Homilies on the Prophet Jeremiah from the Syro-Hexaplar Manuscript

THE SYRO-HEXAPLAR CODEX

OF THE AMBROSIAN LIBRARY AT MILAN

Published and translated into Latin by Matth. Norberg at Lund in the year 1787.

FROM THE PREFACE OF THE EDITOR OF THE SYRIAC CODEX

There has been no lack of noble talents and great studies directed toward the restoration of Origen's Hexapla, yet, due to a lack of material—not of ability—the final touch has not yet been applied. However, our Syro-Hexaplar codex provides us with the means, not only of confidence in a liberal emendation, but also of the confidence itself. I transcribed its canonical portion seven years ago for my own private use, through the indulgence of the distinguished Ambrosian Librarian Branca, and I now bring it forth for the common good at the suggestion of friends. This codex is kept most diligently at Milan in the Ambrosian Library. If you observe its form and content, it is of no small size, written in two columns on folio, and presents a venerable appearance; it is written on parchment, in the ancient Estrangelo script of the Syrians, with red titles and epilogues. In its compass and this order, it contains the Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Jeremiah, Baruch, Lamentations, the Epistle of Jeremiah, Daniel, the Histories of Susanna, Bel and the Dragon, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Most of the books bear prologues at the beginning (the one for the Psalms is very long, but mutilated), which, by their account of the chapters, the history of the authors, and other matters fully and better expounded elsewhere—and omitted by me for the sake of brevity—serve as a torchlight; likewise, they have epilogues at the end, which, as printed editions will declare, indicate that our version was made from a Greek codex which Eusebius, with his associate Pamphilus, had extracted from Origen's Tetrapla or Hexapla preserved in the Library at Caesarea, and which, after having been collated with these exemplars, was corrected. It was completed at Alexandria in the month of Kanun II, in the year of Alexander 928, i.e., in the month of March in the year of Christ 617. Specifically, Job, Daniel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets are said to have been taken from the Tetrapla, while Proverbs, the Song of Songs, and Lamentations were taken from the Hexapla. Nor does the origin of the others—except for Isaiah, which is noted as having been expressed from the codex of Eusebius and Pamphilus—which lack epilogues, seem to be sought from any other source, their very nature impressing this belief. In the text itself and sometimes in the margin, there are present first the Asterisks, Obeli, Lemnisci, and Hypolemnisci; then follow the letters: *Ain* indicating the Hebrew text; *Aleph, Samech,* and *Thau* indicating Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion respectively; *Gimel* indicating these interpreters combined; *He* indicating the Quinta; and *Vau* indicating the Sexta version. Then there are other signs, the shapes of which are [- - -] [- - -] and others similar to these, which correspond to the diverse scholia of various authors—most of which I have omitted for the reason stated above—or to interpretations placed in the margin, for which the letters of the Latin alphabet conveniently serve in our edition. The more it is evident that the Apocryphal Books, which occasionally show Greek terms, Syriac synonyms, and longer scholia in the margin, do not have these critical signs, the more curious it seems that not only are they seen there, but that even the version of Theodotion in Baruch and the Song of the Three Children in the fire—monuments of antiquity which I therefore also thought should be transcribed—are cited; a matter which I commit to the judgment of those more learned.

There was a Syriac codex of the same type and value which was equally famous in the possession and use of Masius, but which, after the death of that most illustrious man, either lies in hiding or has perished by some sad fate, with no hope, or very little, of its recovery. For the form of both was the same, the same character, the same version, the same signs, the same notes. The Masian codex, according to the true account of its own possessor, was said at the end to have been taken and translated word-for-word from the Greek exemplar which Eusebius, with Pamphilus as his assistant, corrected with his own hand from the books of Origen available in the Caesarean Library: the same is said of our Ambrosian codex. And since books of the Old Testament were present in the Masian codex which are missing in the Ambrosian, with the former having been finished in the year of Alexander 927 (616 A.D.), and the latter completed in the year of Alexander 928 (617 A.D.), it seems that they must have constituted the volume of one and the same work. But concerning the author of this version, I find nothing in our codex, nor in Masius, beyond the conjecture of an unknown name. In a matter so old and uncertain, I accede to the opinion of the distinguished Eichhorn, who, collecting facts that are closer to the truth and following what is most likely, judges that Paul, Bishop of Alexandria, was the author of the Syro-Hexaplar version of the IV Books of Kings, which is found in the Royal Library at Paris and which I have also transcribed.

^A Indeed, regarding his office, through a mistake of the copyists, the person himself was not different in the eyes of the readers from Paul of Tell, to whom Assemani attributes the version of the LXX interpreters among the Syrians with certainty, and to whom we also think it probable that the Masians and Ambrosian manuscripts should be attributed. The age of our codex is equally ambiguous, although, if it is to be estimated from the type and form of the letters, it seems to go back beyond the eighth century. More certain is the name of the man who, by his intention and bounty in transferring this codex from Asia to Europe, earned the gratitude of posterity. It is Cardinal Borromeo, a man of singular character, who—to say nothing of other most excellent treasures of the East—most liberally procured this copy, an ancient treasure of the Chaldean monastery dedicated to the celebration of the holy St. Mary in the desert of Scetis, as an ornament for the Ambrosian Library.

Having briefly described the nature of our codex, it follows that I should say a few words about our Latin version, in the composition of which the Syriac interpreter served me as a model. Just as he followed the Greek in its footsteps, departing far from the custom of his own language, so I, in this same matter—looking more to reading correctly than to translating elegantly—have proposed to myself to imitate, or rather to emulate, the Syriac, even if it be less than elegant in Latin. But if it is difficult to give a true representation of something that is almost immediate, it has been most difficult for me to represent the likeness of things that are most remote, and to express with an equal number of Latin words of the same force and power those Syriac terms which, by the license of antiquity, are obscure; by the abundance of their meanings, are ambiguous; and, because of the oriental style of writing—which is halfway between our own and hieroglyphics—are subject to various methods of reading and interpretation, especially in notes and outside the sequence of the discourse. ^B Thus, the errors arising from these causes you will attribute to my lack of learning, while the rest, which I committed in transcribing and which I left uncorrected for fear of erring again, you will attribute to my carelessness; and you will excuse them, partly on account of the difficulty of the matter, and partly because of the shortage of time in making the copy of the codex. Indeed, you will not demand as much from me—who, because of the urgency of my journey to the East, had neither the time formerly to compare the whole codex with our copy, nor now the opportunity to consult it again—as you would expect from the studies and genius of those to whom the fortune of both falls.

Finally, regarding the use of our codex, which is to be understood better from its own contents than from my words: it promises in its preface, and cherishes in its depths, many things I have to say concerning the ancient testimonies to the integrity of the Hebrew text, the new remedies for the errors of the LXX translators, and the great additions to the Hexapla of Montfaucon as well as the Syriac Nomenclatures, had not the size of the projected volume and its cost stood in my way. Therefore, since it is not possible to explain fully all the numerous passages of this version which differ from the Hexapla of Montfaucon's work and Grabe's edition in the number, form, and placement of words and signs, it will be helpful to have cited them by name from the only two books which we are now editing, for the sake of an opportune collation and to distinguish the true from the false. Jerem. I. 8. II. 17. 29. III. 3. IV. 4. V. 15. 16. 26. VI. 2. 13. 22. VII. 10. 11. VIII. 2. 7. 19. IX. 26. X. 9. 18. XIII. 10. XIV. 13. 15. XV. 11. XVI. 4. XVIII. 20. 23. XIX. 11. XXI. 3. XXII. 18. 29. 30. XXIII. 8. 10. XXVII. 20. 21. XXVIII. 4. LI. 6.

(1) The prepositive Greek article, which Origen sometimes added to the Septuagint text with an asterisk, our manuscript expressed by the letter Lomad, which Norberg rendered by *ad*, or *is, ea, id*; we have inserted it into the Latin version by means of Greek letters, a fact which the editor of the codex himself frankly confessed he had noticed only after his own work had already been printed. Drach.

^A and gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I shall command you. ^B Be not afraid of their face, lest I make you afraid before them; for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. 18. I, however: behold, I have placed you this day as a fortified city, and as a column of iron, and as a walled fence of bronze ^C against all the kings of Judah, and against its princes, and against their priests, and against the people of the land. 19. And they shall fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

PROPHECY OF JEREMIAH

ACCORDING TO THE SEPTUAGINT VERSION.

Cap. I.—1. The word of God which came to Jeremiah the son of Helcias, of the priests, who dwelt in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: 2. which word of the Lord came to him in the days of Josias the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. 3. And it came to pass in the days of Joacim the son of Josias, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Sedecias the son of Josias, king of Judah, until the captivity of Jerusalem in the fifth month. 4. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 5. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you came forth from the womb, I sanctified you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. 6. And I said: The One who is Lord, O Lord, behold, I am not instructed how to speak, for I am a child. 7. And the Lord said to me: Do not say that I am a child; for to all to whom I shall send you, you shall go, and according to all that I shall command you, you shall speak. 8. Be not afraid of their face, and be not moved before them; for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. 9. And the Lord stretched forth His hand to me, and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: Behold, I have given my words in your mouth: 10. Behold, I have appointed you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to overthrow, and to waste, and to destroy; and to build, and to plant. 11. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: What do you see, Jeremiah? And I said: A rod of an almond tree I see. 12. And the Lord said to me: You have seen well; for I am watching over my words, to do them. 13. And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying: What do you see? And I said: A pot set on fire I see, and its face is from the face of the north. 14. And the Lord said to me: From the face of the north shall evils burst forth upon all the inhabitants of the land. 15. For behold, I call all kings of the kingdoms of the north; and they shall come, and shall set every man his throne over the vestibules of the gates of Jerusalem, and over all the men that are around it, and over all the cities of Judah. 16. And I will speak with judgment to them concerning all their malice, because they have forsaken me, and have sacrificed to foreign gods, and have worshipped the works of their own hands. 17. And you, gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all that I shall command you. ^D Be not afraid of their face, lest I make you afraid before them; for I am with you, to deliver you, says the Lord. 18. I, however: behold, I have placed you this day as a fortified city, and as a column of iron, and as a walled fence of bronze against all the kings of Judah, and against its princes, and against their priests, and against the people of the land. 19. And they shall fight against you, and they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the Lord, to deliver you.

