Book of Jeremiah

1° The prophet. – The Hebrew form of his name was MRI^eyâhu, for short MRI^eyah. The Septuagint made it 'Ieremiaz, and from this Greek form derive those of the Latin (ltala: Hieremias; Vulgate: Jeremias), and various modern languages. Its meaning is uncertain. According to some, it comes from the root ramah, to throw, to overturn; which would give this meaning: God overturns (his people). According to others, more likely, it derives from the verb rum, to be raised, and would mean: God is raised, exalted (Μετεωρισμόζ 'Iαώ, "elevation of God", as Origen translated it); or in the active voice: God exalts.

Jeremiah himself reveals many details of his life in the book of his prophecies. Indeed, no prophet has interwoven the narrative of his own story with that of contemporary events as much as he did. He was born in Anathoth (modern-day Anatah, five-quarters of an hour northeast of Jerusalem)., a village of the tribe of Benjamin, and belonged to the priestly tribe (cf. 1, 1). His father, Helkiah, would not differ, according to several ancient (including Clement of Alexandria and Saint Jerome) and modern exegetes, from the famous high priest of the same name who discovered, during the reign of Josiah, the authentic copy of the books of the Law (cf. 1 Kings 22:8). This view seems unlikely. Why would Jeremiah not have given his father the title of high priest, if he had actually held it? Besides, the Jewish high priests resided in Jerusalem. 

Jeremiah began his ministry at a relatively young age (cf. 1:6-7; see the commentary), in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (cf. 1:2; 25:3. The year 628 BC), and he continued it, amidst difficulties and contradictions of every kind, until the early days of the Babylonian captivity. He therefore prophesied during the last eighteen years of Josiah (628-610), and during the entire reigns of Jehoahaz (only three months, in 610), Jehoiakim (610-595), Jeconiah (only three months, in 599), and Zedekiah (599-588). After the Chaldeans captured Jerusalem, Nebuchadnezzar granted him permission to withdraw wherever he wished. He remained in the territory of Judah, comforting and strengthening those of his compatriots who had stayed behind like him (cf. 39:11; 40:1, etc.). When Gedaliah, who governed the country in the conqueror's name, was assassinated, the prophet was forcibly taken to Egypt by a band of Jews who were unruly and rebellious against all his advice (chapter 41). He suffered greatly at their hands, for they could not bear the reproaches he leveled at their criminal conduct (chapters 42-44). Following a Jewish tradition, adopted by the ancient ecclesiastical writers (cf. Tertullian, Scorp.8; Saint Jerome, Jovin adv., 2, 37; the Roman Martyrology, on May 1st, etc. Saint Paul may be alluding to the martyrdom of Jeremiah in the Letter to the Hebrews, (11:37, by the expression "he was stoned"), these wretches would have cruelly stoned him at Taphnis. His ministry had lasted for about fifty years, and he himself was then at least seventy years old (on the life and ministry of Jeremiah, see the Fulcran Vigouroux's Bible Manual, t.2, nn. 976 and 978-984).

His character, as well as the principal events of his life, are brilliantly reflected in his writings. Jeremiah was very gentle by nature, even timid and reserved, deeply impressionable, exceptionally delicate, and utterly loving; and it was to this sensitive and tender heart that one of the most terrible missions a man has ever received from God was entrusted, for he was rightly called "the prophet of divine justice." He scarcely had to predict any consoling news here and there; his role consisted almost always of issuing threat after threat, of endlessly denouncing the crimes of his people, of pointing out the now inevitable punishment and the final catastrophe drawing ever nearer. And this role earned him, almost constantly, ridicule, contempt, hatred, and cruel persecution from everyone, so that he could see himself «as a lamb led to the slaughter» (11:19. Compare 15:10, where he says: «Woe to me, my mother, that you brought me forth a man of strife and contention to all the land! … Everyone curses me).« But he remained admirably valiant in the face of duty, however harsh its fulfillment. Endowed with special graces, he stood firm »as a fortified city, as an iron pillar and a bronze wall, against the kings of Judah, against its officials, against its priests, and against the people of the land« (1:18). Nothing could frighten him. (see the Man. Bibl, t. 2, n. 977). 

2° The organization of the book. – Between a short prologue (1, 1-19) and an equally concise historical conclusion (52, 1-34), we find three parts, two of which relate to the theocratic people and one to the pagan nations.

The first (2:1-33:26) consists of ten sections, each corresponding to a prophetic discourse, in which Jeremiah tirelessly repeats that God has irrevocably decreed the ruin of the Jewish state. 1° 2:1-3:5: loyalty of God, the infidelity and ingratitude of the people; 2° 3, 6-6, 30: this unrepentant people will suffer all kinds of trials, until they are totally condemned; 3° 7, 1-10, 25: to the vain and superstitious confidence that the Temple in Jerusalem, sacrifices, and circumcision inspire in the Jews, the prophet opposes the true path of salvation; 4° 11, 1-13, 27: Judah has shamefully and criminally violated the holy covenant; 5° 14, 1-17, 27: no forgiveness can be hoped for from the Lord under such conditions; 6° 18, 1-20, 18: the impending condemnation of Judah is confirmed by various symbols; 7° 21, 1-24, 10: divine judgments against the bad shepherds; 8° 25, 1-29, 32: the seventy-year captivity is clearly announced; 9° 30, 1-31, 40 the deliverance and future restoration of the people of God; 10° 32, 1-33, 26: more words of consolation, relating to the happy future of Israel.

The second part (34:1–45:5) contains a narrative, partly historical and partly prophetic, of the final events of the kingdom of Judah. It is divided into two sections: 1) Jeremiah's vain efforts to convert his compatriots before the ruin is fully accomplished (34:1–38:28); 2) the complete fulfillment of his prophecies (39:1–45:5).

The third part (46, 1-51, 64) is entirely devoted to prophecies directed against the Pagans (Egypt, the Philistines, the Moabites, the Ammonites, the Idumeans, the Syrians of Damascus, the Cedaranes, the kingdom of Azor, Babylon and the Chaldeans).

This single statement is sufficient to show that there is a very real order in the book of Jeremiah's prophecies, despite claims to the contrary. The arrangement sometimes followed chronology, but much more often the logical sequence of events; This is clearly seen from the dates that the prophet himself placed at the beginning of a number of his prophecies (21, 1: When King Zedekiah…; 24, 1: After Nebuchadnezzar had taken Jeconiah; 25, 1: In the fourth year of Jehoiakim; 26, 1: At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim; 28, 1: In the fourth year of the reign of Zedekiah; 29, 2: After Jeconiah had been taken from Jerusalem; 32, 1: In the tenth year of Zedekiah; 35, 1: In the time of Jehoiakim. Etc. These examples demonstrate that the chronological order is rarely followed).

3° The authenticity and composition of the book. — «The prophecies of Jeremiah have such a personal stamp that most of them are universally regarded as authentic (Man. Bibl.(Vol. 2, no. 988). The only objections raised were to the authenticity of a few passages, notably chapters 10, 1-16, 30-31, and 33, which were attributed "to the imaginary prophet called the Second Isaiah," and chapters 50-51, which were dismissed as later compositions because they predicted the details of the fall of Babylon with too much accuracy. To cite these arguments is to refute them (on the composition of chapter 52, see the commentary).

The book itself provides us with interesting details about its origin. According to 36:1 ff., Jeremiah received from God, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, the order to write down the prophecies that had been revealed to him since the beginning of his ministry; he immediately dictated them to Baruch, his secretary. But the king, in a fit of anger, tore up and burned the manuscript, so Jeremiah composed another volume, much more complete than the first. This is the basis of the book of Jeremiah, as we possess it today. We learn elsewhere, in 30:2, that the Lord also commanded him to write down the comforting promises He had made to him concerning the restoration and glorious future of Israel. The prophecies or episodes after the fourth year of Jehoiakim were added by the prophet during the final redaction. The following passages are considered to date from after this time: 1:1–20:18; 25–27; 46:1–51:58. Chapters 40–45, 52, are among the most recent sections.

4° The writer. — The shortcomings of Jeremiah's style have often been exaggerated. Undoubtedly, it is generally simple and familiar, lacking in variety, unadorned, monotonous, sometimes even careless; but this stems from the very subjects the prophet had to address, for there is nothing more monotonous than tears, sighs, and lamentations, and when one is in mourning, one does not think of adorning oneself. He often lacks concision, for the same reason. But our prophet is not lacking in art or force in his language; his prophecies against the pagans (chapters 46-51) contain true literary beauties; his simplicity is noble; he possesses a picturesque quality, a grandeur, and many novel images (Jeremiah frequently moves from one image to another, with such rapidity that the reader has difficulty following him). "He is certainly the greatest poet of desolation and sorrow, because he is the one who felt grief most keenly; "He excels at painting tender and pathetic feelings." If his diction is not always very pure, and if he uses Aramaic expressions here and there, this is in accordance with his time, which was far from being the golden age of the Hebrew language.

Among his distinctive features as a writer, one notices, on the one hand, a fair number of repetitions, and, on the other, very frequent quotations, borrowed from those Holy Books that had appeared before his own. Here is the list of the principal repetitions (the commentary will indicate other, even more numerous, passages in which the same image or expression is repeated. See, for example, 7:84; 16:9; 25:10; 33:11): 2:28, and 11:13; 5:9:29, and 9:9; 6:13-15, and 8:10-12; 7:14, and 26:6; 10:12-16, and 51:15-19; 11:20, and 20:12; 15:2 and 43:11; 16:14-15 and 23:7-8; 17:25 and 22:4; 23:19-20 and 30:23-24; 30:11 and 46:28; 31:35-36 and 33:25-26. As for the quotations, we will limit ourselves to noting the following here (we also refer to the commentary for the others): for Deuteronomy, Compare Jer. 2:6 and Deut. 32:10; Jer. 5:15 and Deut. 28:49; Jer. 7:33 and Deut. 28:26; Jer. 11:3 and Deut. 27:26; Jer. 11:4 and Deut. 4:20; Jer. 11:5 and Deut. 7:12-13; Jer. 22:8-9 and Deut. 29:24-26; Jer. 23:17 and Deut. 29:18; Jer. 34:13-14 and Deut. 15:12, etc.; for the other books, compare Isa. 4:2 and 11:1 with Jer. 23, 5-6, and 33, 15; Is. 13 and 47, with Jer. 50 and 51; Is. 15, with Jer. 48; Is. 40, 19-20, with Jer. 10, 3-5; Is. 42, 16, with Jer. 31, 9; Hos. 8, 13, with Jer. 14, 10, etc.

5. Jeremiah's prophecy has a importance It is very important from a historical point of view, since it significantly complements the information provided by the Second Book of Kings and the Second Book of Chronicles on the history of the last years of the kingdom of Judah. Not only does it recount new events, but it also allows us to read, as it were, into the soul of the Jewish people and their leaders, whose moral state it admirably portrays. But it is especially important from a Christological perspective: indeed, it describes in turn the happiness of the days of the Messiah (3:14-18; 23:3-8; 30:8 ff.), the new covenant that will be made between God and his people (31:31 ff.), and the very person of the Messiah, son of David (23:5; 33:14-15; see also 31:22 and the commentary, and compare 31:15 with Matthew 2:17). Moreover, in his life, in his ministry, in his death, Jeremiah, this noble preacher of truth, unworthily and unjustly persecuted by his own people, is the "most perfect type" of the Man of Sorrows ("he prefigures the Lord Savior," St. Jerome, in Jer. 16, 2. It is worth recalling here that the Jews of Jesus' time believed on several occasions that he was Jeremiah resurrected. Cf. Matt. 16, 14; ; John 1, 21. On the profound esteem that the prophet, at first so unpopular, later inspired in his coreligionists, see Ecclesiastes 44:8-9; 2 Maccabees 2:1 and 15:14-15. 

6° THE book of Jeremiah in the Septuagint version. — We must say a word about the notable divergence that exists between the Hebrew text of Jeremiah, followed quite closely by the Vulgate, and the Greek translation of Alexandria. The latter usually takes great liberties with the Holy Scriptures, but nowhere are the dissimilarities as numerous as here. Undoubtedly, in substance, the prophet's writing is perfectly the same in the Septuagint and in the Hebrew; but the differences abound in both content and form. The most striking one, because it gives to the book of Jeremiah An external aspect quite different from that to which one is accustomed by the Hebrew and the Vulgate, consists in the fact that the Septuagint placed the prophecies against the pagan nations, that is to say chapters 46-51, immediately following 25:13, and that they further changed the order of these prophecies, in accordance with the following: The Seventy25, 14-18 = Prophecy against Elam = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 49, 34-39; The Seventy26:1-28 = Prophecy against Egypt = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 46, 1-28; The Seventy26:1-28:64 = Prophecy against Babylon = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 50, 1-51, 64; The Seventy29:1-7 = Prophecy against the Philistines = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 47, 1-7; The Seventy29, 8-23 = Prophecy against Idumea = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 49, 8-23; The Seventy30:1-5 = Prophecy against the Ammonites = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 49, 1-5; The Seventy30:6-11 = Prophecy against the Arabs = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 49, 28-33; The Seventy30:12-16 = Prophecy against Damascus = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 49, 23-27; The Seventy31, 1-44 = Prophecy against Moab = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 48, 1-47; The Seventy32, 1-24 = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 25, 14-38; The Seventy33, 1-4, 13 = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 26, 1; 43, 13; The Seventy51, 1-30 = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 44, 1-40; The Seventy51, 31-35 = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 45, 1-5; The Seventy52, 1-34 = Hebrew (and the Vulgar). 52, 1-34.

As for the content, the Septuagint omits entire passages, in relatively considerable numbers. Here are the principal ones: 8:10-12; 10:5-8, 10; 11:7-8; 17:1-4; 27:13-14, 19-22; 29:16-20; 30:10-11; 33:14-26 (the oracle concerning the eternal duration of the new Covenant. This is the longest and most serious of the omissions); 34:11; 39:4-13 (another important omission); 51:44-49; 52:2-3, 15, 28-30. There are others, much more frequent, which consist only of omitting a short phrase, a word or two: this is how the formula N^e’'um Y^ehôvah (Vulg.: "Thus says the Lord"), which appears more than one hundred and seventy times in the Hebrew text, barely one hundred times in the Septuagint translation. The latter also usually abbreviates divine names, saying simply, for example, "God" or "the Lord," where the Hebrew reads: the Lord of hosts, the Lord God, God of Israel, etc. (they also omit titles added to the names of men: "Jeremiah," instead of "Jeremiah the prophet"; "Hananiah," instead of "Hananiah the prophet," etc.). On the other hand, they sometimes make small additions to the Hebrew (the commentary will point out the main ones), but hardly more than in other biblical writings. (It is therefore primarily through their omissions (the book of Jeremiah is about one-eighth shorter in the Septuagint translation), and by their change of order from chapter 25 onwards, they are distinguished here.

To what should we attribute these extraordinary discrepancies, which already astonished Origen? Two main opinions have emerged on this subject. According to various exegetes, there were once two distinct recensions of the Hebrew text. book of Jeremiah One version is Babylonian or Palestinian, conforming to the current Hebrew text; the other is Egyptian, which is thought to have served as the basis for the Septuagint translation. According to other exegetes, the various variations we have noted are largely attributable to the translator, who often carried out his task arbitrarily. This view, which was held by Saint Jerome, is now the most common and plausible. Sometimes the Septuagint version is preferable to the text; but this is relatively rare, and it is almost always the Hebrew, to which most ancient translations conform, that deserves preference.

7° Catholic commentators. — Theodoret of Cyrrhus, In Jeremiah prophetiam interpretatio; St. Ephrem, In Jeremiam explanatio; St. Jerome, Commentariorum in Jeremiam libri VI (but the learned doctor unfortunately stops at Jeremiah 32:44); Maldonat, Commentary in Jeremiah (Lyon, 1609); Corneille de la Pierre and Calmet in their major works.

Jeremiah 1

¹ The words of Jeremiah, son of Helkiah, one of the priests who lived in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin. ² The word of the Lord came to him in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ³ and it was so in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the deportation of Jerusalem in the fifth month. ⁴ The word of the Lord came to me in these terms: ⁵ Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. ⁶ And I say: Ah, Lord God, I do not know how to speak because I am a child. ⁷ And the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a child,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall say all that I command you.”. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord., ⁹ Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth and the Lord said to me, “Behold, I put my words in your mouth, ¹⁰ See, I appoint you this day over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down and to destroy and to plant and to build. ¹¹ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.”. ¹² And the Lord said to me: You have seen well, for I watch over my word to fulfill it. ¹³ And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is coming from the north.”. ¹⁴ And the Lord said to me: From the north disaster will spread to all the inhabitants of the land. ¹⁵ For behold, I am summoning all the families of the northern kingdoms, declares the Lord, and they shall come, and each shall set up his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, before all its walls around it and before all the cities of Judah. ¹⁶ And I will pronounce my sentences against them for all their wickedness, because they have forsaken me, offered incense to other gods, and worshiped the work of their own hands. ¹⁷ And you, gird up your loins, rise up and tell them everything I command you. Do not tremble before them, lest I cause you to tremble before them. ¹⁸ And I, behold, I establish you this day as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall, before all the land, before the kings of Judah, before its princes, before its priests, and before the people. ¹⁹ They will make you the war, but they will not be able to do anything to you, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 2

¹ The word of the Lord came to me in these terms: ² Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: I have remembered the piety of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. ³ Israel was the Lord’s holy thing, the firstfruits of his harvest; whoever ate of it was guilty, and disaster befell him, declares the Lord., ⁴ Listen to the word of the Lord, you house of Jacob and all you families of the house of Israel: ⁵ Thus says the Lord: What iniquity did your fathers find in me, that they went far from me, that they followed vanity and became vanity themselves? ⁶ They did not say, “Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through the dry and broken land, through the land of drought and the shadow of death, through the land where no man passes through and where no one lives?” ⁷ And I brought you into a land like an orchard, to eat its fruits and its bounty, and once you entered, you defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination. ⁸ The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?” The custodians of the law did not know me. The shepherds were unfaithful to me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed those who are of no help. ⁹ Therefore, I will plead against you again. This is the Lord's oracle, and I will plead against your children's children. ¹⁰ Go to the islands of Cethim and look, send to Cedar and observe carefully and see if there is anything similar there. ¹¹ Does a nation change its gods? And yet they are not gods. And my people have exchanged their glory for that which is worthless.¹² Be astonished, O heavens, and utterly amazed, declares the Lord., ¹³ For my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. ¹⁴ Is Israel a slave? Was he born of a slave in the house? Why then is he treated like plunder? ¹⁵ Against him the lion cubs roar, they raise their cries and they devastate his country. His cities are burned, without inhabitants. ¹⁶ Even the sons of Noph and Taphnes shave your head.¹⁷ Is this not happening to you because you abandoned the Lord your God when he was guiding you in the way? ¹⁸ And now what do you have to do on the road to Egypt, to go and drink the water of the Nile, and what do you have to do on the road to Assyria, to go and drink the water of the river? ¹⁹ Your impiety chastises you, and your rebellions punish you. Know therefore and see how evil and bitter it is that you have forsaken the Lord your God and have no fear of me. This is the oracle of the Lord God of hosts. ²⁰ For long ago you broke your yoke, you tore off your bonds, and you said, “I will serve no more.” For on every high hill and under your green tree you lay about like a prostitute. ²¹ And I had planted you like a fine vine, entirely from a single, pure stock. How then did you turn into bastard branches of a foreign vine for me? ²² Yes, even if you were to wash yourself with lye and lavish potash, your iniquity would be a stain before me. This is the oracle of the Lord God. ²³ How can you say: I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals? See the traces of your footsteps in the Valley, acknowledge what you have done. Light camel, crossing her steps in every direction, ²⁴ The wild ass, accustomed to the desert, in the ardor of her passion, breathes in the air: who will prevent her from satisfying her desire? None of those who seek her need tire themselves, they find her in her month. ²⁵ Take care that your foot does not become bare and your throat does not become parched. But you say: It's useless. No, for I love strangers and I will go after them. ²⁶ Just as a thief caught in the act is put to shame, so the house of Israel was confounded, along with their kings, their leaders, their priests, and their prophets., ²⁷ who say to the wood: You are my father, and to the stone: You gave birth to me, for they have turned their backs on me and not their faces, and in the time of their misfortune they say: Arise and save us. ²⁸ Where are the gods you have made for yourself? Let them rise up, if they can save you in your time of trouble. For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah. ²⁹ Why are you pleading against me? You have all been unfaithful to me, declares the Lord., ³⁰ It is in vain that I have struck your sons, they have not learned anything from it, your sword has devoured your prophets, like a destructive lion. ³¹ What kind of people are you? Consider the word of the Lord: Have I been a desert to Israel, a land of thick darkness? Why did my people say, “We are free; we will not return to you”? ³² Does a virgin forget her jewelry, or a bride her sash? Yet my people have forgotten me for countless days. ³³ You know how to arrange your ways to seek love. For this, even with crime you make your ways familiar. ³⁴ Even on the hems of your clothes, we find the blood of poor innocents; you did not catch them breaking and entering, but you killed them for all these things. ³⁵ And you say: Yes, I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me. Here I am to put you on trial for what you say: I have not sinned. ³⁶ How hasty you are in changing your ways! You will be confounded by Egypt, as you were by Assyria. ³⁷ From there you will also return with your hands on your head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you place your trust, and you will not succeed with them.

Jeremiah 3

¹ It is said: If a man divorces his wife and she becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Would not that land be defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers, and yet you will return to me. This is the Lord's oracle. ² Lift up your eyes to the heights and look: where have you not been defiled? You sat for them on the roads, like an Arab in the desert. And you defiled the land with your prostitution and your wickedness. ³ The autumn showers were held back, the spring rains were lacking. But you had the composure of a courtesan, you refused to blush. ⁴ And now, don't you say to me: My father, O you, friend of my youth. Will he always be angry, ⁵ Will he keep his wrath forever? That's what you say, and you commit the crime and you consummate it. ⁶ The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and has prostituted herself there. ⁷ And I said, "After she has done all these things, she will return to me." But she did not return. And her sister, treacherous Judah, saw this. ⁸ And I saw that because of all her adulteries, I divorced faithless Israel and gave her her certificate of divorce, and her sister Judah the treacherous was not afraid, and she too went and prostituted herself. ⁹ By her noisy immodesty, she defiled the land and committed adultery with wood and stone. ¹⁰ And besides all this, her sister, treacherous Judah, did not return to me with all her heart, but with lies, declares the Lord., ¹¹ And the Lord said to me: “Faithless Israel has shown itself to be righteous, compared to treacherous Judah.”. ¹² Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say: Return, faithless Israel. This is the Lord’s declaration: I will not be angry with you, for I am merciful. This is the Lord’s declaration: I will not retain my anger forever. ¹³ Only acknowledge your sin, for you have been unfaithful to the Lord your God, and you have scattered your steps to foreigners under your green tree, and you have not listened to my voice, declares the Lord., ¹⁴ Return, faithless sons, declares the Lord, for I am your master and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵ And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with understanding and wisdom. ¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and prospered in the land in those days, declares the Lord, then people will no longer call it the ark of the covenant of the Lord. It will no longer be remembered, nor will it be mourned, nor will another one be made. ¹⁷ At that time Jerusalem will be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem in the name of the Lord, and they will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. ¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave as an inheritance to your fathers. ¹⁹ And I said, “How shall I place you among my children? And shall I give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful jewel of the nations, as an inheritance?” And I said, “You shall call me ‘My Father,’ and you shall never cease to follow me.”. ²⁰ But as a woman betrays her lover, so you have been unfaithful to me, house of Israel, declares the Lord, ²¹ A cry is heard on the high places, the weeping of the children of Israel pleading for mercy because they have perverted their way, forgotten the Lord their God. ²² Return, faithless sons, and I will heal your faithlessness. Here we are, we are coming to you, for you are the Lord our God. ²³ Yes, it was in vain that the tumult of idolatrous festivals resounded on the heights, on the mountains. Yes, it is in the Lord our God that the salvation of Israel lies. ²⁴ The shame of idols has devoured from our youth the product of the labor of our fathers, their sheep and their oxen, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame and let our reproach cover us, for it is against the Lord our God that we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.

Jeremiah 4

¹ If you wish to return, Israel, declares the Lord, return to me. And if you remove your abominations from before me, you will no longer be a wanderer. ² And if you swear that the Lord lives, in truth, in uprightness, and in justice, the nations will say, “Blessed are they in him,” and will glory in him. ³ For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Clear your fallow land and do not sow among thorns. ⁴ Circumcise yourselves for the Lord and remove the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my wrath break out like fire and consume, with no one to quench it, because of the wickedness of your deeds. ⁵ Publish in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem. Speak, sound the trumpet throughout the land. Cry aloud and say: Assemble yourselves and let us go to the fortified cities. ⁶ Raise a banner toward Zion, save yourselves, do not stop, for I am bringing calamity and great disaster from the north. ⁷ A lion leaps from its thicket, and a destroyer of nations has broken tent and left its place, to make your land a desert. Your cities will be desolate, without inhabitants. ⁸ Therefore put on sackcloth, weep and wail, for the fire of the Lord’s wrath has not turned away from us. ⁹ On that day, declares the Lord, the hearts of the king and princes will fail. The priests will be dismayed and the prophets astonished. ¹⁰ And I say: Ah, Lord God, you have deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You will have peace while the sword will strike them dead. ¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A scorching wind is coming from the desert hills on the road that leads to the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse. ¹² A wind stronger than the one that blows away the straw is coming towards me. Now, in my turn, I will pronounce their sentence. ¹³ Behold, he rises like the clouds, his chariots like a hurricane, his horses swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are lost. ¹⁴ Purify your heart from wickedness, Jerusalem, so that you may be saved; how long will your evil thoughts remain in your heart? ¹⁵ For a voice from Dan announces it, it proclaims disaster from the mountain of Ephraim. ¹⁶ Make it known to the nations, announce to them the misfortune of Jerusalem. Besiegers are coming from a distant land, they are raising their cries against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷ Like watchmen of the fields, they surround Jerusalem, for she has rebelled against me, declares the Lord., ¹⁸ This is what your conduct and your criminal acts have earned you; this is the fruit of your wickedness, and it is bitter. Yes, it reaches to the heart. ¹⁹ My bowels, my bowels, I suffer in the very depths of my heart. My heart is in turmoil, I cannot remain silent. For you hear, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the war cry. ²⁰ Ruin upon ruin is reported, for the whole country is ravaged. All at once my tents are destroyed, in an instant my pavilions. ²¹ How long will I see the banner, hear the sound of the trumpet? ²² My people are foolish. They do not know me. They are senseless children, lacking understanding; they are skilled at doing evil, but do not know how to do good. ²³ I look at the earth and behold, it is formless and empty; the heavens and their light have vanished. ²⁴ I look at the mountains and behold, they are shaken and all the hills are tottering. ²⁵ I look, and behold, there is no man left, and all the birds of the air have fled. ²⁶ I look, and behold, the orchard has become a desert, and all its cities are destroyed before the Lord, before the fire of his anger. ²⁷ For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be devastated, yet I will not destroy it entirely. ²⁸ Because of this, the earth mourns and the heavens above are darkened, because I have spoken and resolved, and I do not repent and I will not turn back. ²⁹ At the sound of the rider and the archer, the whole city fled. They entered the woods, climbed the rocks, all the cities were abandoned, there were no more inhabitants. ³⁰ And you, devastated, what will you do? Even if you were to dress yourself in purple, and adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, and line your eyes with rouge, it would be in vain that you would make yourself beautiful: your lovers disdain you, it is your life they seek. ³¹ For I hear a voice like that of a woman in labor, cries of anguish like that of a woman giving birth for the first time, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who groans and stretches out her hands: Woe is me, for my soul is overcome by the blows of the murderers.

Jeremiah 5

¹ Walk the streets of Jerusalem and look around, inquire, search its public squares for a man, for one who practices justice and seeks loyalty and I will spare the city. ² Even when they say, "As the Lord lives," they swear by lies. ³ Lord, do not your eyes seek? loyalty You struck them and they felt no pain, you exterminated them and they refused to be instructed, they hardened their faces more than rock, they refused to return. ⁴ And I said, “These are only the little ones. They act foolishly, for they do not know the way of the Lord, the law of their God.”. ⁵ So I will go to the great ones and speak to them, for they know the way of the Lord, the law of their God. But they too have all together broken the yoke, shattered the bonds. ⁶ That is why the lion of the forest has struck them, the wolf of the desert ravages them, the panther lies in wait outside their cities, every man who leaves them is torn apart because their transgressions are numerous and their revolts have increased. ⁷ Why should I show you mercy? Your sons have forsaken me and swear by what is not God. I have satisfied their hunger and thirst, yet they have committed adultery; they go in droves to the house of the prostitute. ⁸ Well-fed, vagabond stallions, each of them neighs at his neighbor's wife. ⁹ And I would not punish them for these crimes? The Lord's oracle, and against a nation like that, I would not take vengeance? ¹⁰ Climb its walls and destroy it, but not entirely. Remove its branches, for they do not belong to the Lord. ¹¹ For they have been utterly faithless to me, the house of Israel and the house of Judah, declares the Lord, ¹² They denied the Lord and said, "He is not, and no harm will come upon us; we will not see the sword or famine.". ¹³ The prophets are but wind and no one speaks through them: let it be done to them so. ¹⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of hosts, says: Because you speak this word, behold, I put my word in your mouth like fire, and this people shall be like wood, and this fire shall consume them. ¹⁵ Here I am bringing against you a nation from afar, the house of Israel, declares the Lord. It is a strong nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose words you do not understand. ¹⁶ His quiver is an open sepulcher; they are all heroes. ¹⁷ It will devour your harvest and your bread, it will devour your sons and your daughters, it will devour your sheep and your cattle, it will devour your vine and your fig tree, it will destroy with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust. ¹⁸ But even in those days, declares the Lord, I will not utterly destroy you. ¹⁹ And when you say, “Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?” you shall say to them, “Just as you abandoned me to serve a foreign god in your own land, so you will serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.”. ²⁰ Announce this in the house of Jacob and publish it in Judah, saying: ²¹ Listen to this, you foolish and heartless people. They have eyes but do not see, and ears but do not hear. ²² Will you not fear me, declares the Lord? Will you not tremble before me, I who have set the sand as a boundary for the sea, an eternal barrier it cannot cross? Its waves may surge, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot overtake it. ²³ But this people has an unruly and rebellious heart; they withdraw and leave. ²⁴ They do not say in their hearts: Let us fear the Lord our God, who gives the early rain and the latter rain in its season, and who keeps for us the weeks appointed for harvest. ²⁵ Your iniquities have disrupted this order; your sins deprive you of these blessings. ²⁶ For there are wicked people among me; they lie in wait like a bird-catcher who crouches; they set traps and catch men. ²⁷ As a cage is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit, so they become powerful and rich. ²⁸ They grow fat and gleam. They even exceed the bounds of evil; they do not do justice to the orphan, and they prosper. They do not defend the unfortunate. ²⁹ And I will not punish these crimes? The Lord declares. And I will not take revenge on a nation like that? ³⁰ Abominable, horrible things are happening in the country. ³¹ The prophets prophesy lies, and the priests rule in agreement with them. And my people love him so. And what will you do in the end?

