day.

36:3. If so be, when the house of Juda shall hear all the evils that I
purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his wicked
way: and I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin.

36:4. So Jeremias called Baruch the son of Nerias: and Baruch wrote from
the mouth of Jeremias all the words of the Lord, which he spoke to him,
upon the roll of a book.

36:5. And Jeremias commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up, and cannot go
into the house of the Lord.

Shut up... Not that the prophet was now in prison; for the contrary
appears from ver. 19, but that he kept himself shut up, by reason of the
persecutions he had lately met with. See chap. 26.

36:6. Go thou in therefore, and read out of the volume, which thou hast
written from my mouth, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of all the
people in the house of the Lord on the fasting day: and also thou shalt
read them in the hearing of all Juda that come out of their cities:

36:7. If so be they may present their supplication before the Lord, and
may return every one from his wicked way: for great is the wrath and
indignation which the Lord hath pronounced against this people.

36:8. And Baruch the son of Nerias did according to all that Jeremias
the prophet had commanded him, reading out of the volume the words of
the Lord in the house of the Lord.

36:9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Joakim the son of Josias
king of Juda, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the
Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that were
come together out of the cities of Juda to Jerusalem.

36:10. And Baruch read out of the volume the words of Jeremias in the
house of the Lord, in the treasury of Gamarias the son of Saphan the
scribe, in the upper court, in the entry of the new gate of the house of
the Lord, in the hearing of all the people.

36:11. And when Micheas the son of Gamarias the son of Saphan had heard
out of the book all the words of the Lord,

36:12. He went down into the king's house to the secretary's chamber:
and behold all the princes sat there, Elisama the scribe, and Dalaias
the son of Semeias, and Elnathan the son of Achobor, and Gamarias the
son of Saphan, and Sedecias the son of Hananias, and all the princes.

36:13. And Micheas told them all the words that he had heard when Baruch
read out of the volume in the hearing of the people.

36:14. Therefore all the princes sent Judi the son of Nathanias, the son
of Selemias, the son of Chusi, to Baruch, saying: Take in thy hand the
volume in which thou hast read in the hearing of the people, and come.
So Baruch the son of Nerias took the volume in his hand, and came to
them.

36:15. And they said to him: Sit down and read these things in our
hearing. And Baruch read in their hearing.

36:16. And when they had heard all the words, they looked upon one
another with astonishment, and they said to Baruch: We must tell the
king all these words.

36:17. And they asked him, saying: Tell us how didst thou write all
these words from his mouth.

36:18. And Baruch said to them: With his mouth he pronounced all these
words as if he were reading to me: and I wrote in a volume with ink.

36:19. And the princes said to Baruch: Go, and hide thee, both thou and
Jeremias, and let no man know where you are.

36:20. And they went in to the king into the court: but they laid up the
volume in the chamber of Elisama the scribe: and they told all the words
in the hearing of the king.

36:21. And the king sent Judi that he should take the volume: who
bringing it out of the chamber of Elisama the scribe, read it in the
hearing of the king, and of all the princes that stood about the king.

36:22. Now the king sat in the winter house, in the ninth month: and
there was a hearth before him full of burning coals.

36:23. And when Judi had read three or four pages, he cut it with the
penknife, and he cast it into the fire, that was upon the hearth, till
all the volume was consumed with the fire that was on the hearth.

36:24. And the king and all his servants that heard all these words were
not afraid, nor did they rend their garments.

36:25. But yet Elnathan, and Dalaias, and Gamarias spoke to the king,
not to burn the book: and he heard them not.

36:26. And the king commanded Jeremiel the son of Amelech, and Saraias
the son of Ezriel, and Selemias the son of Abdeel, to take up Baruch the
scribe, and Jeremias the prophet: but the Lord hid them.

36:27. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, after that
the king had burnt the volume, and the words that Baruch had written
from the mouth of Jeremias, saying:

36:28. Take thee again another volume: and write in it all the former
words that were in the first volume which Joakim the king of Juda both
burnt.

36:29. And thou shalt say to Joakim the king of Juda: Thus saith the
Lord: Thou hast burnt that volume, saying: Why hast thou written
therein, and said: The king of Babylon shall come speedily, and shall
lay waste this land: and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?