Cap. II.—1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Go and read in the ears of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and say: Thus says the Lord: I have remembered your mercy of your youth, and the love of your perfection, and you followed after the Holy One of Israel, says the Lord, in the desert, in a land not sown. 3. Israel is holy to the Lord, the beginning of His increase: all who eat him shall commit injustice: evils shall come upon them, says the Lord. 4. Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob; and all the families of the house of Israel. 5. Thus says the Lord: What injustice have your fathers found in me, that they went far from me, and walked after vain things, and became vain? 6. And they did not say: Where is the Lord, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us in the desert, in a land not tested, nor trodden, in a land without water, and without fruits, and of the shadow of death, in a land through which no man passed, nor did any son of man dwell there? 7. And I brought you into Carmel, to eat its fruits, and its good things. And you entered, and defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination. 8. The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? and those who held the law were not instructed about me; and the shepherds acted wickedly against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. 9. Therefore I will yet contend in judgment against you, says the Lord, and I will contend in judgment against your children's children. 10. Therefore pass over to the islands of the Cethians, and see, and send to Cedar, and attend and use your minds vehemently—

^A if things like these have been done. 11. If the nations have changed their gods, and these are not gods. But my people has changed their glory for that from which they shall gain nothing. 12. The heaven was astonished at this, and shuddered vehemently and exceedingly, says the Lord. 13. For my people has done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewed out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, which cannot contain water. 14. Is Israel a servant, or is he a house-born slave? Why has he become a prey? 15. The lions roared against him, and gave their voice, and they have made his land a wilderness; and his cities are laid waste, for they are not inhabited. 16. Even the children of Memphis and Taphnis have known you, and have mocked you. 17. Has not this happened to you because you forsook me, when I led you in the way? 18. And now what have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink the water of Gihon? And what have you to do with the way of the Assyrians, that you should drink the water of the rivers? ^B 19. Your own wickedness shall correct you; and know and see that it is an evil and bitter thing for you, that you have forsaken me, says the Lord your God: and I took no pleasure in you, says the Lord your God. 20. For from of old you have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds, and said: I will not perform service to you, but I will go upon every high hill, and will go under every shady tree, and there I will give myself to wantonness in my fornication. 21. Yet I planted you a vine bearing fruit, all true: how are you turned into the bitterness of a strange vine toward me? 22. If you should wash yourself with nitre, and multiply for yourself a cleansing root, you are stained in your injustices before me, says the Lord Jehovah. 23. How do you say: I am not defiled, and I have not walked after Baal? See your ways in the sepulchres, and know what you have done. ^C In the evening she has howled with her voice; 24. in the desires of her soul she has drawn the wind: she is delivered; who shall turn her? All that seek her will not weary themselves: in her humiliation they will find her. 25. Withhold your foot from a rough way, and your throat from thirst. But she said: I will act manfully: for she loved strangers, and went after them. 26. As the shame of a thief when he is caught, so shall the children of Israel be ashamed, they, and their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets. 27. They said to the wood, You are my father; and to the stone, You have brought me forth. And they turned their backs to me, and not their faces. And in the time of their evils they will say: Arise and save us. 28. And where are your gods which you made for yourself? Let them arise, and deliver you in the time of your humiliation. For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah: and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have you sacrificed to Baal. 29. Why do you contend in judgment with me? You have all acted wickedly, and you have all acted unjustly toward me, says the Lord. 30. In vain have I struck your children: you did not receive correction. The sword has devoured your prophets, as a destroying lion, and you feared not. ^D 31. Hear the word of the Lord: Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a deserted land? For my people have said: We will not be subject, nor will we come to you anymore. 32. Will a bride forget her ornaments, or a virgin the attire which is upon her breast? But my people have forgotten me days without number. 33. Why do you further devise good in your ways to seek love? It has not happened so; but you have even done evil, so as to defile your ways: 34. and in your skirts have been found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor. I found them not in excavations, but upon every oak. 35. And you said: I am innocent; yet let his anger turn away from me. Behold, I will judge you, because you said: I have not sinned; 36. for you have despised much, to repeat your ways. And you shall be ashamed of Egypt, as you were ashamed of Assur; for even from hence you shall go forth, and your hands upon your head: because the Lord has rejected your hope, and you shall not prosper in it.

Chapter III

^A defiled. You sat upon the ways, waiting for them, like a crow, devastated. And you have polluted the land with your fornications and with your evils: 3. and you have set up many shepherds as a stumbling block to you. You have had the face of a woman; you have become a harlot to yourself: you have been bold against all. 4. Have you not called me as your Lord, and father, and prince of your virginity? 5. Will it remain forever, or will it be kept unto victory? See, you have spoken and have done these evil things, and you have had the power. 6. And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what the inhabitress of Israel has done? She went to herself: upon every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and she committed fornication there. 7. And I said, after she had committed all these things: Return to me. And she did not return. And her sister, the prevaricator Judah, saw her prevarication. 8. And I saw, that for all things in which she was caught; in which the inhabitress of Israel committed adultery, I put her away, and gave her a bill of divorce into her hand. And the prevaricator Judah, her sister, did not fear, but went and she also committed fornication. 9. And her fornication became as nothing, and she polluted the land; and she committed adultery with stone, and with wood. 10. And in all these things the prevaricator Judah, her sister, did not return to me with her whole heart, but in lying, says the Lord. 11. And the Lord said to me: The revolting of Israel has justified her soul ^B before the prevaricator Judah: 12. go, and read these words to the north, and you shall say: Return to me, inhabitress of Israel, says the Lord: and I will not harden my face against you, because I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever. 13. But acknowledge your iniquity, because you have acted impiously against the Lord your God, and you have rendered your ways wanton for strangers under every shady tree: but you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord. 14. Be converted, O wandering children, says the Lord; because I will rule over you, and I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and will bring you into Zion: 15. and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you, feeding you with knowledge. 16. And it shall be, when you have been multiplied, and have grown in the land, says the Lord, in those days they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: it shall not ascend upon the heart, ^C nor shall it be called to mind, nor shall it be visited, nor shall it be made anymore. 17. In those days, and at that time, they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord: and all nations shall be gathered together into it, in the name of the Lord: in Jerusalem: they shall not walk anymore after the thoughts of their evil heart. 18. In those days the house of Judah shall go to the house of Israel: and they shall come together from the land of the north, and from all the regions, to the land which I gave in inheritance to their fathers. 19. And I said: Let it be, O Lord; because I will place you among the children, and will give you a chosen land, an inheritance famous for the God omnipotent of the nations. And I said: You shall call me Father, and you shall not retreat from me. 20. But as a wife that despises her husband, so has the house of Israel dealt with me, says the Lord. 21. A voice has been heard from the lips, weeping, and of the supplications of the children of Israel; because they have acted unjustly in their ways, they have forgotten their God: their holy one. 22. Return, O returning children: and I will heal your bruises. Behold, we will be yours, for you are the Lord our God. 23. In truth, the hills were a lie, and the strength of the mountains: but only in the Lord our God is the salvation of the house of Israel. 24. But shame has absolved the labors of our fathers from their youth, their sheep, and their bulls, their sons, and their daughters. 25. We have slept in our shame, and our reproach has covered us; because we have sinned before the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth, and even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. ^D Cap. IV. 1. If Israel will return, says the Lord, to me it shall also return: and if it will remove its abominations from its mouth, and from my face, and shall be ashamed, 2. and shall swear, The Lord lives, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice; the nations shall bless in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem. 3. For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Arable for yourselves the fields, and do not sow among thorns: 4. be circumcised to your God, and circumcise the foreskin of your heart, you men of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury go forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it, because of the malice of your pursuits. 5. Announce in Judah,

and let it be heard in Jerusalem: say, signify with the trumpet in the land, and cry with a loud voice, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the cities that have walls. 6. Lift up a standard, and flee to Zion: hasten, do not stay; for I bring evil from the north, and a great destruction. 7. A lion has come up from his lair, and he who destroys nations has set out, and has gone forth from his place, to make your land a desert, and your cities shall be destroyed, so that they shall not be inhabited. 8. For this, gird yourselves with sackcloth, mourn, and howl; for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from you. 9. And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that the heart of the king and the heart of the princes shall perish; and the priests and the prophets shall be struck with astonishment. 10. And I said: O Sovereign Lord, surely you have greatly deceived this people, and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace, and the sword reaches even to their soul? 11. At that time it shall be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A spirit and error in the desert, a way of the daughter of my people not for winnowing, nor for sanctification. 12. A spirit of fullness shall come to me from these. But now, I myself will speak my judgments against them. 13. Behold, as clouds he ascends, and as a whirlwind his course: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are afflicted. 14. Wash your heart from malice, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long shall thoughts of your sorrows be found in you? 15. For those who proclaim from Dan, and who make heard the sorrow from Mount Ephraim. 16. Bring to memory for the nations, behold they are come: announce to Jerusalem, that crowds are coming from a far country, and have given their voice against the cities of Judah: 17. as keepers of a field, they have become against her round about; because you have neglected me, says the Lord. 18. Your ways and your pursuits have done these things to you: this is your malice, because it is bitter, because it reaches even to your heart. 19. My bowels, my bowels! I am in agony, and the senses of my heart are torn, my soul is rent; also my heart: I will not be silent; because my soul has heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle. 20. And misery calls for destruction upon destruction; for all the land is troubled: suddenly my tent has been harried, my curtains torn. 21. How long shall I see fugitives, hear the sound of trumpets? 22. Because the princes of my people have not known me. They are foolish children, and not understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have not known. 23. I looked upon the earth, and behold, it was void and nothing; and into the heaven, and its lights were not. 24. I saw the mountains, and they were trembling, and all the hills were shaken. 25. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air were scared away. 26. I saw, and behold, Carmel was a desert, and all its cities were burnt with fire from the face of the Lord, and from the face of his wrathful fury they were abolished. 27. Thus says the Lord: The whole earth shall be a desert, yet I will not make a full end. 28. For this the earth shall mourn, and the heaven above shall grow dark; because I have spoken, and I will not repent: I have taken up my resolve, and I will not turn back from it. 29. At the voice of the horseman and the archer, the whole region has migrated. They have crept into caves, and in the forests they have hidden themselves, and upon huge rocks they have climbed: every city is left desolate, no man dwells in them. 30. And you, miserable one, what will you do? If you clothe yourself in scarlet, and adorn yourself with jewelry of gold, and if you smear your eyes with antimony; in vain is your beauty. Your lovers have rejected you: they will seek your soul. 31. For I have heard a voice as of one in labor, your groaning as of one in first travail. The voice of the daughter of Zion will grow faint: and she will let her hands hang down. Woe to me, for my soul faints for those who are slain.

Cap. V.

^A 8. They have become as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife. 9. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: or shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10. Go up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they are the Lord's. 11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. 12. They have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine: 13. And the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. 14. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them. 15. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, ^B it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. 16. Their quiver is as an open sepulchre: they are all mighty men. 17. And they shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall eat up thy flocks and thine herds: they shall eat up thy vines and thy fig trees: they shall impoverish thy fenced cities, wherein thou trustedst, with the sword. 18. Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not make a full end with you. 19. And it shall come to pass, when ye shall say, Wherefore doeth the Lord our God all these things unto us? then shalt thou answer them, Like as ye have forsaken me, and served strange gods in your land, so shall ye serve strangers in a land that is not yours. 20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in Judah, saying, 21. Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not: 22. Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it: and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it? 23. But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone. 24. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the Lord our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest. 25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you. 26. For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men. 27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit: therefore they are become great, and waxen rich. 28. They are waxen fat, they shine: yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked: they judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless, yet they prosper; and the right of the needy do they not judge. 29. Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 30. A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land; 31. The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?