Jeremiah 6

¹ Flee, children of Benjamin, from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekuah and raise signals in Beth-carem! For disaster is coming from the north, and great calamity!. ² The beautiful and voluptuous one, I destroy her, the daughter of Zion. ³ Shepherds with their flocks will come to it, they will pitch their tents around it, each one will graze in his own area. ⁴ Begin the fight against her: rise up, let us mount the assault at high noon. Woe to us, for the day is waning, the shadows of evening are lengthening. ⁵ Rise up, let us climb by night and destroy his palace. ⁶ For thus says the Lord of hosts: Cut down its trees, raise siege ramps against Jerusalem, for it is the city to be punished, there is nothing but injustice within it. ⁷ As a well pours forth its waters, so she pours forth her wickedness. Violence and ruin are heard there; wounds and injuries are constantly before my face. ⁸ Amend yourself, Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make of you a desert, an uninhabited land. ⁹ Thus says the Lord of hosts: The remnant of Israel shall be gleaned like a vine, put in and put out again, as the grape-gatherer does to the branches. ¹⁰ To whom can I speak, to whom can I plead so that he may hear me? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot heed. Behold, the word of the Lord has become to them a reproach, and they take no pleasure in it. ¹¹ But I am filled with the wrath of the Lord; I am weary of holding it back. Pour it out on the child in the street and on the gathering of young men, for husband and wife shall all be taken, as well as the old man and the man laden with years. ¹² Their houses will pass to others, their fields and their wives as well, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, declares the Lord., ¹³ For from the smallest to the greatest, all engage in plunder, and from the prophet to the priest, all practice lying. ¹⁴ They treat lightly the wound of the daughter of my people, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. ¹⁵ They will be put to shame, for they have committed abominations, but they no longer even know how to blush or feel ashamed. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; they will be brought low on the day I visit them, says the Lord. ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord: Stand at the roads and see, inquire of the ancient paths, what is the way of salvation? And walk in it and you will find rest for your souls. But they answered: We will not walk in it. ¹⁷ I have posted watchmen near you: Listen carefully to the sound of the trumpet. But they replied: We will not listen. ¹⁸ Therefore, listen, you nations, and know, you assembly of peoples, what will happen to them, ¹⁹ Earth, listen: Behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts, for they have not heeded my words and have rejected my law. ²⁰ What to me is incense from Sheba or precious reeds from a distant land? Your burnt offerings do not please me, your sacrifices are not acceptable to me. ²¹ Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I am placing stumbling blocks before this people; fathers and sons will stumble over them, and both inhabitant and neighbor will perish.”. ²² Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people will come from the land of the north, a great nation will arise from the ends of the earth. ²³ They wield the bow and the javelin, they are cruel and without pity, their voice roars like the sea, they are mounted on horses, ready to fight as one man, against you, daughter of Zion. ²⁴ At the news of their approach, our hands went weak, anguish seized us, the pains of a woman giving birth. ²⁵ Do not go out into the fields, do not go on the roads, for the enemy holds the sword and terror reigns all around. ²⁶ Daughter of my people, gird yourself with the hair shirt, roll in the ashes, mourn as for an only son, make bitter lamentations for suddenly the destroyer comes upon us. ²⁷ I have appointed you among my people as a tester, a fortress, so that you may know and test their ways. ²⁸ They are all rebels among rebels, they spread slander, they are made of copper and iron, they are all corrupt. ²⁹ The bellows have become prey to the fire, the lead is exhausted, in vain we purify, we purify, the wicked do not detach themselves. ³⁰ It will be called junk money because the Lord has discarded it.

Jeremiah 7

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in these words: ² Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord and there pronounce this word and say: Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah, who enter through these gates to worship the Lord. ³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your works and I will make you dwell in this place. ⁴ Do not trust the lying words of those who say, "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.". ⁵ But if you improve your ways and your works, if you faithfully administer justice between one man and his neighbor. ⁶ If you do not oppress the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow, if you do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go to other gods, to your own misfortune: ⁷ Then I will make you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers from ancient times and forever. ⁸ But now you are relying on false words, which do you no good. ⁹ What. Stealing, killing, committing adultery, swearing falsely, worshipping Baal and going after other gods that you do not know. ¹⁰ And you come, you present yourselves before me, in this house which is called by my name, and you say, 'We shall escape.' And it is in order to commit all these abominations. ¹¹ Is this house, which bears my name, a den of robbers in your eyes? I too have seen it, declares the Lord., ¹² Go now to my dwelling place which was in Shiloh, where I once made my name dwell, and see how I have dealt with it, because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ And now, since you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not listened, and I have called to you, and you have not answered, ¹⁴ I will do to this house, which bears my name and in which you place your trust, and to this place which I have given to you and your ancestors, as I did to Shiloh. ¹⁵ and I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim. ¹⁶ And you, do not intercede for this people, do not raise up a complaint or a prayer for them, and do not urge me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, women They knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven and pour libations to other gods, in order to offend me. ¹⁹ Is it me they are offending, declares the Lord, or are they not offending themselves, to the shame of their faces? ²⁰ Therefore this is what the Lord God says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on people and beasts, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched. ²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh, ²² for I did not speak to your fathers nor did I command them anything concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt. ²³ But as for the commandment that I gave them, I said to them: Obey my voice and I will be your God and you shall be my people; walk in all the ways that I will prescribe to you, so that you may prosper. ²⁴ But they did not listen and they did not pay attention and they walked according to their advice, according to the hardening of their evil heart, they went backwards and not forwards. ²⁵ From the day your ancestors left the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them out every morning ²⁶ But they did not listen to me, they did not pay attention, they stiffened their necks, they did worse than their fathers. ²⁷ You will tell them all these things, they will not listen to you; you will call them, they will not answer you. ²⁸ Then you will say to them: This is the nation that did not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and did not accept instruction, loyalty It perished; it disappeared from his mouth. ²⁹ Shave your hair and throw it away and raise a lament on the heights, for the Lord has scorned and rejected the race that is the object of his anger. ³⁰ For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, declares the Lord; they have set up their abominations in the house that bears my name, to defile it. ³¹ and they built the high places of Topheth in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I had not commanded and which had not entered my mind. ³² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be called Topheth or Valley of the son of Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter, and where they will be buried in Topheth, for lack of space. ³³ And the corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, with no one to drive them away. ³⁴ And I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, the singing of bridegroom and the singing of bride, for the land will have become a desert.

Jeremiah 8

¹ At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will be brought out of their tombs. ² They shall be spread out before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they loved and served, which they followed, which they consulted and worshiped. These bones shall not be gathered or buried, but shall be used as fertilizer on the face of the earth. ³ And death will be preferred to life by all who remain of this wicked race, in all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts. ⁴ Tell them: This is what the Lord says: Do we fall and not get up again? Do we wander and not return? ⁵ Why then does this people of Jerusalem go astray continually? They cling tightly to falsehood; they refuse to return. ⁶ I paid attention and listened: they do not speak as they ought, no one repents of their wickedness, saying: What have I done? They all resume their course, like a horse that rushes into battle. ⁷ Even the stork in the air knows its season, the turtledove, the swallow and the crane, observe the time of their return, but my people do not know the law of the Lord. ⁸ How can you say, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us”? Look, the lying style of the scribes has made it a lie. ⁹ The wise are confounded, dismayed, and taken aback; behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, and what wisdom do they have? ¹⁰ That is why I will give their wives to others and their fields to other owners, for from the least to the greatest, all engage in plunder, and from the prophet to the priest, all practice falsehood. ¹¹ They treat lightly the wound of the daughter of my people, saying, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace. ¹² They will be confounded, for they have committed abominations. But they no longer even know how to blush, nor do they know shame. Therefore they will fall among those who fall; they will be cast down on the day I visit them, says the Lord. ¹³ I will gather them up and carry them away, declares the Lord. There will be no more grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and even the leaves will wither. And I have given them people who will invade their land. ¹⁴ Why are we sitting here? Gather together and let us go to the fortified cities and there we shall perish, for the Lord our God is causing us to perish and giving us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. ¹⁵ We were waiting peace And there is nothing good, the time of healing, and here is terror. ¹⁶ From Dan, we hear the snorting of his horses, the sound of the neighing of his steeds, the whole earth trembles, they are coming, they are devouring the land and everything in it, the city and its inhabitants. ¹⁷ For behold, I am sending serpents among you, asps against which there is no enchantment; they will bite you, declares the Lord., ¹⁸ Oh, my consolation in my sorrow. My heart yearns within me. ¹⁹Behold, the cry of distress of the daughter of my people comes to me from a distant land: Is the Lord no longer in Zion? Is her king no longer in her midst? Why have they provoked me to anger with their idols, with the vanities of the foreigner? ²⁰ The harvest is over, the reaping is finished, and we are not delivered. ²¹ I am grieved by the grieving of the daughter of my people, I am in mourning, terror has seized me. ²² Is there no more balm of Gilead, is there no longer a physician there? Why then has no bandage been put on the daughter of my people? ²³ Who will turn my head into waters and my eyes into a spring of tears, so that I may weep night and day for the slain of the daughter of my people?

Jeremiah 9

¹ Who will give me shelter in the desert for travelers? I will abandon my people, I will withdraw from them because they are all adulterers, an assembly of unbelievers. ² They bend their tongues like bows to shoot lies; they are not powerful in the land by the truth, for they go from sin to sin and do not know me, declares the Lord. ³ Each of you should be wary of your friends and trust no brother, for every brother only supplants and every friend goes away spreading slander. ⁴ They deceive one another, they do not tell the truth, they train their tongues to lie, they study to do evil. ⁵ You dwell in the midst of bad faith; it is through bad faith that they refuse to know me, declares the Lord. ⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord of hosts says: I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do with the daughter of my people? ⁷ Their tongue is a deadly dart, uttering only lies. With their mouths they say, "Peace to your neighbor," but in their hearts they lay traps for him. ⁸ And I would not punish them for all these crimes? The Lord declares. And I would not take revenge on a nation like that? ⁹ On the mountains I will raise a lamentation and a mourning, on the desert pastures a song of mourning. For they are burned up so that no one passes through them, the sound of herds is no longer heard; from the birds of the air to the cattle, all have fled, have vanished. ¹⁰ And I will make Jerusalem a heap of stones, a haunt of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolate place, where no one lives. ¹¹ Who is the wise man who will understand these things, the one to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, so that he may declare them? Why is the land destroyed, burned like a desert where no one passes through? ¹² And the Lord said: It is because they have forsaken my law, which I had set before them, that they have not listened to my voice and have not followed it. ¹³ But they walked according to the stubbornness of their hearts and after the Baals, whom their fathers had taught them. ¹⁴ Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I am going to feed this people with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.”. ¹⁵ I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword against them until I have exterminated them. ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider ordering the mourners and let them come. Send to the most skilled and let them come. ¹⁷ Let them hasten, let them sing lamentations over us, let tears flow from our eyes and let tears stream from our eyelids. ¹⁸ For a sound of lamentation has been heard in Zion: How desolate we are, covered with shame, to the point of abandoning the land, because our dwellings have been torn down! ¹⁹ Women, listen to the word of the Lord and let your ears receive the word from his mouth. Teach your daughters a lament, and each of your companions a song of mourning. ²⁰ For death has come up through our windows and entered our palaces, to make the street child and the young people of the public squares disappear. ²¹ Speak: Thus oracle of the Lord: The corpse of man shall fall like dung on a field and like sheaves behind the reaper, with no one to gather it up. ²² Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise boast of their wisdom, let not the strong boast of their strength, let not the rich boast of their riches. ²³ But let the one who boasts boast in this: that they understand and know me. For I am the Lord, who exercises mercy, justice and righteousness on earth, for that is what I desire, declares the Lord, ²⁴ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will punish everyone circumcised along with the uncircumcised.” ²⁵ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all those who shave their temples, who live in the desert, for all the nations are uncircumcised and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.

Jeremiah 10

¹ Listen to the word that the Lord speaks to you, house of Israel: ² Thus says the Lord: Do not learn the ways of the nations, nor be terrified at the signs of heaven, as the nations are terrified at them, ³ For the customs of the nations are but vanity; they are wood cut from the forest, the work of the hand of the sculptor, fashioned with the chisel, ⁴ which is decorated with silver and gold. It is fixed with nails using hammer blows, so that it does not move. ⁵ These gods are like a pillar made on a lathe; they are carried, they do not walk. Do not fear them: they do no harm, nor can they do any good. ⁶ There is no one like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is great in power. ⁷ Who would not fear you, King of the nations? It is to you that fear is due. For among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you. ⁸ Together they are stupid and crazy, a teaching of vanity, it's all nonsense. ⁹ Beaten silver brought from Tharsis and gold from Ophaz, the work of sculpture and goldsmith's hand. They are adorned with purple and red, all of them the work of artists. ¹⁰ But the Lord is truly God; he is a living God and an eternal King; at his anger the earth trembles and the nations cannot endure his wrath. ¹¹ This is how you shall speak to them: The gods who did not make heaven and earth shall be exterminated from the earth and from under heaven. ¹² He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom and understanding, and stretched out the heavens. ¹³ At his voice, the waters gather in the heavens, he makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash from which the downpour springs, and he makes the wind come out of its reservoirs. ¹⁴ Every man is stupid, senseless, every craftsman is ashamed of his idol, for his cast image is nothing but a lie, there is no breath in it. ¹⁵ It is vanity, a work of deception; on the day of their punishment, it will perish. ¹⁶ This is not Jacob's portion, for He formed the universe and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance, His name is the Lord of hosts. ¹⁷ Pick up your luggage from the ground, you who are under siege. ¹⁸ For thus says the Lord: Behold, this time I will hurl the inhabitants of the land far away, I will press them close, so that the enemy may overtake them. ¹⁹ Woe to me because of my bruise! My wound is painful, but I say: Yes, this is my pain and I will bear it. ²⁰ My tent is devastated, all my ropes are broken, my sons have left me, they are no more, I have no one left to straighten my tent, raise my flags. ²¹ Ah. The pastors are stupid, they did not seek the Lord, therefore they did not prosper and all their flock was scattered. ²² A noise, a rumor. Behold, it is coming, a great tumult is coming from the land of the north, to make the cities of Judah a desert, a haunt of jackals. ²³ I know, O Lord, that man does not have his own way, nor does the man who walks direct his own steps. ²⁴ Punish me, Lord, but according to justice and not in your anger, to reduce me to nothing. ²⁵ Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you, on the peoples who do not call on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, they have devoured him, they are finishing him off and they are laying waste his dwelling place.

Jeremiah 11

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in these words: ² Hear the words of this covenant and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³ And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed be the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, ⁴ that I commanded your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace, saying to them, Obey my voice and do these things, according to all that I command you, and you shall be my people and I will be your God, ⁵ so that I may fulfill the oath I swore to your fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today. And I answered, “Yes, Lord.”. ⁶ And the Lord said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant and put them into practice.’”. ⁷ For I have earnestly warned your fathers from the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have continually warned them, saying: Obey my voice. ⁸ And they neither listened nor paid attention; each of them walked according to the stubbornness of their evil heart. And I carried out upon them all the words of this covenant, which I had commanded them to observe, and which they did not observe. ⁹ The Lord said to me: A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They have returned to the iniquities of their first fathers, who refused to listen to my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. ¹¹ Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I am going to bring disasters on them from which they cannot escape, and though they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.”. ¹² And the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go to invoke the gods to whom they offer incense, but these gods will certainly not save them in the time of their calamity. ¹³ For as numerous as your cities are your gods, O Judah, and as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have erected to an infamous idol, the altars you have erected to incense Baal. ¹⁴ And you, do not intercede for this people and do not raise up supplication or prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call upon me in the time of their calamity. ¹⁵ What does my beloved have to do in my house? Deceit? Will vows and sacred flesh take away your sorrows, so that you may give yourself over to joy? ¹⁶ A green olive tree, laden with beautiful fruit: that was the name the Lord had given you. With a great crash, he set it on fire, and its branches were broken. ¹⁷ The Lord of hosts, who had planted you, has decreed disaster against you because of the sin of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they committed to provoke me to anger by offering incense to Baal. ¹⁸ The Lord informed me of it and I knew it, so you made their works known to me. ¹⁹ I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter, and I did not know that they were plotting against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit. Let us cut it off from the land of the living, and let its name be remembered no more.”. ²⁰ But the Lord of hosts judges with justice; he searches the hearts and minds. I will see the vengeance you will take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. ²¹ This is why the Lord says this about the men of Anathoth who want to kill you and who say: Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand. ²² Therefore this is what the Lord of hosts says: I will punish them; the young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die of hunger. ²³ None of them will escape, for I will bring disaster upon the men of Anathoth in the year I visit them.

Jeremiah 12

¹ You are too just, O Lord, for me to argue with you; I only want to speak with you about justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper, why do all the perfidious live in peace? ² You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit; you are near their mouths but far from their hearts. ³ And you, Lord, know me, you see me, and you know what my heart is for you. Take them away like sheep, to the slaughter; consign them to the day of slaughter. ⁴ How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it, livestock and birds perish, for they say, “He will not see our end.”. ⁵ If you run with foot soldiers and they tire you out, how will you fight with horsemen? If you need a land of peace to have confidence, what will you do against the lions of the Jordan? ⁶ For even your brothers and your father’s house are betraying you; they are shouting loudly behind you. Do not trust them when they speak good words to you. ⁷ I left my home, I abandoned my inheritance, I delivered the object of my love into the hands of my enemies. ⁸ My heritage has become like a lion in the forest to me; it has raised its voice against me, so I have come to hate it. ⁹ Is my inheritance a mottled vulture, against which vultures swoop from all sides? Come, gather all the beasts of the field, bring them to the feast. ¹⁰ Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, trampled my land underfoot, they have turned the lot that was dear to me into a desert, into devastation. ¹¹ They have made it a ruin, devastated, he is in mourning before me, the whole country is ravaged, because no one has taken it to heart. ¹² On all the hills of the desert come the destroyers, for the Lord has a devouring sword; from one end of the land to the other, there is no salvation for all flesh. ¹³ They sowed wheat, they reap thorns; they spent their strength, but without profit. Be ashamed of what you harvest: this is the effect of the Lord's fierce anger. ¹⁴ This is what the Lord says about all my wicked neighbors who attack the inheritance I gave to my people Israel: I am going to uproot them from their land and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. ¹⁵ But after I have uprooted them, I will again have compassion on them and I will bring them back, each to their inheritance, each to their own country. ¹⁶ And if they learn the ways of my people, swearing by my name, "As the Lord lives," just as they taught my people to swear by Baal, they shall be established among my people. ¹⁷ But if they do not listen, I will uproot this nation, I will uproot it and destroy it. This is the Lord’s declaration.

Jeremiah 13

¹ This is what the Lord said to me: Go and buy yourself a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not put it in the water. ² And I bought myself the belt, according to the word of the Lord, and I put it around my waist. ³ The word of the Lord came to me a second time, in these words: ⁴ Take the belt you bought and that is around your waist, get up, go towards the Euphrates and there you will hide it in a crevice in the rock. ⁵ I went and hid her near the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. ⁶ And after many days the Lord said to me, “Get up, go to the Euphrates and there retrieve the belt that I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷ I went to the Euphrates, I dug and I retrieved the belt from the place where I had hidden it, and there it was, the belt was lost, it was no longer good for anything. ⁸ And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ⁹ Thus says the Lord: In this way I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This wicked people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and who go after other gods to serve and worship them, they will be like this belt, which is no longer good for anything. ¹¹ For, as a belt is fastened around a man’s waist, so I had fastened all the house of Israel and all the house of Judah to myself, declares the Lord, that they might be to me a people, a name, an honor, and a glory; but they did not listen. ¹² And you shall say to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every jar must be filled with wine. They will answer you: Do we not know that every jar must be filled with wine? ¹³ And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land and the kings who sit on the throne of David, the priests and the prophets and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And I will break them one against another, fathers and sons together. This is the Lord’s declaration: I will not spare, I will not have compassion, I will not have pity, lest I destroy them. ¹⁵ Listen, pay attention, do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken. ¹⁶ Give glory to the Lord your God before darkness comes, before your feet stumble on the mountains of night, before he turns the light you expect into a shadow of death and makes it deep darkness. ¹⁷ If you do not listen to this, my soul will weep in secret because of your pride, my eyes will weep bitterly, overflow with tears, for Jacob's flock will be taken captive. ¹⁸ Tell the king and queen: Sit on the ground, for your crown of glory has fallen from your head. ¹⁹ The cities of the south are closed and no one opens them, all of Judah is deported, the deportation is complete. ²⁰ Lift up your eyes and see those who are coming from the north: Where is the flock that was given to you, the sheep that were your glory? ²¹ What will you say when the Lord gives you as masters those whom you have instructed against you, your close associates? Will you not be seized by pains, like a woman in childbirth? ²² And if you say in your heart, "Why have these misfortunes befallen me?" It is because of the multitude of your iniquities that the skirts of your robe have been lifted up, that your heels have been bruised. ²³ Will an Ethiopian change his skin, a leopard its spots? And you, could you do good, you who are used to doing evil? ²⁴ I will scatter them like chaff that blows away, before the breath of the desert wind. ²⁵ This is your fate, the portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord, because you have forgotten me and trusted in lies. ²⁶ And I too will lift the folds of your dress over your face and your shame will be seen. ²⁷ Your adulteries, your neighing, your shameless prostitution on the hills in the open country—all your abominations I have seen. Woe to you, Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?

Jeremiah 14

¹ Word of the Lord which was addressed to Jeremiah on the occasion of the drought. ² Judah is in mourning, its gates languish, they lie desolate on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem rises. ³ The older ones send the younger ones to fetch water, they go to the cisterns, they do not find any water, they return with their empty vessels, they are confused and ashamed, they cover their heads. ⁴ Because of the cracked ground, because there has been no rain on the land, the plowmen are confused, they cover their heads. ⁵ Even the doe in the countryside gives birth and abandons her young, because there is no grass. ⁶ The onagers stand on the heights, sucking in the air like jackals, their eyes going dull, because there is no greenery. ⁷ If our iniquities testify against us, Lord, act for the honor of your name, for our unfaithfulness is many, we have sinned against you. ⁸ O you, the hope of Israel, its deliverer in times of distress, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who pitches his tent there for the night? ⁹ Why should you be like a man in despair, like a hero powerless to deliver? Yet you dwell in our midst, Lord, your name is invoked upon us, do not abandon us. ¹⁰ This is what the Lord says about this people: They love to wander about and do not restrain their feet. The Lord no longer takes pleasure in them. He will now remember their iniquities and punish their sins. ¹¹ And the Lord said to me: Do not intercede on behalf of this people. ¹² When they fast, I will not listen to their pleas; when they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them, for I will destroy them with the sword, famine, and plague. ¹³ And I answered: Ah Lord God, behold the prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword and you shall not have famine, but I will give you sure peace in this place. ¹⁴ And the Lord said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them, nor have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, vain divinations, and deceit from their own hearts.”. ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord says: Concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I have not sent them, and who say, “There will be no sword or famine in this land,” those prophets will surely perish by the sword and by famine. ¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, and there will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters, and I will pour out on them their wickedness. ¹⁷ And you shall say to them this word: My eyes will overflow with tears night and day, without ceasing, for the virgin, daughter of my people, will be struck by a great disaster, by a very painful wound. ¹⁸ If I go into the fields, behold, men slain by the sword; if I enter the city, behold, the pains of hunger. The prophet himself and the priest are wandering, toward a land they did not know. 19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us so that there is no healing for us? We were waiting peace And nothing good comes; the time of healing, and behold, terror. 20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against you. 21 For your name's sake, do not disdain, do not profane the throne of your glory; remember, do not break your covenant with us. 22 Among the worthless idols of the nations, is there any that can make it rain? Is it the heavens that will send down showers? Is it not you, Lord, our God? We put our hope in you, for it is you who do all these things.

Jeremiah 15

¹ The Lord answered me: Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my soul would not turn toward this people; drive them out from before my face and let them depart. ² And if they ask you, “Where shall we go?” you shall say to them, “Thus says the Lord: He who is destined for death, to death; he who is destined for the sword, to the sword; he who is destined for famine, to famine; and he who is destined for captivity, to captivity.”. ³ And I will raise up against them four kinds of plagues, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴ I will make it an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem. ⁵ Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn for you? Who will turn aside from their way to inquire about your condition? ⁶ You have rejected me, oracle of the Lord, to withdraw you, and I will stretch out my hand against you to destroy you; I am weary of showing mercy. ⁷ I will winnow them with the winnowing fork at the gates of the land, I will deprive them of children, I will destroy my people, they do not turn from their ways. ⁸ His widows will be more numerous than the sands of the sea. I will bring them, upon the mother of the young warrior, the destroyer at midday, I will suddenly unleash upon her anguish and terror. ⁹ The mother of the seven sons feels faint; she is about to die. Her sun sets while it is still day; she is ashamed and disgraced. Those who remain, I will give up to the sword before their enemies, declares the Lord. ¹⁰ Woe to me, O my mother, because you bore me, to be a man of strife and contention to all the land. I have lent nothing and they have lent me nothing, and everyone curses me. ¹¹ The Lord says: Yes, I will strengthen you for your own good; I will surely cause your enemy to beg you in times of trouble and distress. ¹² Will iron break the iron of the north and the bronze? ¹³ I will give your possessions and treasures up for plunder, without payment, for all your sins and throughout your territory ¹⁴ and I will make them pass with your enemies into a land you do not know, for a fire has been kindled in my anger, and it will burn upon you. ¹⁵ You know, Lord, remember me, take care of me and avenge me on my persecutors, do not take me away, in your patience towards them, know that it is for you that I bear the reproach. ¹⁶ As soon as your words came, I devoured them; they became my joy and the gladness of my heart, for your name was invoked upon me, Lord, God of hosts. ¹⁷ I did not sit in the assembly of laughers, to indulge in gaiety, under your hand, I sat alone, for you had filled me with wrath. ¹⁸ Why is my suffering endless and my painful wound resistant to healing? Are you to me like a deceptive stream, like waters that cannot be relied upon? ¹⁹ This is why the Lord says: If you return to me, I will restore you to stand in my presence; if you separate the precious from the worthless, you will be like my mouth; they will return to you, but you will not return to them. ²⁰ I will make you a strong wall of bronze for this people; they will make you the war, but they will not be able to do anything to you, for I will be with you to help you and deliver you, declares the Lord. ²¹ I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked and I will redeem you from the hand of the violent.

Jeremiah 16

¹ The word of the Lord came to me in these terms: ² You shall not take a wife and you shall not have sons or daughters in this place. ³ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them, and concerning the fathers who beget them, in this land: ⁴ They will die of deadly diseases; they will not be given tears or burial, they will be like dung on the ground. They will perish by the sword and famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ⁵ For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, do not go and weep and lament with them, for I have withdrawn my peace from this people, declares the Lord, my grace and my compassion. ⁶ Great and small will die in this country, there will be no burial for them nor tears, no cuttings will be made, no shaving will be done for them. ⁷ They will not be given the bread of mourning to comfort them concerning the dead, nor will they be given the cup of consolation to drink for a father and a mother. ⁸ Do not go into the house of the feast to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I will put an end in this place, before your very eyes and in your days, to the sound of joy and the sound of gladness, the song of bridegroom and the song of bride. ¹⁰ When you tell these people all these things, they will say to you, “Why does the Lord tell us all these great calamities? What is our iniquity and what sin have we committed against the Lord our God?” ¹¹ And you shall say to them: It is because your fathers forsook me, declares the Lord, and went after other gods, and served and worshiped them, and forsook me, and did not observe my law. ¹² And you have done more evil than your fathers, and now each of you goes after the perversity of your evil heart, refusing to listen to me. ¹³ I will drive you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve foreign gods night and day, for I will show you no mercy. ¹⁴ Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said: “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt.” ¹⁵ But: the Lord lives, he who brought the children of Israel up from the land of the north and from all the countries where he had banished them. And I will bring them back to their land which I gave to their fathers. ¹⁶ “Behold, I will call a multitude of fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will catch them. And after that, I will call a multitude of hunters, and they will hunt them down from every mountain and hill and from the clefts of the rocks.”. ¹⁷ For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ First, I will pay them double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled my land; they have filled my inheritance with the corpses of their idols and their abominations. ¹⁹ Lord, my strength, my fortress and my refuge in the day of distress, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say: Our fathers inherited nothing but lies, worthless vanities. ²⁰ Is it possible for a man to create gods for himself? And they are not gods. ²¹ Therefore, behold, I will make known to them, this time, I will make known to them my hand and my power, and they will know that my name is the Lord.

Jeremiah 17

¹ The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, with a diamond point; it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of your altars. ² As they remember their children, so they remember their altars and their Asherahs, near the green trees, on the high hills. ³ O my mountain that is in the plain, I will give up your possessions to plunder, all your treasures, your high places, because of your sins throughout your territory. ⁴ You will leave fallow, and through your own fault, the inheritance I gave you; I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled the fire of my anger, and it burns forever. ⁵ Thus says the Lord: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who makes flesh his arm and whose heart departs from the Lord. ⁶ He is like a heather in the moor, he does not rejoice when happiness comes, he will occupy the scorched places in the desert, a salt land where no one lives. ⁷ Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. ⁸ It is like a tree planted by the water's edge, which pushes its roots towards the current; it does not fear when the heat comes and its leaves remain green; it does not worry about the year of drought and does not cease to bear fruit. ⁹ The heart is cunning above all things and corrupt; who can know it? ¹⁰ I, the Lord, search the hearts and test the minds, to reward each person according to their ways, according to the fruit of their deeds. ¹¹ A partridge broods over eggs it did not lay, like one who acquires riches unjustly; in the middle of his days he must leave them and at his end he is but a fool. ¹² Throne of glory, eternal height, place of our sanctuary, ¹³ Hope of Israel, Lord, all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from me will be written in the dust, for they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water. ¹⁴ Heal me, Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise. ¹⁵ Here they are saying to me: Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. ¹⁶ And I did not refuse to be a shepherd in your footsteps, I did not desire the day of misfortune, you know, what came out of my lips was present before your face. ¹⁷ Do not be a cause of ruin for me; you are my refuge in the day of trouble. ¹⁸ May my persecutors be put to shame, but I myself not be put to shame. May they tremble, but I not tremble. Bring upon them the day of calamity and shatter them with a double breach. ¹⁹ This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the gate of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and exit, and at all the gates of Jerusalem.” ²⁰ and you shall say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all Judah and all you inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates. ²¹ Thus says the Lord: Take heed to your souls and do not carry burdens on the Sabbath day, nor bring them through the gates of Jerusalem. ²² Do not carry any burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work. And keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers. ²³ They did not listen or pay attention; they stiffened their necks so as not to listen and not to receive the instruction. ²⁴ If you listen to me obediently, declares the Lord, by not bringing any burdens through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, by keeping the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, ²⁵ Then through the gates of this city will enter kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding on chariots and horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. ²⁶ People will come from the towns of Judah and the surrounding areas of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from Shephelah, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing peace offerings into the house of the Lord. ²⁷ But if you do not listen to me by keeping the Sabbath day holy, by not carrying any burden when you enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire at the gates of the city and it will consume the palaces of Jerusalem and it will not be quenched.

Jeremiah 18

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in these terms: ² Get up and go down to the potter's house, and there I will make you hear my word. ³ I went down to the potter's house and there he was, working on the wheels. ⁴ And the vase he was making failed, as happens to clay in the potter's hand, and he made another vase, as it seemed good in the potter's eyes to do. ⁵ And the word of the Lord came to me in these words: ⁶ Can I not make for you as this potter made, O house of Israel, declares the Lord? Yes, as clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ Sometimes I speak, concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, of uprooting, tearing down, and destroying. ⁸ But if this nation, against which I have spoken, turns from its wickedness, then I relent of the harm I had resolved to do to it. ⁹ Sometimes I speak, concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, of building and planting. ¹⁰ But if this nation does what is wrong in my eyes, by not listening to my voice, then I repent of the good that I said I would do to it. ¹¹ And now speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am plotting disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Therefore turn, each of you, from your evil ways and reform your ways and your deeds. ¹² But they say: It is in vain. We will follow our thoughts, we will each act according to the obstinacy of our evil heart. ¹³ Therefore this is what the Lord says: Ask the nations: Who has ever heard of such a thing? The virgin of Israel has committed horrible abominations. ¹⁴ Does she leave the rock of the plain, the snow of the Lebanon Do we see the waters that come from afar, fresh and flowing, drying up? ¹⁵ But my people have forgotten me; they offer incense to nothingness. Idols make them stumble in their ways, the paths of old, to follow trails, an untrodden road., ¹⁶ to make their country a desolation, an object of eternal mockery, all those who pass through will be astonished and shake their heads. ¹⁷ Like the east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy; I will show them my back and not my face, on the day of their disaster. ¹⁸ And they said, “Come, let us plot against Jeremiah, for the law will not perish with the priest, nor counsel with the wise, nor the word of God with the prophet. Come, let us strike him with our tongues and pay no attention to any of his words.”. ¹⁹ Give me your ear, Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries. ²⁰ Will evil be repaid for good, that they dig a pit for my soul? Remember how I stood before you, to speak to you on their behalf, to turn away your anger from them. ²¹ Therefore, give their children over to famine and abandon them to the edge of the sword. Let their wives lose their children and their husbands, let their men die by plague, and let their young men be struck down by the sword in battle. ²² Let their cries be heard from their homes when you suddenly bring armed bands against them. For they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden nets before my feet. ²³ And you, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their iniquity, do not blot out their sin from your sight; let them bow down before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.