36:30. Therefore thus saith the Lord against Joakim the king of Juda: He
shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall
be cast out to the heat by day, and to the frost by night.

He shall have none, etc... Because his son Joachin or Jechonias, within
three months after the death of his father, was carried away to Babylon,
so that his reign is not worthy of notice.

36:31. And I will punish him, and his seed and his servants, for their
iniquities, and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and upon the men of Juda all the evil that I have pronounced
against them, but they have not heard.

36:32. And Jeremias took another volume, and gave it to Baruch the son
of Nerias the scribe: who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremias all the
words of the book which Joakim the king of Juda had burnt with fire: and
there were added besides many more words than had been before.

Jeremias Chapter 37

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

37:1. Now king Sedecias the son of Josias reigned instead of Jechonias
the son of Joakim: whom Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon made king in the
land of Juda.

37:2. But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land did
obey the words of the Lord, that he spoke in the hand of Jeremias the
prophet.

37:3. And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias, and Sophonias
the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremias the prophet, saying: Pray to
the Lord our God for us.

37:4. Now Jeremias walked freely in the midst of the people: for they
had not as yet cast him into prison. And the army of Pharao was come out
of Egypt: and the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem, hearing these
tidings, departed from Jerusalem.

37:5. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias the prophet, saying:

37:6. Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the
king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me: Behold the army of Pharao,
which is come forth to help you, shall return into their own land, into
Egypt.

37:7. And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city,
and take it, and burn it with fire.

37:8. Thus saith the Lord: Deceive not your souls, saying: The Chaldeans
shall surely depart and go away from us: for they shall not go away.

37:9. But if you should even beat all the army of the Chaldeans that
fight against you, and there should be left of them some wounded men:
they shall rise up, every man from his heart, and burn this city with
fire.

37:10. Now when the army of the Chaldeans was gone away from Jerusalem,
because of Pharao's army,

37:11. Jeremias went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of
Benjamin: and to divide a possession there in the presence of the
citizens,

37:12. And when he was come to the gate of Benjamin, the captain of the
gate, who was there in his turn, was one named Jerias, the son of
Selemias, the son of Hananias: and he took hold of Jeremias the prophet,
saying: Thou art fleeing to the Chaldeans.

37:13. And Jeremias answered: It is not so, I am not fleeing to the
Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him: so Jerias took Jeremias and
brought him to the princes.

37:14. Wherefore the princes were angry with Jeremias, and they beat
him, and cast him into the prison that was in the house of Jonathan the
scribe: for he was chief over the prison.

37:15. So Jeremias went into the house of the prison, and into the
dungeon: and Jeremias remained there many days.

37:16. Then Sedecias the king, sending, took him: and asked him secretly
in his house, and said: Is there, thinkest thou, any word from the Lord?
And Jeremias said. There is. And he said: Thou shalt be delivered into
the hands of the king of Babylon.

37:17. And Jeremias said to king Sedecias: In what have I offended
against thee, or thy servants, or thy people, that thou hast cast me
into prison?

37:18. Where are your prophets that prophesied to you, and said: The
king of Babylon shall not come against you, and against this land?

37:19. Now therefore hear, I beseech thee, my lord the king: let my
petition be accepted in thy sight: and send me not back into the house
of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.

37:20. Then king Sedecias commanded that Jeremias should be committed
into the entry of the prison: and that they should give him daily a
piece of bread, beside broth, till all the bread in the city were spent:
and Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison.

Jeremias Chapter 38

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

38:1. Now Saphatias the son of Mathan, and Gedelias the son of Phassur,
and Juchal the son of Selemias, and Phassur the son of Melchias heard
the words that Jeremias spoke to all the people, saying:

38:2. Thus saith the Lord: Whosoever shall remain in this city, shall
die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: but he that shall go
forth to the Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be safe, and he
shall live.

38:3. Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the
hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

38:4. And the princes said to the king. We beseech thee that this man
may be put to death: for on purpose he weakeneth the hands of the men of
war, that remain in this city, and the hands of the people, speaking to
them according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to this
people, but evil.

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