Chapter VI

^A And their houses shall be turned over unto others, their fields and their wives together; because I will stretch out my hand upon them that dwell in this land, saith the Lord. 13. For from the least of them even unto the greatest, they all have fulfilled iniquities; from the false prophet even unto the priest, they all have committed falsehoods. 14. And they healed the breaking of the daughter of my people, despising, and saying, Peace, peace: and where is peace? They were not as those who blush; they have blushed, and they did not know their shame. Therefore they shall fall in their ruin, and in the time of their visitation they shall be emptied, saith the Lord. 16. Thus saith the Lord: Stand upon the ways, and see, and ask of the eternal paths of the Lord, and see what is the good way, and walk therein; and you shall find ^B purity for your souls. And they said: We will not walk therein. 17. I have set watchmen over you: hear the voice of the trumpet. And they said: We will not hear. 18. For this cause the nations have heard, and they that feed the flocks in them. 19. Hear, O earth: Behold I am bringing evils upon this people, the fruit of their perversion, because they have not attended to my word, and have rejected my law. 20. Why do you bring me incense from Sheba, and cinnamon from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor have your sacrifices brought pleasure to me. 21. For this cause thus saith the Lord: Behold I give over this people to infirmity: and the fathers and sons shall be enfeebled in it together: the neighbor and his friend shall perish. 22. Thus saith the Lord: Behold a people cometh from the north: and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the extremity of the earth: 23. they will hold the bow and the javelin. ^C He is harsh, and will not have mercy: his voice is as the surging sea: he will prepare himself upon horses and chariots, as fire, to war against thee, O daughter of Sion. 24. We have heard the report of them, our hands are weakened; affliction has taken hold of us, sorrows as of a woman in travail. 25. Go not forth into the field, and walk not in the ways; because the sword of the enemy dwells in the circuit. 26. Daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning for a beloved one, a wailing of lamentation: because suddenly shall misery come upon you. 27. I have given thee a searcher among my people, that thou mayest know, when thou hast proved their way: 28. all are disobedient, walking perversely. They are brass and iron, all are corrupted. 29. The bellows have failed from the fire: the lead hath failed. In vain ^D the refiner melts the silver: the wicked are not separated. 30. Call them reprobate silver; because the Lord hath rejected them.

CHAPTER VII

do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18. The children of Num—but rather the valley of ^A slaughter: and they will bury in Tophet, because there is no place: 33. and the dead of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be none to scare them away. 34. And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, ^B the voice of them that rejoice, and the voice of them that are glad, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the earth shall be a desolation. 18. And their children gather wood, and their fathers kindle the fire, and their women knead the dough, to make cakes for the militia of heaven: and they have poured out drink offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to anger. 19. Do they provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? Is it not themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? 20. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, my anger and my fury ^C is poured out upon this place, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon every tree of the field, and upon all the fruits of the earth: and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 21. Gather your burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat the flesh: 22. for I did not speak unto your fathers, nor did I command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning the word of burnt offering and sacrifice: 23. but this was the word which I commanded them, saying: Obey my voice, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall be to me a people: and walk in all my ways, which I command you, that it may be well with you. 24. And they did not hear, nor did their ear attend; but they walked in the imaginations of their evil heart, and have gone backward, and not forward, 25. from the day that their fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day. And I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily and early, and I have sent. 26. And they did not hear me, nor did their ears attend, and they hardened their neck more than their fathers. 27. And thou shalt speak this word unto them, and they will not hear thee, and thou shalt call them, and they will not answer thee. 28. And thou shalt say unto them: This is a nation, which hath not heard the voice of the Lord their God, nor received discipline: faith hath failed and is cut off from their mouth. 29. Cut off thine hair, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation upon thy lips; for the Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation which doeth these things, 30. because the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, saith the Lord: they have set their abominations in the house, where my name is called upon, to pollute it: 31. and they have built the altar of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Num, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, nor did it come into my heart. 32. Therefore behold these days come, saith the Lord; and they shall no more say, The altar of Topheth, and the valley of the son of Num, but the valley of slaughter: and they shall bury in Tophet, because there is no place. 33. And the dead of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth; and there shall be none to scare them away. 34. And I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem ^D the voice of them that rejoice, and the voice of them that are glad, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the earth shall be a desolation.

Chapter VIII

is no peace. 12. They were ashamed, because they have committed abomination; they were not even ashamed, and they did not know how to blush; therefore ^A they shall fall among those who fall, and in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. 13. And they shall gather their produce, saith the Lord. There are no grapes on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig trees, and the leaves have fallen; and I have given them, and they have passed them by. 14. Why do we sit? Assemble, and let us enter into these fortified cities, and let us be silent there; because ^B the Lord our God has cast us forth, and has given us water of gall to drink; because we have sinned before him. 15. We looked for peace, and there was no good; for a time of healing, and behold, trouble. 16. From Dan we shall hear the voice of the swiftness of his horses: from the sound of the neighing of his horses the whole earth has moved; and he shall come, and shall devour the land, and the fullness thereof, the city, and those who dwell in it. 17. For behold, I send among you ^C deadly serpents, against which there is no charming, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. 18. Without medicine, through the sorrow of the heart, I languish. 19. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land! Is the Lord not in Sion? Or is her king not there? Why have they provoked me with their graven images, and with foreign vanities? 20. The summer is past, ^D the harvest is ended, and we are not saved. 21. For the breaking of the daughter of my people I am broken: darkness has taken hold of me, in embarrassment I have grown faint; sorrows have come upon me as a woman in travail. 22. Is there no balm in Gilead, or is there no physician there? Why has not the healing of the daughter of my people ascended?

CAP. IX.

it has entered into your lands to destroy the little ones from without, and the young men from the streets. 22. Thus saith the Lord: ^A And the corpses of men shall be as a laughingstock upon the face of the field and of your land, and as grass after the mower, and there shall be none to gather them. 23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: 24. But in this let him who glories glory: to understand and to know me, that I am the Lord who does mercy, and judgment, and justice upon the earth; for in these is my will, saith the Lord. 25. Behold, days are coming, saith the Lord, and I will visit ^B upon all those who are circumcised in their foreskin: 26. upon Egypt, and upon Judea, and upon Idumea, and upon the sons of Ammon, and upon the sons of Moab, and upon all those who crop their hair upon their face, who dwell in the desert; for all the nations are uncircumcised in flesh, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in their heart.

11. The gods, who have not made heaven and earth, shall perish from off the earth, and from under this heaven. 12. The Lord, who has made the earth in his strength, who established the world in his wisdom, and in his subtle intelligence has spread out the heaven, 13. and who gives a multitude of water in the heaven by his voice: and he brought forth the clouds from the end of the earth: he has made lightnings for rain, and has brought forth winds from his treasuries. 14. Every man has become senseless from his knowledge: every founder is ashamed by his graven images, for they have cast falsehood: there is no spirit in them. 15. They are vain works, fixed: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 16. The portion of Jacob is not like these, for he who formed all ^C things, he is the rod of his inheritance: the Lord of hosts is his name. 17. He has gathered thy substance from without, that dwells in the chosen ones. 18. For thus saith the Lord: Behold I will cast out those who dwell in this land in affliction, and I will afflict them, so that it may be found. 19. Woe upon thy fracture: thy wound is grievous. Yet I also said, Verily this is my wound, and it has taken hold of me. 20. My tabernacle has been made miserable, it has perished: and all my curtains have been torn apart. My children and my sheep are not: there is no longer a place for my tabernacle, nor a place for my curtains. 21. For the shepherds have acted insensately, and they have not sought the Lord. Therefore all the pasture did not understand: and they have been scattered. 22. Behold, the voice ^D of a rumor comes, and a great commotion from the land of the north, to set the cities of Judah in destruction, and as a lair for ostriches. 23. I know, O Lord, that his way is not of man, nor shall a man go and direct his own steps. 24. Chasten us, O Lord, yet in judgment, and not in thy fury; lest thou make us few: 25. pour out thy fury upon those nations that do not know thee, and upon those generations that have not called upon thy name; for they have eaten up Jacob, and have brought him to ruin, and have consumed him, and have ravaged their pastures.

Chapter X

voice, and do according to all which I command you, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God: 5. that I may establish my oath, which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. And I answered, and said: Amen, Lord. 6. And the Lord said to me: Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and outside Jerusalem, saying: Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. 7. For I have solemnly testified to your fathers in the day that I brought them out from the land of Egypt, even to this day, warning them and saying: Hear my voice. 8. And they did not hear, and did not incline their ear, and they walked every one in the stubbornness of their evil heart: therefore I brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, and they did not do them. 9. And the Lord said to me: A conspiracy is found in the men of Judah, and in them that inhabit Jerusalem: 10. they are returned to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words: and behold they go after strange gods, to serve them. And the house of Israel and the house of Judah have made void my covenant, which I made with their fathers. 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will bring upon them evils, from which they shall not be able to get out; and they will cry to me, and I will not hear them, 12. and the cities of Judah and they that inhabit Jerusalem shall go, and cry to the gods to whom they offer incense, and they shall not save them in the time of their misfortune. 13. For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to shame, to offer incense to Baal. 14. And do thou not pray for this people, nor lift up praise or prayer for them, for I will not hear them in the time when they cry to me, in the time of their affliction. 15. What is the meaning that my beloved in my house hath wrought many deeds? Shall the vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy malices, or shalt thou escape by these? 16. The Lord called thy name, O fair, fruitful, olive tree, goodly to the view: at the sound of a great clamor, a fire hath been kindled about it, and its branches are consumed: 17. and the Lord of hosts, who planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and the house of Judah, which they have done to themselves to provoke me, offering incense to Baal. 18. Lord, make me to know, and I shall know. Then I saw their designs. 19. I was as a meek lamb, that is carried to be a victim, and I did not know: for they have devised counsels against me, saying: Come, let us put wood on his bread, and cut him off from the land of the living, and let his name be remembered no more. 20. Lord of hosts, who judgest justly, and provest the reins and the hearts, let me see thy revenge on them: for to thee I have revealed my cause. 21. Therefore thus saith the Lord to the men of Anathoth, who seek thy life, saying: Thou shalt not prophesy in the name of the Lord, and if thou do not, thou shalt die in our hands. 22. Therefore thus ^A saith the Lord of hosts: Behold I will visit upon them: their young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine: 23. and there shall be no remnant of them; for I will bring evil upon them that dwell in Anathoth in the year of their visitation.