Jeremiah 19

¹ Thus says the Lord: Go, buy yourself a potter's jug, and take with you some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. ² And go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, which is at the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and there proclaim the words that I tell you. ³ You will say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing disaster upon this place, such that the ears of all who hear of it will ring, ⁴ because they have abandoned me, alienated this place, offered incense to foreign gods that neither they, nor their fathers, nor the kings of Judah knew, and filled this place with the blood of the innocent. ⁵ They built the high places of Baal, to consume their children by fire as a burnt offering to Baal, things which I had neither commanded nor spoken of, nor which had not entered my heart. ⁶ Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Valley of Ben Hinnom, but Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ I will render vain in this place the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem, I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives, and I will give their corpses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ⁸ And I will make this city an object of astonishment and derision; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will laugh at all its bruises. ⁹ I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; they will eat the flesh of one another, in the anguish and distress to which their enemies and those who seek their lives will reduce them. ¹⁰ You will then break the jug in front of the men who came with you., ¹¹ and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which can no longer be repaired, and they shall be buried in Topheth, for there is no place to bury them. ¹² This is what I will do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, by making this city like Topheth. ¹³ The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be like this place of Topheth, defiled: all the houses on whose roofs incense has been offered to all the host of heaven and libations poured out to foreign gods. ¹⁴ Jeremiah returned from Topheth where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and standing in the courtyard of the house of the Lord, he said to all the people: ¹⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am going to bring upon this city and upon all the cities around it all the disasters that I have announced against it, because they have stiffened their necks in not obeying my words.

Jeremiah 20

¹ Phassur the priest, son of Emmer, who was chief overseer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah utter these prophecies. ² And Phassur struck Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin, which is in the house of the Lord. ³ The next day, Phassur released Jeremiah from the yoke, and Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord no longer calls you Phassur, but Magor-Missabib." ⁴ For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver you and all your friends to terror; they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. And I will also deliver all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them off captive to Babylon and strike them with the sword. ⁵ I will deliver all the riches of this city, all its produce, all its precious objects and all the treasures of the kings of Judah, I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies and they will plunder them, take them away and carry them off to Babylon. ⁶ And you, Phassur, and all who dwell in your house, will go into captivity; you will go to Babylon and there you will die, there you will be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you prophesied lies. ⁷ You have seduced me, Lord, and I have been seduced; you have seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me. ⁸ For every time I speak, I cry out, I announce violence and devastation, and the word of the Lord is for me reproach and derision all day long. ⁹ I said, "I will no longer mention him, I will no longer speak in his name." There was something like a consuming fire in my heart, shut up in my bones; I tried to contain it, but I could not. ¹⁰ For I heard the wicked talk of the crowd: Terror on all sides. Denounce him, let us go and denounce him. All those with whom I was at peace are watching my steps: If he allows himself to be seduced, we will prevail against him and take revenge on him. ¹¹ But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be ashamed of their failure, of an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten. ¹² Lord of hosts, you who test the righteous, who see the hearts and minds, I will see the vengeance you will take from them, for to you I have entrusted my cause. ¹³ Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has rescued the soul of the afflicted from the hand of the wicked. ¹⁴ Cursed be the day I was born. May the day my mother gave birth to me not be blessed. ¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A male child is born to you," and he was filled with joy. ¹⁶ May this man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without repenting. May he hear in the morning the cry of the vanquished and at midday the shouts of the victors. ¹⁷ Because he did not kill me from the womb, so that my mother might be my tomb, or that her womb might keep me forever. ¹⁸ Why did I come forth from her womb, to see pain and sorrow and to waste my days in ignominy?

Jeremiah 21

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Phassur son of Melkiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maasiah, to tell him: ² Please consult the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is doing to us the war, Perhaps the Lord will renew all his great miracles in our favor, so that he will leave us. ³ Jeremiah answered them: This is what you are to say to Zedekiah: ⁴ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war in your hands, with which you fight outside the walls against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you, and I will gather them in the midst of the city, ⁵ And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great indignation. ⁶ I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both men and beasts, and they will die of a great plague. ⁷ After this, declares the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, the people, and those in this city who have escaped from the plague, the sword, and the famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hands of their enemies and those who seek their lives, and he will put them to the edge of the sword; he will not spare them, he will have neither pity nor compassion. ⁸ And you shall say to this people: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹ Whoever remains in this city will die by the sword, by famine, or by plague; whoever leaves it to surrender to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and have his life as plunder. ¹⁰ For I have turned my face toward this city to harm it and not to help it, declares the Lord, it will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon and he will burn it down. ¹¹ And to the house of the king of Judah you shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, ¹² House of David: Thus says the Lord: Administer justice each morning, rescue the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath break out like fire and burn with no one to quench it, because of the wickedness of your deeds. ¹³ Behold, I come to you, inhabitant of the valley, rock of the plain, oracle of the Lord, you who say: Who will come down upon us and who will enter our hiding places? ¹⁴ I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the Lord; I will set fire to its forest and it will devour everything around it.

Jeremiah 22

¹ This is what the Lord says: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there you shall speak these words: ² You shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sit on the throne of David, you, your servants and your people, who enter through these gates. ³ Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, rescue the oppressed from the hand of the oppressor, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, do not mistreat them, do not violate them and do not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴ If you fulfill this word exactly, the kings sitting on the throne of David will enter through the gate of this house, riding on chariots and on horses, they, their servants, and their people. ⁵ But if you do not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, this house will become a ruin. ⁶ For this is what the Lord says concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are to me Gilead, the highest of the Lebanon, Well, I will make you a desert, uninhabited cities. ⁷ I am preparing destroyers against you, each with his tools; they will cut down your choice cedars and throw them into the fire. ⁸ Many nations will pass through this city and they will say to one another, “Why has the Lord done this to this great city?” ⁹ And it will be said: Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God, and bowed down to other gods and served them. ¹⁰ Do not weep for the one who has died and do not lament over him, weep, weep for the one who has gone away, for he will not return and will not see the land of his birth. ¹¹ For this is what the Lord says concerning Shellum, son of Josiah, king of Judah, who succeeded his father Josiah as king and who left this place: He will never return there, ¹² In the place where he was taken captive, he will die and he will never see that country again. ¹³ Woe to him who builds his house by injustice and its floors by iniquity, who makes his neighbor work for nothing, without giving him his wages. ¹⁴ Who says: I will build myself a large house and spacious rooms, who will put many windows in it, cover it with cedar and paint it vermilion. ¹⁵ Are you king because you have a passion for cedar? Didn't your father eat and drink? He did what was just and right, so everything was fine with him., ¹⁶ He judged the cause of the unfortunate and the poor, and then all was well. Isn't that what it means to know me? The Lord says? ¹⁷ But your eyes and your heart are turned only towards your own interest, towards innocent blood to be shed, towards oppression and violence to be committed. ¹⁸ Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not mourn for him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” or “Alas, my sister!” They shall not mourn for him, saying, “Alas, my lord!” or “Alas, your majesty!”. ¹⁹ He will be buried like a donkey, he will be dragged out and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰ Go up to Lebanon and cry out, raise your voice in Bashan. Cry out from the heights of Abarim, for all your lovers are broken. ²¹ I spoke to you in the days of your prosperity, and you said, “I will not listen.” This has been your conduct from your youth; you have not listened to my voice. ²² For the wind will drive away your shepherds and your lovers will go into captivity, then you will be covered with confusion and shame for all your wickedness. ²³ You who live in Lebanon, who place your nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pains come upon you, convulsions like those of a woman in labor. ²⁴ As surely as I live, declares the Lord, even if Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on my right hand, I would pull him off from there. ²⁵ I will deliver you into the hands of those who want your life, into the hands of those before whom you tremble, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ I will throw you and your mother who gave birth to you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. ²⁷ And to the country they will long to return to, they will not return. ²⁸ Is this man, Jeconiah, a despised and broken vessel, or a utensil that no one wants? Why were he and his descendants driven out and thrown into a land they did not know? ²⁹ Earth, earth, earth, listen to the word of the Lord. ³⁰ This is what the Lord says: “Mark this man as barren, as one who will not prosper in his days. For none of his descendants will succeed in sitting on the throne of David to reign over Judah again.”.

Jeremiah 23

¹ Woe to the shepherds who lose and scatter the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord., ² Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the shepherds who tend my people: You have scattered my sheep, you have driven them away, you have not cared for them; behold, I will take care against you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord., ³ And I will gather the rest of my sheep from all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, and they will increase and multiply. ⁴ And I will raise up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they will no longer be afraid or dreadful, and not one will be missing, declares the Lord. ⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, who will reign as king and will be wise and will do justice and righteousness in the land.”. ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved, Israel will dwell securely, and this is the name by which he will be called: Lord our righteousness. ⁷ Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it will no longer be said: “As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt,”, ⁸ But the Lord lives, who brought up and restored the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where I had driven them, and they will live in their own land. ⁹ To the Prophets. My heart is broken within me, all my bones tremble; I am like a drunken man, like a man overcome by wine, before the Lord and before his holy word., ¹⁰ For the land is full of adulterers, for because of the curse the land mourns, the pastures of the desert are withered. The object of their course is evil, their strength is injustice, ¹¹ Prophets and priests themselves are profane, and in my own house I have found their wickedness, declares the Lord., ¹² Therefore their path will be like slippery places in darkness; they will be driven down and fall into it, for I will bring disaster on them in the year I visit them, declares the Lord. ¹³ Among the prophets of Samaria I saw folly: they prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray, ¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horror: they commit adultery and walk in lies, they strengthen the hands of the wicked, so that none of them turns from their wickedness. They are all to me like Sodom, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem like Gomorrah. ¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says concerning the prophets: I will make them eat wormwood and drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem desecration has come throughout the land. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord Almighty says: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They lead you astray; they speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. ¹⁷ They say to those who despise me: The Lord said: You will have peace, And to all those who walk in the perversity of their hearts they say: No harm will befall you. ¹⁸ But who attended the Lord's council to see and hear his word? Who paid attention to his word and heard it? ¹⁹ Behold, the Lord's storm, his fury, is about to break out; the tempest is swirling, it is about to fall upon the head of the wicked. ²⁰ The Lord’s anger will not turn back until it has acted and accomplished the purposes of his heart; at the end of time you will fully understand it. ²¹ I did not send these prophets, yet they run about. I did not speak to them, yet they prophesy. ²² If they had attended my council, they would have made my words heard by my people, they would have turned them back from their evil way, from the wickedness of their actions. ²³ Am I only a God near, declares the Lord, and am I not also a God far away? ²⁴ Can a man hide in hiding places and not be seen by me, declares the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, declares the Lord? ²⁵ I have heard what these prophets are saying who prophesy lies in my name, saying: I had a dream, I had a dream. ²⁶ How long will this go on? Do they want to, these prophets who prophesy lies, these prophets of the imposture of their hearts?, ²⁷ Do they think they can make my people forget my name, because of the dreams they tell each other, just as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? ²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream; let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What does straw have in common with wheat, declares the Lord? ²⁹ Is not my word like fire, declares the Lord, like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? ³⁰ Therefore, I am now coming to these prophets who are hiding my words from one another. ³¹ “Behold, I am coming to these prophets,” declares the Lord, “who shake their tongues and say: ‘The Lord declares.’”. ³² “I am coming to those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the Lord, “who tell them and lead my people astray with their lies and their wild schemes. I did not send them, nor did I command them; they are of no use to this people,” declares the Lord. ³³ When this people, or prophets, or a priest ask you, “What is the burden of the Lord?” you shall answer them, “You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the Lord.”. ³⁴ And the prophet, the priest, or the common man who will say, "Bound by the Lord, I will visit that man and his house.". ³⁵ This is how you are to speak to one another, and each to his brother: What has the Lord answered? And: What has the Lord said?  ³⁶ But you shall no longer say: The Lord's burden. For each one's own words shall be his burden, because you twist the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God. ³⁷ You will speak thus to the prophet: What did the Lord answer you? What did the Lord say? ³⁸ But if you say, “The Lord’s burden,” then the Lord says this: Because you say this word, “The Lord’s burden,” after I sent to you to say, “Do not say ‘The Lord’s burden’ anymore,”, ³⁹ Because of this, I will utterly forget you and cast you out of my sight, you and the city that I gave to you and your ancestors, ⁴⁰ and I will bring upon you eternal reproach, everlasting shame, which will never be forgotten.

Jeremiah 24

¹ The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs were placed before the temple of the Lord. This was after Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had carried captive from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, along with the officials of Judah, the carpenters, and the metalworkers., ² One of the baskets contained very good figs, like the figs of the first harvest; the other basket contained very bad figs, which could not be eaten because they were so bad. ³ And the Lord said to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I answered: Figs, the good figs are very good, the bad ones are very bad and cannot be eaten, they are so bad. ⁴ And the word of the Lord came to me in these words: ⁵ Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: As they look with favor upon these good figs, so will I look with favor upon the captives of Judah, whom I have sent from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. ⁶ I will direct my gaze upon them for their good and I will bring them back to this land, I will establish them so that they will not be destroyed again, I will plant them so that they will not be uprooted again. ⁷ I will give them a heart to know me and to know that I am the Lord; they shall be my people and I shall be their God, for they shall return to me with all their heart. ⁸ And as one treats bad figs, which are not eaten because they are so bad, so says the Lord, so I will treat Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem, those who remain in this land and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will make them an object of horror, a calamity, in all the kingdoms of the earth, a reproach, a fable, a derision, a curse, in all the places where I drive them out. ¹⁰ And I will send upon them the sword, famine, and plague until they have disappeared from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.

Jeremiah 25

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, ² the word that Jeremiah spoke over all the people of Judah and for all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in these words. ³ From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until this day, it has been twenty-three years since the word of the Lord came to me, and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened. ⁴ The Lord sent you all his servants the prophets, sending them again and again, but you did not listen or pay attention to hear. ⁵ He said: Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and from the perversity of your actions, and you will dwell in the land that the Lord gave to you and to your fathers, from generation to generation. ⁶ Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, do not anger me with the work of your hands and I will not harm you. ⁷ But you did not listen to me, declares the Lord, so that you might provoke me to anger by the work of your hands, to your own harm. ⁸ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty says: Because you have not listened to my words, ⁹ “Behold, I am sending to capture all the tribes of the north,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant. I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations, which I will strike with anathema and make a desolate place, an object of scorn, and an everlasting ruin.”. ¹⁰ I will put away from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the songs of bridegroom and the songs of bride, the sound of the millstone and the light of the lamp. ¹¹ This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will be enslaved to the king of Babylon for seventy years. ¹² And when the seventy years are completed, I will convict the king of Babylon and that nation, declares the Lord, and the land of the Chaldeans, and I will make them perpetual desolations. ¹³ And I will bring upon this land all the words that I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah prophesied against all nations. ¹⁴ For many nations and great kings will enslave them also, and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands. ¹⁵ For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it. ¹⁶ They will drink it, they will stagger, they will go mad at the sword I will send among them. ¹⁷ I took the cup from the Lord's hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink from it: ¹⁸ to Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, to its kings and princes, to make it a desolate place, a desolation, an object of mockery and cursing, as it is today, ¹⁹ to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to his servants, to his princes, to all his people, ²⁰ to all the mixed people, to all the kings of the land of Uz, to all the kings of the land of the Philistines, to Ashkelon, to Gaza, to Accaron, and to the remnant of Azoth, ²¹ to Edom, to Moab, and to the Ammonites, ²² to all the kings of Tyre and to all the kings of Sidon and to the kings of the islands beyond the sea, ²³ To Dédan, to Théma, to Buz, and to all those who shave their temples, ²⁴ to all the kings of Arabia, to all the kings of the mixed peoples who inhabit the desert, ²⁵ to all the kings of Zambri, to all the kings of Elam, and to all the kings of Media, ²⁶ to all the kings of the north, near and far, to both, and to all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth, and the king of Shesak will drink after them. ²⁷ You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, get drunk, vomit and fall down, never to rise again, before the sword which I send among you. ²⁸ And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: You shall drink. ²⁹ For behold: it is in the city which bears my name that I begin to bring evil, and you will go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I call down the sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth. This is the oracle of the Lord of hosts. ³⁰ And you will prophesy all these things to them and say to them: The Lord roars from heaven, from his holy dwelling he utters his voice, he roars violently against his domain, he raises the cry of the grape-harvesters, against all the inhabitants of the earth. ³¹ The news has reached the ends of the earth, for the Lord is bringing charges against all nations, he is entering into judgment with all flesh, he is handing the wicked over to the sword, declares the Lord. ³² Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a great storm is rising from the ends of the earth. ³³ And there will be slain of the Lord on that day, from one end of the earth to the other; they will not be mourned, nor gathered up, nor buried, but will be like dung on the ground. ³⁴ Howl, shepherds, and cry out; roll in the dust, leaders of the flock, for your days are fulfilled for the slaughter; I will scatter you, and you will fall like precious vessels. ³⁵ No more retreat for shepherds, no more refuge for the leaders of the flock. ³⁶ We hear the cries of the shepherds and the howls of the leaders of the flock, for the Lord is ravaging their pasture. ³⁷ The peaceful countryside is devastated by the fury of the Lord's wrath. ³⁸ He leaves his retreat, like a lion his thicket; their land will be turned into a desert before the fury of the destroyer, before the anger of the Lord.

Jeremiah 26

¹ At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the house of the Lord and speak to those from all the cities of Judah who come to worship in the house of the Lord all the words that I have commanded you to speak to them, do not omit a word. ³ Perhaps they will listen and each turn from their evil ways, then I will relent of the harm I intended to do to them because of the wickedness of their actions. ⁴ You shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: If you do not obey me, by following the law that I have set before you, ⁵ by listening to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, whom I sent again and again, but whom you have not listened to, ⁶ I will treat this house like Shiloh and I will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. ⁷ The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of the Lord. ⁸ And when Jeremiah had finished saying all that the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people, the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him, saying, “You shall die.”. ⁹ Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord, saying: This house will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate and without inhabitants? And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. ¹⁰ The princes of Judah, having learned of these things, went up from the king's house to the house of the Lord and sat down at the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the Lord. ¹¹ Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and all the people, “This man deserves to die, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”. ¹² And Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people, saying, “It is the Lord who has sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the things that you have heard.”. ¹³ Now, improve your ways and your works and listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent from the evil he has pronounced against you. ¹⁴ As for me, here I am in your hands; do with me as seems good and right in your eyes. ¹⁵ Just know that if you kill me, it will be innocent blood that you will shed on yourselves, on this city and its inhabitants, for truly, the Lord has sent me to you to make you hear all these words. ¹⁶ Then the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.”. ¹⁷ And some of the elders of the land stood up and said to the whole assembly of the people: ¹⁸ Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and he spoke thus to all the people of Judah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins, and the Temple Mount a wooded hill. ¹⁹ Did Hezekiah, king of Judah, and all Judah put him to death? Did they not fear the Lord? Did they not plead with the Lord? And the Lord relented from what he had pronounced against them. And we would be committing a great sin to the detriment of our souls. ²⁰ There was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah, son of Shemei, from Cariathariah; he prophesied against this city and against this land exactly the same things as Jeremiah. ²¹ King Jehoiakim, all his valiant men, and all his princes heard his words, and the king sought to have him killed. Uriah learned of this, became afraid, and fled to Egypt. ²² But King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt, Elnathan, son of Achobor, and men with him, to Egypt. ²³ They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed with the sword and threw his body into a common grave. ²⁴ But the hand of Ahicam, son of Shaphan, supported Jeremiah, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Jeremiah 27

¹ At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² This is what the Lord said to me: Make yourself chains and yokes and put them on your neck. ³ Then send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, through the ambassadors who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah, king of Judah. ⁴ Give them a message for their masters, saying: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: This is what you are to say to your masters: ⁵ It is I who, by my power and by my outstretched arm, made the earth, man, and the animals that are on the face of the earth, and I give it to whomever I please. ⁶ And now I have given all these lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, my servant; I have even given him the animals of the field to serve him. ⁷ All nations will be subject to him, to his son, and to his son's son, until the time comes for his own country, and for many nations and great kings to subject him. ⁸ The nation and kingdom that will not submit to him, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish with the sword, with famine, and with plague, declares the Lord, until I have put an end to it by his hand. ⁹ And you, do not listen to your prophets, nor your diviners, nor your dreams, nor your auguries, nor your magicians, who tell you: You will not be subject to the king of Babylon, ¹⁰ for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you, so that you will be driven out of your country, so that I will expel you and you will perish. ¹¹ But the nation that submits to the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let rest in its own land. This is the Lord’s declaration; it will cultivate it and dwell there. ¹² And to Zedekiah, king of Judah, I spoke according to all these words, saying: Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and you will live. ¹³ Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague, as the Lord has said of the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? ¹⁴ Do not listen to the words of the prophets who tell you, “You will not be subject to the king of Babylon.” For they are prophesying lies to you. ¹⁵ for I did not send them, declares the Lord, and they prophesy falsely in my name, so that I may drive you out and you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you. ¹⁶ And to the priests and to all these people I will speak in these terms: Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you in these terms: Behold, the articles of the house of the Lord will soon be brought back from Babylon, for it is a lie that they prophesy to you. ¹⁷ Do not listen to them, submit to the king of Babylon and you will live. Why should this city be left in isolation? ¹⁸ If they are prophets, if the word of the Lord is with them, let them intercede with the Lord of hosts so that the articles that remain in the house of the Lord, in the house of the kings of Judah and in Jerusalem, may not go to Babylon. ¹⁹ For this is what the Lord Almighty says concerning the pillars, the sea, the bases, and the other utensils that remain in this city:, ²⁰ that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, did not take, when he carried captive from Jerusalem to Babylon, Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. ²¹ For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says concerning the articles that remain in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: ²² They will be carried off to Babylon and they will remain there until the day I visit them, declares the Lord, and I will bring them up and return to this place.

Jeremiah 28

¹ In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year, in the fifth month, the prophet Hananiah, son of Azure, from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the Lord, in the presence of the priests and all the people: ² Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. ³ In two years I will bring back to this place all the articles of the house of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took from this place and carried off to Babylon, ⁴ and I will bring back to this place Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. ⁵ And Jeremiah the prophet answered Hananiah the prophet, in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. ⁶ Jeremiah the prophet said: Amen. So be it, Lord. May the Lord fulfill the words you have just prophesied, by bringing back from Babylon to this place the articles of the house of the Lord and all the captives. ⁷ However, listen to this word that I speak in your ears and in the ears of all the people: ⁸ The prophets who were before me and before you, from ancient times, prophesied to many countries and great kingdoms the war, misfortune and plague. ⁹ As for the prophet who prophesies peace, It will be when the word of this prophet is fulfilled that he will be recognized as the prophet truly sent by the Lord. ¹⁰ Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. ¹¹ And Hananiah said in the presence of all the people, “Thus says the Lord: In two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.” And Jeremiah the prophet departed. ¹² And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from Jeremiah the prophet's neck, saying: ¹³ Go, speak to Hananiah in these words: Thus says the Lord: You have broken a yoke of wood and made in its place a yoke of iron. ¹⁴ For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am putting an iron yoke on the necks of all these nations, so that they will be subject to Nebuchadnezzar and they will be subject to him; I have even given him the wild animals. ¹⁵ Then Jeremiah the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: Listen, Hananiah: the Lord did not send you, and you have caused this people to trust in lies. ¹⁶ Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I am sending you away from the face of the earth; this very year you will die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord. ¹⁷ And Hananiah the prophet died that same year, in the seventh month.

Jeremiah 29

¹ Here is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders in captivity, to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon, ² after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the carpenters, and the metalworkers had left Jerusalem: ³ He sent it by Elasa, son of Shaphan, and Gamarias, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, had sent to Babylon to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. She said: ⁴ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all the captives I have exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruit. ⁶ Take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters husbands so that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply in this land and do not decrease. ⁷ Seek the welfare of the city to which I have sent you into captivity and pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will be your welfare. ⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not be deceived by your prophets who are among you, nor by your diviners, and do not listen to the dreams that you have for yourselves. ⁹ For they are prophesying falsely to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord., ¹⁰ For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill my promise to you, bringing you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the thoughts I have for you, declares the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² You will call on me and you will come and you will pray to me and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and you will find me, because you will seek me with all your heart. ¹⁴ And I will let myself be found by you. This is the Lord’s declaration: I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have banished you. This is the Lord’s declaration: I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you. ¹⁵ But, you say, the Lord raised up prophets for us in Babylon. ¹⁶ This is what the Lord says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne, all the people who live in this city, and your brothers who did not go into exile with you: ¹⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: I will send against them the sword, famine and plague; I will treat them like the detestable figs which cannot be eaten, so bad are they. ¹⁸ I will pursue them with the sword, famine, and plague, and I will make them an object of terror in all the kingdoms of the earth, an object of cursing, of amazement, of mockery, and of reproach, among all the nations where I have driven them: ¹⁹ because they did not listen to my words, declares the Lord, even though I sent them my servants the prophets, sending them again and again, and you did not listen, declares the Lord. ²⁰ Therefore, listen to the word of the Lord, all you captives whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. ²¹ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says concerning Ahab son of Colias and Zedekiah son of Maasiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name: I am going to hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your very eyes. ²² A curse will be extracted from them among all the captives of Judah who are in Babylon, saying: May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, ²³ because they committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with women of their neighbor and by speaking lies in my name, which I did not command them, and I know it and I am a witness, declares the Lord. ²⁴ And to Shemeiah the Nehelamite, you shall say: ²⁵ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You sent letters in your name to all the people in Jerusalem, to Zephaniah son of Maaziah the priest, and to all the priests, saying: ²⁶ The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada the priest, so that there may be overseers in the house of the Lord for every man who acts as a prophet, so that you may put him in stocks or in the stocks. ²⁷ And now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who prophesies to you? ²⁸ Thanks to this, he was able to send us to tell Babylon: It will be a long time, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their fruits. ²⁹ Zephaniah the priest read this letter before Jeremiah the prophet. ³⁰ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in these words: ³¹ Send word to all the exiles: This is what the Lord says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and led you to trust in a lie, ³² Because of this, this is what the Lord says: I will punish Shemeiah the Nehelamite and his descendants; he will not have any of his people living among his people, nor will he see the good I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.

Jeremiah 30

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in these words: ² Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you. ³ For behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah, says the Lord, and I will bring them back into the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. ⁴ These are the words that the Lord has spoken concerning Israel and Judah: ⁵ Thus says the Lord: We have heard a cry of terror: it is dread and there is no peace. ⁶ Ask and see if a male gives birth. Why do I see all the men with their hands on their hips, like a woman giving birth, and why have all their faces turned livid? ⁷ Woe to you, for great is that day, and there is no like it. It is a time of anguish for Jacob, but he shall be delivered from it. ⁸ And it will happen on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck and burst your bonds. Foreigners will no longer enslave you, ⁹ but they will be subject to the Lord their God and to David their king, whom I will raise up for them. ¹⁰ Therefore do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, declares the Lord; do not be dismayed, Israel, for behold, I will bring you out of a distant land and your descendants out of the land of their exile. Jacob will return and be at ease and secure, with no one to frighten him. ¹¹ For I am with you, declares the Lord, to save you; I will destroy all the nations where I have scattered you. But I will not destroy you, but I will discipline you according to justice, and I will not leave you unpunished. ¹² For thus says the Lord: Your wound is incurable, your injury is painful, ¹³ No one pleads your case to have your wound bandaged; there is no remedy that can heal you. ¹⁴ All your lovers have forgotten you; they do not care for you. For I have struck you as one strikes an enemy with a cruel punishment because of the multitude of your iniquities, because your sins have increased. ¹⁵ Why cry out because of your injury, because your illness is incurable? It is because of the multitude of your iniquities and because your sins have increased that I have done these things to you. ¹⁶ Therefore all those who devour you will be devoured, all your oppressors will go into captivity, those who plunder you will be plundered, and I will give over to plunder all those who plunder you. ¹⁷ For I will bind up your wounds, I will heal them, declares the Lord, for you are called Rejected, Zion, for whom no one cares. ¹⁸ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will restore the tents of Jacob and have compassion on their dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt on its hill and the palace restored in its place. ¹⁹ From them will come songs of praise and shouts of joy. I will multiply them and they will no longer be fewer; I will glorify them and they will no longer be despised. ²⁰ Her sons will be as before, her assembly will be established before me, and I will punish all her oppressors. ²¹ Its leader will be one of its own, and its ruler will come from within its ranks; I will bring him forth, and he will draw near to me, for who is the man who would set his heart to draw near to me? This is the word of the Lord. ²² And you will be my people, and I will be your God. ²³ Behold, the Lord's storm, his fury, is about to break out; the tempest is rushing forth, it will fall upon the head of the wicked. ²⁴ The fire of the Lord's anger will not turn back until he has acted and accomplished the purposes of his heart; at the end of time you will understand this.

Jeremiah 31

¹ At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people. ² Thus says the Lord: He found favor in the wilderness, the people who escaped the sword; I will give Israel rest. ³ The Lord appeared to me from afar. I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have prolonged my life for you. mercy. ⁴ I will build you again and you will be rebuilt, virgin Israel; you will again adorn yourself with your tambourines and advance in the midst of joyful dances. ⁵ You will again plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; those who plant will plant and they will harvest. ⁶ For the day is coming when the watchmen will cry out on the mountain of Ephraim: Arise, let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God. ⁷ For thus says the Lord: Shout for joy over Jacob, exult for the first of the nations, make yourselves heard, sing praises and say: Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel. ⁸ Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north, I will gather them from the ends of the earth. Among them will be the blind and the lame, the pregnant woman and she who is in labor; they will return here in great multitudes. ⁹ They will return weeping, I will bring them back amid their supplications, I will lead them to flowing waters, by a level path where they will not stumble, for I have been a father to Israel and Ephraim is my firstborn. ¹⁰ Nations, hear the word of the Lord and proclaim it to the distant islands, say: He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd keeps his flock. ¹¹ For the Lord has redeemed Jacob; he has delivered him from the hand of one stronger than he. ¹² They will come with shouts of joy to the height of Zion, they will stream to the bounty of the Lord, to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil, to the sheep and the cattle; their soul will be like a watered garden, and they will no longer languish. ¹³ Then the young girl will rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old men together; I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, I will gladden them after their sorrows. ¹⁴ I will satisfy the souls of the priests with fat, and my people will be filled with my bounty, declares the Lord. ¹⁵ Thus says the Lord: A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted, for her children, because they are no more. ¹⁶ Thus says the Lord: Refrain your voice from lamenting and your eyes from weeping, for your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord, they will return from the land of the enemy. ¹⁷ There is hope for your last days, declares the Lord, and your children will return to their borders. ¹⁸ I heard Ephraim groaning: You have chastised me, and I have been chastised, like an untamed young bull; restore me, and I will return, for you are the Lord my God. ¹⁹ For after I turned away, I repented, and after I understood, I struck my thigh; I am ashamed and confused, for I bear the reproach of my youth. ²⁰ Is Ephraim then my dear son, my beloved child? For though I speak against him, I remember him again. Therefore my heart is moved for him; yes, I will have mercy on him, declares the Lord. ²¹ Set up signs for yourself, lay down milestones for yourself, pay attention to the road, to the path you have walked. Return, virgin of Israel, return here, to your cities. ²² How long will you wander, rebellious daughter? For the Lord has created a new thing on earth: a woman will embrace a man. ²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: This word shall again be spoken in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I restore their captivity: May the Lord bless you, dwelling place of righteousness, mountain of holiness. ²⁴ Judah and all its cities will live there, along with farmers and herders. ²⁵ For I will give drink to the thirsty soul and satisfy the faint soul. ²⁶ Then I woke up and saw that my sleep had been peaceful. ²⁷ The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of animals. ²⁸ And it will come to pass: as I watched over them to uproot and to tear down, to ruin, to destroy and to harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹ In those days people will no longer say: “The fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”, ³⁰ But each will die for their iniquity; every man who eats sour grapes will have his teeth set on edge. ³¹ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”, ³² not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, a covenant they broke, although I was their husband. ³³ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. ³⁴ No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sin no more. ³⁵ Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun to shine by day and establishes laws for the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts is his name. ³⁶ If these laws ever cease before me, declares the Lord, then the descendants of Israel will also cease forever to be a nation before me. ³⁷ Thus says the Lord: If the heavens can be measured above and the foundations of the earth can be searched below, then I will also reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done, declares the Lord. ³⁸ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for the Lord, from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.”. ³⁹ The measuring line will be drawn in a straight line up the hill of Gareb and it will turn towards Goa. ⁴⁰ And the whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley and as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, toward the east, shall be holy places to the Lord and shall never be desolate or destroyed.