Chapter XII

^A 8. My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest; it has uttered its voice against me; therefore I have hated it. 9. Is not my heritage to me a hyena’s cave, or a cave round about it? Come, gather together all the beasts of the field, and let them come to devour it. 10. Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have polluted my portion, they have given my desirable portion into a pathless desert. 11. It has been set for the corruption of destruction. On my account the whole earth is laid waste, because there is no man who ponders in his heart. 12. Upon every exit in the desert have come those who afflict; for the sword of the Lord shall devour from the ^B beginning of the earth even to the beginning of the earth: there is no peace to any flesh. 13. You have sown wheat, and reaped thorns; their lots brought them no profit. Be ashamed of your boasting, and of your reproach before the Lord. 14. For thus saith the Lord concerning all the evil neighbors who touch my heritage, which I distributed to my people Israel: Behold, I will pull them out of their land, and I will cast out the house of Judah from the midst of them. 15. And it shall be, after I have cast them out, I will return and have mercy on them, and I will make them dwell, every man in his heritage, and every man in his land. 16. And it shall be, if they will learn with learning the way of my people, to swear by my name, “The Lord liveth,” as they taught my people to swear by Baal, they shall even dwell in the midst of my people. 17. But if they will not return, I will take up that nation with taking up and destruction, saith the Lord.

Chapter XIII.

^A 22. And if thou shalt say in thine heart: Why have these things befallen me? For the multitude of thine iniquities have thy hinder parts been uncovered, that thy heels might be mocked. 23. If the Ethiopian shall change his skin, and the leopard his spots, you also shall be able to do good, when you have learned evil. 24. And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried by the wind into the desert. 25. This is thy lot, the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in lying. 26. I also will uncover thy hinder parts to thy face, and thy shame shall be seen. 27. Thy adultery, and thy neighing, and the abomination of thy fornication, upon the hills and in the fields I have seen thy abominations. Woe to thee, Jerusalem! Because thou hast not been cleansed after me, how long yet? ^B 13. And I said: O Lord, Lord, behold the prophets say unto them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you; for I will give peace and truth upon the earth, even in this place. 14. And the Lord said unto me: The prophets prophesy false things in my name: I sent them not, neither did I command them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy unto you lying visions, and divinations, and illusions, and the deceits of their own heart. 15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, who say: Sword and famine shall not be upon this land: by death of vehement torture, in sword and in famine shall those prophets be consumed. 16. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them—they, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters—and I will pour out upon them their evils. 17. And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let tears run down from your eyes night and day, and let them not cease; for with a great destruction is the virgin daughter of my people broken, and with a very grievous plague. 18. If I go forth into the field, then behold those slain with the sword; and if I enter into the city, then behold the sorrow of famine; for both the prophet and the priest have gone into a land which they know not. 19. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah, and hath thy soul departed from Sion? Why hast thou struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there was no good, for the time of healing, and behold trouble. 20. We have acknowledged, O Lord, our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee. 21. Refrain for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory. Remember, do not make void thy covenant which is with us. 22. Are there any among the idols of the Gentiles that can cause rain? And if the heaven shall give its fullness, art not thou thyself the Lord our God? And we wait for thee, for thou hast made all these things. ^C Chap. XIV.—1. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the words of the drought. 2. Judea hath mourned, and her gates have been emptied, and they are darkened upon the earth, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. 3. And their great ones sent their inferiors for water: they came to the wells, and found no water, they carried back their vessels empty, they were confounded and afflicted with shame, and covered their heads. 4. And the works of the earth have failed, because there was no rain upon the earth. The farmers were ashamed, they covered their heads. 5. And the hinds in the field have calved and left the young; because there was no grass. 6. The wild asses stood upon the tops, they drew in the wind like a dragon; their eyes failed, because there was no hay from the iniquity of the people. 7. If our sins have stood against us, O Lord, do thou for thy name's sake; because our many sins are before thee: we have sinned against thee. 8. The expectation of Israel, O Lord, and his savior in time of evil. Why hast thou been as a stranger upon the earth, and as a wayfaring man turning into an inn? 9. Why hast thou been as a man asleep, and as a man who cannot save? Yet thou art among us, O Lord, and thy name is called upon us: do not forget us. 10. Thus saith the Lord to this people: Thus they loved to move their feet, and did not spare, and God has not been pleased with them: now he will remember their iniquities, and will visit their sins. 11. And the Lord said unto me: Pray not for this people for their good: 12. For if they fast, I will not hear their prayer, and if they offer holocausts and sacrifice, I will not be pleased with them; for with the sword, and with famine, and with death I will consume them. 13. And I said: O Lord, Lord, behold the prophets say unto them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you; for I will give peace and truth upon the earth, even in this place. 14. And the Lord said unto me: The prophets prophesy false things in my name: I sent them not, and I did not command them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy unto you lying visions, and divinations, and illusions, and the deceits of their own heart. 15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, who say: Sword and famine shall not be upon this land: by death of vehement torture, in sword and in famine shall those prophets be consumed, 16. and the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them, they, and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, and I will pour out upon them their evils. 17. And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let tears run down from your eyes night and day, and let them not cease; for with a great destruction is the virgin daughter of my people broken, and with a very grievous ^D plague. 18. If I go forth into the field, then behold those slain with the sword; and if I enter into the city, then behold the sorrow of famine; for both the prophet and the priest have gone into a land which they know not. 19. Hast thou utterly rejected Judah, and hath thy soul departed from Sion? Why hast thou struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, and there was no good, for the time of healing, and behold trouble. 20. We have acknowledged, O Lord, our sins, and the iniquities of our fathers; for we have sinned against thee. 21. Refrain for thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of thy glory. Remember, do not make void thy covenant which is with us. 22. Are there any among the idols of the Gentiles that can cause rain? And if the heaven shall give its fullness, art not thou thyself the Lord our God? And we wait for thee, for thou hast made all these things. Chap. XV.—1. And the Lord said unto me: If Moses and Samuel shall stand before my face, my soul is not toward this people. Cast them out from before my face, and let them go forth. 2. And it shall be, if they say to thee: Whither shall we go forth? thou shalt also say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Such as to death, to death, and such as to the sword, to the sword, and such as to famine, to famine, and such as to captivity, to captivity. 3. And I will take vengeance upon them in four ways, saith the Lord, the sword to slaughter, and the dogs to tear,

and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth to eat and to corruption. 4. And I will deliver them into straits in all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for all that he did in Jerusalem. 5. Who will have pity upon thee, O Jerusalem? and who will grieve over thee? or who will turn aside to ask after thy peace? 6. Thou hast disdained me, saith the Lord: thou shalt go backward. And I will stretch out my hand over thee, and I will corrupt thee; I will no longer release them: 7. and I will scatter them in dispersion, in the gates of the people; they are cut off by the stem: they have destroyed my people because of their iniquities, and they have not returned. 8. They are multiplied against me: their widows are more than the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them, over the mother of young men, misery at noonday: I have cast upon her suddenly trembling and panic. 9. She is made desolate who bore seven; her soul has been troubled: her sun has gone down while it was yet midday; she has blushed and suffered reproach; the rest of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord. 10. Woe is me, my mother, what manner of man hast thou borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth? I have not profited, and no one has profited me. My strength has failed in them that curse me. 11. Let it be, O Lord, that they may prosper in good. If I have not stood before thee in the time of their evils, and in the time of their affliction for good against the enemy. 12. Shall iron be known, and covering of brass, thy strength? 13. I will give thy wealth for a spoil, and thy treasures for a price, because of all thy sins, and in all thy borders. 14. And I will make thee serve among thy enemies, in a land which thou hast not known: for fire is kindled from my fury, it shall burn upon you. 15. Thou knowest, O Lord: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of them that persecute me: take me not away in thy longsuffering. Know that I have received for thee reproach 16. from them that have transgressed thy words: consume them. And thy word shall be to me for joy and for the gladness of my heart; for thy name has been called upon me, O Lord God Almighty. 17. I have not sat in the assembly of them that sport, but I sat alone because of thy hand. ^A

Cap. XVI. 1. The Lord God of Israel saith: 2. And thou shalt not take a wife to thyself, and there shall not be born to thee son nor daughter in this place. 3. For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and the daughters, who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers, who bore them, and concerning their fathers, who begat them in this land: 4. They shall die of deaths of sore afflictions: they shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried: they shall be for a spectacle upon the face of the earth: they shall fall by the sword, and they shall be consumed by famine: and their carcasses shall be for food to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. 5. Thus saith the Lord: Enter not into the house of feasting, neither go to lament, nor bemoan them: for I have removed my peace from this people, saith the Lord, ^B mercy and compassion. 6. And the great and the small shall die in this land, they shall not be buried, neither shall they lament over them, nor shall they make incisions, nor shall they shave themselves ^C for them, nor shall they be buried. 7. Nor shall bread be broken in their mourning for consolation over the dead; they shall not drink with him of the cup of consolation over his father and his mother. 8. And into the house of feasting thou shalt not enter, to sit with them to eat and to drink. 9. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I make to cease from this place before your eyes and in your days, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. 10. And it shall be, when thou shalt announce to this people all these words, and they shall say to thee: Wherefore has the Lord spoken upon us all these great evils? ^D

what is our iniquity, and what our sin that we have sinned against the Lord our God? 11. And thou shalt say to them: Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods, and have served them, and worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law: 12. and you have done worse than your fathers. And behold, you walk each one after the desires of your own evil heart, that you may not obey me. 13. And I will cast you out from this land into a land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and you shall serve there other gods day and night, ^A who shall not give you mercy. 14. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and it shall no more be said, The Lord lives, who brought the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15. but, The Lord lives, who brought and leads the sons of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the regions whither they had been driven. And I will return and make them dwell in their land, which I gave to their fathers. 16. Behold, I send many fishers, says the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after these things I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them from upon every mountain, and from upon every hill, and from the caverns of the rocks: 17. because my eyes are upon all their ways, ^B where they have hidden themselves from my face; and their iniquities are not hidden from before my eyes. 18. And I will repay first their double injustices, and their sins, in which they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their abominations, and in their iniquities, in which they have filled my inheritance. 19. Lord, my strength, and my help, and my refuge in the day of evils, to thee the nations shall come from the extremity of the earth, and shall say: Surely our fathers have possessed false idols, and there is no profit in them. 20. Shall a man make himself gods, and they are not gods? 21. Therefore, behold, I will show them ^C at this time my hand, and my strength, and I will make them know, and they shall know, that my name is the Lord.

Chapter XVII

and that you bear no burdens on the Sabbath day, nor go forth from the gates of Jerusalem: 22. nor bring burdens out of your houses on the Sabbath day, and you shall do no work: and sanctify the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers: and they did not hear, nor did they incline (e) their ears, 25. and they stiffened their neck + more than their fathers, so as not to hear me, and not to receive discipline. 24. And it shall be, if you will diligently hearken to me, saith the Lord, not to bring in burdens through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and to sanctify the Sabbath day, that you do no work therein; ^A kings, and rulers sitting upon the throne of David, and being carried in chariots and on their horses, both they and their rulers, (f) the men of Judah, and even those who dwell in Jerusalem, (g) and this city shall be inhabited for ever. 26. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the circuit of Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the (h) plain, and from the hill, and from that which is toward the south, bringing burnt offerings, and (i) incense, and (k) a meal offering, and frankincense, and bringing (l) praise into the house of the Lord. And if you do not hearken to me, to sanctify the Sabbath day, not to bear burdens, and to enter in by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will also kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour (m) the streets of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CAP. XIX.