Jeremiah 32

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah. It was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. ² Then the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the house of the king of Judah. ³ For Zedekiah, king of Judah, had imprisoned him, saying to him, “Why do you prophesy, saying: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it,’”, ⁴ And Zedekiah, king of Judah, will not escape the hands of the Chaldeans; he will certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will speak to him face to face, and his eyes will see his eyes. ⁵ And Nebuchadnezzar will take Zedekiah to Babylon, and he will remain there until I visit him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed. ⁶ And Jeremiah said: The word of the Lord came to me in these words: ⁷ Here is Hanamel, son of Shellum, your uncle, who comes to you to say: Buy my field which is in Anathoth for you have the right of redemption to buy it. ⁸ And Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me in the courtyard of the guard, according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, in the land of Benjamin, for you have the right of inheritance and the right of redemption; buy it then.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. ⁹ And I bought from Hanamel, son of my uncle, the field which is in Anathoth and I weighed out the silver to him, seventeen shekels of silver. ¹⁰ Then I executed the deed and sealed it, I took witnesses and I weighed the money in the balance. ¹¹ Then I took the deed of acquisition, the one that was sealed, containing the stipulations and clauses, and the one that was open. ¹² And I handed over the deed of acquisition to Baruch, son of Neri, son of Maasiah, in the presence of Hanamel, son of my uncle, and in the presence of the witnesses who had signed the deed of acquisition, and in the presence of all the Jews who were sitting in the courtyard of the guard. ¹³ And I gave this order to Baruch in their presence: ¹⁴ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, this sealed deed of acquisition and this open deed, and put them in an earthen vessel so that they may be preserved for a long time. ¹⁵ For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land. ¹⁶ After I had handed over the deed of purchase to Baruch, son of Neri, I addressed this prayer to the Lord: ¹⁷ Ah, Lord God, it is you who made heaven and earth by your great power and outstretched arm, nothing will be impossible for you. ¹⁸ It is you who show mercy to thousands and who pay the wages of the iniquity of the fathers in the bosom of their children, after them, great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, ¹⁹ Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of Adam, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his works. ²⁰ It was you who performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and to this day in Israel and among men, and who made a name for yourself that we see today. ²¹ It was you who brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt, with signs and wonders, by your mighty hand and outstretched arm, and by spreading great terror, ²² and you gave them this land, which you had sworn to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. ²³ They entered it, they took possession of it, but they did not listen to your voice, they did not walk in your law, and all that you had commanded them to do, they did not do, and you brought all these misfortunes upon them. ²⁴ See, siege ramps are coming up to the city to take it, and the city will be handed over to the Chaldeans who attack it with the sword, famine, and plague; what you have said is happening and you see it. ²⁵ And you, Lord God, said to me: Buy this field for money and take witnesses, and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in these words: ²⁷ I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is there anything impossible for me? ²⁸ Therefore, thus says the Lord, behold, I am going to deliver this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. ²⁹ The Chaldeans who attack this city will enter it, they will set fire to this city and they will burn it, as well as the houses on the roofs of which incense has been offered to Baal and libations made to other gods, in order to anger me. ³⁰ For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth, and the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord., ³¹ for this city has only aroused my anger and fury from the day they built it until this day, so that I may remove it from my sight, ³² because of all the evil that the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their leaders, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ³³ They turned their backs on me, not their faces, and when I instructed them, instructing them from the morning onwards, they did not listen to receive the instruction. ³⁴ And they have placed their abominations in the house that bears my name, to defile it. ³⁵ They built the high places of Baal in the valley of the son of Hinnom, making their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech: something I had not commanded them and it had not entered my mind, doing this abomination to make Judah sin. ³⁶ Now therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning this city of which you say: It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and plague: ³⁷ Behold, I will gather them from all the countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my indignation, and in my great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and I will make them dwell there in safety. ³⁸ They will be my people and I will be their God. ³⁹ I will give them one heart and make them follow one way, so that they may always fear me, for their own happiness and that of their children after them. ⁴⁰ I will make an everlasting covenant with them, not to turn away from them, ceasing to do them good, and I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. ⁴¹ I will take joy in doing good to them and I will faithfully plant them on this land, with all my heart and all my soul. ⁴² For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought upon this people all these great calamities, so I will bring upon them all these blessings of which I speak concerning them. ⁴³ And we will buy fields in this land of which you say: It is a desolate land, where there is no longer man or beast, it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. ⁴⁴ Fields will be bought for money, deeds will be drawn up, sealed, and witnesses will be taken, in the land of Benjamin and in the vicinity of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, in the hill towns, in the towns of the Shephelah and in the towns of the Negev, for I will bring back the captives, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 33

¹ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, in these words: ² Thus says the Lord who does this, the Lord who conceives it to execute it, the Lord is his name: ³ Call upon me and I will answer you; I will reveal to you great and inaccessible things that you do not know. ⁴ For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the king of Judah, which were destroyed to face the war machines and the sword:, ⁵ and concerning those who will fight the Chaldeans, to fill these houses with the corpses of men, whom I strike in my anger and fury and because of whose wickedness I hide my face from this city. ⁶ Behold, I will put a bandage on her and heal her, and I will show them an abundance of peace and security. ⁷ I will bring back the exiles of Judah and the exiles of Israel and restore them as they were before. ⁸ I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me, I will forgive them all their iniquities, by which they have offended me, by which they have rebelled against me. ⁹ And the name of this city will be for me a name of joy, praise, and glory among all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good that I will do for them; they will be afraid and tremble at all the happiness and prosperity that I will give them. ¹⁰ Thus says the Lord: In this place of which you say, “It is a desolate wasteland, without man or beast,” and in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, which lie desolate, without man or inhabitant or beast, ¹¹ The shouts of joy and gladness, the songs of bridegroom and bride, the voices of those who say: “Praise the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good; his love endures forever.” From those who bring their sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord. For I will restore the exiles from this land, so that they may be as in the beginning, says the Lord. ¹² Thus says the Lord of hosts: There will again be in this place, a desert, without man or beast, and in all its cities, shelters for shepherds to rest their flocks there. ¹³ In the cities of the mountain and in the cities of the Shephelah and in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and in the vicinity of Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says the Lord. ¹⁴ “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will fulfill the promise I made concerning the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”. ¹⁵ In those days and at that time I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, who will execute justice and righteousness on the earth. ¹⁶ In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell securely, and it will be called the Lord our righteousness. ¹⁷ For thus says the Lord: David will never lack a descendant to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. ¹⁸ And the Levite priests will never lack a man before me to offer the burnt offering, to burn the grain offering, and to make the sacrifice every day. ¹⁹ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in these words: ²⁰ Thus says the Lord: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed times, ²¹ then also my covenant will be broken with David my servant, so that he will no longer have a son to reign on his throne and with the Levite priests who serve me. ²² As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and as the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister to me. ²³ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in these words: ²⁴ Have you not seen what this people says, saying: “The Lord has rejected the two families he had chosen.” Thus they despise my people, to the point that, before them, they are no longer a nation. ²⁵ Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with the day and the night, and if I have not set down the laws of heaven and earth, ²⁶ I will also reject the descendants of Jacob and of David my servant, to the point of no longer choosing leaders from among his descendants, for the race of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for I will restore the captives and have compassion on them.

Jeremiah 34

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, with all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth subject to his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its dependent cities, in these terms: ² Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and say to him: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it. ³ And you will not escape his hand, for you will certainly be taken and delivered into his hands; your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he will speak to you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. ⁴ However, listen to the word of the Lord, Zedekiah, king of Judah, this is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword. ⁵ You will die in peace, and just as incense was burned for your ancestors, the former kings who preceded you, so it will be burned for you, and people will mourn over you, saying: Alas, Lord; for I have spoken this word, declares the Lord. ⁶ Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem. ⁷ Now the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were still standing, against Lachish and against Azekah, for of the cities of Judah, fortified cities, there were only these left. ⁸ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people of Jerusalem to proclaim their freedom, ⁹ so that each man would set free his slave and each man his maidservant, Hebrew or Hebrew woman, and that no one would hold a Judean brother in bondage. ¹⁰ All the chiefs and all the people, who had entered into this agreement, agreed to send away each of their slaves and each of their maids free, so as not to hold them in servitude any longer; they agreed and sent them away. ¹¹ But then they changed their minds and brought back the slaves, men and women, whom they had set free and forced them to become slaves and servants again. ¹² And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ¹³ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying to them: ¹⁴ At the end of seven years, each of you must set free his Hebrew brother who was sold to you; he must serve you for six years, and then you must set him free from your home. But your fathers did not listen to me; they did not pay attention. ¹⁵ Today you returned and did what is right in my eyes, proclaiming liberty, each for his neighbor, and you made an agreement in my presence, in the house that bears my name. ¹⁶ But you have changed your minds and you have profaned my name, by bringing back each of your slaves and each of your maids, whom you had freed and restored to their own devices, and by forcing them to become your slaves and maids again. ¹⁷ Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, each for his brother and each for his neighbor; behold, I proclaim liberty to you. The Lord declares: I will send you back to the sword, to plague, and to famine, and I will make you an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ And the men who have transgressed my agreement, who have not carried out the terms of the agreement they made in my presence, I will make them like the young bull they cut in two to pass between the pieces: ¹⁹ the leaders of Judah and the leaders of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the young bull, ²⁰ I will deliver them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their lives, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ²¹ And Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their lives, into the hands of the army of Babylon, which has departed from you. ²² Behold, I give orders, oracle of the Lord, and I will bring them back against this city; they shall fight against it, they shall take it and burn it, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolate wasteland without inhabitants.

Jeremiah 35

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, in these words: ² Go to the Rechabites and speak to them. Bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of the rooms, and offer them wine to drink. ³ So I took Jezonia, son of Jeremiah, son of Habsanias, his brothers, all his sons, and all the family of the Rechabites. ⁴ and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, son of Jegdelias, the man of God, near the chamber of the princes and above the chamber of Maaziah, son of Shellum, the gatekeeper. ⁵ I placed before the sons of the family of the Rechabites vases filled with wine and cups and said to them, “Drink wine.”. ⁶ But they said, “We do not drink wine because Jonadab, son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.’”, ⁷ and you shall not build houses, you shall not sow, you shall not plant vineyards, nor own any, but you shall dwell in tents all your days, so that you may live many days in the land where you are as strangers. ⁸ So we have observed the word of Jonadab, son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, so that we never drink wine, we, our wives, our sons, our daughters. ⁹ So that we do not build houses to dwell in, nor do we have vineyards, fields, or sown land. ¹⁰ We live in tents, we obey and act according to everything that Jonadab, our father, commanded us. ¹¹ And when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came up against that land, we said, “Come, let us retreat to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and the army of…” Syria and we remained in Jerusalem.  ¹² And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in these words: ¹³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Will you not accept instruction by listening to my words, declares the Lord? ¹⁴ We have observed the words of Jonadab, son of Rechab, who commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this day, in obedience to their father's order. And I have spoken to you, spoken again and again, and you have not listened to me. ¹⁵ I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them again and again, saying, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways, amend your conduct, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land that I have given to you and to your fathers.” But you did not pay attention or listen to me. ¹⁶ Yes, the sons of Jonadab, son of Rechab, have observed the commandment that their father gave them, and this people does not listen to me. ¹⁷ Therefore, this is what the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, says: “I am going to bring on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disasters I have spoken about them, because I spoke to them and they did not listen to me, I called to them and they did not answer me.”. ¹⁸ And Jeremiah said to the family of the Rechabites: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and have kept all his commandments and acted according to all that he commanded you, ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack descendants who stand before me. 

Jeremiah 36

¹ In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. ³ Perhaps the house of Judah will hear of all the evil I intend to do to them, so that they will each turn from their evil ways and I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. ⁴ So Jeremiah called Baruch, son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote in the scroll, at Jeremiah’s dictation, all the words that the Lord had spoken to him. ⁵ And Jeremiah gave this order to Baruch, saying: I am prevented and cannot go to the house of the Lord. ⁶ You will therefore go and read, from the scroll which you have written at my dictation, the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people, in the house of the Lord, on the day of fasting, you will also read them in the hearing of all those of Judah who will have come from their cities. ⁷ Perhaps their supplication will reach the Lord and they will each turn from their evil ways, for great is the anger and indignation that the Lord has expressed against this people. ⁸ And Baruch, son of Neriah, did all that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him, reading from the book the words of the Lord in the house of the Lord. ⁹ In the fifth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people of Jerusalem and for all the people who would come from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. ¹⁰ Then Baruch read from the book the words of the Lord, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gamarias, son of Shaphan, the secretary, in the upper court, at the entrance of the New Gate of the house of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people. ¹¹ Micah, son of Gamarias, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord contained in the book. ¹² He went down to the king's house, to the secretary's room, and there were sitting all the officials: Elishama the secretary, Dalaiah son of Shemeiah, Elnathan son of Ahobor, Gamarias son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the officials. ¹³ And Micah told them all the words he had heard when Baruch read from the book in the ears of the people. ¹⁴ Then all the leaders sent word to Baruch: Judi, son of Nathanias, son of Selemiah, son of Chusi, saying, “Take the scroll from which you read in the hearing of the people and come.” So Baruch, son of Neriah, took the scroll and went to them. ¹⁵ They said to him: Sit down and read this book aloud to us. And Baruch read it aloud to them. ¹⁶ When they had heard all these words, they looked at each other in awe and said to Baruch: We must report all these words to the king. ¹⁷ Then they questioned Baruch in these terms: Tell us how you wrote down all these words that came out of his mouth. ¹⁸ Baruch told them: He dictated all these words to me from his mouth, and I wrote them down in the book with ink. ¹⁹ Then the leaders said to Baruch: Go, hide yourself and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are. ²⁰ They then went to the king's house in the courtyard, leaving the scroll in the room of Elisama, the secretary, and they told the king the whole story. ²¹ The king sent Judi to get the volume, and Judi took it from the room of Elizama, the secretary, and read it to the king and to all the chiefs who were standing before the king. ²² Now the king was sitting in the winter chamber in the ninth month, and the fire was lit before him. ²³ As soon as Judi had read three or four columns, the king would cut the book with the secretary's penknife and throw it into the fire of the brazier, until the entire volume was consumed by the fire of the brazier. ²⁴ The king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid and did not tear their clothes. ²⁵ Yet Elnathan, Dalaias and Gamarias had pleaded with the king not to burn the volume, but he had not listened to them. ²⁶ Then the king ordered Jeremiah, the king’s son, and Saraiah, the son of Ezriel, and Shelemiah, the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them. ²⁷ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, in these terms: ²⁸ Go and take another scroll and write on it all the first words that were in the first scroll that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned. ²⁹ And you shall say to Jehoiakim, king of Judah: Thus says the Lord: You have burned this scroll, saying: Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon will surely come, that he will devastate this land and that he will wipe out both men and beasts? ³⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning Jehoiakim, king of Judah: He will not have one of his own sitting on the throne of David, and his dead body will be thrown outside, to the heat by day and to the cold by night. ³¹ I will punish him, his descendants, and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring upon them, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have announced to them, but they have not listened to me. ³² Jeremiah then took another volume and gave it to Baruch, son of Neriah, the secretary, and Baruch wrote in it, at Jeremiah's dictation, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire, and many other similar words were added to it.

Jeremiah 37

¹ King Zedekiah, son of Josiah, reigned in place of Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim. Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had made him king over the land of Judah. ² and he did not listen, neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, to the words that the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. ³ King Zedekiah sent Juchal, son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaziah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: “Therefore intercede for us with the Lord our God.”. ⁴ Jeremiah was going back and forth among the people, and they had not yet put him in prison. ⁵ Now Pharaoh's army had left Egypt, and the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem, having learned the news, had withdrawn from Jerusalem. ⁶ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying: ⁷ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: You are to say this to the king of Judah who sent you to question me: Behold, the army of Pharaoh that came out to help you will return to its own land, to Egypt. ⁸ And the Chaldeans will return and they will fight against this city, they will take it and burn it. ⁹ Thus says the Lord: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, 'The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,' for they will not go away. ¹⁰ And even if you had defeated the entire army of the Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and only wounded remained among them, they would still rise up, each in his tent, and burn this city with fire. ¹¹ While the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's army, ¹² Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin, in order to receive his portion from there among the people. ¹³ But while he was at the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, named Jeriah, son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, arrested Jeremiah the prophet, saying: You are going over to the Chaldeans. ¹⁴ Jeremiah replied: That's false, I'm not going over to the Chaldeans. But Jerias wouldn't listen to him; he arrested Jeremiah and brought him before the officials. ¹⁵ And the leaders became enraged against Jeremiah, they beat him and put him in prison, in the house of Jonathan, the secretary, for they had made it a prison. ¹⁶ When Jeremiah had entered the lower dungeon, under the vaults, and had remained there for many days, ¹⁷ Zedekiah sent for him to be brought from there. He questioned him secretly in his house and said to him: Is there a word from the Lord? And Jeremiah answered: Yes, and he added: You will be handed over to the king of Babylon. ¹⁸ Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, against your servants, and against this people, that you have put me in the hands of the king?” prison ? ¹⁹ And where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying: The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land? ²⁰ And now listen, I beg you, O king, my lord. Let my supplication come before you: Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, to die there.  ²¹ King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be kept in the court of the prison and to give him a loaf of bread each day from Bakers' Street, until all the bread in the city was eaten. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the prison.

Jeremiah 38

¹ Then Shaphatias son of Mathan, Gedelias son of Pishr, Juchal son of Selemiah, and Pishr son of Melchiah heard the words that Jeremiah addressed to all the people, saying: ² Thus says the Lord: Whoever remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, or by plague, but whoever goes out to surrender to the Chaldeans shall live; his life shall be his prize, and he shall live. ³ Thus says the Lord: This city will be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it. ⁴ And the leaders said to the king: Let this man be put to death, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in the city and all the people by speaking these words to them, for this man is not seeking the good of these people, but their harm. ⁵ And King Zedekiah said: It is in your power, for the king can do nothing against you. ⁶ So they took Jeremiah and lowered him into the cistern of Melkias, the king's son, in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern; there was no water, only mud. And Jeremiah sank into the mud. ⁷ Abdemelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king's household, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. Now the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate. ⁸ Abd al-Melech came out of the king's house and spoke to the king in these terms: ⁹ O king, my lord, these men have acted wrongly in treating Jeremiah the prophet in this way; they have lowered him into the cistern, he will die of hunger there, for there is no more bread in the city. ¹⁰ And the king gave this order to Abd amelech the Ethiopian: Take thirty men here with you and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies. ¹¹ So Abd al-Melech took these men with him and went into the king's house, below the treasury. There he took some worn linens and old clothes and passed them down with ropes to Jeremiah into the cistern. ¹² And Abdemelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah: Put these worn-out cloths and old rags under your armpits, under the ropes. Jeremiah did so. ¹³ And they pulled him up with ropes and brought him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard. ¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and brought him to him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I have something to ask you; do not hide anything from me.”. ¹⁵ And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, will you not listen to me?”. ¹⁶ King Zedekiah secretly swore this oath to Jeremiah: “The Lord lives, he who gave us this life. I will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to these men who seek your life.”. ¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: If you go out to surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your household will live.”. ¹⁸ But if you do not go out to the officials of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, who will burn it down and you will not escape them. ¹⁹ And King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: I fear the Judeans who have gone over to the Chaldeans; I will be handed over to them and they will make fun of me. ²⁰ Jeremiah replied: They will not hand you over. Listen to the voice of the Lord in what I tell you, and it will go well with you and you will save your life. ²¹ But if you refuse to come out, here is what the Lord has revealed to me: ²² Here are all women Those who remained from the house of the king of Judah will be brought to the chiefs of the king of Babylon and they will say to you: Your friends have seduced and overpowered you, your feet have sunk into the mud and they have slipped away. ²³ And all your wives and children will be taken to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape them, but you will be captured by the king of Babylon and you will have burned this city. ²⁴ And Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: Let no one know anything about this conversation and you will not die. ²⁵ If the chiefs learn that I have spoken with you and they come to you and say: Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death, ²⁶ You will answer them: I have presented my supplication to the king so that he will not send me back to the house of Jonathan, where I would die. ²⁷ All the leaders came to Jeremiah and questioned him; he answered them entirely according to the words that the king had prescribed for him, and they left him in peace because the conversation had not been heard. ²⁸ So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the capture of Jerusalem, and he was there when Jerusalem was captured.

Jeremiah 39

¹ In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with his whole army before Jerusalem and they besieged it. ² In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city. ³ All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and took their places at the middle gate: Nergal-Serezer, keeper of the treasury; Nabu-Sarsakim, chief of the eunuchs; Nergal-Serezer, chief of the Magi; and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ When Zedekiah, king of Judah, and all the fighting men saw them, they fled and left the city by night towards the road to the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they took the road to the plain. ⁵ But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Having captured him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, at Riblah in the land of Emath, and he pronounced judgments upon him. ⁶ The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the nobles of Judah. ⁷ Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with two bronze chains, to take him to Babylon. ⁸ Then the Chaldeans burned the king's house and the people's houses and demolished the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzardan, captain of the guards, carried captive to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, the deserters who had surrendered to him, and the rest of the people of the land who had remained there. ¹⁰ Nebuzardan, captain of the guards, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing and gave them vineyards and fields on that day. ¹¹ Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, gave an order to Nebuzardan, the captain of the guard, concerning Jeremiah in these terms: ¹² Take him, keep an eye on him and do not harm him, but act with him as he tells you. ¹³ Nebuzardan, chief of the guards, Nabusezban, chief of the eunuchs, and Nergal-Sereser, chief of the Magi, and all the chiefs of the king of Babylon ¹⁴ They sent and took Jeremiah from the courtyard of the guard and handed him over to Gedaliah, son of Ahicam, son of Shaphan, to take him to his house, and he remained among the people. ¹⁵ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, while he was confined in the courtyard of the guard, in these words: ¹⁶ Go, speak to Abd amelech the Ethiopian and tell him: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am going to carry out my words against this city for evil and not for good, and these things will be before your eyes on that day. ¹⁷ But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you will not be handed over to the men you fear. ¹⁸ I will surely deliver you and you will not fall by the sword; your life will be your prize, because you have trusted in me, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 40

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after Nebuzardan, the commander of the guard, had sent him from Ramah, having taken him captive when he was bound in chains in the midst of all the captives from Jerusalem and Judah who were being deported to Babylon. ²The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord your God had announced this disaster against this place.” ³ And he brought him, and the Lord did as he had said, because you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed his voice, this thing has happened to you. ⁴ And now, behold, I release you today from the chains that were on your hands. If it seems good to you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will keep my eyes on you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me to Babylon, leave it. Look, the whole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and proper to you. ⁵ As Jeremiah delayed his departure, he said, “Go back to Gedaliah son of Ahicam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and live with him among the people; or go wherever you please.” Then the captain of the guard gave him food and gifts and sent him away. ⁶ And Jeremiah went to Godolias at Maspha and stayed with him among the people left in the land. ⁷ When all the army commanders who were in the field, they and their men, had learned that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahicam, governor of the country and had entrusted the men to him, women and the children and the poor of the land who were not deported to Babylon, ⁸ They came to Godolias at Maspha, namely: Ishmael, son of Nathanias, Johanan and Jonathan, sons of Karea, Saraias, son of Tanehumeth, the sons of Ephoi, of Netophah and Jezoniah, son of the Maahathite, they and their men. ⁹ Godolias, son of Ahicam, son of Shaphan, said to them and their men with an oath: Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans, remain in the land, serve the king of Babylon and you will be well. ¹⁰ As for me, I am staying in Maspha to be under the orders of the Chaldeans who will come to you. And you, gather the wine, the fruit, and the oil, put them in your vessels, and settle in the cities you are occupying. ¹¹ All the Judeans who were in the land of Moab, among the Ammonites, and in Edom, and who heard in all those lands that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahicam, son of Shaphan, as their governor. ¹² Then all the Judeans returned from all the places where they had been driven and went to the land of Judah to Gedaliah at Ma'phah, and they gathered wine and fruit in abundance. ¹³ But Johanan, son of Carée, and all the commanders of the troops who were in the countryside, came to find Godolias at Maspha, ¹⁴ and said to him: Do you know that Baalis, king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael, son of Nathanias, to take your life? But Gedaliah, son of Ahicam, did not believe them. ¹⁵ Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Masphah, saying: “Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Natiniah, without anyone knowing. Why should he take your life and all the Jews who have gathered around you be scattered and the remnant of Judah perish?” ¹⁶ Godolias, son of Ahicam, said to Johanan, son of Karea: Do not do that, for what you say about Ishmael is false.

Jeremiah 41

¹ In the seventh month, Ishmael, son of Nathanaë, son of Elishama, of the royal line, came, accompanied by the king's officials and ten men, to Gedaliah, son of Ahicham, at Maspha, and they ate together at Maspha., ² And Ishmael, son of Nathaniah, arose, he and the ten men who were with him, and they struck down with the sword Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor of the land., ³ as well as all the Judeans who were with him, with Gedaliah, at Maspha, Ishmael also killed the Chaldeans who were there, the fighting men. ⁴ The second day after Godolias' murder, before anyone knew, ⁵ Eighty men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, with shaved beards, torn clothes, and cuts all over their bodies; they brought offerings and incense to present at the house of the Lord. ⁶ Ishmael, son of Nathanias, came out of Maspha to meet them, weeping, and when he reached them, he said to them: Come to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam. ⁷ But as soon as they entered the middle of the city, Ishmael, son of Nathanias, slaughtered them and threw them into the middle of the cistern, he and the men who were with him. ⁸ But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have hidden stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey in the fields.” So he stopped and did not kill them among their brothers. ⁹ The cistern into which Ishmael threw the corpses of the men he had struck down because of Gedaliah is the one that King Asa had made for Baasha, king of Israel; it is the one that Ishmael, son of Nathaniah, filled with corpses. ¹⁰ And Ishmael took captive the rest of the people who were at Maspha, the king's daughters and all the people who had remained at Maspha, to whom Nebuzardan, the commander of the guard, had appointed Gedaliah, son of Ahicham, as their leader; Ishmael, son of Nathaniah, took them captive and went to cross over to the Ammonites. ¹¹ Johanan, son of Kareus, and all the commanders of troops who were with him, having learned of all the evil that Ishmael, son of Nathanaë, had done, ¹² They took all their men and set out to fight Ishmael, son of Nathanias; they caught up with him near the great pool of Gibeon. ¹³ And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the troops who were with him, they rejoiced. ¹⁴ And all the people whom Ishmael was taking captive from Masphah turned around and came to join Johanan, son of Kareah. ¹⁵ But Ishmael, son of Nathanias, escaped with eight men before Johanan and went to the sons of Ammon. ¹⁶ And Johanan, son of Kareah, and all the commanders of the troops who were with him, took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael, son of Nathaniah, had brought from Masphah, after killing Gedaliah, son of Ahicham, men of war, women, children, and eunuchs, and they brought them back from Gibeon. ¹⁷ They went and stopped at the caravanserai of Chamaam, near Bethlehem, before retiring to Egypt, ¹⁸ far from the Chaldeans whom they feared, because Ishmael, son of Nathanias, had killed Gedaliah, son of Ahicam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor of the land.

Jeremiah 42

¹ Then all the commanders of the troops, as well as Johanan son of Kareah, Jezoniah son of Hosaiah, and all the people, both small and great, approached ² and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our supplication come before you; intercede for us with the Lord your God for all this remnant of Judah, for we are now few in number, as your eyes see us.”. ³ May the Lord, your God, show us the way we should follow and what we have to do. ⁴ Jeremiah the prophet answered them: I have heard, behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words, and all that the Lord answers you, I will tell you, hiding nothing from you. ⁵ They said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do everything according to the word that the Lord your God will send you to tell us.”. ⁶ Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send you, so that good may come to us, by obeying the voice of the Lord our God. ⁷ And after ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, ⁸ and he summoned Johanan, son of Carea, all the commanders of the troops who were with him, and all the people, both small and great, ⁹ And he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says, to whom you have sent me to present your supplication before him: ¹⁰ If you continue to remain in this country, I will establish you and not destroy you, I will plant you and not uproot you, for I relent of the evil I have done to you. ¹¹ Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you fear; do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand. ¹² I will grant you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and will allow you to return to your country. ¹³ If you say, “We will not remain in this land,” and you disobey the voice of the Lord your God, ¹⁴ If you say, “No, but we will go to the land of Egypt, where we will not see war, where we will not hear the sound of the trumpet, where we will not smell…” hunger And that's where we'll live., ¹⁵ Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you set your sights on Egypt to go there and enter to dwell there, ¹⁶ The sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you dread will cling to you there in Egypt, and there you will die. ¹⁷ All those who have turned their gaze toward Egypt to go there and to dwell there will die by the sword, by famine and by plague, and there will not be among them who will survive and escape the evil that I will bring upon them. ¹⁸ For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: As my anger and wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go into Egypt. You will become an object of execration, astonishment, cursing, and insult, and you will never see this place again. ¹⁹ Remnant of Judah, the Lord says to you: Do not enter Egypt, know well that I solemnly warn you today. ²⁰ For you were deceiving yourselves when you sent me to the Lord our God, saying, “Intercede for us with the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, declare to us, and we will do it.”. ²¹ I have declared this to you today, but you have not listened to the voice of the Lord your God, nor to anything that he sent me to communicate to you. ²² Know now, therefore, that you will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague, in the place where you have chosen to go and dwell. 

Jeremiah 43

¹ And when Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the Lord their God, all those words that the Lord their God had sent him to communicate to them, ² Azariah son of Osaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the proud men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying. The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘Do not go into Egypt to live there.’”. ³ But it is Baruch, son of Neriah, who is stirring you up against us, in order to hand us over to the Chaldeans, to kill us and to transport us to Babylon. ⁴ So Johanan, son of Kareah, all the commanders of troops and all the people did not listen to the voice of the Lord who commanded them to remain in the land of Judah. ⁵ But Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the troops took all the remnant of Judah, those who had returned from all the nations where they had been scattered, to live in the land of Judah, ⁶ men, women and children, the king's daughters and all the people that Nebuzardan, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah, son of Ahicham, son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch, son of Neriah. ⁷ They entered the land of Egypt, for they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, and they came as far as Tahnes. ⁸ And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah at Taphnes, saying: ⁹ Take large stones in your hand and hide them, in the presence of the men of Judah, in the cement of the brick platform that is at the entrance of Pharaoh's house in Tahnesh, ¹⁰ and tell them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am going to send and take Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, my servant, and I will place his throne upon these stones which I have hidden, and he shall spread his carpet upon them. ¹¹ He will come and strike the land of Egypt: those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, into captivity; those destined for the sword, to the sword. ¹² And I will set fire to the houses of the gods of Egypt, he will burn them down and take the gods captive, he will wrap himself in the land of Egypt, as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will come out of it peacefully. ¹³ He will smash the pillars of the house of the Sun which is in the land of Egypt and he will burn the houses of the gods of Egypt.

Jeremiah 44

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Judeans living in the land of Egypt, living in Migdol, Tahnesh, Noph, and the land of Phatures, in these words: ² This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah; today they lie desolate and without inhabitants, ³ because of the evil they did to provoke me to anger, by going to offer incense and homage to foreign gods which neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew. ⁴ I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them again and again, to tell you: Do not do this abomination that I hate. ⁵ But they did not listen, they did not lend an ear to turn from their wickedness and no longer offer incense to foreign gods. ⁶ Therefore my indignation and anger fell upon them and were kindled against the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, which became a desolate and deserted place, as can be seen today. ⁷ And now, this is what the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing this great harm to yourselves, allowing yourselves to be cut off from Judah, your men and women, your children and infants, leaving no remnant?, ⁸ to provoke me to anger by the works of your hands, by offering incense to foreign gods in the land of Egypt, where you have entered to live, in order to be exterminated and to become an object of cursing and reproach among all the peoples of the earth? ⁹ Have you forgotten the sins of your fathers, the sins of the kings of Judah, the sins of the women of Judah, your sins and the sins of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ They have not been contrite to this day, they have not been afraid, they have not walked in my law nor in my commandments which I set before you and before your fathers. ¹¹ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to turn my face against you, to your harm and to destroy all Judah.”. ¹² I will take the remnant of Judah, who have turned their gaze toward the land of Egypt to come and dwell there. They shall all be consumed in the land of Egypt and they shall fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, both small and great; they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall be an object of execration, of astonishment, of cursing, and of reproach. ¹³ I will visit those who remain in the land of Egypt, as I visited Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by plague. ¹⁴ None of the remnant of Judah will escape or survive, those who came to dwell here in the land of Egypt and to return to the land of Judah, where their desire compels them to return and dwell. For they will not return, except for a few survivors. ¹⁵ So all the men who knew that their wives were offering incense to foreign gods and all women gathered there in a great assembly, and all the people who remained in the land of Egypt, in Pathures, answered Jeremiah in these words: ¹⁶ As for the word that you spoke to us in the name of the Lord, we do not listen to you. ¹⁷ But we will certainly fulfill every promise we have made, by offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we did—we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials—in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of bread, we were happy, and we did not see the trouble. ¹⁸ But since we stopped offering incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, we lacked everything and were consumed by the sword and by famine. ¹⁹ And when we offered incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured libations to her, was it apart from our husbands that we made cakes to represent her and poured libations to her? ²⁰ Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people against men, against women And against those who had answered him in this way, he said to them: ²¹ Was it not the incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials and the people of the land, that the Lord remembered and that came up into his heart? ²² The Lord could not bear it any longer, because of the wickedness of your actions and the abominations you committed, and your country has become a desolate, devastated, and cursed place, where no one lives, as we see today. ²³ It is because you offered incense and sinned against the Lord and did not listen to the voice of the Lord, his laws, his ordinances and his precepts, that is why this misfortune has befallen you, as it is seen today. ²⁴ And Jeremiah said to all the people and to all women Listen to the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. ²⁵ This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and done with your hands, saying, “Yes, we will fulfill the vows we have made, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her.” Now then, fulfill your vows; do not fail to fulfill them. ²⁶ Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt. Behold, I swear by my great name, says the Lord: My name shall no more be spoken in all the land of Egypt by the mouth of any man of Judah saying, As the Lord God lives. ²⁷ Behold, I am watching over them, for their harm and not for their good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until their extermination. ²⁸ And those who escape the sword, few in number, will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah, those who came to Egypt to live there, will know whose word will be fulfilled, mine or theirs. ²⁹ And this, declares the Lord, will be the sign to you that I will visit you in this place, so that you may know that my words will certainly come true to your harm: ³⁰ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I delivered Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy, who sought his life. 

Jeremiah 45

¹ The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch, son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in the book at Jeremiah's dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah, in these words: ² This is what the Lord, King of Israel, says about you, Baruch: ³ You say: Woe to me, for the Lord has added to my sorrow pain; I am weary with my groaning and find no rest. ⁴ Then you will say to him: This is what the Lord says: Behold, what I have built I will destroy, what I have planted I will uproot, and this is all this land. ⁵ And you would seek great things for yourself. Do not seek them. For behold, I am bringing disaster on all flesh, declares the Lord, but I will give you your life as a prize in all the places where you go. 

Jeremiah 46

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the pagan nations. ² On Egypt, against the army of Pharaoh Necho, king of Egypt, which was near the river Euphrates, at Carchemish, and which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, son of Josiah, king of Judah. ³ Prepare your shield and buckler and march into battle. ⁴ Harness the horses, mount up, riders. To your ranks, you who wear helmets. Sharpen your lances, don your breastplates. ⁵ What do I see? They are struck with terror, they turn their backs. Their warriors are defeated, they flee without looking back. Terror on all sides. The Lord's oracle. ⁶ Let not the swift man flee, let not the valiant escape. In the north, on the banks of the Euphrates River, they stumbled, they fell. ⁷ Who is it that rises like the Nile, whose waters surge like rivers? ⁸ It is Egypt that is rising, like the Nile, whose waters surge like rivers. She said: I will rise up, I will cover the earth, I will destroy the cities and their inhabitants. ⁹ Mount up, horses. Chariots, rush forth. Onward, warriors. Ethiopians and Libyans who wield the shield, Lydians who wield and draw the bow. ¹⁰ But this day belongs to the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance to avenge himself on his enemies. The sword devours and is satisfied, it drinks their blood. For it is a sacrifice to the Lord God of hosts, in the land of the north, by the river Euphrates. ¹¹ Go up to Gilead and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt. In vain you multiply remedies; there is no healing for you. ¹² The nations have heard of your shame, and your cries of distress fill the earth. For warrior against warrior, they both fall. ¹³ The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the coming of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, to strike the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ Publish it in Egypt, make it heard in Migdol, make it heard in Noph and in Tahnes, say: To your ranks, stand ready, already the sword devours around you. ¹⁵ What, your hero is overthrown! He could not stand, for the Lord threw him to the ground. ¹⁶ He multiplies those who stumble, they fall one upon another and they say: Let us rise, let us return to our people and to our native land, away from the murderous sword. ¹⁷ There they shout: Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is lost; he has let the favorable time pass. ¹⁸ I am alive, declares the king whose name is Lord of hosts: Like Tabor among the mountains, like Carmel above the sea, he is coming. ¹⁹ Prepare your baggage, captive, inhabitant, daughter of Egypt, for Noph will become a desert, it will be burned and without inhabitants. ²⁰ Egypt is a very beautiful heifer, a horsefly comes, comes from the north. ²¹ Her mercenaries in her midst are like fattened calves. They too turn their backs, they all flee together, they do not resist, for the day of their calamity has come upon them, the time of their punishment. ²² Her voice is like the sound of a snake slithering away, for they came in force, they arrived at her house with axes, like woodcutters. ²³ They have cut down his forest, declares the Lord, when it was impenetrable, for they are more numerous than locusts and cannot be counted. ²⁴ She is confused, the daughter of Egypt, she has been delivered into the hands of a northern people. ²⁵ The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, said: Behold, I am going to visit Amun of Noh and Pharaoh and Egypt and its gods and its kings and Pharaoh and those who trust in him. ²⁶ And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants. And afterward, it will be inhabited as in the days of old, declares the Lord. ²⁷ Therefore, do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, nor be dismayed, Israel. For behold, I will bring you out of a distant land, and your descendants out of the land of their exile. Jacob will return and be at ease and secure, with no one to frighten him. ²⁸ And you, do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, declares the Lord, for I am with you. I will make a complete extermination of all the nations where I have driven you. As for you, I will not completely exterminate you, but I will discipline you according to justice, and I will not leave you unpunished.

Jeremiah 47

¹ The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza. ² This is what the Lord says: “Behold, waters are rising from the north; they will become like an overflowing torrent and will engulf the land and everything in it, the city and its inhabitants. The people cry out, and all the inhabitants of the land wail.”. ³ At the sound of the hooves of his steeds, at the crash of his chariots, at the noise of his wheels, fathers no longer turn towards their children, so powerless are their hands. ⁴ It is because of the day that has come, when all the Philistines will be destroyed, all the last allies of Tyre and Sidon will be exterminated, for the Lord will destroy the Philistines, the remnants of the island of Caphtor. ⁵ Gaza has become bald, Ashkelon is ruined, along with the valley that surrounds them, how long will you cut yourself? ⁶ Ah, sword of the Lord, how long will you not rest? Return to your sheath, cease and be still. ⁷ How could you rest, when the Lord has given you his commands? To Ascalon and the seashore, that is where he directs it.

Jeremiah 48

¹ To Moab. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to Nabo, for it is laid waste; Cariathaim is covered with shame, it is captured; the fortress is covered with shame, it is demolished., ² The glory of Moab is no more. In Hezebon they plot evil against him: “Let us go and exterminate him from among the nations.” You too, Madmen, will be silenced; the sword marches behind you. ³ Cries are coming from Horonaim, devastation and great ruin. ⁴ Moab is broken, his grandchildren cry out. ⁵ Yes, at the ascent of Luith there is weeping; they climb it weeping. Yes, at the descent of Horonaim, cries of distress are heard. ⁶Flee, save your lives. May they be like heather in the moor. ⁷ For, since you have put your trust in your works and in your treasures, you too will be conquered, and Chamos will go into exile, with his priests and his princes, all together. ⁸ The destroyer will come against all the cities and not one city will escape, the valley will be ruined and the plateau ravaged, as the Lord has said. ⁹ Give wings to Moab, for it must fly away, its cities will be devastated, without inhabitants. ¹⁰ Cursed be he who half-heartedly does the work of the Lord. Cursed be he who refuses to shed blood by his sword. ¹¹ Moab has been at peace since its youth; it has rested on its lees; it has not been emptied from one vessel to another, nor has it gone into captivity. Therefore, its taste has remained and its fragrance has not faded. ¹² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will send to him those who will transfer him, and they will empty his vessels and break his jugs. ¹³ And Moab will be ashamed of Hamos, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in whom they trusted. ¹⁴ How can you say: We are warriors, valiant men in battle? ¹⁵ Moab is ravaged, its cities rise in smoke, the elite of its young men go down to the slaughter, oracle of the king, whose name is the Lord of armies. ¹⁶ The ruin of Moab is approaching; its calamity is coming with great haste. ¹⁷ Comfort him, all of you, his neighbors and all of you who know his name, say: How has such a strong staff, such a magnificent scepter, been broken? ¹⁸ Descend from your glory and sit on the dry land, inhabitant, daughter of Dibon, for the destroyer of Moab has come up against you, he has torn down your walls. ¹⁹ Stand on the road and observe, inhabitant of Aroer, question him who flees and her who escapes, say: What happened? ²⁰ Moab is confused, for it is overthrown. Wail and cry out. Proclaim on the Arnon that Moab is ravaged. ²¹ A judgment has come upon the land of the plain, upon Helon, upon Jasa, upon Mephaath, ²² on Dibon, on Nabo, on Beth-Deblathaim, ²³ on Caryathaim, on Beth-Gamul, on Beth-Maon, ²⁴ on Carioth, on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, both near and far. ²⁵ The horn of Moab is cut down and his arm is broken, declares the Lord. ²⁶ Make him drunk, for he has risen up against the Lord. Let Moab wallow in his vomit and become an object of ridicule, too. ²⁷ Was not Israel an object of ridicule to you? Was it caught with thieves, that every time you speak of it you nod your head? ²⁸ Abandon the cities, dwell in the rocks, inhabitants of Moab, and be like the dove that makes its nest above the gaping precipice. ²⁹ We have heard of the pride of Moab, the very proud, his haughtiness, his pride, his pride, and the pride of his heart. ³⁰ I too know, declares the Lord, his boasting and his empty words and his vain deeds. ³¹ That is why I lament over Moab, over all Moab I cry out, we groan over the people of Qir-Heres. ³² More than for Jazer, I weep for you, O vine of Sabama. Your branches reached beyond the sea, they touched the sea of Jazer. The destroyer has fallen upon your harvest and your vintage. ³³ Joy and joy has disappeared from the orchards and the land of Moab, I have dried up the wine from the vats, it is no longer trodden to the sound of hurrahs, the hurrah is no longer the hurrah. ³⁴ Because of the cry from Heshbon to Elealeh, to Jasa, they raise their cry, from Segor to Horonaim, to Eglath-Selisiah. For even the waters of Nemrim will dry up. ³⁵ I want to put an end to Moab, declares the Lord, to him who goes up to his high place and offers incense to his god. ³⁶ Therefore my heart mourns like a flute for Moab. Yes, my heart mourns like a flute for the people of Kir-Heres. Therefore their gain is lost. ³⁷ For every head is shaved and every beard cut off, on every hand there are incisions and on every hip there are hair shirts. ³⁸ On all the rooftops of Moab and in its squares there is only lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel that is no longer wanted, declares the Lord. ³⁹ How broken it is! Wail! How shamefully Moab has turned its back! Moab has become an object of ridicule and horror to all its neighbors. ⁴⁰ For thus says the Lord: Behold, he will soar on wings like an eagle, he will spread his wings over Moab. ⁴¹ Carioth is taken, the fortresses are carried away, and the heart of the warriors of Moab is, on this day, like the heart of a woman in labor. ⁴² Moab is cut off from the ranks of the peoples, because it has risen up against the Lord. ⁴³ Terror, a pit, and a snare are upon you, inhabitant of Moab, declares the Lord. ⁴⁴ He who flees from the object of terror will fall into the pit, and he who comes up from the pit will be caught in the net, for I am going to bring upon him, upon Moab, the year of his visitation, declares the Lord. ⁴⁵ In the shadow of Hesebon they stopped, the fleeing ones exhausted, but a fire came out of Hesebon and a flame from the midst of Sehon, it devoured the sides of Moab and the skull of the sons of tumult. ⁴⁶ Woe to you, Moab! The people of Hamos are lost, for your sons are taken into exile and your daughters into captivity. ⁴⁷ But I will bring back the captives of Moab at the end of days, declares the Lord, until the judgment of Moab is over.

Jeremiah 49

¹ Against the Ammonites. This is what the Lord says: Has Israel no son, no heir? Why then has Melchum taken possession of Gad, and why have his people settled in its cities? ² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will cause the battle cry to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites. It will become a heap of ruins, and its daughters will be given over to the fire, and Israel will inherit from those who inherited it, declares the Lord. ³ Wail, Hezebon, for Ai has been plundered; cry out, daughters of Rabbah, put on sackcloth, wail, wander along the walls, for Melchom is going into exile, and with him, his priests and his leaders. ⁴ Why boast of your valleys? Your valley is rich. Rebel daughter, you who trust in your treasures, saying: Who would dare come against me? ⁵ Behold, I bring terror against you, oracle of the Lord God of hosts, from all around you will be driven out, each straight ahead and no one will rally the fleeing. ⁶ But after that, I will bring back the captives of the children of Ammon, declares the Lord. ⁷ Against Edom, this is what the Lord Almighty says: Is there no more wisdom in Teman? Have the wise exhausted their counsel? Has their wisdom vanished? ⁸ Flee, turn back, huddle together, inhabitants of Dedan, for I will bring ruin upon Esau at the time of my visitation. ⁹ If grape harvesters come to your house, they leave nothing to glean; if they are night thieves, they plunder to their heart's content. ¹⁰ For it is I who have exposed Esau and uncovered his hiding places, and he can no longer hide; his race is ravaged, his brothers, his neighbors, and he is no more. ¹¹ Abandon your orphans, I will provide for them, and let your widows trust in me. ¹² For this is what the Lord says: “Those who were not to drink this cup will surely drink it, and you will be exempt? No, you will not be exempt; you will surely drink it.”. ¹³ For I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord: Bozrah shall become an object of astonishment and reproach, a desolate and cursed place, and all its cities shall be ruins forever. ¹⁴ I have heard the news from the Lord, and a messenger has been sent among the nations: Assemble yourselves and march against him. Rise up for battle. ¹⁵ For behold, I have made you small among the nations, despised among men. ¹⁶ The terror you inspired has led you astray, as has the pride of your heart, you who dwell in the clefts of the rocks, who occupy the summit of the hill. But though you raise your nest like an eagle, from there I will bring you down, declares the Lord. ¹⁷ Edom will be a cause of astonishment; all passers-by will be astonished and hiss at the sight of all its wounds. ¹⁸ It will be like the disaster of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns, says the Lord, no one will live there, no son of man will sojourn there. ¹⁹ Like a lion, behold, he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to the perpetual pasture; suddenly I will drive Edom out of it and establish there the one I have chosen. For who is like me? Who would provoke me, and what shepherd would stand against me? ²⁰ Listen then to the plan that the Lord has taken against Edom and the purposes that he has devised against the inhabitants of Teman: Yes, they will be led away like weak sheep, yes, their pasture will be in astonishment. ²¹ At the sound of their fall, the earth trembled, the sound of their voices could be heard as far as the Red Sea. ²² Behold, he rises and takes flight like the eagle, he spreads his wings over Bozrah, and the heart of the warriors of Edom is on that day like the heart of a woman in labor. ²³ Against Damascus. Hamath and Arphad are in confusion, because they have received bad news, they melt with fear, it is the stormy sea, which cannot calm down. ²⁴ Damascus is powerless, she turns to flee and terror seizes her, anguish and pains grip her, like a woman giving birth. ²⁵ How utterly abandoned is the glorious city, the city of delights and joy. ²⁶ Therefore, her young men will fall in her squares, as well as all her warriors; they will perish on that day, declares the Lord of hosts. ²⁷ I will light a fire in the walls of Damascus and it will devour the palaces of Ben-Hadad. ²⁸ Against Kedar and the kingdoms of Hasor, which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, struck down. Thus says the Lord: Arise, march against Kedar, destroy the people of the East. ²⁹ Let their tents and their flocks be taken. Let their curtains, all their baggage, and their camels be removed. And let them shout: Terror on all sides. ³⁰ Save yourselves, flee with all your might, huddle together, inhabitants of Hasor, declares the Lord, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has formed a plan against you, he has devised a scheme against you. ³¹ Stand up. March against a tranquil people, secure in their dwelling, declares the Lord, who have neither gates nor bars, who live apart. ³² Their camels will be your plunder, and their many herds your spoils. I will scatter them to the winds, these men with shaved temples, and from every side I will bring them down upon their ruin, declares the Lord. ³³ And Hasor will become a den of jackals, a desolate place forever; no one will dwell there, no son of man will stay there. ³⁴ The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet for Elam, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in these words: ³⁵ Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the source of his strength. ³⁶ I will bring upon Elam four winds from the four corners of the sky and I will scatter them to all these winds, and there will not be a nation where fugitives from Elam will not arrive. ³⁷ I will make Elam tremble before its enemies and before those who seek its life. And I will bring disaster upon them, the fire of my fierce anger, declares the Lord. And I will send the sword after them until I have destroyed them. ³⁸ I will place my throne in Elam and I will destroy its king and leaders, declares the Lord., ³⁹ But at the end of days I will bring back the captives of Elam, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 50

¹ The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet. ² Announce it among the nations, proclaim it, raise a banner, proclaim it, do not hide it, say: Babel is taken. Bel is confounded, Merodach is slain, his idols are confounded, his false gods are slain. ³ For from the north a people rises against her, they will make her country a desolate place, there will be no more inhabitants, men and beasts have fled, have gone away. ⁴ In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, the children of Israel will return, they and the children of Judah with them, they will come weeping and seek the Lord their God. ⁵ They will ask for Zion and turn their faces toward it. Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten. ⁶ My people were like a flock of sheep that went astray; their shepherds led them astray on treacherous mountains; they went from mountain to hill, forgetting their fold. ⁷ All who found them devoured them, and their enemies said, “We are not guilty.” Because they had sinned against the Lord, the dwelling place of righteousness, against the Lord, the hope of their fathers. ⁸ Flee from the midst of Babylon and leave the land of the Chaldeans; be like the goats, at the head of the flock. ⁹ For behold, I am going to raise up and bring against Babel a gathering of great peoples from the land of the north. They will gather against it, and from that direction it will be taken; their arrows are those of a skilled warrior, who does not return empty-handed. ¹⁰ And Chaldea will be plundered, and all who plunder it will be satisfied, declares the Lord. ¹¹ Yes, rejoice, yes, give yourselves over to gladness, plunderers of my inheritance, yes, leap like a heifer in the meadow, neigh like stallions. ¹² Your mother is covered with shame, she who bore you is blushing with disgrace. Behold, she is the last of the nations, a desert, a steppe, a parched land. ¹³ Because of the Lord’s anger, it will no longer be inhabited; it will be a desolate place. Anyone who passes by Babel will be astonished and hiss at the sight of its wounds. ¹⁴ Take cover against Babel, all around, all you archers. Shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. ¹⁵ Raise a war cry against her on all sides, she stretches out her hands, her towers crumble, her walls are overturned. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take revenge on her, do to her as she has done. ¹⁶ Exterminate from Babel the one who sows and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time. Before the destructive sword, let each turn to their own people, let each flee to their own country. ¹⁷ Israel is a lost sheep that the lions have hunted, the first one devoured it: the king of Assyria, then another one broke its bones: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel. ¹⁸ Therefore, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “I am going to visit the king of Babel and his land, just as I visited the king of Assyria.”. ¹⁹ And I will bring Israel back to its place, and it will graze in Carmel and in Bashan and on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead; it will go and be satisfied. ²⁰ In those days and at that time, declares the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but it will be no more; the sin of Judah will not be found, for I will forgive the remnant that I have left. ²¹ Go up against the land of Rebellion and against the inhabitants of Punishment, destroy, exterminate them, one after another, oracle of the Lord, and do to them all that I have commanded you. ²² Sounds of battle in the country and a great massacre. ²³ How was the hammer of the whole earth broken and shattered? How did Babel become an object of horror in the midst of the nations? ²⁴ I set the snares and you were caught, Babel, without realizing it, you were found and seized, because you went to war against the Lord. ²⁵ The Lord has opened his armory and brought out the weapons of his wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has a matter to deal with in the land of the Chaldeans. ²⁶ Come against her from all sides, open her granaries, pile everything up like sheaves and exterminate her, so that nothing remains. ²⁷ Kill all the bulls, let them go down to the slaughter. Woe to them, for their day has come, the time when they will be visited. ²⁸ The cries of the fugitives and those who flee from the land of Babel. They announce in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance of his temple. ²⁹ Summon archers against Babel, all who bend the bow; encamp around her: let no one escape. Repay her according to her deeds; do to her all that she has done, for she has risen up against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. ³⁰ Therefore, her young men will fall in her squares and all her fighting men will perish on that day, declares the Lord. ³¹ Here I am against you, insolent one, declares the Lord, God of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will visit. ³² She will stumble, the insolent one, she will fall and no one will lift her up, I will set fire to her cities and he will devour all around her. ³³ Thus says the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel are oppressed and with them the children of Judah, all who took them captive hold them fast and refuse to let them go. ³⁴ But their avenger is strong, the Lord of armies is his name, he will powerfully defend their cause, to give rest to the earth and make the inhabitants of Babel tremble. ³⁵ A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord, and against the inhabitants of Babel, and against its leaders and its wise men. ³⁶ Sword against the imposters, and let them lose their senses. Sword against his brave men, and let them tremble. ³⁷ Sword against her horses and chariots and against all the rabble among her, and let them be like women. Sword against her treasures, and let them be plundered. ³⁸ May its waters dry up and run dry. For it is a land of idols and before these scarecrows, they rave. ³⁹ So the desert animals will settle there with the jackals, the ostriches will make their home there, it will never again be populated, it will never again be inhabited from age to age. ⁴⁰ As when God destroyed Sodom, Gomorrah and the surrounding towns, declares the Lord, no one will remain there, no son of man will sojourn there. ⁴¹ A people is coming from the north, a great nation, and many kings are rising from the ends of the earth. ⁴² They hold bows and javelins in their hands; they are cruel and merciless. Their voices roar like the sea; they are mounted on horses, lined up as one man to the war, against you, daughter of Babel. ⁴³ The king of Babel learned the news and his hands went weak, anguish seized him, the pains of a woman giving birth. ⁴⁴ Like a lion, behold, he comes up from the thickets of the Jordan to the perpetual pasture, and suddenly I will drive them away and establish there the one I have chosen. For who is like me? Who would provoke me, and what shepherd would stand against me? ⁴⁵ Listen now to the Lord's purpose against Babel and the plans he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Yes, they will be led away like weak sheep, yes, the pasture will be in astonishment. At the sound of the fall of Babel, the earth trembles, a cry is heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51

¹ Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am going to raise up against Babel and against the inhabitants of Chaldea the spirit of a destroyer. ² And I will send winnowers to Babel who will winnow it and empty its land, for they will come against it from all sides in the day of calamity. ³ Let the archer bend his bow against the archer and against him who struts in his armor. Spare not his young men, annihilate his entire army. ⁴ Let the mortally wounded fall on the land of the Chaldeans and the pierced in the streets of Babel. ⁵ For Israel and Judah are not widows of their God, the Lord of hosts, and the land of the Chaldeans is filled with iniquities against the Holy One of Israel. ⁶ Flee from Babylon and save your lives. Do not perish for her crime, for it is the time of the Lord's vengeance; he will repay her as she deserves. ⁷ Babel was a golden cup in the hand of the Lord; it made the whole earth drunk; the nations drank of its wine, that is why the nations are in a frenzy. ⁸ Suddenly Babel fell and shattered, scream at her, take balm for her wound, perhaps she will heal. ⁹ We wanted to heal Babel, but it was not healed; leave it. Let us each go to our own country, for its judgment reaches to the heavens and rises to the clouds. ¹⁰ The Lord has demonstrated the justice of our cause; come, let us proclaim in Zion the work of the Lord our God. ¹¹ Sharpen your arrows, take up your shields. The Lord has stirred up the kings of Media, for his purpose is to destroy Babel. For this is the Lord's vengeance, the vengeance for his temple. ¹² Raise the banner against the walls of Babylon, strengthen the siege, post watchmen, set ambushes. For the Lord has formed a plan, he is carrying out what he has said against the inhabitants of Babel. ¹³ You who dwell by the great waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, the end of your plundering. ¹⁴ The Lord of hosts has sworn by himself: I will fill you with men, like locusts, and they will shout for you with triumph. ¹⁵ He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom and understanding, and stretched out the heavens. ¹⁶ At his voice, the waters gather in the heavens, he makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash from which the downpour springs and draws the wind from its reservoirs. ¹⁷ Every man is stupid, senseless, every craftsman is ashamed of his idol because his idols are nothing but lies, there is no breath in them. ¹⁸ They are vanity, a work of deception; on the day of punishment they will perish. ¹⁹ This is not Jacob's portion; he formed the universe, and his portion of the inheritance is the one who is called the Lord of hosts. ²⁰ You serve as my hammer, my weapon of war: with you I crush peoples, with you I destroy kingdoms, ²¹ Through you I crush the horse and its rider, through you I crush the chariot and its driver., ²² Through you I crush man and woman, through you I crush old man and child, through you I crush young man and young girl, ²³ Through you I crush the shepherd and his flock, through you I crush the plowman and his team, through you I crush the governors and the leaders. ²⁴ But I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion, before your very eyes, declares the Lord. ²⁵ Here I am against you, mountain of destruction, declares the Lord, who destroys the whole earth; I stretch out my hand against you, I roll you down from the rocks and I make you a burnt mountain. ²⁶ They will not take from you cornerstones, nor stones for foundations, for you will be a ruin forever, declares the Lord. ²⁷ Raise a standard on the earth, sound the trumpet among the nations, consecrate the nations against her, summon against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Menni, and Ascenez. Appoint against her a commander, unleash the horses like bristling locusts. ²⁸ Consecrate against her the nations, the kings of Media, her captains and her leaders, and all the land over which they rule. ²⁹ The earth trembles and shakes, for the Lord's purpose is fulfilled against Babel, to turn the land of Babel into a place of terror, without inhabitants. ³⁰ The valiant warriors of Babel have ceased fighting; they remain in the fortresses, their strength exhausted, they have become like women. Their dwellings have been set on fire, their gates broken down. ³¹ Couriers run to meet couriers, messengers to meet messengers, to announce to the king of Babel that his city is taken on all sides. ³² The passes are occupied, the marshes are being burned, and the soldiers are dismayed. ³³ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babel is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest will come for her. ³⁴ He devoured me, he consumed me, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babel, he placed me there like an empty vessel, like a dragon, he swallowed me up, he filled his belly with my best food: he drove me out. ³⁵ "Let my torn flesh be on Babel," the people of Zion will say, "and my blood on the inhabitants of Chaldea," Jerusalem will say. ³⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord says: “I will take up your cause and execute your vengeance; I will dry up her sea and make her spring run dry.”. ³⁷ And Babel will be a heap of stones, a den of jackals, an object of terror and mockery, without inhabitants. ³⁸ They all roar together like lions, they growl like lion cubs. ³⁹ While they are feverish, I will pour them a drink and make them drunk so that they will give themselves over to joy and they will fall asleep an eternal sleep and will not wake up again, declares the Lord. ⁴⁰ I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats. ⁴¹ How was Sesak taken, how was the glory of all the earth conquered? How did it become an object of terror, Babel, among the nations? ⁴² The sea rose upon Babel, it covered it with the noise of its waves. ⁴³ Its cities have become an object of terror, a desolate and deserted land, a land where no one dwells, where no son of man passes. ⁴⁴ I will visit Bel at Babel and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed, and the nations will no longer flock to him. The very wall of Babel has fallen. ⁴⁵ Come out of the midst of her, O my people, and let each of you save your life from the fierce anger of the Lord. ⁴⁶ Do not let your hearts fail, and do not be afraid of the rumors that will be heard in the land. For one year there will be one rumor, and the next year another; there will be violence in the land, tyrant against tyrant. ⁴⁷ Therefore, behold, the days are coming when I will visit the idols of Babel, and all her land will be confounded, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her. ⁴⁸ Heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babel, for destroyers will come against it from the north, declares the Lord. ⁴⁹ Babel must fall, O slain of Israel, as to Babel have fallen the slain of all the earth. ⁵⁰ Escaped from the sword, go forth, do not linger. From the distant land, remember the Lord, and let Jerusalem be ever-present in your heart. ⁵¹ We were ashamed, for we had learned of the outrage; shame covered our faces, for strangers had come against the sanctuary of the house of the Lord. ⁵² Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish his idols, and throughout his land those who are slaughtered will groan. ⁵³ When Babel should rise to the heavens, when it should make its high fortress inaccessible, destroyers would come to it by my command, declares the Lord. ⁵⁴ A cry arose from the direction of Babel: great disaster in the land of the Chaldeans. ⁵⁵ For the Lord devastates Babel and puts an end to its great noise; its waves roar like the great waters and make their crashing heard. ⁵⁶ For he has come against her, the destroyer, against Babel; her warriors are captured, their bows are broken, for the Lord is the God of retribution, he will surely pay. ⁵⁷ I will make its princes and its wise men, its governors, its magistrates and its warriors drunk, and they will fall asleep an eternal sleep and will not wake up again, oracle of the King, whose name is the Lord of armies. ⁵⁸ Thus says the Lord of hosts: The walls of Babel, so broad, shall be utterly razed, and its high gates shall be burned. Thus the peoples labor for nothing, and the nations for the sake of fire, and they exhaust themselves in it. ⁵⁹ The order that Jeremiah the prophet gave to Saraias, son of Neriah, son of Maaziah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah, king of Judah, in the fourth year of his reign. Saraias was chief chamberlain. ⁶⁰ Jeremiah wrote in a book all the misfortunes that were to befall Babylon, all these words written about Babylon. ⁶¹ And Jeremiah said to Saraiah, “When you arrive in Babylon, be sure to read all these words.” ⁶² and you will say: Lord, you yourself said concerning this place that it would be destroyed, so that there would be no inhabitant, neither man nor beast, but that it would be a desolate place forever. ⁶³ And when you have finished reading this book, you shall tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates. ⁶⁴ And you will say: Thus Babylon will perish, and she will not rise again from the disaster I will bring upon her; they will fall exhausted. So far, these are the words of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 52

¹ Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Amital, daughter of Jeremiah of Lobna. ² He did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord, imitating everything that Joakim had done. ³ This happened in Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord's anger, until he cast them out of his presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. ⁴ In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came with his whole army against Jerusalem, they camped before it and built approach walls all around it. ⁵ The city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ⁶ In the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, when the famine was severe in the city and there was no more bread for the people of the land, ⁷ A breach was made in the city and all the fighting men fled and left the city during the night, through the gate between the two walls, near the king's garden, while the Chaldeans surrounded the city and they took the road to the plain. ⁸ But the Chaldean army pursued the king, they reached Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho and all his army scattered away from him. ⁹ Having seized the king, they brought him up to the king of Babylon, to Rebla, in the land of Emath, and he pronounced judgments upon him. ¹⁰ The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before the eyes of their father; he also slaughtered all the leaders of Judah at Rebla. ¹¹ Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with two bronze chains, and the king of Babylon brought him to Babylon and held him captive. prison until the day of his death. ¹² In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month, in the nineteenth year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzardan, captain of the guard, who was minister to the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ¹³ He burned down the house of the Lord, the king's house, and all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses. ¹⁴ The entire Chaldean army, which was with the captain of the guards, demolished the walls forming the enclosure of Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Nebuzardan, captain of the guards, took captive some of the poorest of the people, along with the rest of the people who had remained in the city, the deserters who had surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the artisans. ¹⁶ But Nabuzardan, captain of the guards, left some of the poor of the country as vine growers and farmers. ¹⁷ The Chaldeans broke the bronze pillars that belonged to the house of the Lord, as well as the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of the Lord, and they carried the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁸ They took the pots, shovels, knives, cups, bowls and all the bronze utensils used for serving. ¹⁹ The captain of the guards also took the basins, the censers, the cups, the pots, the candlesticks, the spoons and the urns, both those made of gold and those made of silver. ²⁰ As for the two pillars, the sea, the twelve bronze oxen that were beneath it, and the bases that King Solomon had made in the house of the Lord, the bronze of all these utensils could not be weighed. ²¹ As for the columns, the height of a column was eighteen cubits and a cord of twelve cubits measured its circumference, its thickness was four fingers and it was hollow. ²² Above it was a bronze capital, five cubits high, and all around the capital was a trellis and pomegranates, all of bronze. The second column was the same, with the pomegranates. ²³ There were ninety-six grenades on the faces and all the grenades numbered one hundred on the trellis, all around. ²⁴ The captain of the guards took Saraias, the high priest, Zephaniah, a priest of the second rank, and the three gatekeepers. ²⁵ From the city he took an officer who commanded the war men, seven men who were part of the king's privy council and who were found in the city, the secretary of the army commander in charge of enlisting the people of the country and sixty men of the people of the country who were in the city. ²⁶ Having captured them, Nebuzardan, captain of the guards, led them to the king of Babylon at Rebla. ²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Rebla in the land of Emath. So Judah was taken captive from its homeland. ²⁸ This is the number of men whom Nebuchadnezzar took captive: in the seventh year, three thousand twenty-three men from Judah, ²⁹ In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, eight hundred and thirty-two people from the population of Jerusalem, ³⁰ In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzardan, captain of the guards, took captive another seven hundred and forty-five men from Judah, in all four thousand six hundred people. ³¹ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the year of his accession, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. ³² He spoke kindly to him and placed his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon. ³³ He made her change her clothes prison And Joachim ate in her presence, always, every day of his life. ³⁴ As for its upkeep, its perpetual upkeep, the king of Babylon provided for it every day, until the day of his death, every day of his life.