^A and compare a vessel of clay: and the Lord of hosts says: 15. You shall bring from the elders of the people and from the elders of the priests: 2. and you shall go out (p) to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is before the gate of the Harsith; and read there all these words which I shall have spoken to you; 3. and you shall say to them: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah ♣ and men of Judah, and those who inhabit Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I bring evils upon this place, so that everyone who hears them, his ears shall tingle: 4. * because they have forsaken me, and have made this place strange, and have burned incense in it to strange gods, which neither they nor their fathers knew: and the kings of Judah have filled this place with innocent blood, 5. and have built (q) the high places of Baal, to burn their children in the fire, ☀ as a holocaust to Baal: which I did not command, nor did I speak, neither (r) did it come into my heart. 6. Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, and this place shall no longer be called (s) Topheth, and the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. Jerusalem in this place: and I will strike them down by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their lives: and I will give their dead bodies as food to the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth: 8. and I will make this city (u) a desolation and a hissing; everyone who passes by it (x) shall be astonished, and shall hiss for all its plague. 9. And (y) they shall eat the flesh of their sons, and the flesh of their daughters: and each one shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the distress, and in the encirclement of battle (i. e. in the siege), with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall hem them in. 10. And you shall break the jar before the eyes of the men who go with you, 11. and you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people, and this city, as the potter’s vessel is broken, which cannot be healed again, ☀ and they shall be buried in Topheth, because there is no place to bury them. 12. So will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to those inhabiting it, to make this city (b) as a land that is crumbling. 13. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be like the place that has crumbled, ♣ all the houses, the houses of the kings of Judah, like the place of Topheth, because of (c) the pollutions which they have made in all the houses, in which they have burned incense upon their roofs to all the host of heaven, and offered libations to strange gods. 14. And Jeremiah came from (d) the house of ruin, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all the people: 15. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I bring upon (e) this city, upon all its cities + and its villages, all the evils which I have spoken against it; because they have hardened their neck, that they should not hear my words.

CAP. XX

^A Thus says the Lord: Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver the plundered from the hand of him who does him injury, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn, and there be none to extinguish it, because of the wickedness of your ☀ pursuits. 13. Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the deep (*) rock, in the plain, says the Lord, you who say: Who shall terrify us, or who shall enter into our dwelling? And I will kindle a fire in his forest, and it shall devour all things round about him.

13. Say to the Lord, praise the Lord, ^B because he has delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the wicked. 14. Cursed be the day in which I was born; the day in which my mother bore me, let it not be (c)(d) blessed. 15. Cursed be the man who brought word to my father, saying: A male child has been born to you, ✯ making (e) him glad. 16. And let that man be as the cities which the Lord overthrew ✢ in fury; and he did not (f) repent: let him hear the clamor in the morning, and the wailing ☀ at the time of noonday; 17. (g) because he did not kill me in the womb, and my mother became my grave, and her womb an eternal conception. 18. Why have I come forth from the womb to see labors and sorrows, and my days are ended in shame?

CHAPTER XXI

CHAPTER XXII

distinct with windows, and measured in cedar, and painted with vermilion ^B 15. Will you reign, (d) because you are angry at Ahaz your father? Do they not eat, and drink, and perform judgment and justice (e) then? It knew no good. 16. He did not judge the judgment of the poor, nor the judgment of the needy; then it was good for him. Is not this what it is to know me, says the Lord? 17. Behold, your eyes and your heart are not good, but [they are set] on your fraud, and on innocent blood, to shed it, (f) and on iniquity, and on pain, to commit them. 18. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning Joakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They shall not lament ^C (g) him: Woe is me, my brother, and woe is me, my brother! They shall not lament him: Woe is me, Lord, and woe is me, (h) my brother! 19. He shall be buried with the burial of an ass: (i) cast out, [he who is] confessed, beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20. Go up to Lebanon, and cry out; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry out across the sea, because all your lovers are broken. 21. I spoke to you in (k) your backslidings, and you said: I will not hear. This has been your way from your youth, that you have not heard my voice. 22. The wind shall feed all (m) your shepherds: and your lovers shall all go into captivity: because then you shall be ashamed, and disgraced because of all who love you. 23. You who dwell in Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, how you will groan when (o) sorrows come upon you, sorrows as of a woman in labor! 24. As I live, says the Lord, if ☀ Jechoniah son of Joakim, king of Judah, were a ring on my right hand, ☀ because I would tear you from there; 25. and I will deliver you into the hands of those who seek your life, * and into the hands of those of whom you are afraid before their face: and into the hand of ^D Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldeans: 26. and I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into a foreign land: where you were not born, there you shall die: 27. but to the land to which they (p) lift up their souls to return there, they shall not return. * A reprobate vessel, cast out: why is he and his seed cast out? And they were cast into a land which they did not know. 29. Earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord. 30. ☀ Thus says the Lord:

Chapter XXIII

1. O shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, ☀ says the Lord. 2. Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my sheep, (s) and driven them away, and have not visited them. Behold, I will avenge you according to your evil ways, ☀ says the Lord. 3. And I also will gather the remnant of my people out of all the land (u) where I have driven them, and I will establish them (x) in their pasture, and they shall increase and be multiplied. 4. And I will establish shepherds over them, who shall feed them: and they shall not fear anymore, nor be dismayed, ☀ nor (y) shall they be missing, says the Lord. 5. Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a righteous branch: and a king shall reign, and be wise, and shall perform judgment and justice upon the earth. 6. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently. And this is his name, by which the Lord shall call him: (a) Josedec. (b) 7. * Therefore, behold, the days come, says the Lord, and they shall no longer say: The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 8. but the Lord lives, who brought up, (c) and gathered all: ☀ the seed (d) of the house of Israel from the north land, and from all the regions where I had driven them there, (e) and restored them to their own land. 9. My heart within me is broken, all my bones are moved: I have become like a broken man, and (g) like a man overcome by wine, before the face of the Lord, and before the face (h) of his holy glory: 10. because the land is full of adulterers: because the land has mourned before the face (i) of oaths, the pastures of the desert have dried up: and their course has become evil, and their strength not so. 11. Because the prophet and the priest are polluted, and in my house (m) I have found their wickedness, says the Lord. 12. Therefore, their way shall be to them as a slippery path in darkness, and they shall be driven and fall in it: because I will bring evil upon them in the year of their visitation, says the Lord. 13. And in the prophets of Samaria I saw (n) iniquities; they prophesied by Baal, and seduced my people Israel. 14. And in the prophets of Jerusalem I saw (p) hor-

horrible things, adulterers, and walking in lies, and helping the hands of the wicked, that they should not return every man from his evil way. They are all become unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. 15. Therefore thus saith the Lord ☀ of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold I will feed them with (r) wormwood, and will give them water ^B of (s) gall to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. 16. Thus saith the Lord (*) of hosts: Hearken not to the words of the prophets, who prophesy unto you, for they make you vain; they speak the vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. 17. They say still unto them that despise the word of the Lord, You shall have peace; and to every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, to every one that walketh in the error ^C of his heart, [(x)] they have said: No evil shall come upon you. 18. For who hath stood (y) in the counsel of the Lord, and hath perceived and heard his word? Who hath marked my word, and heard it? 19. Behold, a (a) whirlwind of the Lord, and his fury is gone forth, even a whirlwind falling upon the head of the wicked shall come ^D. 20. The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he have executed it, and until he have performed it (c) from the thought of his heart. In the latter days ye shall consider it in (them) ☀ with understanding. 21. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. 22. But if they had stood (d) in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23. (e) Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? 24. Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. 25. I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying: (f) I have dreamed, I have dreamed. 26. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, 27. Which think to cause my people to forget ☀ my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal? 28. The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? ☀ saith the Lord. 29. Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? 30. Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31. Behold, I am against the prophets, ☀ saith the Lord, (i) who use their tongues and say: He saith. 32. Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, ☀ saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and (k) by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, ☀ saith the Lord. 33. And if this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying: What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them: You are the burden, (m) and I will forsake you, saith the Lord. 34. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say: The burden of the Lord: I will even punish that man and his house. 35. Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother: What hath the Lord answered? and, What hath the Lord spoken? 36. And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man’s word shall be his ☀ burden; for ye have perverted ✗ the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts, our God. 37. Thus shalt thou say to the prophet: What hath the Lord answered thee? and, What hath the Lord spoken? 38. (n) But if ye say: The burden of the Lord; therefore thus saith the Lord: Because ye say this word, The burden of the Lord, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord: 39. Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget ☀ you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence: 40. And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.

Chapter XXIV.

and I will plant them, and not root them up. 7. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. 8. And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, because they are bad; surely thus saith the Lord, so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt. 9. And I will deliver them into dispersion into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, and for a reproach, and for a proverb, and for a taunt, and for a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. 10. And I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers. ^A

Chapter XXV.

1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; 2. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto all the people of Judah, and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: 3. From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, even unto this day, that is the three and twentieth year, the word of the Lord hath come unto me, and I have spoken unto you, rising early and speaking; but ye have not hearkened. 4. And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear. 5. Saying, Turn ye now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and ye shall dwell in the land that the Lord hath given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever: 6. And go not after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, and provoke me not to anger with the works of your hands; and I will do you no hurt. 7. Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the Lord; that ye might provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. 8. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words, 9. Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and a perpetual reproach. 10. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. 11. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. 12. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, ^B that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the Lord, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations. 13. And I will bring upon that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah hath prophesied against all the nations. 14. For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. 15. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. 16. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. 17. Then took I the cup at the Lord's hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me: 18. To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, an hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; 19. Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; 20. And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, 21. Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, 22. And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, 23. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, 24. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, 25. And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, 26. And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 27. Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 28. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 29. For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts. 30. Therefore thou shalt prophesy against them all these words, and say unto them: The Lord from on high shall ro

roar, and shall utter his voice from his holy habitation; roaring he shall roar over his beauty, or shall prophesy a song like his word over his place. And they, like those who tread grapes, shall answer: Unto all the inhabitants upon the earth cometh destruction, 31. upon the part of the earth; because the Lord has a judgment among the nations: He himself exerciseth judgment against all flesh; the impious, however, are delivered to the sword, saith the Lord. 32. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Behold, evils shall come from nation upon nation: and a great whirlwind shall go forth from the extremity of the earth: 33. and the slain of the Lord shall be in that day, from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth: they shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried: they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth. 34. Howl, ye shepherds, and cry; and wallow yourselves, ye rams of the flock: for your days are accomplished for slaughter, and your dispersions; and ye shall fall, as choice rams: 35. and flight shall perish from the shepherds, and escape from the rams of the flock. 36. A voice of the cry of the shepherds, and the howling of the rams of the flock, for the Lord hath destroyed their pasture, 37. and the beautiful pastures of peace shall cease from before the face of the fierce anger of the Lord. 38. He hath forsaken his covert, as a lion: because their land is become a desolation, from before the face of the great sword, and from before the face of the fierce anger of his wrath.