Notes on the Book of Jeremiah

1.1-19 Prologue, Chapter 1. Jeremiah's Calling to the Prophetic Ministry. — The story of Jeremiah's calling is very instructive. God calls him; He chose him from his mother's womb, and despite his weakness, he is destined to carry out divine commands (verses 4-8). The Lord consecrates him (verse 9) and reveals his mission, which consists of destroying and planting (verse 10). He shows him the future through two symbolic images: 1) that of an almond tree staff, emblem of the swift fulfillment of His plans, because the almond tree is the first and quickest of trees to blossom; 2) that of a boiling pot, facing north, to signify that the Chaldeans will lead the northern peoples against guilty Judah (verses 11-16). These two symbols, like the entirety of Jeremiah's prophecy, are a summary. Finally, God promises his prophet help and protection against all his enemies, verses 17 to 19.

1.1 Anathoth ; priestly city. Joshua, 21, 18. — Anathoth is near Jerusalem, to the northeast. — Helcias According to some, he is the high priest of that name, but nothing confirms this hypothesis.

1.2-3 For the reigns of the kings under whom Jeremiah prophesied, see the’Introduction.

1.3 In the fifth month of the year of transmigration.

1.6 A child ; Fourteen or fifteen years old, according to some, older, according to others, younger, according to still others. Scripture sometimes gives the name of’child to people over the age of twenty.

1.9 See Isaiah 6:7.

1.10 See Jeremiah 18:7.

1.13 See Ezekiel 11:7. A boiling pot. ― His face, etc.; or turned towards the north (the north). By this pot, Some understand it to mean Judea and Jerusalem itself (see Ezekiel, (24, verse 3 and following); and the others, Nebuchadnezzar with his army. Although situated to the east of Jerusalem, the Chaldeans came from the north, like the Assyrians, to invade Palestine, because the deserts of Arabia were impassable for an army.

1.14 See Jeremiah 4:6.

1.18 See Jeremiah 6:27.

2.1 and following I^D Part: Reprobation of Israel, from chapter 2 to chapter 17. — 1^D Section: Causes of this reprobation, from chapter 2 to chapter 11. — 1° Unfaithfulness of Israel, from chapter 2 to chapter 3, verse 5. — The first cause of the reprobation of Israel, announced by the symbolic visions shown to Jeremiah in chapter 1, is its unfaithfulness. Israel, united to its God at the time of the Exodus from Egypt, was unfaithful to Him, chapter 2, verses 1 to 7; its leaders, the priests and princes, set a bad example, verses 8 and 9. Among no people has such ingratitude been seen: God was abandoned for idols, verses 10 to 13. From being free, Israel will therefore become a slave as punishment for its crime; His country will be devastated by those in whom he trusted, the Egyptians, verses 14-21. His shame is irredeemable, his idolatry incomprehensible, verses 22-32; he bears it on his forehead, verses 33-35; he will atone for it, verses 36-37; he may hypocritically plead for forgiveness. forgiveness, He will not obtain it, chapter 3, verses 1 to 5.

2.2 I remembered, etc. Most exegetes explain this passage thus: I remember the early days of your alliance with me, and I have the pain of seeing myself forced today to reproach you for infidelity, and to repudiate you, after the kindnesses I have had for you, and the tenderness I have shown you in the time when I led you in the deserts of Arabia.

2.5 See Micah 6:3.

2.6 Across the desert of Sinai, which is arid and almost uninhabitable.

2.7 a very fertile land. 

2.8 Baal ; the God of the Canaanites. Several false prophets prophesied in his name.

2.10 Cethim, which specifically refers to Macedonia, is here used to mean all the peoples located beyond the sea and west of Palestine. ― Cedar, which marks Arabia, here means all the peoples located to the east of Judea.

2.16 cities of Egypt.

2.18 The water of the Nile is usually murky and silty, muddy.

2.20 See Jeremiah 3:6.

2.21 See Isaiah 5:1; Matthew 21:33.

2.23 The valley ; probably the so-called valley of Ennom's son, where children were sacrificed to Moloch. Jeremiah, 7, 32; 19, 2. ― Light camel, current from one male to another.

2.24 The males will be able to easily follow her on the trail, because she gives off a liquid similar to that of mares.

2.27 See Jeremiah 32:33. To the wood, and to the stone ; that is to say, to idols of wood and stone.

2.28 See Jeremiah 11:13.

3.3 In Palestine, there are two rainy seasons; the first begins around mid-October and is used to germinate seeds; the latter occurs in spring and allows crops to grow. If it is absent, drought destroys everything.

3.6 See Jeremiah 2:20. — 2. Israel's Impenitence, from chapter 3, verse 6 to chapter 10. — The second cause of Israel's reprobation is its impenitence. — I. Judah did not take advantage of Israel's misfortune to convert and scorned all divine warnings, from chapter 3, verse 6 to chapter 4, verse 4. — 1. It saw how God punished the ten schismatic tribes and the ruin of the kingdom of Samaria, without this warning serving any purpose for it, chapter 3, verses 6 to 10. — 2. Moreover, Israel is better than Judah; The Prophet also exhorts him, on behalf of God, to acknowledge his past iniquities, so that he may be brought back to Jerusalem, verses 11 to 17. ― 3° Moreover, let Judah convert like Israel, and both will be forgiven, because it is not the will of God, but their sins that are the cause of their misfortunes, verses 18 to 25. ― 4° Salvation would therefore still be possible for repentant Judah, chapter 4, verses 1 to 4.

3.9 Adultery ; Idolatry. Stone and wood ; refer to idols made of these materials. Jeremiah, 2, 27. 

3.16 It won't even cross our minds, we won't even think about it.

3.24 The confusion, etc.; the shameful worship of idols has devoured everything our fathers had acquired through labor.

4.2 If you swear by the Lord, oath formula which is equivalent to: I swear by the Lord.

4.3 See Hosea 10:12. — The Prophet, after addressing the captive Israelites in the two preceding verses, here addresses the Jews who were still in their own land. your fallow land, a piece of land that had not yet been cultivated, but had remained fallow.

4.4 That is to say, receive the circumcision that pleases the Lord; the circumcision of the heart. Deuteronomy, 10, 16 ; Romans, 2, 29.

4.5 II. Judah is unrepentant, despite the imminent danger, from chapter 4, verse 5 to chapter 6. — 1° The Prophet now announces the fulfillment of the divine sentence, exhorting the inhabitants of Israel to flee before the Chaldeans, chapter 4, verses 5 to 7, and to cover themselves with mourning clothes, verse 8. — 2° Judah is in terror, — oh! if only he could repent! — The holy city is besieged, verses 9 to 18. — 3. Overwhelmed with grief, the Prophet sees in his spirit the devastation wrought by the Chaldeans, and paints a grim picture of it, verses 19 to 31. — 4. The cause of these calamities is that there are no longer any righteous people in Jerusalem, but only hypocrites, idolaters, and adulterers, both among the lowly and the great, chapter 5, verses 1 to 9. — 5. The guilty must therefore perish at the hands of a distant, terrible people, verses 10 to 18. — 6. They refused to fear the Almighty; they persisted in their impenitence; What they refused to hear will come to pass, verses 19-31. — 7. The Chaldean arrives, he invades the land; he besieges Jerusalem—oh, if Jerusalem could only repent before it is devastated! Chapter 6, verses 1-8. — 8. But everyone is deaf to the voice of God; therefore, no one will escape vengeance, verses 9-15. — 9. Exhortations, threats, all are useless, all are despised, therefore sacrifices are vain and useless, verses 16-21. — 10. God's avenger comes from the north; he is terrible, he besieges the city; God has examined it, it is guilty; its Lord condemns it, verses 22-30.

4.6 See Jeremiah 1:14.

4.7 Lion, etc. Nebuchadnezzar is compared to a lion because of his strength, and to a destructive, because of his violence and the injustice of his conquests.

4.8 Jeremiah, 32, 37.

4.11 the path that leads to the daughter of my people, in Jerusalem.

4.15 The city of Dan and the mountain of’Ephraim were between Babylon and Jerusalem. ― The image of the god Bel was represented on the standards of the Chaldean army.

4.18 See Wisdom, 1, vv. 3, 5.

4.19-31 Who is speaking here? Is it God? Is it the prophet? It is both, taking turns; but Jeremiah does not take the time to warn us of the change… It is marvelous that the mobility, the promptness, the suppleness of these prophetic souls, running from one impression to the next: lively, quick, precise in perceiving each thing as it presents itself and as much as it deserves, striking swiftly, accurately, and forcefully, all the notes of the scale of feeling. From this come these visions that press forth, then these exclamations, these apostrophes, these bursts of ardent, yet always rational, passion.

4.30 Antimony was widely used in the East to paint and blacken the eyes, and to widen the eyelids, in order to make the eyes larger and more slit. 

5.1 Browse, etc. The Lord is speaking here to Jeremiah and to those who, like him, had remained faithful, and he tells them to search if, in the rest of the people, there is a single righteous man to be found.

5.2 The Lord is alive! Oath formula. See Jeremiah, 4, 2.

5.6 The lion, the wolf, the panther ; represent Nebuchadnezzar.

5.8 See Ezekiel 22:11.

5.15 A nation, etc. The Chaldeans (see 2 Kings 18, 26 ; Isaiah, 36, 11).

5.19 See Jeremiah 16:10. when you say, These words are addressed to the Jews, and these are: You will tell them, to the prophet.

5.24 the rain of spring and that of autumn. Deuteronomy, 11, 14. ― See above, Jeremiah, 3, 3.

5.28 See Isaiah 1:23; Zechariah 7:10.

6.1 Thecusa, Bethacaem ; two cities situated on heights, south of Jerusalem; Bethacarem was located between Jerusalem and Tekua.

6.6 Its trees relates to the daughter of Zion, that is to say, in Jerusalem. Jeremiah, 5, 9. 

6.9 Like in a vineyard We gather, we collect all the grapes up to, etc. The Lord's people are often represented by the image of a vine, and their enemies by that of grape harvesters. — Return to the vineyard, and put in the basket what the harvesters have missed.

6.13 See Isaiah 56:11; Jeremiah 8:10.

6.16 See Matthew 11:29.

6.20 See Isaiah 1:11.

6.29 The bellows, etc. Image taken from the way silver is purified. A great fire is lit to melt the silver, mixed with lead, so that the lead will attract to itself all that is impure in the silver, but all these efforts are in vain; the lead is consumed and the silver remains impure: Israel may be tested by tribulation, but the wicked continue to be mixed with the good.

7.1 and following III. Judah is unrepentant, blinded by a false trust in the temple, sacrifices, and circumcision, from chapter 7 to chapter 10. — 1. The Prophet must speak, at the temple gate, to the people entering and leaving, chapter 7, verses 1 and 2. Judah trusts in the temple, But God dwells only among the righteous; the temple will only serve as a safeguard for the Jews insofar as they repent, verses 3-7. — The people delude themselves into thinking they will be saved by going to the temple, despite their sins. This building is no longer the dwelling place of God, it is a den of thieves; it will be rejected like the sanctuary at Shiloh; its worshipers, rejected like Ephraim, because Judah engages in idolatrous acts, verses 8-20. — 2. Judah also has confidence in his sacrifices, But they are rejected because the divine commandments, the observance of which is the condition of the covenant between the Lord and his people, are not observed (verses 21-28). — The people are condemned because of their idolatry, which has defiled the sanctuary (verses 29-34); the bones of the dead themselves will be thrown out of their tombs in expiation for their idolatrous acts (chapter 8, verses 1-3). — 3. Nothing can bring Judah to repentance; he is deaf to the voice of God, to which all creatures obey (verses 4-9); his false sages deceive him (verses 10-12); he will perish (verses 13-17). He will cry out for help in vain; it will be too late (verses 18-22). — The Prophet could flee from the guilty city (chapter 9, verses 1-5), but God commands him to remain there to foretell the punishment that threatens it because of its impenitence (verses 6-14). — This punishment will be terrible, lamentable (verses 15-21), and nothing will be able to escape it; the circumcision It will be of no use, for God will strike the circumcised first, verses 22-26. — How much more will false gods be powerless to protect their worshipers; they are nothing, chapter 10, verses 1-6. — Therefore, let us fear the only true God and not the work of human hands; let us trust in him and not in powerless idols, verses 7-16. — He is the one who will cause the land of Israel to be devastated and its inhabitants deported by the enemy coming from the north, verses 17-23. — May the Lord not completely abandon his people and may he one day avenge them on their enemies. Verses 24-25.

7.3 See Jeremiah 26:13.

7.4 God will protect us, since we possess his temple.

7.9 Baal. See under this word, Jeremiah, 2, 23.

7.11 Jesus Christ makes a similar reproach to the Jews of his time (see Matthew, 21, 13 ; Marc, 11, 17 ; Luke, 19, 46).

7.12 my home which was dedicated to me. ― Silo ; city of the tribe of Ephraim, where the ark and the sacred tabernacle remained for a long time.

7.13 See Proverbs 1:24; Isaiah 65:12.

7.14 See 1 Samuel 4, vv. 2, 10. 

7.15 The whole race of Ephraim ; the ten tribes among which that of Ephraim held the first rank.

7.16 See Jeremiah 11:14; 14:11.

7.18 The Queen of Heaven ; That is to say, the moon, according to the most probable opinion. — The queen of heaven was identified with the goddess Astarte. The cakes made in her honor were shaped like crescent moons.

7.22 The ceremonial laws were not given to the Israelites at the same time as the moral precepts. These ceremonial laws were merely an accessory, intended to remedy the carnal inclinations of the Israelites by subjecting them to sensory sacrifices and external ceremonies, as these were better suited to restraining minds ill-suited to a purely spiritual and inward worship.

7.26 See Jeremiah 16:12.

7.29 Cutting one's hair was a sign of mourning. People would go, in fact, to the heights to mourn public and private misfortunes.

7.31 Topheth And the valley of Ennom's son were south of Jerusalem. Topheth had a grove and a temple dedicated to the god Moloch. — On Topheth, see Isaiah, 30, 33.

7.34 See Ezekiel 26:13.

8.1-2 See Baruch, 2, 24-25.

8.7 according to the temperature of the sky. ― the time when it must leave the cold countries to go to the warm countries; which is also what the turtledove, the swallow and the stork do.

8.8 Style ; instrument used for writing.

8.10 See Isaiah 56:11; Jeremiah 6:13.

8.14 See Jeremiah 9:15.

8.15 See Jeremiah 14:19.

8.16 His horses ; That is to say, the enemy's horses. Dan. See Jeremiah, 4, 15. ― Neighing ; a word that Scripture sometimes applies to man, although it expresses the ordinary cry of a horse. See Jeremiah, 5, 8; 13, 27; 31, 7, etc.

8.17 The people believed that snake charmers could prevent them from doing harm.

8.18 These are the words of the Prophet.

8.19 Vanities ; another name that the Bible gives to false gods to mark their impotence.

8.21 This is the Prophet speaking.

8.22 balm of Gilead. The resin of Gilead is very famous in Scripture. See Jeremiah, 46, 11 ; 51, 8 ; Genesis, 37, 25. ― The resin or balm of Gilead was regarded as an excellent remedy, especially for the healing of wounds.

9.8 See Psalms, 27, 3.

9.14 Baals. See Jeremiah, 2, 23.

9.14 See Jeremiah 23:15. Absinthe, see Proverbs, 5, 4.

9.17Among the ancient Hebrews, women were praised who, in times of mourning, and particularly at funerals, would arouse tears with their plaintive voices and lamentable gestures. Saint Jerome says that this custom still existed in his time. 

9.23 See 1 Corinthians 1:31; 2 Corinthians 10:17.

9.25 like the people of the Arabian desert who cut their hair in circles to imitate their god Bacchus. Jeremiah, 25, 23; 49, 32; ; Leviticus, 19, 27 ; 21, 5.

10.1-19 The vanity of idols.

10.2 Signs from the sky ; the stars, to which the Chaldeans attributed great power over the conduct of men and the government of the world.

10.3 See Wisdom 13:11; 14:8. hand-crafted work ; that is to say, the hand through its work, through its labor.

10.4 She adorned this wood by covering it with gold and silver plates, according to the way of gilding and silvering in those times.

10.5 The idols are immobile and lifeless like columns or tree trunks.

10.6 See Micah 7:18.

10.7 See Revelation 15:4.

10.8 teaching of vanity ; which makes them consider a piece of wood as a god.

10.9 Money wrapped, covered the wood from which idols were made. ― The Phoenicians drew a lot silver from Tharsis or Tartessus in Spain. ― Gold from Ophaz, unknown country; Ophir, according to some; region of southern Arabia, according to others, and according to still others, the island of Taprobane or Ceylon, which had a river and a port called Phase.

10.12 See Genesis 1:1; Jeremiah 51:15.

10.13 See Psalms 134:7; Jeremiah 51:16.

10.24 See Psalms 6:2. Justice is not always opposed to mercy ; It signifies here a justice tempered with mercy; so that the meaning is: Punish me, according to the order and equity of your judgments, which do not allow my sins to remain unpunished; but not in the rigor of that justice which is not stopped by mercy. Jeremiah, 30, 11.

10.25 See Psalms, 78, 6.

11.1-23 3. Israel's violation of the covenant is followed by God's breaking of that covenant, chapter 11. — The transition from the 1^D to the 2^e This section takes place in chapter 11. — Jeremiah first recalls God's covenant with his people and the commitments Israel had made, the violation of these commitments, and the resulting punishments (verses 1-8). — Israel has again violated its obligations; therefore, God will punish it again, and its idols will be of no use to it (verses 9-13). The Prophet can no longer even pray for his people, for the Lord will mercilessly consume the people he had planted (verses 14-17). — As proof of Judah's future ruin and God's justice, Jeremiah recounts that the inhabitants of Anathoth tried to take his life, but the Lord pronounced a terrible sentence against them (verses 18-23).

11.4 from the iron smelting furnace ; that is to say, very harsh servitude.

11.13 ; 11.17 Baal. See Jeremiah, 2, 23.

11.13 See Jeremiah 2:28. 

11.14 See Jeremiah 7:16; 14:11.

11.15 the sacred flesh ; victims that you sacrifice to me.

11.19 And me, etc. Jeremiah is a figure of Jesus Christ himself. 

11.20 See Jeremiah 17:10; 20:12. 

11.21 Anathoth was the homeland of Jeremiah. See Jeremiah, 1, 1. 

12.1-17 II^e Section: Israel's condemnation is final, from chapter 12 to chapter 17. ― 1° The Lord, Israel's enemy, chapter 12. ― Jeremiah prays to God to swiftly punish the wicked, verses 1 to 3. ― God answers him to gather them like a flock destined for slaughter; they will perish, verses 4 to 6; his people have become his enemy: he will therefore treat them as enemies himself and give his inheritance to foreigners, verses 7 to 13; however, he will also make the Gentiles feel the weight of his justice; he will destroy them when he replants his people whom he is now uprooting, verses 14 to 17.

12.1 See Job, 21, 7; Habakkuk, 1, 13. 

12.3 That is to say, separate them, set them aside as something sacred and destined to be the matter of sacrifice. Thus the meaning is: From this moment on, regard them as victims destined for sacrifice.

12.5 This is probably a proverbial and parabolic expression, which here means: The Philistines, the Idumeans, the Ammonites and the Moabites, who only had infantry, often beat you, without you being able to resist them, how will you resist the Chaldeans who have a powerful cavalry and many chariots? 

12.7 Jerusalem, which was dear to me as much as my soul.

12.12 Flesh, In biblical language, often means man, mortal.

12.16 The Lord is alive, Oath formula. See Jeremiah, 4, 2.

13.1-27 2. God rejects his people as useless, chapter 13. — Jeremiah is commanded to bury a belt on the banks of the Euphrates, where it rots. Some say he actually made the journey, others say it was only in visions. In any case, God declares that he had bound Israel to himself like a belt, but that he now rejects it as something useless, verses 1-11. — Just as vessels are filled with wine, he fills the people with a spirit of drunkenness to destroy them, verses 12-14. — Let Israel therefore repent before this calamity occurs. Verses 15-17. But he does not repent; woe to him. Verses 18-27.

13.4 Towards the Euphrates ; the great river that flows through Babylon and on whose banks the Hebrews were to be held captive.

13.11 that is to say, that they would be known under my name, under the name of the people of the Lord.

13.17 See Lamentations, 1, 2.

13.18 Sit on the ground, in the dust.

13.19 The cities of the south. Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah were situated to the south with respect to Chaldea, or at least with respect to the arrival of the Chaldeans from the north.

13.22 See Jeremiah 30:14.

13.23 The Ethiopian cannot cease to be black, nor can the leopard lose the variegation of its skin.

13.27 How long can this go on? Will you persist in not purifying yourself?

14.1-22 3. God does not listen to any prayer on behalf of his people, chapters 14 and 15. — 1. Drought and famine lead Jeremiah to intercede for his people, chapter 14, verses 1 to 6; Israel does not deserve, it is true, for God to have pity on it, but that God should treat it with mercy because of the glory of his name, verses 7 to 10. — 2. God answers him that he will not grant his request, because he wants to punish Israel's sins with these calamities; neither prayers, nor sacrifices, nor the fact that Judah is led astray by false prophets will appease his anger; the deceivers will perish with those they deceive, verses 11 to 19. — 3. The prophet prays again; He appeals to the old covenant and to the power of the Lord, verses 20 to 22. ― 4° God is inexorable: he does not listen to any supplication; all will be punished by one of these four plagues: disease, the sword, famine or captivity, because of the crimes of King Manasseh, the idolatry of the people and the murder of the prophets; He will treat Judah as Judah treated him, chapter 15, verses 1 to 9. ― 5° Jeremiah, thus discouraged, complains of the difficulty of his prophetic ministry, verse 10. ― 6° God consoles him by promising him his help against his adversaries, verses 11 to 14. ― 7° The Prophet then begs him to come to his aid soon, for he has always been faithful to him, verses 15 to 18. ― 8° The Lord reiterates to him the assurance of his protection and support, verses 19 to 21.

14.6 The evening primroses. See Job, 39, 5.

14.9 since we are called the people of the Lord. Jeremiah, 7, 10.

14.11 See Jeremiah 7:16; 11:14.

14.13 See Jeremiah 5:12; 23:17. 

14.14 See Jeremiah 29:9.

14.16 the harm they themselves have done.

14.17 See Lamentations 1:16; 2:18.

14.19 See Jeremiah 8:15. 

14.21 the throne of your glory, Do not allow your temple to be overthrown by the enemies.

15.1 Moses and Samuel saved Israel through their intercession during their lifetime. See Exodus, 17, 11 ; Numbers, 14, 13 ; 1 Samuel 7, 9; 12, vv. 17, 23; ; Psalms, 98, 6.

15.2 See Zechariah 11:9.

15.4 Because of Manasseh, etc. See 2 Kings Chapter 21; ; 2 Chronicles Chapter 33.

15.7 At the gates ; that is to say, at the extremities.

15.9 See 1 Samuel 2:5; Amos 8:9. Seven ; is used here for an indefinite number.

15.12 This iron and common, ordinary bronze represent the Jews, and the iron and bronze of the north, the Chaldeans, who are far stronger than the Jews. Thus, the alliance is impossible, or at least it will not last; the stronger will consume the weaker.

15.17 See Psalms 1:1; 25:4. 

15.18 See Jeremiah 30:15 — like waters that were relied upon, and have disappeared.

15.19 that you stand before my face ; A phrase used by the Hebrews when speaking of the king's ministers, who were always near him to receive his orders, and also of the angels who are God's ministers. My mouth ; that is to say, my interpreter.

16.1-21 4. The Lord will cause Israel to perish ignominiously; rays of hope, chapter 16. — 1. God forbids Jeremiah to marry, because the Jews will be overwhelmed with evils and shame, without anyone pitying them, verses 1 to 9. — 2. As punishment for their crimes, they will be taken into captivity in an unknown land, verses 10 to 13. — 3. But he will nevertheless deliver them from the oppression of the north, as he once delivered them from the oppression of Egypt; he will send hunters and fishermen who will set them free, and he will thus demonstrate his power in the eyes of the Gentiles, verses 14 to 21.

16.6-7 List of mourning symbols used by Orientals. ― We won't make any incisions, etc. Leviticus, 19, 27-28 ; Deuteronomy, 14, 1.

16.10 See Jeremiah 5:19.

16.12 See Jeremiah 7:26.

16.14-15 The Lord is alive; Oath formula. See Jeremiah, 4, 2.

16.15 The land of the north ; Chaldea.

16.16 Fishermen, hunters. These are probably the Chaldeans, whose expeditions the sacred text seems to distinguish between: one under Jehoiakim, another under Jeconiah, and a third, the most violent, under Zedekiah. In a higher sense, one can, with several Church Fathers, apply this passage to the apostles, many of whom were fishermen by profession, and whose mission was to fish for men, according to the word of Jesus Christ (see Luke, 5, 10).

16.18 I I will pay them at double. See also this phrase, Isaiah, 40, 2.

16.19 Lies, vanity ; words by which false gods and idols are often referred to in Scripture.

17.1-27 5. God punishes the Jews as they deserve, chapter 17. — 1. Israel angered the Lord with its idolatry; it handed him over to foreigners, verses 1-4. — 2. Whoever trusts in man perishes; whoever trusts in God lives, verses 5-8; God knows the depths of hearts, he will deal with the wicked as they deserve, verses 9-11; on the contrary, he will uphold his prophet and confound his enemies, verses 12-18. — 3. Digression. — Jeremiah exhorts the Jews to faithfully observe the Sabbath; if they keep it, God will bless them; if not, he will punish them, verses 19-27.

17.2 They remembered, etc.; returned to idol worship, which their fathers had abandoned under Josiah (see 2 Kings chapter 23).

17.5 See Isaiah 31:1; Jeremiah 48:7.

17.6 See Jeremiah 48:6. 

17.8 See Psalms, 1, 3.

17.10 See 2 Kings 16:7; Psalms 7:10; Revelation 2:23. 

17.12 throne of glory ; the temple of the Lord. See Jeremiah, 14, 21. ― The site of our sanctuary ; the place from which come the graces and blessings that sanctify us.

17.20 Kings of Judah ; That is to say, Jehoiakim, who reigned at that time, and his successors, Jeconiah his son, and Zedekiah his brother, who were the last two kings of Judah. All of Judah, that is to say, the people.

17.26 Plains ; in Hebrew, from the Shephelah, the land of the Philistines, extending from Jaffa to Gaza, between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Judah.

18.1-23 II^e Part: Confirmation of Israel's condemnation, chapters 18 and 19. — Israel rejected like a broken clay pot, chapters 18 and 19. — The second part contains the account of two symbolic actions that show that Israel's condemnation is irrevocable. — 1° God has resolved to punish Israel; however, all is not yet lost, and he can reverse his decision: the potter whom Jeremiah visits remakes before his eyes the clay pot that broke in his hands; if Judah repents, the Lord will forgive him, chapter 18, verses 1 to 11. — Judah refuses to convert, verses 12 to 15; revenge is therefore inevitable, verses 16 and 17; The guilty even hold a grudge against the Prophet's life (verse 18), so that he, in turn, calls for their punishment (verses 19-23). — 2. The setting changes. The Prophet goes to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, or Topheth, south of Jerusalem, where the idolaters had committed one of their greatest crimes: the sacrifice of children, burned in honor of Moloch or Baal. He first recalls the crimes committed there and the misfortunes that will be their punishment (chapter 19, verses 1-9); then, as a sign of the desolation that will definitively strike Jerusalem, the true Topheth, he breaks an earthenware vessel beyond repair (verses 10-13). After this, he goes to the Temple courtyard and repeats the same prophetic threats (verses 14-15).

18.3 Potters in the East worked on a machine consisting of two stone wheels, one of which was large and supported a smaller one on which the clay was placed.