Chapter XXVI

it, and he entered into Egypt. 22. ^A And king Jehoiakim sent men into Egypt, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and men with him into Egypt: 23. and they brought him from thence, and brought him to king Jehoiakim, and he struck him with the sword, and cast him into the sepulcher of the children of his people, with Jeremiah, that he might not be delivered into the hands of the people, that they might not put him to death.

All these words, saying: Put your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. 14. Why will you die, you and your people by the sword, and by famine, and by death, according to that which the Lord speaks to the people, whoever shall not serve the king of Babylon? 15. And you shall not listen to the words of the prophets, who say to you, saying: You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for they prophecy lies to you, since I have not sent them, says the Lord. And they prophesy in my name in iniquity, that they may destroy you. And you shall perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you in iniquity lies. 16. To you, and to the priests, and to all this people I have spoken, saying: Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of the prophets, who prophesy to you, saying: Behold the vessels of the house of the Lord shall return from Babylon ^B now speedily, for they prophesy lies to you, not from me. 17. Do not listen to them: serve the king of Babylon, and live, and why should this city become a desert? 18. If they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is in them, let them now intercede with me, for thus says the Lord, and concerning the remnant of the vessels, which the king of Babylon did not take, when he led captive Jeconiah from Jerusalem, into Babylon, they shall go: says the Lord Lord of hosts, that the vessels, which are left in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, shall not go to Babylon. 19. For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the columns, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the remnant of the vessels, which remain in this city: 20. which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take, when he deported Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem into Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah, and Jerusalem. 21. For thus says the Lord of hosts the God of Israel concerning the vessels, which remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king ^C of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22. Into Babylon they shall be taken, and there they shall be until the day, which I shall visit them, says the Lord, and I will make them ascend, and will bring them back to this place.

Chapter XXVII

Chapter XXVIII

which Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took from this place ^A and brought into Babylon; and Jechoniah, the son of Joacim, king of Judah, and all the captivity of Judah that entered into Babylon, I will bring back to this place, says the Lord; for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. 5. And Jeremiah ☀ the prophet said to Hananiah ☀ the false prophet, before the eyes of the priests and before the eyes of all the people standing in the house of the Lord, 6. and Jeremiah ☀ the prophet said: Amen, so may the Lord do: may the Lord establish your word, which you prophesy, to restore the vessels of the house of the Lord and all the captivity from Babylon to this place. 7. Nevertheless, hear ☀ now this word which I speak in your (d) ears and in the ears of all the people. 8. The prophets who were before me and before (e) you from of old, and prophesied (f) concerning many lands and concerning great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of death. 9. The prophet who prophesied for peace, when the word of the prophet ☀ comes to pass, (g) he shall be known as the prophet whom the Lord has sent ✦ in truth (h). 10. And Hananiah ☀ the prophet took ✦ before the eyes of all the people the yoke from the neck of Jeremiah ☀ the prophet, and broke it. 11. And Hananiah said before the eyes of all the people, saying: Thus says the Lord: Thus will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, (i) within two years of days (k) from the necks of all nations. And Jeremiah ☀ the prophet went on his way. 12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Hananiah ☀ the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet, ^B saying: 13. Go and say to Hananiah, saying: Thus says the Lord: You have broken the yoke of wood, and I will make for them a yoke of iron: 14. for thus says the Lord ☀ of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations ☀ that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, and I have also given to him the beasts (n) of the land. 15. And Jeremiah ☀ the prophet said to Hananiah the prophet: Hear ☀ now, Hananiah: The Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people to trust (o) in a lie. 16. Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth: this year ☀ you shall die; for you have spoken ☀ rebellion against the Lord. 17. And Hananiah the prophet died in that same year, in the seventh month.

Cap. XXIX. 1. And these are the words of the book which Jeremiah ☀ the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, and to the false prophets, a letter to Babylon ✦ to the migration ^C and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar ☀ took captive from Jerusalem to Babylon: 2. (p) when Jechoniah the king had gone out, and the queen, and the eunuchs, ☀ and the princes of Judah from Jerusalem, and every freeman, and (g) the craftsman, and the prisoner from Jerusalem, 3. by the hand of Eleasah, the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah, the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to Nebuchadnezzar ☀ the king of Babylon ✦ to Babylon, saying: 4. Thus says the Lord ✗ of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the migration that I have caused to migrate from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5. Build houses, and live in them, and plant gardens, and eat of their fruit: 6. and take wives, and beget sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, and let them bear sons and daughters: and multiply ☀ there, and do not be diminished: 7. and live (r) in peace in the land whither I have caused you to migrate: and pray for them to the Lord; because in their peace (s) shall there be peace for you. 8. For thus says the Lord ☀ of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the false prophets ✦ who are among you deceive you, ^D and do not (t) let your diviners persuade you: and hear me in your dreams which you dream; 9. for they prophesy falsely to you in my name: I have not sent them, says the Lord. 10. For thus says the Lord: When the seventy years are fulfilled for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will perform my good words toward you, to bring you back to this place. 11. For I know the thought that I think toward you, says the Lord, a thought of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. 12. And you shall call upon me, and you shall go, and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13. And you shall seek me, and find me, because you shall seek me with all your heart: 14. and I will appear to you, ☀ says the Lord, and I will bring back your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place whence I carried you away captive. 15. Because you have said that the Lord has raised up for us prophets in Babylon. 16. ☀ For thus says the Lord to the king sitting upon the throne of David, and to all the people who dwell in this city, your brothers, who have not gone out with you in the migration. 17. Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will send upon them the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence, and I will make them like the figs (y) of Suarim, which are not eaten because of their wickedness. 18. And I will persecute them with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, and I will make them a commotion to all the kingdoms of the earth, for a curse, and for an end, and for a hissing, and for a reproach among all the nations whither I have driven them. 19. For

because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the Lord, ^A because I sent to them my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, and they did not hearken, saith the Lord. 20. And do you hear the word of the Lord, all ye of the carrying away, whom I sent out of Jerusalem into Babylon: 21. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Achiab the son of Culias, and concerning Sedecias the son of Maasia, who prophesy unto you in my name ^B in iniquity: Behold I will deliver them into the hands of Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon: and he shall slay them before your eyes. 22. And they shall take from them a curse in all the carrying away of Juda, which is in Babylon, saying: The Lord make thee as Sedecias, and as Achiab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire, 23. because of the iniquity which they did in Israel, and they committed adultery with the wives of their neighbors, and revealed a word in my name in ^C iniquity, which I did not command them: and I am the knower, even the witness, saith the Lord. 24. And to Samæas the Nehemalite thou shalt say, saying: 25. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: Because thou hast sent in thy name letters to all the people that are in Jerusalem, and to Sophonias the son of Maasia, and to all the priests, saying: 26. The Lord hath made thee priest instead of Jojada the priest, that thou shouldst be overseer in the house of the Lord for every man that is mad, and ^D for every man that prophesieth: and thou shalt put him in prison, and in the stocks. 27. And now why have you not rebuked Jeremias, who is of Anathoth, who prophesieth to you? 28. For because of this he sent to you in Babylon, saying: It is a moment: build ye houses, and dwell, and plant gardens, and you shall eat the fruits of them. 29. And Sophonias the priest read this book in the ears of Jeremias the prophet. 30. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying: 31. Send to all the carrying away, saying: Thus saith the Lord concerning Samæas the Nehemalite, because Samæas has prophesied to you, and I did not send him, and he has caused you to trust in iniquity: 32. therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will visit upon Samæas the Nehemalite, and upon his seed: and there shall not be to him a man sitting among you, to see the good things that I will do for you, saith the Lord, because he has spoken a design against the Lord.

Chapter XXX

For I will bring ^A health unto thee, and from thy grievous wound I will heal thee, saith the Lord; ^B because thou art called the dispersed. Sion is this; [*] your quarry is she; for there is none who seeks her. 18. ^C Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will turn [*] the captivity of the tents of Jacob, and [(d)] of his captivity I will have mercy. And the city shall be built upon its height, and the temple shall sit according to its judgment. 19. And there shall go forth [(e)] from them those making celebration, and the voice of those who play; and I will multiply them, and they shall not be diminished, [*] and I will spread them forth, and they shall not be few when rendered back. 20. And the children of them shall enter, as aforetime: and their testimonies before my face shall be directed: and I will visit [*] upon all those who afflict them: 21. [(g)] and they shall be more powerful than he, over them: and his prince shall go forth from him. [(h)] And I will gather them, and they shall turn themselves unto me: for who is this who has given his heart [(i)] to turn unto me, [*] saith the Lord? 22. And you shall be unto me for a people, and I will be unto you for a God. 23. [(k)] For the fury of the Lord has gone forth impetuously: the fury has gone forth, which coming upon the impious shall turn. 24. The fury of the Lord’s wrath shall not turn back, until He does, and until He establishes the preparation of His heart. In the end of the days you shall know it.

CHAPTER XXXI

1. In that time, saith the Lord, I will be for a God to the race of Israel, and they shall be for a people unto me. 2. Thus saith the Lord: I found [(m)] the weary one in the desert [(n)] with those who perished by the sword. Go, and do not destroy Israel: 3. from afar the Lord appeared unto him. With an everlasting love, I have loved thee: for this cause I have drawn thee unto the obtaining of mercy. 4. I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt yet take up thy timbrel, and shalt go forth [(p)] with the crowd of those who play. 5. Again thou shalt plant vineyards on the mount of Samaria: plant plantations, [(q)] and give praise: 6. because it is the day [(r)] of the calling of one defending with a word on the mountains of Ephraim: arise, [(s)] and ascend unto Sion unto the Lord our God. 7. [(t)] Thus saith the Lord [*] unto Jacob: [(*)] Exult, rejoice, and neigh over the head of the nations: make it heard, and praise, saying: The Lord has saved His people, the remnant of Israel. 8. Behold, I bring them from the north, and I will gather them from the end of the earth at the solemnity of the passover; [*] and for the making of the children a great crowd: in them there is the blind, and the lame, the woman with child, and she who brings forth together: a great congregation; and they shall return hither. 9. In weeping they went forth, and in consolation I will bring them [(y)] confirming [(*)] them upon the rivers of water in a straight way, and they shall not err therein. For I am become a father to Israel: and Ephraim is my firstborn. 10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, say: He who scattered Israel, shall gather him, and shall keep him, as one who shepherds his flock. 11. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob, He has delivered him from the hand of him that is stronger than he: 12. and they shall come, and shall rejoice, [*] and shall exult [(a)] on Mount Sion: and they shall come unto the good things of the Lord, unto the land of corn, and wine, [(b)] and fruits, and beasts of burden, and of sheep, and of oxen: and their soul shall be, [(c)] as a tree that gives fruit, and they shall hunger no more. 13. Then shall the virgins [(d)] rejoice in the assembly of the adolescents, and the old men [+] shall be glad: and I will turn their mourning into joy, [(e)] and I will make them rejoicing [*] from their sorrows. 14. [+] I will magnify, and I will inebriate the soul of the priests [+] the sons of Levi; [*] with fatness: and my people with my good things shall be satisfied, [*] saith the Lord. 15. Thus saith the Lord: A voice in Rama was heard, [(f)] lamentation, and weeping: Rachel deploring over her children: she would not rest [*] over her children, because they are not. 16. Thus saith the Lord: Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; because there is reward for thy work, [*] saith the Lord, and they shall return from the land of the enemies. 17. And there shall be hope for thy latter end, saith the Lord, [(h)] a permanence for thy children in their borders. 18. Hearing, I heard Ephraim [(i)] complaining: Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised: as a calf [(k)] I did not learn. Convert me, and I shall be converted, for Thou art the Lord my God: 19. for [(l)] in the end of my captivity I have repented, [(m)] and in the end from when I knew, [(n)] I groaned for the days of shame, and I showed Thee, that I have received reproach from my youth. 20. Is Ephraim a precious son, [(o)] a delicate little one? because [(p)] for that my words in him, by remembering I will remember him [*] again; [(r)] on account of this [(s)] I hastened for him, by pitying I will have pity on him, saith the Lord. 21. Set thyself, make for thyself watchmen: [(*)] a punishment, give thy heart [(x)] unto the shoulders: [(y)] the way, in which

thou wentest, return, O virgin of Israel: return unto thy cities, mourning. ^B 22. How long wilt thou turn back, O backsliding daughter? For the Lord hath created salvation in the new plantation: in safety shall men walk about. 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Yet again shall they speak this word in the land of Judah, and in the cities thereof, when I shall have brought back their captivity: Blessed be the Lord over his holy, just mountain. 24. And they that dwell in Judæa, and in all the cities thereof, together with the husbandman and the leaders of the flocks, shall be exalted. 25. For I have inebriated every thirsty soul, and every hungry soul I have satisfied. 26. Upon this I awoke, and I saw; and my sleep brought pleasure unto me. 27. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will sow the house of Israel, and the house of Judah, with the seed of man, and the seed of beast. 28. And it shall be, as I watched over them to root up, and to pull down, and to overturn, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord. 29. In those days they shall say no more: The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the teeth of the children are set on edge. 30. But every one shall die in his own iniquity; every man ^C who eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. 31. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will establish with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, a new covenant. 32. Not according to the covenant which I set for their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not abide in my covenant, and I neglected them, saith the Lord. 33. For this is the covenant, that I will set for the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my laws in their mind, and on their heart I will write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. 34. And they shall not teach any more every man his brother, and every man his neighbor, saying: Know the Lord; for all shall know me from the least of them even to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will be propitious to their iniquities, and of their sins I will remember no more. 35. Thus saith the Lord, who gave the sun for the light of the day, the moon and the stars for the light of the night, who stirreth up the sea, and his waves roar, the Lord Almighty is his name. 36. If these laws shall cease from before my face, saith the Lord; then also the seed of Israel shall cease to be a nation before my face for all days. 37. If the heaven above shall be raised, and the foundations of the earth beneath searched out; even I will not reject all the seed of Israel, for all that they have done, saith the Lord. 38. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner. 39. And the measuring line shall go forth yet further before them unto the hill Gareb: and it shall be compassed about with chosen stones; 40. And the whole valley of the dead bodies, ^D and of the ashes, and all the fields even to the brook Cedron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy to the Lord, and it shall not be plucked up, nor destroyed any more for ever.

CHAPTER XXXII.

the son of Neriah, son of Maaseiah, before the eyes of Hanameel ^A the son of my father's brother, and before the eyes of those standing and writing in the book of the possession, and before the eyes of all the Jews who were sitting in the court of the prison. 13. I charged Baruch before them, saying: 14. Thus saith the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel: Take this book, and this book of the possession which is sealed, and this open book, and place it in an earthen vessel, that it may remain for many days. 15. For thus saith the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel: Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall yet be built in this land. 16. And I prayed unto the Lord, after I had given the book of the possession to Baruch the son of Neriah, saying: 17. O Lord, Lord, ^B behold, you have made the heaven and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm: and there is nothing hidden from you, not even one word: 18. who show mercy unto thousands, and recompense the sins of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: 19. God the great and strong, the Lord of hosts is his name: great in counsel, and strong in works, the Lord Almighty of great name: your eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men, to give to each one according to his way, and according to the fruits of his works: 20. who have performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day, and in Israel, and among earth-born men, and have made for yourself a name, as it is this day: 21. and have brought out your people Israel from the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with an outstretched arm, 22. and in great visions, and have given them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey: 23. and they entered, and took it; and they did not heed your voice, and did not walk in your commandments: all that you commanded them to do, they did not do: and they did as it were to bring upon themselves all these evils. 24. Behold, the siege comes to this city, to take it; and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, from before the face of the sword, and of famine, and of death: as you have spoken, so it has come to pass: behold, you see. 25. And you say to me: Lord, Lord, buy for yourself the field for silver: and I wrote the book, and sealed it, and caused them to testify with witnesses; and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26. And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah, saying: 27. Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: shall any word be hidden from me? 28. Therefore thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it: 29. and the Chaldeans shall come fighting against this city, and shall kindle this city in fire, and shall burn both the houses, upon whose roofs they burned incense to Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto strange gods, that they might provoke me to anger: 30. for the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only been doing evil before my eyes from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me with the works of their hands, saith the Lord. 31. For this city has been to me a provocation of my wrath and of my fury, from the day that they built it, and even unto this day, to remove it from my face, 32. because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, because they have done so to provoke me to anger, they, and their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 33. and they turned to me the back, and not the face. And I taught them early in the morning, and I taught them, and they did not hear, so as to receive instruction: 34. and they placed their pollutions in the house, where my name is called upon it, to defile it: 35. and they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to offer their sons and their daughters to Molech: which I did not command them, neither did it enter upon my heart, to perform this abomination, that they should make Judah to sin. 36. And now thus saith the Lord God of Israel concerning this city, which you say shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by sword, and by famine, and by ^C pestilence: 37. Behold, I gather them out of every land, whither I have dispersed them in my anger, and in my fury, and in great irritation. And I shall turn them to this place, and I will cause them to dwell ^D confidently: 38. and they shall be to me for a people, and I will be to them for a God. 39. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all the days, for their own good, and for their children after them. 40. And I will establish with them an everlasting testament, that I will not turn away from after them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their heart, that they may not depart from me: 41. and I will visit them, to do them

good, and I will plant them in this land [in truth], even with all my heart and with all my soul. 42. For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all this great evil, so I will bring upon them all the good that I have spoken concerning them. 43. And fields shall be purchased in this land, of which you say: It is desolate, without man or beast, and they are delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. 44. Fields shall be purchased for money, and shall be written in a book, and sealed, and witnesses shall be called in the land of Benjamin, and in the circuits of Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountain, and in the cities of [Saphila], and in the cities of [Nagib]; for I will turn their captivity, saith the Lord. [Chapter XXXIII] — 1. And the word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying: 2. Thus saith the Lord, who doeth it, the Lord who formed it to establish it; the Lord is his name: 3. Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and I will show thee great and strong things, which thou knowest not. 4. For thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are destroyed [to the mound] and to the [bulwarks]: 5. They come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have slain in mine anger and in my fury: and I have hid my face from this city, because of all their wickedness. 6. Behold, I will bring it, as it were, a scar and a healing, and I will heal them, and I will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth. 7. And I will turn the captivity of Judah, and the captivity of Jerusalem, and I will build them as at the first. 8. And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will not remember their sins, whereby they have sinned against me, and have turned away from me. 9. And it shall be to me a name of joy, and a praise, and an honor before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I will do unto them: and they shall fear and be troubled for all the good and for all the peace that I will procure unto them. 10. Thus saith the Lord: Again there shall be heard in this place, of which you say that it is desolate without man and without beast in the cities of Judah, and without the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who have been made desolate, so that there is no man and no inhabitant and no beast, 11. the voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say: Confess to the Lord of Hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever: and they shall bring [sacrifices of praise] into the house of the Lord: for I will turn the captivity of the land as at the first, saith the Lord. 12. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: Even in this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all the cities thereof, there shall be a habitation for shepherds causing flocks to lie down. 13. In the cities of the mountain, and in the cities of [Saphila], and in the cities of Nagib, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks pass again under the hand of him that telleth them, saith the Lord. 14. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform the good word that I have spoken unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. 15. In those days, and at that time, I will make the branch of justice to spring forth unto David, and he shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. 16. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell confidently: and this is the name that they shall call him: The Lord our justice. 17. For thus saith the Lord: There shall not be cut off from David a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. 18. Neither shall there be cut off from the priests and Levites a man before my face, offering holocausts and burning sacrifice and performing offerings all the days. 19. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 20. Thus saith the Lord: If my covenant with the day can be made void, and my covenant with the night, that there should not be day and night in their season; 21. then may also my covenant with David my servant be made void, that he should

^A not take of his seed a prince over the seed of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob; for I will turn their turning, and I will have mercy upon them.