18.6 See Isaiah 45:9; Romans 9:20.

18.7 See Jeremiah 1:10. 

18.8 I repent of the harm I had resolved to do to him. God, speaking to men, here borrows their language. He cannot repent at all, but he can appear to repent when he refrains from committing the evil he had threatened. God, following the remark of Saint Augustine, He changes his works, but does not change his intentions. ; But it is by changing his works that he appears to change his intentions.

18.11 See 2 Kings 17:13; Jeremiah 25:5; 35:15; John 3:9.

18.14 the snow of Lebanon is the mountain Lebanon himself, on whose peaks the snow never completely melts.

18.16 See Jeremiah 19:8; 49:13; 50:13. 

18.20 that they dig a pit, as one does to catch wild animals, by making them fall into it.

19.2 The Ben Hinnom Valley. See Jeremiah, 7, 31. ― The Pottery Gate ; so called, because it was near this door that the potters lived, or because broken pots were thrown near there.

19.3 Kings of Judah. See Jeremiah, 17, 20.

19.5 Baal. See Jeremiah, 2, 23; 3, 16.

19.6 Topheth. See Jeremiah, 7, 31-32.

19.8 See Jeremiah 49:13; 50:13.

20.1-18 III^e Part: Execution of the sentence of reprobation against Judah, from chapter 20 to chapter 45. — I^D Section: God's Judgment Against Those Who Are the Cause of Reprobation, from chapter 20 to chapter 23. — 1. Oracle Against Pissur, chapter 30. — 1. Pissur the priest, the temple steward, having heard Jeremiah announce the destruction of Jerusalem and the house of God, struck him down and had him put in prison in the temple, verses 1 and 2. He set him free the next day, but the Prophet predicted that as punishment for his lies he would be taken to Babylon with those he deceived, and that he would die there, verses 3 to 6. ― 2° Jeremiah then addresses God and complains of the sorrows and insults that his ministry brings him; he is comforted, however, because the Lord is with him, verses 7 to 12. ― 3° A new thought of discouragement seizes him again, however, and he regrets having come into the world, verses 14 to 18.

20.1 The priest ; an expression which, among the Hebrews, designated the priest par excellence, the high priest, or a simple priest, but only when he was in office. ― chief supervisor, that is to say, steward of the temple, having inspection over the Levites, the singers, the gatekeepers, the temple provisions, etc. 

20.7 That is to say, you engaged me in the prophetic ministry with promises whose meaning I did not understand, you reduced me to a humiliation I did not expect.

20.11 See Jeremiah 23:40. 

20.12 See Jeremiah 11:20; 17:10. 

20.14 ; 20.18 The curses and imprecations found in these verses are merely emphatic expressions commonly used in the East to convey intense grief. This is an observation we have had occasion to make several times.

20.14 See Job 3:3.

21 So far the order of the prophecies seems fairly consistent; but there appears to be some disruption in this chapter and the sixteen that follow. Thus, for example, what is said here in verse 1 happened in the tenth year of Zedekiah's reign, when Nebuchadnezzar, after marching against the king of Egypt, returned to besiege Jerusalem a second time.

21.1-14 2. Prophecies against the kings of Judah; the Messiah, from chapter 21 to chapter 23, verse 8. — 1. While Nebuchadnezzar was besieging Jerusalem for the second time, Zedekiah sent Phashrius and Zephaniah to Jeremiah to ask him if God would perform some miracle to deliver the capital, chapter 21, verses 1 to 3. The Prophet replied that the weapons of the Jews would turn against themselves, because they were doomed to ruin, verses 4 to 7. Only those who surrendered to the enemy would be spared, verses 8 to 10. May the king turn away God's wrath through the accurate administration of justice, verses 11 and 12. May the city not rely on its own strength. Verses 13 and 14. The house of David can only be saved by atoning for all its injustices, chapter 22, verses 1 to 9. — 2. After speaking of Zedekiah, the Prophet gives us his prophecies against the kings who preceded him. As for Shellum or Jehoahaz, he will not see his homeland again, but will die a captive in Egypt where he was taken by Necho, verses 10 to 12. — 3. Jehoakim, established king by Necho in place of Shellum, the predecessor of Jeconiah and Zedekiah, is condemned to a shameful death because of his injustices, verses 13 to 19. — 4. Judah is condemned because its shepherds do not lead it to truth and obedience, but feed it with wind. This is why Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, will be handed over to the Chaldeans and taken to Babylon where he will die without descendants (verses 20-30). — 5. God, however, will one day comfort his people by sending them a good shepherd from the line of David, the Messiah (chapter 23, verses 1-8). The Messiah is referred to in this passage, see Jeremiah, 23, 5, Germ of David. — The characteristics of the Messiah's reign are foretold in this passage: this descendant of David will be king, see Jeans, 18:36, and with him he will establish justice, wisdom, and peace, not only in Judah, but also in Israel, now reconciled and united. Moreover, he will be God, our righteousness.

21.1 Phassur, son of Melchias, seems to be different from Phassur, son of Emmer (see Jeremiah, 20, 1). ― Sophonias, the priest. This expression does not refer here, as in many other places, to, the high priest, since this same Sophonias is mentioned further down (see Jeremiah, 52, 24) and 2 Kings 25, 18, the second priest. See also the meaning of the expression., the priest, Jeremiah, 20, 1.

21.2 Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, whose name will appear frequently in Jeremiah and the subsequent prophets, was the son of Nabopolassar, founder of the Babylonian Empire. His real name was Nebuchadnezzar. He was the greatest king of Babylon. Before his father's death, he seized parts of the kingdom from Pharaoh Necho. Syria which he had occupied for about three years, inflicting a bloody defeat on him in 605 at Carchamis on the banks of the Euphrates, Jeremiah 46, 2-12. Nebuchadnezzar pursued the vanquished as far as Egypt, seizing Coele-Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine, including Jerusalem, along the way. As he entered Egypt, he received news of his father's death. He returned to Babylon by the shortest route, that is, through the desert and Palmyra, and took possession of his kingdom in 604. Three years later, when Jehoiakim, king of Judah, refused to pay him tribute, Nebuchadnezzar launched another campaign against the countries bordering the Mediterranean. He seized Jerusalem almost without a fight and, according to Josephus, had (Jeremiah, (22:18-19; 36:30), King Jehoiakim, and replaced him with the latter's son, Jehoiachin. Jehoiachin reigned for only three months. Nebuchadnezzar, finding him unruly, returned to Jerusalem for the third time after this period, deposed him, and took him captive to Babylon, giving the throne to Jehoiachin's uncle, Zedekiah. The Chaldean king became master of Tyre after a thirteen-year siege, in 585. See Isaiah, Chapter 23. Before the fall of Tyre, Jerusalem had fallen (586). Zedekiah having allied himself with the king of Egypt, Apries or Hophra (see Ezekiel, (17:15), paid dearly for his disloyalty. His capital was captured after a two-year siege by the Babylonians, he was blinded at Riblah, and his conqueror took him captive to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar subsequently waged several campaigns against Egypt. Daniel reveals several important aspects of his story. This famous conqueror died at the age of 83 or 84, after a 43-year reign, in 561 BC.

21.7 For the fulfillment of the prophecies, see 2 Kings Chapter 25.

21.9 God wants to avoid bloodshed by this means, and preserve the race of Israel. Jeremiah, 38, 2.

21.12 See Jeremiah 22:3.

21.13 Resident, etc., that is to say; situated, etc. Jerusalem is thus designated, because it stood on the mountains of Zion and Moriah, in the middle of the valleys and plain which surrounded it.

21.14 I will set fire. See for the execution of these threats, 2 Kings 25, 9.

22.5 This prophecy relates to the time of the reign of Jehoiakim, who ascended the throne after Pharaoh Necho deposed and took his brother Jehoahaz to Egypt. 2 Kings 23, 34.

22.6 Gilead ; a very beautiful and fertile land beyond the Jordan, which had been part of the kingdom of Israel. God gives this name to the palace of Judah to highlight its magnificence and riches, but at the same time to make known that, as this province of the kingdom of Israel had been devastated by Tiglath-pileser, king of the Assyrians (see 2 Kings (15:29), the house of Judah should fear the same punishment if it imitated the unfaithfulness of the house of Israel. Lebanon ; high mountain, in northwestern Palestine.

22.8 See Deuteronomy 29:24; 1 Kings 9:8.

22.10 King Josiah, who had died piously shortly before and was greatly mourned by the people (see 2 Chronicles 35, 24). ― the one who left ; Joachaz, also called Sellum. See the following verse.

22.13 The one who builds, etc.; Joakim established king by Necho in place of Sellum.

22.18-19 These were the cries of lamentation heard during the funeral ceremony. See further on., Jeremiah, 34, 5 ; 1 Kings 13, 30. ― JoakimThe Fourth Book of Kings (see 2 Kings 24, 5) recounts his death, as Saint Jerome points out, but he does not say that he was buried, because he was deprived of this honor.

22.19 See Jeremiah 36:30.

22.20 Basan ; fertile mountain, in northeastern Palestine; both may be symbols of the very mountains on which Jerusalem was built.

22.23 THE Lebanon ; here refers to Jerusalem, seat on its mountains.

22.24 I am alive ; oath formula explained in Isaiah, 49, 18. ― A ring, which is used for sealing, is a precious object, dear to its owner, who does not willingly part with it.

22.30 not that he was positively deprived of children, since Scripture itself says the contrary (see 1 Chronicles 3, 17 ; Matthew, 1, 12); but none of his children reigned after him.

23.1 See Ezekiel 34:2. Misfortune, etc. This is a continuation of the previous speech.

23.4 See Jeremiah 3:15. Pastors ; Literally, Zerubbabel, Jesus, son of Joses, and the others who governed Judah after the captivity; but in a more elevated sense, the apostles of Jesus Christ, destined to guide and shepherd the faithful delivered from the bondage of the devil. none will be missing anymore. Jesus Christ seems to allude to this passage in the Gospel (see Jeans, 6, 39 ; 17, 12 ; 18, 9).

23.5-6 Besides the fact that all the Church Fathers and Christian exegetes see in these two verses the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the force and grandeur of the expressions do not allow them to be explained literally by any other.

23.5 See Isaiah 4:2; 40:11; 45:8; Jeremiah 33:14; Ezekiel 34:23; Daniel 9:24; John 1:45.

23.6 See Deuteronomy 33:28. Lord our justice ; name attributed here to the Messiah, to Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is truly God, son of God, equal and consubstantial with his Father, and at the same time the principle of our justice.

23.7-8 The Lord is alive ; Oath formula. See Jeremiah, 4, 2.

23.8 See Jeremiah 16:14.

23.9-40 3. Prophecies against the false prophets, chapter 23, verses 9 to 40. — The false prophets, by their pernicious examples, are the principal cause of the corruption of Judah, verses 9 to 15; they have deceived the people by their lying predictions and have thus hardened them in their sins, but the wrath of the Lord will burst upon their heads, verses 16 to 22; God sees how, by their fantasies, they lead the people away from his worship, presenting their imaginings as divine truth, verses 23 to 30; he will come to them, he will teach them no longer to despise the burden, or prophecy of threats, of the true prophets, and he will cover them with eternal shame, verses 31 to 40.

23.9 To the prophets ; That is to say, to the false prophets, I, Jeremiah, say.

23.11 the harm they did by placing their idols even in the temple. Jeremiah, 7, 30 ; 11, 15 ; 2 Kings Chapter 23.

23.12 the year I visit them. See for the meaning of these words, Jeremiah, 11, 23.

23.14 Its inhabitants ; That is to say, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Like Sodom. See Genesis, note 13.10.

23.15 See Jeremiah 9:15. absinthe. See Proverbs, 5, 4.

23.16 See Jeremiah 27:9; 29:8.

23.17 See Jeremiah 5:12; 14:15.

23.19 See Jeremiah 30:23.

23.21 See Jeremiah 27:15; 29:9. 

23.33 Burden. See meaning of the word, Isaiah 13, 1.

23.40 See Jeremiah 20:11. 

24.1-10 II^e Section: God's Judgment Against the People in General, or the Babylonian Captivity, from chapter 24 to chapter 29. — 1. Fulfillment of the prophecies against the people through a first deportation, chapter 24. — The threats so often repeated have begun to be fulfilled: part of the people has been taken into captivity, along with Jeconiah, by Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah sees two baskets, one full of good figs, the other of bad ones; the first represents the Jews who were deported, the second those who remained in Judah with Zedekiah: these will perish, while the former will be preserved for a better future, chapter 24, verses 1 to 10.

24.1 In front of the Lord's temple ; That is, in the priests' courtyard before the sanctuary gate. It was there that the first fruits were placed before the altar of the Lord (see Deuteronomy, 26, 4).

24.2 Figs. See Hymn, note 2.13.

24.7 See Jeremiah 7:23; 31:33. Heart ; often means in Hebrew, mind, intelligence.

24.8 See Jeremiah 29:17. Those who live in the land of Egypt. See Jeremiah, 44, 13.

25.1-38 2. Earlier prophecies concerning the captivity, from chapter 25 to chapter 29. — Chapter 24 is from the time of Zedekiah, chapter 25 takes us back to the 4th^e Year of Joakim. — 1. It was in this year that Jeremiah foretold all the evils that Nebuchadnezzar would inflict upon Judah and predicted that the captivity would last 70 years, verses 1 to 11. See Jeremiah, 29, 10. These 70 years run, not from the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple under Zedekiah, but from the first deportation, which took place on the 4th^e The year of Joakim, the very year of the date of this prophecy. Seventy years passed from that time until the edict of Cyrus, which allowed the Jews to return to Palestine under the leadership of Zerubbabel (605-536 BC). — 2. Those who took Judah into captivity, the Chaldeans, will in turn be punished after seventy years; all those who have persecuted God's people will drink from the cup of the wine of divine wrath, verses 12 to 31; the Lord will destroy them, verses 32 to 38.

25.5 See 2 Kings 17:13; Jeremiah 18:11; 35:15.

25.10 the noise of the grinding wheel ; that is to say, the voices of the women who sang while turning the millstone. Matthew, 24, 41. ― The sound of the millstone grinding grain is given as the sign of an inhabited place: in the East, where there is an agglomeration of men, it is a sound that is heard all day long.

25.11 See 2 Chronicles 36:21-22; Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 26:6; 29:10; Daniel 9:2. seventy years old, which are counted from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, and end in the first year of Cyrus (see Ezra, 1, 1).

25.13 on all nations ; that is to say the Idumeans, the Moabites, and all the peoples neighboring the Jews who had allied themselves with the Chaldeans (see Jeremiah, 12, 6 ; Lamentations, 4, 21 ; Psalms, 136, 7 ; Ezekiel, 25, vv. 3, 8; ; Obadiah, 1, 11-13).

25.14 I will return them, etc. This is addressed to the Chaldeans, who, in turn, fell under the power of the Medes and Persians led by Darius and Cyrus.

25.17 According to most exegetes, Jeremiah is recounting a simple vision here.

25.19 To Pharaoh, Néchao.

25.20 Ascalon, Gaza, Accaron, Philistine cities; ; Azot it was now nothing but a ruin, having already been taken by Psammetichus, king of Egypt.

25.23 Dédan, Théma, Buz ; Three peoples who lived to the east of Palestine, in the Arabian Desert. those who shave their temples, see Jeremiah, 9, 26.

25.24 Arabia ; the country which extends east and south of Palestine to the Red Sea.

25.25 Zambri It was a province of Persia according to some, and of Arabia according to others. Elam ; province of Persia also called Elymaïs.

25.26 Sesac is the name of Babel or Babylon, written using the method called atbasch and which consists of writing the last letter of the alphabet instead of the first, the second-to-last instead of the second, and so on.

25.29 See 1 Peter 4:17.

25.30 See Joel 3:16; Amos 1:2.

25.30 from his holy dwelling ; his temple, where he appeared, so to speak, in all the splendor of the glory he received on earth from men.

25.34 expensive vases ; which, upon falling, are broken, so as to be unusable. roll around in the dust, as a sign of mourning.

26.1-24 3. Not only will the people be taken captive, but Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed: this is what Jeremiah predicted at the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign, therefore three or four years before the prophecy of chapter 25. The announcement of the calamities in chapter 26 nearly cost the Prophet his life (verses 1-6), but the danger he faced did not prevent him from maintaining its accuracy (verses 7-15). Many defend him and point out that Micah predicted the same things (see Micah 3, 12, without being molested by Hezekiah; they thus save Jeremiah, despite the example of Uriah, put to death by Jehoiakim, an example which his opponents cite, verses 16 to 24.

26.1 Joakim ascended the throne in 609 BC.

26.2 The forecourt, This is the great square of the people.

26.5 that I sent first thing in the morning. See Jeremiah, 25, 3.

26.6 See 1 Samuel 4, verses 2, 10. Like Silo. See Joshua, 18, 1.

26.7 The prophets ; That is to say, the false prophets.

26.10 sat down ; to administer justice. ― New door ; so called since Joatham had it repaired (see 2 Kings 15, 35). It was there, as Saint Jerome noted, that religious cases were judged.

26.12 See Jeremiah 25:13.

26.13 See Jeremiah 7:3. The Lord will repent. See, for the true meaning of this expression, Jeremiah, 18, 8.

26.18 Micah ; He is the sixth of the minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the Vulgate. His prophecies (see Micah, (3:12) the quotation made here by the elders of Judah. Temple Mount, Mount Moriah, where the temple was located.

26.19 All Judah ; that is, the entire people of Judah.

26.20 From Cariathiarim ; a city located northwest of Jerusalem, in the mountains, on the road from Jerusalem to Jaffa. ― Urie ; The prophet is known to us only through this passage.

26.22 Elnathan ; one of the principal inhabitants of Jerusalem, see further on, Jeremiah, 36, vv. 12, 25. ― Achobor. A person of that name is mentioned among Josiah's courtiers, see 2 Kings 22, vv. 12, 14, but it is unknown if this was the father of Elnathan. An Elnathan had a daughter named Nohestah, who was the wife of King Jehoiakim and the mother of Jeconiah, see 2 Kings 24, 8. If this Elnathan is the same as the one mentioned here, Joakim would have instructed his father-in-law to go and claim Uriah in Egypt.

26.23 Since it was Pharaoh Necho who had placed Joakim on the throne, he handed over the prophet Uriah to him.

26.24 Jeremiah did not lack the help and protection of Ahicam; that is to say, Ahicam strongly supported Jeremiah. Ahicam had been held in high esteem by Josiah, father of Joakim (see 2 Kings 22, 12-14). ― Ahicam, son of Saphan, is appointed to 2 Kings 22, vv. 12, 14, among those sent by King Josiah to the prophetess Holda to consult her after the high priest Helkiah had rediscovered the Law of Moses in the Temple in Jerusalem. He had a son, Gedaliah, who was later appointed governor of the land by Nebuchadnezzar; see Jeremiah, 39, 14; 40, 5. All this family supported the prophet.

27.1-22 4. All the neighboring peoples will suffer the yoke of Babylon, which Jeremiah symbolically places around his own neck. Whoever is deceived by false prophets will perish; on the contrary, whoever believes in the word of God will be saved (chapter 27, verses 1-11). 5. Zedekiah and Jerusalem are warned of the evils that will befall Judah; the imminent end of the captivity announced by the false prophets is a lie; on the contrary, those who have remained in the land will in turn be deported and will join those who are already captive (verses 12-22).

27.1 Joakim. According to verses 3, 12 and 20 of the same chapter, and according to Jeremiah, 28, 1, it seems that it would be necessary Zedekiah, Indeed, as several Hebrew manuscripts, the Syriac version, and an Arabic version read, Saint Jerome acknowledges that, if one must read here Joakim, This verse relates to chapter 26, because what follows concerns the reign of Zedekiah.

27.2 Make connections, etc. It was the custom of the Orientals to depict, through their actions, the objects by which they wished to impress the imagination of their listeners. This is why the prophets prophesied not only in words, but also through symbolic actions. By these links and these chains, Jeremiah wants to depict the coming enslavement of Judah and the surrounding countries.

27.6 My servant. See, for the meaning of these words, Jeremiah, 25, 9. ― Saint Thomas says that the hyperbolic expression: I even gave him the field animals, means that God wants to completely subjugate the kingdom of Judah to Nebuchadnezzar.

27.7 To him, Nebuchadnezzar, and to his son, Evilmerodach reigned for two years, after which he was dethroned by his brother-in-law Neriglissor. Neriglissor reigned for four years. His son Laborosoarchod succeeded him, but he was killed after nine months and replaced by Nabonidus, father of Belshazzar. Nabonidus was deposed by Cyrus after a reign of seventeen years. Jeremiah emphasizes the duration of the Babylonian empire rather than the strict order of succession.

27.9 See Jeremiah 23:16; 29:8.

27.11 There is no contradiction here with what was said above (see Jeremiah, (25:14), that the nations would be punished because they served the Chaldeans. Indeed, it must be noted that these nations were not to be punished because of their submission, a submission commanded to them as well as to Judah so as not to aggravate their suffering, but because of the treacherous fury, contrary to the treaties, with which they had joined the Chaldeans to attack and persecute the Jews.

27.15 See Jeremiah 14:14; 23:21; 29:9.

27.16 the utensils of the Lord's house ; that is to say, the sacred vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple (see 2 Kings 24, 13 ; 2 Chronicles 36, 10).

27.19 See 2 Kings 25:13. See, concerning these matters, 1 Kings Chapter 7 and 2 Kings Chapter 25.

27.22 the day I visit them, The meaning is therefore: Until I visit them, removing them from the hands of the Chaldeans, to have them returned and restored in my temple; which took place under Cyrus, king of the Persians (see Ezra, 1, 7-11). ― in this place ; in the temple.

28.1-17 6. Jeremiah's last prediction is confirmed by the example of Hananiah and Shemei. — I. The false prophet Hananiah announces that Jeconiah and the other captives will return to Jerusalem and that the sacred vessels will be returned (chapter 28, verses 1-4). — Jeremiah refutes these predictions and declares, in the name of God, that Hananiah will die within the year, which indeed happened (two months later) (verses 5-17).

28.1 Gabaon ; a city of the tribe of Benjamin, not far from Jerusalem. ― The fourth year of Zedekiah, in 594. ― Hananias we only know it through what Jeremiah says about it.

29.1-32 II. Jeremiah writes to the captives themselves in Babylon that they should not hope for a swift return to Judea, but consider Chaldea as their new homeland, and not believe the words of those who predict the contrary (chapter 29, verses 1-9); for the captivity will not end for 70 years (verses 10-15); all those who tell them that the end of their suffering is near are deceiving them (verses 16-23). One of these false prophets of Babylon, Shemei, not content with misleading the captives, had written to Jerusalem asking that Jerusalem be placed in prison ; Jeremiah prophesies to him that neither he nor his prosperity will see the salvation of the Lord, verses 24 to 32.

29.2 The Queen Mother. 2 Kings 24, 12. ― Eunuchs ; They are placed here between the princes of Judah, Jerusalem, and the priests, because they were the chief officers of the court. In the East, in fact, this name was given to the officers of the princes' household, although they were not actually eunuchs, but because they performed their duties in the women's quarters.

29.3 Elasa And Gamarias are otherwise unknown characters.

29.8 cf. Jeremiah 14, 14; 23, vv. 16, 26; 27, 15.

29.10 See 2 Chronicles 36:21; Ezra 1:1; Jeremiah 25:12; Daniel 9:2.

29.17 See Jeremiah 24:9-10.

29.21 Ahab and Zedekiah. These two false prophets are named only here.

29.22 When the Jewish captives in Babylon want to curse someone, they will say: May the Lord, etc. 

29.24 Semeias ; likely one of the false prophets of Babylonia; because of his nickname the Nehelamite means in Hebrew the dreamer, the visionary.

29.25 Letters ; literally books. Compare to verse 1. Sophonias. See Jeremiah, 21, 1.

29.26 Joïada ; According to most, he was the high priest who had shown great zeal during the reign of Joash (see 2 Kings 11, 17 ; 2 Chronicles 23, 16); according to others, a simple priest, the second of the high priest, and the predecessor of Sophonias.

29.28 It will be a long time ; your captivity will last a long time yet.

30.1-24 III^e Section: Messianic Prophecies, from chapter 30 to chapter 33. — 1. Restoration of God's People, chapter 30. — Part of the people has already been taken into captivity; the final catastrophe is approaching; Jeremiah is primarily concerned, in these critical moments, with comforting his brothers. He first announces that the captives, not only from Judah, but also from Israel, will return to their homeland, verses 1 to 3. — The present calamities are great, but the foreign yoke will be broken, and David, that is, the Messiah, will reign again over his people, verses 4 to 11. — Israel is struck now, without anyone being able to help it, but God will one day heal the wounds He has inflicted, verses 12 to 17. — He will bring it back to its land, on the last days, he will make a prince from his own race (the Messiah) reign over him, when his anger is appeased, verses 18 to 24.

30.6 Ask, etc.; a figure representing the terror of the Babylonians, and their extreme surprise, when they saw the combined forces of the Medes and Persians descend upon them. Scripture quite commonly refers to acute and sudden pains as those of childbirth.

30.7 See Joel 2:11; Amos 5:18; Zephaniah 1:15.

30.8 His yoke ; that is to say, the yoke of the enemy. 

30.9 David ; that is, the Messiah, who is called David (see Ezekiel, (34:23; 37:25), as the descendant of this prince, and as possessing eminently and in reality all the qualities that Scripture attributes to David as a figure of the Messiah. Zerubbabel, to whom this prophecy has been applied by some, fulfilled it only very imperfectly; for he was never king, and he never possessed absolute authority in his nation.

30.10 See Isaiah 43:1; 44:2; Luke 1:70.

30.12 In this verse and the following ones, up to the 18th^e inclusively, Israel is considered a woman, the verbs and pronouns that relate to it are all in the feminine form.

30.14 See Jeremiah 23:19.

30.21 His leader, his sovereign. These words, according to ancient and modern exegetes, apply to Jesus Christ. Those who hear them from Zerubbabel regard this leader of Judah as a figure of the Messiah.

30.24 The fire of the Lord's wrath. See, regarding this expression, Jeremiah, 4, 8.

31.1-40 2. Prophecy of the New Covenant or New Testament, chapter 31. — Chapter 31 is the most important of all the book of Jeremiah. ― Israel has been unfaithful to the covenant it made with God: it has violated it; therefore, it no longer exists through its fault; the Lord is consequently released from his promises, he no longer protects it and delivers it to Nebuchadnezzar. But, in his goodness, he does not abandon humankind; he will make a new covenant, a new testament that will embrace the entire universe. Such is the essence of the thoughts developed in chapter 31. ― 1° The work of mercy, begun in Egypt, seems forever abandoned; God will, however, gather the remnants of Israel and bless them, verses 1-6. — 2. He will gather the scattered remnants of his people and bring them back to their homeland, where joyful songs will again be heard, verses 7-14. — 3. Now Rachel mourns her children who are no more, but one day she will be comforted, for Ephraim will repent, and the Lord will have mercy on him and save him, verses 15-27. — 4. When the people have thus repented of their sins, God will make a new covenant with them, which will no longer consist, like the old law, in a multitude of written prescriptions, but in the conformity of the will of man to the will of God, see Hebrews, 8, 8 ; Jeans, 4, 23; there will then be no more worshipers of false gods; everyone will recognize the Lord, verses 28 to 35. ― 5° Israel, although a part perishes because of its sins, will remain the people of God; Jerusalem will be rebuilt again, all that is impure will be purified, and the holy city, that is to say the Church, will no longer be the object of divine wrath, verses 36 to 40.

31.4 That is to say, you will still be in joy and you will celebrate holidays.

31.6 See Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2.

31.9 My firstborn ; That is to say, my beloved. Ephraim and Israel here represent the kingdom of the ten tribes.

31.14 I will fill myself with fat ; allusion to the custom of the ancient Hebrews who, in sacrifices, gave the priest the fattiest parts of the victim, after those which were offered to God.

31.15 Saint Matthew (see Matthew, (2:17-18), quotes this passage from Jeremiah. Rachel She was the grandmother of Ephraim; that is why she is depicted here mourning the death of Ephraim's children.

31.22 a woman will surround a man ; According to Saint Jerome and Saint Athanasius, this verse concerns the birth of the Messiah. A woman will bear in her womb, not an ordinary, small, and weak child, but a mature man, a perfect man, the Messiah.

31.29 See Ezekiel 18:2.

31.30 Every man, etc.; a proverbial expression meaning that children will no longer be punished for the sins of their fathers, as happened during the captivity, but that each will only atone for their own sins. Cf. Lamentations, 5, 7 ; Ezekiel, 18, 2.

31.31-34 Saint Paul reveals to us in this promise the Christian covenant (see Hebrews, 8, 8-13). Verse 33, where the only one is named House of Israel, proves that this prophecy will only be fully fulfilled when all the House of Israel will enter into the covenant already made by the Lord with the house of Judah ; that is, when the Jewish nation enters into the covenant that Jesus Christ made with his Church (see Romans, 11, 25-40).

31.31 See Hebrews 8:8.

31.33 See Hebrews 10:16.

31.34 See Acts of the Apostles, 10, 43.

31.38 From the tower, etc. These are apparently the two extremities of the eastern side, one towards the south, the other towards the north. The Tower of Hananel was probably located between the northeast and northwest corners of the Jerusalem wall, and the corner door was the angle of the north wall and the west wall.

31.39 Gareb, Goa ; place names that were supposed to be near Jerusalem, but whose true location is unknown. It is nevertheless presumed that Goa is the same as Golgotha, That is to say, the mountain of Calvary, which was included within the walls of the new city of Jerusalem rebuilt by the Emperor Hadrian under the name of Elijah. But, in a higher sense, this restoration of Jerusalem represents the establishment of the very Church of Jesus Christ, into whose walls those who were previously separated from it have entered, and to which alone belongs the perpetuity promised in the following verse.

31.40 The Valley of Corpses and Ashes was probably the valley of Ennom, where the corpses as well as the ashes from the altar of sacrifices were thrown.

32.1-44 3. Jeremiah, during the siege of Jerusalem, buys a field in Anathoth as a sign of the people's future return to their homeland and of God's covenant with the new Israel (chapters 32 and 33). — 1. Jeremiah, imprisoned by Zedekiah in the temple courtyard (chapter 32, verses 1-6), receives a command from God to buy, according to all legal formalities, a field belonging to one of his relatives in Anathoth, so that the people may see with their own eyes that the Prophet is convinced that Israel will one day return to the Promised Land (verses 7-15). — 2. Jeremiah experiences some doubts, because Jerusalem will soon fall into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (verses 16-25), but the Lord reiterates his assurance that he will bring his people back from captivity after making them atone for their sins; he will then work with them an eternal alliance, and will shower it with blessings, verses 26 to 44. — 3. This prophecy is reiterated in chapter 33. Jerusalem will be delivered into the hands of its enemies, but it will one day flourish again, verses 1 to 9. The devastated land will be blessed again and filled with joy, verses 10 to 13. — 4. The David's Germ (see Jeremiah, (23:5), the Messiah will sprout and establish justice; his name will be: The Lord our righteous, that is to say the Lord justifies us; he will establish an eternal kingdom and priesthood, verses 14 to 18. ― 5° God's covenant with his new people or the Church will be as stable as the laws of nature, verses 19 to 26.

32.1 The tenth year of Zedekiah, in 588.

32.5 Until, etc.; that is, until his death (see Jeremiah, 52, 11).

32.14 In an earthenware vase. It was in earthenware vessels in Babylonia that a large number of sales and purchase contracts, contemporary with Jeremiah, were found.

32.18 Who shows mercy, etc. Exodus, 34, 7.

32.32 The children of Judah ; is synonymous with inhabitants of Judah.

32.34 See 2 Kings 21:4. — on which, etc.; or which has been called by my name. See Jeremiah, 7, 10.

32.44 of the Sephelah. See Judges, note 15.5.

33.2 That ; That is to say, what he said, what he announced.

33.7 See Jeremiah, 30, 3.

33.11 See 2 Chronicles 5, 13 ; 7, 3 ; Ezra, 3, 11 ; Psalms, 104, 1.

33.15 A fair seed, the Messiah, even the Jews think that this verse refers to the Messiah.

33.18 These promises concern only the eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ, exercised by himself and by his bishops and priests in the Catholic Church.

33.24 The two families, one royal and the other priestly. This is also explained in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

33.25-26 Just as it is certain that I am master of the day and the night, so it is certain that I will reject the descendants of Jacob.

34.1-22 IV^e section: Unsuccessful efforts for the conversion of the people before their total ruin, from chapter 34 to chapter 38. ― 1° The total ruin of Israel caused by its contempt for the law, ch. 34 and 35. ― The people rendered useless all the efforts that God made to convert them, they constantly violated his law; they must therefore atone for their crimes. — 1. While Nebuchadnezzar besieges the city, and Zedekiah is already seemingly doomed (chapter 34, verses 1-7), the people agree to set the slaves free, according to the law (verses 8-10), but then they take them back (verse 11), and Jeremiah announces to them that they will be defeated and taken captive (verses 12-22). — 2. Israel's unfaithfulness is no less evident in the comparison the Prophet draws between them and the Rechabites, of the Cinean race (see 1 Chronicles 2, 55. The Rechabites were forced by the Chaldean invasion to take refuge in Jerusalem. Jeremiah, by God's command, invites them to drink wine. They refuse so as not to violate the precepts of their father Jonadab. Because of this faithfulness, God promises to preserve them, while disobedient Judah will perish (chapter 35). This episode of the Rechabites relates to the siege of Jerusalem under Jehoiakim (see Jeremiah, 35, 1, not under Zedekiah. It is placed here, no doubt solely to better illustrate how Jerusalem deserved the fate it suffered under its last king.

34.1 the cities dependent on Jerusalem; the other cities of Judah that had not yet surrendered.

34.7 Lachis And Azec ; two cities in the southern part of Judah. ― Who had stayed, etc.; which had not yet been taken by the enemy.

34.14 See Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12.

34.18 to pass between the pieces, to make the pact entirely solemn and inviolable. See Genesis, 15, 10.

34.19 The eunuchs. See, for the meaning of this word, Jeremiah, 29, 2.

35.2 Rechabites ; The descendants of Jonadab and Rechab led exemplary lives, exhibiting rigorous abstinence and extraordinary selflessness. They were originally from Cine (see 1 Chronicles 2, 55). ― one of the rooms that is to say, one of the chambers of the temple buildings, which served as dwellings for the priests, as stores, and as rooms for meals for peaceful sacrifices.

35.15 See Jeremiah 18:11; 25:5.

35.19 He will not be lacking, etc. The Rechabites were taken captive with the Jews to Babylon, but they returned with them to their country. After their return, they served in the temple, but only as singers, instrumentalists, etc. (see 1 Chronicles 2, 55), and they continued to live in sobriety and poverty.

36.1-32 2. Misfortunes of Israel caused by its resistance to the prophets, from chapter 36 to chapter 38. — If the people perish, it is because they are incorrigible and refuse to listen to the prophets God sends them and to follow their advice. Jeremiah proves this: — 1. by recounting what happened to him under Jehoiakim. He has Baruch read his prophecies before the people. The king, angered, throws the scroll containing them into the fire and wants to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch, but God does not allow them to be found. Jeremiah announces to the house of David and to the people that the threats he made against them will be irrevocably fulfilled, and he has his prophecies written down again, chapter 36. — 2. What had happened during the reign of Jehoiakim is repeated in a nearly identical manner under Zedekiah, although this latter king showed some consideration for Jeremiah. Jeremiah exhorts his compatriots to submit to the Chaldeans, while the latter have interrupted the siege to halt the advance of the Egyptians; he himself sets out to take refuge in Anathoth, but he is captured and thrown into prison. Zedekiah learns from him the grim fate that awaits him; nevertheless, he softens his captivity, chapter 37. — 3. The Prophet again exhorts the people to submit to the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar. For this, he is thrown into a cistern, where he would have perished had he not been rescued by Abdemelech, with the king's permission. He again advises Zedekiah to surrender to the Chaldeans, but the prince does not dare to do so, and Jeremiah remains in prison until the city falls into the hands of the enemy, chapter 38.

36.1 The fourth year of Joakim's reign in 605.

36.4 Baruch. See on him the’Introduction to his prophecy.

36.6 the day of fasting. If this fast is the same as the one which, according to verse 9, was published in the ninth month, it was an extraordinary fast; for the law did not ordain any for the ninth month.

36.9 In the fifth year of Joakim, in 604. ― In the ninth month, November-December.

36.10 Gamarias' Room. See Jeremiah, 35, 2. ― The upper forecourt ; it was probably the priests' courtyard. ― The new door. See Jeremiah, 26, 10.

36.22 The ninth month November-December is relatively cold in Jerusalem, especially when the north wind blows. Snow sometimes falls in the city at this time. the winter apartment,  the part of the house where the king lived in the winter. ― A blaze. Since oriental houses did not have chimneys, they were heated with burning coals placed in a brazier, pot or stove.

36.23 columns of the volume, which was made of papyrus or leather; that is why it is cut with a small knife.

36.24 These words ; the words contained in the scroll.

36.30 There will be no, etc. Jeconiah, son of Jehoiakim, having reigned for only three months, and even then under the control of the Chaldeans, his reign is considered worthless. His successor was Zedekiah, his uncle, and the last king of Judah. — See above, Jeremiah, note 21.2.

37 The first two verses of this chapter can be considered the conclusion of the previous one. What follows appears to be from the 9th^e The year of Zedekiah, and consequently much later than what precedes it. 

37.1 See 2 Kings 24:17.

37.3 Zephaniah, the priest. See Jeremiah, 21, 1. ― Juchal shows further on, see Jeremiah, 38, 1, enemy of Jeremiah.

37.4 prison. See above, Jeremiah, 32, 2. ― Pharaoh's army, Apries or Hophra, called further on, see Jeremiah, 44, 30, Ephrey, Pharaoh of the 26th^e A dynasty native of Sais, son of Psammetichus II, grandson of Necho II. He set out to attack the Chaldeans, who suspended the siege of Jerusalem to meet him and halted his advance. Later, he welcomed the Jews who had taken refuge in Egypt. He reigned from 590 to 571 BC.

37.12 Benjamin's door ; probably north of Jerusalem, perhaps towards the place where the Damascus Gate is today.

37.15-16 It was a prison underground, as seen in verse 15, unhealthy and very hard, see Jeremiah, 38, 26. House in which there was a pit, a prison underground, a dungeon.

37.16 a word from the Lord, a prediction.

38.1 Phaseur. See above, Jeremiah, 21, 1.― Juchal. See Jeremiah, 37, 3.

38.2 See Jeremiah 21:9. God had expressly commanded the Jews to surrender to the Chaldeans. See Jeremiah, 21, 9, on the grounds of this commandment.

38.6 From Melchias, son of the king or of royal lineage.

38.7 At Benjamin's door. See above, Jeremiah, 37, 12. ― Abdemelech the Ethiopian must have been a slave who had been bought by the king.

38.14 The third entrance ; it is unknown; the learned Rabbi Kimchi, and after him D. Calmet, Menochius, etc., think that it is the one by which one entered from the king's palace into the temple.

38.16 The Lord is alive that's to say I swear by the Lord.

38.17 If you go out, etc. See the reason for this commandment, Jeremiah, 21:9. King Nebuchadnezzar was not at that time personally at the siege of Jerusalem, where his army was commanded by his generals; he was at Reblatha, in Syria.

39.1-18 V^e Section: Fulfillment of the prophecies against Jerusalem, from chapter 39 to chapter 45. ― 1° Capture of Jerusalem, chapter 39. The measure of the iniquities of Judah and Jerusalem is at its height; the city is taken, verses 1 and 2; Zedekiah has his eyes gouged out and is taken to Babylon; the capital and the temple are burned, verses 3 to 10; Jeremiah and Abdemelech escape ruin, vv. 11 to 18. Thus the prophecies are fulfilled.

39.1 See 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 52:4. Tenth month ; called Tebeth has Esther, 2, 16. Began at the new moon in January. ― The ninth year of Zedekiah, in 589.

39.2 Fourth month ; whose Hebrew name Tammoux is not found in the Bible, began at the new moon in July. ― the enemy having made a breach in the wall, the city was taken by storm.

39.3 At the middle door ; Perhaps in the square that was in front of the gate of the second enclosure; for Jerusalem had several walls. Nergal And Sereser are repeated twice in this verse — These two words belonged to the same Babylonian name: Nergal-sar-usur, that is, «the god Nergal protects the king». Sémégar, perhaps refers to its title, treasure guardian, upon reading it Samgar Or damkar. Rabsares And Rebmag are also titles of Babylonian dignities, the first being that of Nabusachar, as the Septuagint reads; the second, that of the second Nergal Sereser. We explain. Rabsares by chief of the eunuchs and Rebmag by chief of the Magi, but these explanations are not certain. What is certain is that these are titles of dignity. Thus, this verse contains the names of three high-ranking officials with an indication of their office.

39.4 king's garden. This garden was located in the Valley of Hinnom, and watered by the Pool of Siloam, south of Jerusalem. The Chaldeans could not encamp in this deep valley. It was therefore the easiest place to escape their surveillance. It was also easy to reach Jericho from here, on the southern slope of the Mount of Olives. The door between the two walls ; the wall at the eastern end of Zion and that at the western end of Ophel.

39.5 Ribla, in the land of Emath, in Coele-Syria, on the Orontes.

39.6 His eyes ; the eyes of Zedekiah, their father.

39.7 Assyrian bas-reliefs show us the kings of Nineveh, themselves gouging out the eyes of their defeated and chained enemies.

39.9 Nabuzardan ; in Babylonian; Nabuziriddina, "the god Nebo gives offspring, a son", was the Chaldean commander-in-chief.

39.12 keep your eyes on him ; That is to say, take great care of him.

39.14 Godolias. See above, Jeremiah, note 26.24.

39.16 Abdemelech See above. Jeremiah 38, 7.

40.1-16 2. The fate of the Jews left in Palestine; their flight to Egypt, from chapter 40 to chapter 45. A number of Jews had been left in Palestine, but they were not to escape the punishment they had deserved for their crimes, like those who had been deported to Babylon. — 1. Jeremiah, having been given permission to stay wherever he wished, went to Gedaliah, governor of the land, at Masphath, chapter 40, verses 1 to 6. — A large number of those who had remained in their homeland followed him there, verses 7 to 12. — There, Johanan warned Gedaliah that the king of Ammon, Baalis, wanted to kill him, but the governor refused to believe him, verse 1. 13 to 16. — He falls under the blows of Ishmael, the servant of Baalis, as do many Jews, chapter 41, verses 1 to 7. — Ishmael takes some other Jewish prisoners with him. These are freed on the way by Johanan, verse 13. 8 to 16. ― 2° The remnants of the people, despite the advice of Jeremiah, out of fear of the vengeance that the Chaldeans would take for the murder of Gedaliah, fled to Egypt, and forcibly took the Prophet with them, from chapter 41, verse 17 to chapter 43, verse 7― 3° It is there, as he predicted to them, that they will be punished for their unbelief and their idolatry, by Nebuchadnezzar, who will reach them in the land where they imagined themselves to be safe from his blows, from chapter 43, verse 8 to chapter 45.

40.1 Rama ; as is generally believed, a city of the tribe of Benjamin, between Bethel and Gibeah. cf. Joshua, 18, 25 ; Judges, 19, 13.

40.4 I'll have my eyes on you. See Jeremiah, 39, 12.

40.6 Maspha ; a city of the tribe of Judah, not far from Jerusalem.

40.7 From the earth ; that is to say, from the country, from Judea.

40.8 Ishmael was of the royal race of Judah (see Jeremiah, 41, 1).

40.9 See 2 Kings 25:24.

40.14 The motives for hatred Baalis against Godolias, and the goal he intended to achieve are unknown.

41.1 The seventh month ; which began at the new moon in October. Maspha Jerem. 40, 6.

41.2 of the country, Judea.

41.5 The shaved beard, etc.; it was a sign of mourning among the Hebrews. The Lord's house ; that is to say, the ruins on which the Jews had erected an altar to offer their sacrifices.

41.8 The harvests were hidden in the fields, in holes shaped like cisterns, and the opening was so well concealed that a stranger's eye could hardly discover it.

41.9 with a view of Baasa, cf. 1 Kings 15, 22.

41.12 Gabaon ; about half an hour north of Maspha. On Gabaon, 1 Kings 3, 4.

41.17 Chamaam was the name of a son of Berzelaï, see 2 Samuel 19, vv. 37-38, 40, which had probably built near Bethlehem a sort of caravanserai which was named after him. It was there that the fleeing Jews stopped.

42.1 the troop commanders. See Jeremiah, note 41.10.

43.1 All these prophecies were reported in the previous chapter.

43.7 Taphnes. See Jeremiah, 2, 16. Today Tell Defennéh, in the Delta.

43.10 My servant. See, Jeremiah, 25, 9.

43.13 The House of the Sun ; That is to say, dedicated in honor of the sun. — The house of the sun is Heliopolis. This city, located northeast of Cairo, where Matarieh is today, was famous for its sun worship. The stelae These are, as the Septuagint described them, the obelisks placed in front of the temple. One of the obelisks of Heliopolis is still standing today.

44.1 Migdol ; city in Lower Egypt. cf. Exodus, 14, 2 ; Numbers, 33, 7. ― Tahnes, Memphis. See Jeremiah, 2, 16. ― Phatures ; Upper Egypt canton. 

44.4 from the morning. See Jeremiah, 7, 13.

44.11 See Amos, 9, 4.

44.14 Compare to verse 28.

44.17 See Jeremiah, 19, 13. ― The Queen of Heaven ; the moon.

44.21 mounted to the heart, see Jeremiah, 3, 16.

44.22-23 As we can see today. See Jeremiah, 11, 5.

44.26 The Lord God is alive, See Jeremiah, 4, 2.

44.28 the word Judah is taken here, not as the name of a country; but for the men of Judah.

44.30 Hophra ; called by the Greeks After, was the son of Psammis and the grandson of Necho or Necho, who had done the war to Josiah, king of the Jews. — See above, Jeremiah, 37, 4.

45 Although this prophecy and those of the following chapters are not in their proper place according to chronological order, it appears, however, that they have been gathered here intentionally, as entirely distinct from the preceding ones which concern the house of Israel and Judah and especially Judah and Jerusalem, while this one concerns Baruch particularly, and the following ones have as their object several unfaithful nations. Joakim's fourth year, in 605.

45.3 Woe to me, etc. Baruch feared being taken captive or killed in the days of misfortune foretold by Jeremiah.

46.1-28 IV^e Part: Prophecies against foreign peoples, from chapter 46 to chapter 51. — Punishments reserved for the enemies of God's people. The prophecies against the peoples neighboring Palestine, who were its enemies, are gathered together in Jeremiah, as in Isaiah and Ezekiel. There are nine of them: 1. against Egypt, chapter 46; 2. against the Philistines, chapter 47; 3. against Moab, chapter 48; 4. against Ammon, chapter 49, verses 1 to 6; 5. against Idumea, verses 7 to 22; 6. against Damascus, verses 23 to 27; 7. against Kedar and Ashor, verses 28 to 33; 8. against Elam, verses 34 to 39; 9. against Babylon, chapters 50 and 51. All these prophecies were fulfilled exactly.

46.2 Nechao II, son of Psammetichus I^er, He reigned from approximately 611 to 605. See 2 Kings 23, 29. ― Carchemis. See Isaiah, 10, 9. ― Nebuchadnezzar. See above, Jeremiah, 21, 2.

46.9 Libyans ; a people neighboring Egypt and its ally. Many believe that these are the Libyans ; but the Libyans are named separately, both here and elsewhere.

46.11 balm. See Jeremiah, 8, 22.

46.13 This is a new prophecy against Egypt. The previous one relates to Nebuchadnezzar's expedition against the Egyptians at Harkamis, during the reign of Necho, before the capture of Jerusalem; this one concerns the expedition of the same Nebuchadnezzar against the Egyptians in Egypt itself, during the reign of Ephra, Necho's grandson, after the capture of Jerusalem.

46.18 I am alive ; That is to say, I swear by myself. Like the Thabor, etc. Just as Tabor is most certainly part of the mountains, and Carmel extends into the sea, so too will Nebuchadnezzar most certainly come.

46.20 From the North ; of Chaldea.

46.21 His mercenaries ; the foreign soldiers she took into her pay. 

46.25 No is certainly Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt.

46.26 She ; Egypt (see verse 2). This restoration of Egypt was also predicted by the prophet Ezekiel (29, 13-14).

46.27 See Isaiah 43:1; 44:2.

46.28 because I am with you. cf. Jeremiah, 30, 11.

47.1 Pharaoh, Psammetichus I^er or Necho II. Psammetichus I^er had seized Azoth, from which it is concluded that he must also have seized Gaza before arriving at Azoth. Necho could also have seized Gaza while campaigning in Asia, before arriving at Mageddo where he defeated Josiah. According to several commentators, the Gaza referred to here would be a city of Syria called Kadytis, which Necho conquered according to Herodotus.

47.2 rising waters ; That is to say, the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. In Scripture, an army is very often compared to a deluge, to a flood.

47.3 Fathers no longer turn to their children even to take them away.

47.4 The island ; Some mean from the island of Crete, and others from the island of Cyprus.

47.5 Gaza has gone bald. In times of mourning, as in extraordinary misfortunes, it was customary to shave one's head and make incisions in the flesh. Their ; refers to the two cities of Gaza and Ascalon. ― Gaza and Ascalon ; two of the principal cities of the Philistines, in the plain of Sephelah, a short distance from each other, on the Mediterranean.

47.7 gave you his orders, to punish the enemies of his people. cf. Ezekiel 20, 15-17.

48.1 In Moab, regarding This prophecy concerns the expedition against the Moabites during the siege of Tyre, a few years after the capture of Jerusalem. Nabo ; city. See Isaiah 15, 2. ― Caryathaim ; a city that formerly belonged to the Israelites. See Numbers 32, 37 ; Joshua 13, 19 ; Ezekiel 25, 9.

48.2 Hesebon ; city. See Isaiah, 15, 4.

48.3 Horonaim ; city. See Isaiah, 15, 5.

48.4 Moab, etc. The word Moab is sometimes considered a people's name, a collective name, and sometimes a city name.

48.5 Luith. See Isaiah, 15, 5.

48.6 See Jeremiah 17:6.

48.7 Chamos ; was the principal deity of the Moabites.

48.13 Chamos. See verse 7. Bethel ; a city on the border of the tribes of Ephraim and Benjamin, and into which Jeroboam introduced an idolatrous cult 1 Kings 12, 29).

48.17 stick scepter. Jeremiah's irony lies in his use of the words strong And Magnificent ; For the Moabites were the most vain and proud people. Compare to verse 29.

48.18 Dibon's daughter. The Orientals call girls the cities of a country; we have already noted this. Dibon had very beautiful waters; but as these beautiful waters were to be filled with blood, according to a prophecy of Isaiah (15, 9), Jeremiah predicted that she would be forced to flee to the desert, to dry and arid places, where she would suffer thirst.

48.19 Resident. See the preceding verse. Aroër ; a city situated on the Arnon River at the southern edge of the land of Moab. ― Aroër on the Arnon, now Arair, belonged to the tribe of Reuben, whose southern border was formed by the Arnon. We see from this passage that Moab had taken control of this city, which was located opposite Ar Moab.

48.20 Arnon ; river on the northern border of Moab, between the Moabites and the Amorites (see Numbers 21, 13).

48.21 Helon, Jasa, Mephaath ; cities of Moab, which formerly belonged to the tribe of Reuben.

48.22 Beth-Deblathaim ; That is to say, the house of Deblathaim, is perhaps the same as Helmon-Deblathaim (see Numbers, 33, 46).

48.23 Caryathaim. See verse 1. Beth-Gamul ; unknown, moreover. ― Beth-Maon ; perhaps the same as Beelmeon, near the Arnon (cf. 1 Chronicles 5, 8 ; Ezekiel 25, 9).

48.24 Carioth ; according to several the same as Carioth, mentioned below, see verse 41. See Joshua, 15, 25 and Amos, 2, 2. ― Bosra. According to some, it is the same as Bosra, a famous city of Idumea, which is discussed later, see Jeremiah, 49, 13 ; Genesis, 36, 33, etc., because it was situated on the border of Moab and Idumea, and had been occupied by the Moabites and the Idumeans; but, according to others, it was a different city from that one. ― Bosra or Bostra, in the Hauran, is identified by several scholars with Astaroth-Carnaim.

48.25 The horn ; among the Hebrews, a symbol of strength.

48.28 stay among the rocks ; in the caves which are numerous in the land of Moab as in Palestine and where people sought refuge in times of war.

48.29 See Isaiah 16:6.

48.32 I cry, etc. See on this verse, Isaiah, 16, 9. ― Jazer. See Numbers, note 21.32.

48.34 cry, etc. This verse has been explained in Isaiah, 15, 5.

48.36 A flute. Among the Hebrews, as among other ancient peoples, the flute was played at funerals and in mourning as well as at festivals and celebrations. Men. See verse 31. the profit he had made, etc.; that is to say, because in its pride and presumption, Moab undertook a very perilous thing for itself, by opposing the Chaldeans and wanting to measure its strength against these conquerors of Asia.

48.37 See Isaiah 15:2; Ezekiel 7:18. — Enumeration of the signs of mourning and desolation.

48.38 On all the rooftops. The roofs were flat, and people climbed them in times of public calamity.

48.39 Moab is taken here to mean the Moabites.

48.40 He that is to say Nebuchadnezzar.

48.41 Carioth. See verse 24.

48.44 See Isaiah 24:18. his visitation ; their chastisement, their punishment.

48.45 Séhon ; That is, from the valley of Sehon, from Hezebon. Jeremiah is applying here an ancient proverb which is found in the Book of Numbers (see Numbers, 21, 27), and which was based on what Sehon, king of the Amorites, whose capital was Hezebon, had done the war to the Moabites, and had taken part of their country. ― the skull of the sons of tumult, the elite of soldiers.

48.46 People of Chamos ; That is, worshippers of Hamos. See verse 7.

48.47 But I will bring back, etc. After the Babylonian captivity, as is generally believed, the Moabites, like the Jews, returned to their homeland. Even in the time of Jesus Christ, they had their own country, but later they were absorbed into the Arab tribes.

49.1-6 Prophecy about Ammon.

49.1 children. See Jeremiah, 48, 1. ― Melchom ; god of the Ammonites. They believed that it was Melchom who had put them in possession of the land of the Israelites: the Lord speaks to them according to their prejudices, first casting his reproaches on this supposed divinity.

49.2 Rabbah ; capital city of the Ammonites, referred to here as son of Ammon. ― His daughters ; the other cities in the country.

49.3 Hesebon. See Isaiah, 15, 4. ― Girls ; that is to say, cities. ― Hate ; city east of Bethel (see Joshua, 7, 2).

49.4 Who would dare to come against me? to take me. 

49.5 You will be, etc.; you will be separated from one another, thrown one to one side, the other to the other.

49.6 Children of Ammon ; that is to say, Ammonites.

49.7-22 Prophecy concerning Idumea.

49.7 To Idumea. See Jeremiah, 48, 1. ― Théman ; famous city of Idumea. ― THE ; That is to say, the Themanites.

49.8 Inside ; a city in Idumea, not far from Teman, at the southern end of the Dead Sea. ― I visit it ; That is to say, his punishment.

49.13 Bosra ; city. See Jeremiah, 48, 24.

49.14 See Obadiah, 1, 1.

49.16 See Obadiah, 1, 4. ― In stone caverns. Petra, rock, was the capital of Idumea, and the inhabitants of this city partly lived in the rocks hewn to serve as their dwellings. See Isaiah, 16, 1. ― which occupies the hilltop. Idumea is very mountainous and its strongholds were perched on mountain peaks like eagles' nests.

49.17 They will hiss at the sight of all his wounds. See Jeremiah, 18, 16.

49.18 See Genesis 19:24-25. Like Sodom. See Genesis, note 13.10 and Isaiah, note 34.9.

49.19 See Jeremiah 50:44; Job 41:1. He goes up ; the enemy, Nebuchadnezzar.

49.21 On the Red Sea. The navigators of the Red Sea, who trade with Idumea, hear the news of its ruin.

49.23-27 Prophecy about Damascus.

49.23 In Damascus. See Jeremiah, 48, 1. ― Damascus, Hamath, Arphad ; cities of Syria, of which Damascus was the capital.

49.27 Ben-Hadad. It seems that this name was common to the kings of Syria like that of Pharaoh to those of Egypt. ― Or rather Ben-Hadad was the name of several kings of Syria. Scripture mentions three kings of Damascus with this name, but it also names others with different names, such as Hazael.

49.28-33 Prophecies about the Arabs.

49.28 A Cedar. See Jeremiah, 48, 1. ― Cedar ; was probably the part of desert Arabia inhabited by the descendants of Kedar, son of Ishmael; but here it means all of desert Arabia. ― Hasor ; a city, or rather a region, of Arabia, which comprised several small kingdoms. ― The sons of the Orient. This is the biblical name for nomadic Bedouins.

49.29 tents. See Jeremiah, 4, 20. ― They ; the Chaldeans. ― baggage; by this word the Hebrews meant furniture, utensils, weapons, etc.

49.31 which has neither doors nor bars ; They do not live in houses that can be closed with doors and bolts; and they have no ties or alliances with any other people.

49.32 Their camels. These animals are one of the main sources of wealth for nomads.

49.34-39 Prophecy concerning Elam.

49.34 Elam ; province of Persia, is taken here for the inhabitants, the Elamites.

49.39This prophecy was fulfilled during the reign of Cyrus.

50.1 Chapters 50 and 51 contain a prophecy against Babylon.

50.2 Bel ; principal deity of the Babylonians. ― Merodach ; another deity of the same people; or perhaps an ancient king of the country who had been deified.

50.3 A nation, etc.; the Medes and the Persians, who were united in the person of Cyrus.

50.9 a meeting of great peoples. Cyrus' army consisted of all the peoples he had conquered; all these troops came from the north, from the direction of Asia Minor where he had made the war. 

50.13 Whistle, etc. See Jeremiah, 18, 16.

50.15 she holds out her hands ; she surrendered, she submitted on all sides.

50.17 The king of Assyria ; that is to say the kings of Assyria, Teglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib and Esaraddon.

50.18 As I visited the king of Assyria. The Lord visited the king of’Assyria, not only by the defeat of Sennacherib, but also by the ruin of Nineveh, and of the Assyrian empire.

50.19 I will bring back, etc. This particularly concerns the kingdom of the ten tribes, where these different places were located; this restoration of the house of Israel to the land of its fathers is the symbol of the recall of the Jews to the Church of Jesus Christ.

50.23 The hammer of the whole earth ; the king of Babylon; the Babylonian monarchy had been very formidable on earth in the person of Nebuchadnezzar.

50.27 ; 50.31 visited ; that is to say, punished.

50.29 See Jeremiah 51:49.

50.38 these scarecrows ; monstrous idols that inspire terror —  drought on its waters. Babylonia owed its fertility to the Euphrates and the many canals that had been diverted from it. Since its canals dried up, it has been barren.

50.40 See Genesis 19:24-25. Like when God. cf. Jeremiah, 49, 18.

50.44-45 See for an explanation of these two verses, Jeremiah, 49, 19-20.

50.44 See Jeremiah 49:19; Job 41:1.

51.5 Against the holy one of Israel ; That is to say, committed against the Lord.

51.7 A golden cup by which God intoxicated the peoples of wine of his anger; he used Babylon, whose glory was brilliant, as an instrument to punish the nations that had angered him.

51.8 See Isaiah 21:9; Revelation 14:8. Balm. See Jeremiah, 8, 22.

51.10 the justice of our cause ; that is to say, our just rights, violated by the Chaldeans.

51.13 You who live by the great waters. Babylon was crossed by the great river Euphrates and all its surroundings were watered by canals branching off from the river.

51.14 See Amos, 6, 8.

51.15 See Genesis 1:1.

51.17 Every man, etc. See for an explanation of this verse, Jeremiah 10, 14.

51.25 Mountain of destruction, because of its strength and power.

51.26 They will not take from you nor cornerstones, etc. You will not be rebuilt. When the kings of Babylon wanted to rebuild a structure, they first looked at the corner of the monument for the tablets that were hidden there and that recounted the history of the foundation.

51.27-28 Consecrate the nations against her, etc. See Jeremiah, 6, 4. ― Ararat, Menni, Ascenez ; provinces of Armenia.

51.34 He devoured me., etc. It is the Jewish nation that speaks thus, as appears from the following verse. 

51.35 My flesh ; That is to say, my children killed.

51.36 I will dry up its sea and make its spring run dry. This prophecy was fulfilled literally when Cyrus, who accompanied his uncle Darius, diverted the waters of the Euphrates that flowed through Babylon, thus drying up the riverbed. His sea here refers to the Euphrates.

51.37 mockery. See Jeremiah, 18, 16.

51.41 Sesac. See Jeremiah, 25, 26.

51.43 The son of man. See, regarding this expression, Jeremiah, 49, 18.

51.50 Escaped from the sword, Jews, who were spared by the victor.

51.59 Saraïas, son of Nerias, was supposed to be a brother of Baruch, secretary to Jeremiah.

51.64 So far, etc.; these words are not from Jeremiah; but from the one who collected his works.

52 This chapter, which is purely historical, contains almost nothing more than what is reported in 2 Kings 24, 18-20; 25, vv. 1-21, 27-30. This chapter 52 is generally believed to be^e This passage is not from Jeremiah; some attribute it to Ezra. It is certain that the elevation of Jehoiachin reported here (see verse 31) took place only after the prophet's death. There are also discrepancies in this chapter that are explained by the commentators.

52.1-34 Epilogue, Chapter 52. ― The book of Jeremiah It ends with a concluding chapter, showing how all the prophecies it contains about the holy city were fulfilled; it recounts the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar after a two-year siege (verses 1-6); the misfortunes of Zedekiah (verses 7-11); the burning of the capital (verses 12-13); and the deportation of the inhabitants, except the poor workers, v.14 to 16; the removal of the sacred vessels from the Temple, v.17 to 23; the enumeration of those who were taken into captivity on three different occasions, v.21 to 30, and the alleviation of the afflictions of Jeconiah, v.31 to 34.

52.1 See 2 Kings 24:18; 2 Chronicles 36:11. 

52.4 See 2 Kings 25:1; Jeremiah 39:1. The ninth year of his reign, in 589.

52.6 On the ninth day. See Jeremiah, 39, 2.

52.7 The two walls ; that is to say the wall and the forewall. cf. 2 Kings 25, 4.

52.8 The plains. cf. 2 Kings 25, 5.

52.11 prison. See Jeremiah, 37, 15.

52.12 On the tenth day. In the parallel location, see 2 Kings 25, 8, we read, to the seventh ; contradiction which is only apparent, if we assume, which is very likely, that Nebuzardan left Reblatha where Nebuchadnezzar was, on the seventh day, and that he arrived on the tenth in Jerusalem, which is indeed three days' journey from Reblatha.

52.19 see 2 Chronicles 4, vv. 16, 20, 22.

52.20 there was no need to weigh the bronze, etc. See 2 Kings 25, 16.

52.24  The second-class priest ; the first after the high priest, the temple steward, also called prince of priests.

52.31 there prison. See Jeremiah, 37, 15. ― Evil-Merodach, Nebuchadnezzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, succeeded his father on the throne of Babylon in 561. He occupied the throne for only two years and perished in 559, a victim of the discontent of the Babylonians, stirred up by Neriglissor, his brother-in-law, who seized the crown.