Cap. XXXIV.—1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord: and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his camp, and all the ^B land of the dominion ☀ of his hand, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah, saying: 2. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Go, say to Zedekiah king of Judah, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: ^C (n) Delivered, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon: (o) and he shall take it (p) in fire. 3. And thou shalt not escape from his hand, and being taken thou shalt be taken, and into his hands thou shalt be given: and thine eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and thou shalt enter into Babylon. 4. But hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah: Thus saith the Lord ☀ of thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword, 5. in peace shalt thou die: (r) and as they deplored thy fathers, who reigned before ☀ who were before thee (*), so shall they also deplore thee, and, Woe, lord, shall they lament thee, because (s) I have spoken—great—it, saith the Lord. 6. And Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah all these words in Jerusalem. 7. And the power of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the remaining cities of Judah, against Lachish, and against Azekah; because these remained in the cities of Judah as fortified cities. 8. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had completed a covenant with ☀ all the people who were in Jerusalem, to call ☀ for them: (u) a release, 9. that each one should send away his man-servant, and ☀ each one: his maid-servant, the Hebrew and the Hebrewess free, (x) so that no man of Judah should employ his brother in service. 10. And all the nobles and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, returned, so that each one should dismiss his man-servant and each one his maid-servant, the Hebrew and the Hebrewess free, so that they should not employ them in service anymore; and they heard, and they dismissed them. 11. And having turned back after these things (y), they made the men-servants and maid-servants return, whom (z) they had dismissed free, (a) and they left them as men-servants and as maid-servants. 12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 13. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I set a covenant with your fathers in the day in which (b) I brought them out from the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying: 14. (c) When six years shall have been completed, thou shalt dismiss thy Hebrew brother, who shall have been sold to thee, and he shall serve thee six years, and thou shalt dismiss him free from thee. And your fathers did not hear me, and did not incline their ear, 15. (d) And you were converted today to doing what is right before my eyes, so that everyone might call (e) a release for his neighbor: and you concluded a covenant before my face in the house, upon which my name was called. 16. And you returned, and polluted my name, so that each one might cause his man-servant to return, and each one his maid-servant, whom you had dismissed free for their soul, and you subjected them, that they might be for you as men-servants, and as maid-servants. 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord: You have not heard me, to call a release each one to his brother, and each one to his neighbor. Behold, I call for you a release, saith the Lord, unto the sword, and unto death, and unto famine: and I will give you into dispersion in all the kingdoms of the earth: 18. and I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not established the words of my covenant, which they made before my face, the calf, (f) which they made (g) in two; and they passed ☀ in the midst of its parts: 19. (h) the prefects of Judah, and the prefects of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land (i) who passed in the midst of the parts of the calf, 20. and I will give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their souls, and I will give their dead bodies as food for the birds of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 21. And Zedekiah king of Judah, and their princes, I will give into the hands of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their souls, and into the hand of the power of the king of Babylon, (k) of those fleeing from them. 22. Behold, I command, saith the Lord, and I will lead them back into this city, and they shall fight ☀ against it: they shall take it, and they shall burn it in fire, and the cities of Judah I will give them as not passable by inhabitants.

Chapter XXXV.

them wine. 3. And I brought in Jezoniah the son of Jeremiah son of (p) Habasniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites: 4. and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the treasury of the sons of Hanan the son of Godaliah, a man of God, (r) which is by the side of the palace of the princes, ^A which is above the palace of Maaseiah the son of Sellum, who keeps the door. 5. And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites a pot full of wine, and cups, and I said to them: Drink wine. 6. And they said: We will not drink wine, because Jonadab son of Rechab our father commanded us, saying: You shall not drink wine, you, and your sons, for ever: 7. and you shall not build houses, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard, nor shall there be any for you; because you shall dwell in tents all your days, that you may live many days upon the face of the earth, upon which you dwell in it. 8. And we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab ^B son of Rechab, our father, according to all that he commanded us, that we should not drink wine all our days, we, and our wives, and our sons, and our daughters, 9. and that we should not build houses, so that we might dwell there: and we had no vineyard, or field, or seed: 10. and we have dwelt in tents, and we have obeyed, and have done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11. But it came to pass, when Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said: Come, let us go into Jerusalem from the face of the power of the Chaldeans, and from the face of the power of the Assyrians, ^C and we have dwelt there. 12. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 13. Thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go, and say to the man of Judah, and to those who dwell in Jerusalem: Will you not accept instruction to hear my words? said the Lord. 14. The sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have firmly established the word which he commanded his sons, that they should not drink wine, and they have not drunk to this day; because they have obeyed the commandment of their father: but I have spoken to you, ^D speaking also in the morning, and you have not listened to me. 15. And I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising early and sending, I said: Turn now, every one from his evil way, and make your doings better, and do not go after other gods to perform service to them: and you shall dwell upon the land, which I have given to you, and to your fathers. And you have not inclined your ear, and you have not listened to me. 16. And the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have established the commandment of their father, which he commanded them; but this people have not listened to me. 17. Therefore thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, all the evil that I have spoken against them, because I have spoken to them, and they have not heard, and I have called them, and they have not answered. Thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab their father, and have kept all his commandments, to do according to all that their father commanded them, there shall not fail a man from the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab, standing before my face all the days of the earth.

Cap. XXXVI. 1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Joakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2. Take to you a roll of a book, and write upon it all the words, which I have prophesied to you concerning Israel, and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah king of Judah, and even to this day. 3. Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the evils, which I think to do to them; that they may return every one from his evil way: and I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins. 4. And Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had prophesied to him, in a roll of a book. 5. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying: I am shut up, and I cannot enter into the house of the Lord: 6. and you shall go in, and you shall read in this roll, wherein you have written from my mouth the words of the Lord in the ears of the people, in the house of the Lord, on the day of the fast; and in the ears of all Judah coming from their cities, you shall read them. 7. Perhaps their supplication will fall before the face of the Lord, and they will return every one from his evil way; because great is the fury and anger of the Lord, which he has spoken against this people. 8. And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, to read the words of the Lord in the book, in the house of the Lord. 9. And it came to pass in the fifth year of Joakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast before the face of the Lord for all the people of Israel, and all the people coming from the cities of Judah, into Jerusalem, of the house of Judah. 10. And Baruch read in the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the house of Gamariah the son of Saphan the scribe, in the upper court, in the

vestibule of the new gate of the house of the Lord, in the ears ^A of all the people. 14. And Micha the son of Gamariah, the son of Saphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll: 12. and he went down to the king's house, into the scribe's chamber: and, behold, all the princes were sitting there, Elisama the scribe, and Dalaia the son of Samæas, and Eliathim the son of Achobor, and Gamariah the son of Saphan, and Sedecia the son of Ananias, and all the princes. 13. And Micha declared unto them all the words which he had heard, when Baruch read in the scroll, in the ears of the people. 14. And all the princes sent unto Baruch, Jehudi the son of Nathanias, the son of Salamias, the son of Chusi, saying: The scroll, wherein thou hast read in the ears of the people, take it in thine hand, and come. And Baruch the son of Nerias took the scroll in his hand, and came down unto them. 15. And they said unto him: Sit down now, and read it in our ears. And Baruch read in their ears. 16. And it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they consulted every man with his neighbor, and said unto Baruch: We will surely declare all these words unto the king. 17. And they asked Baruch, saying: Tell us now, from where didst thou write all these words? 18. And Baruch said unto them: From his mouth Jeremiah declared unto me all these words, and I wrote them in the ^B scroll with ink. 19. And the princes said unto Baruch: Go, hide thyself, thou and Jeremiah, and let no man know where ye are. 20. And they went in to the king into the court: and they delivered the scroll to be kept in the house of Elisama the scribe. And they told all these words to the king. 21. And the king sent Jehudi to take the scroll. And he took it out of Elisama the scribe's house, and Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes who stood around the king. 22. And the king was sitting in the winter house, in the ninth month, and there was a fire of coals burning before him. 23. And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the scribe's penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. 24. And the king, and all his servants who heard all these words, were not afraid, nor did they tear their clothes. 25. And Eliathan, and Dalaia, and Gamariah made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll: but he would not hear them. 26. And the king commanded Jeremiel the king's son, and Saraias the son of Ezriel, and Selemias the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; ^C but they hid themselves. 27. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after the king had burned the scroll, and all the words which Baruch had written from the mouth of Jeremiah, saying: 28. Take thee again another scroll, and write in it all these former words, which were in the former scroll, which Joacim the king of Judah hath burned, 29. and thou shalt say to Joacim king of Judah: Thus saith the Lord: Thou hast burned this scroll, saying: Why hast thou written therein, saying: The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from it man and beast? 30. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joacim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the heat of the day, and in the frost of the night: 31. and I will punish him, and his seed, and his servants for their iniquities: and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the land of Judah, all the evils that I have spoken against them; and they did not hear. 32. And Jeremiah took another scroll, and gave it to Baruch the son of Nerias the scribe, and he wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll which Joacim king of Judah had burned in the fire: and there were added besides unto them many like words.

Chapter XXXVII

combust this city with fire.” 11. And it came to pass, when the power of the Chaldeans ascended from Jerusalem before the face of the power of Pharaoh, 12. Jeremiah went forth from Jerusalem, to go into the land of Benjamin, to buy therefrom in the midst of the people. 13. And he was at the gate of Benjamin, and there was a man there with whom he was staying, whose name was Jaruja the son of Selemiah the son of Hananiah, and he took hold of Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “To the Chaldeans thou art fleeing.” 14. And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie, I am not fleeing to the Chaldeans.” But he did not listen to him, and Jaruja took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. 15. And the princes were embittered against Jeremiah, and they struck him, and delivered him into the house of the dungeon, into the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made his house a house of custody. 16. For Jeremiah came into the house of the pit, and into Anjuth; and Jeremiah sat there for many days. 17. And King Zedekiah sent, and called him, and the king questioned him in his house secretly, and said to him, “Is there a word from the Lord?” And Jeremiah said, “There is; thou shalt be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.” 18. And Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What have I done unjustly to thee, and to thy servants, and to this people, that thou dost put me into the house of the dungeon? 19. And where are your prophets, who prophesied to you, saying that the king of Babylon shall not come upon you, [nor] upon this land? 20. And now hear, I beseech thee, my lord the king: let my supplication fall now before thy face, and why dost thou bring me back into the house of Jonathan the scribe? And I shall not die there.” 21. And King Zedekiah commanded, and they sent him into the house of the dungeon, and gave him one loaf of bread daily from without, from where they baked [bread], until all the loaves went out from the city. And Jeremiah sat in the court of the dungeon.

Chapter XXXVIII

^A in thy house. 18. But if thou wilt not go forth from the walls, then this city shall be given into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire, and thou shalt not be saved ✗ from their hands. 19. And King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah: I am in anxiety concerning the Jews who have fled to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hands, and they mock me. 20. And Jeremiah said: They shall not deliver thee. Hearken ✗ now to the word of the Lord, (r) which I speak to thee, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live. 21. But if thou refusest to go forth, this is the word which the Lord hath showed me. 22. And behold, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah, (s) have gone forth to the princes of the king of Babylon, (t) and these have said: Thy men of peace have seduced thee and prevailed against thee: ^B they shall be strengthened unto the slipping of thy feet: they have departed from thee, they go to the Chaldeans: and thou shalt not be saved ✗ from his hand: because thou shalt be taken in the hand of the king of Babylon: and this city shall be burned with fire. 24. And the king said to him: Let not a man know of these words: and thou shalt not die. 25. And if the princes hear that I have spoken to thee, and they come to thee, and say to thee: Tell ✗ now to us, what thou hast said to the king: hide not from us, and we will not slay thee: and what the king hath said to thee? 26. Thou shalt say to them: I cast my supplication before the king, that he would not return me to the house of Jonathan, to die there. 27. And all the princes came to Jeremiah, and interrogated him. And he told them (y) all these words, as the king had commanded him. And they were silent before him; for the word had not been heard. 28. And Jeremiah sat in the court of the prison, until ^C the (z) time when Jerusalem was subjugated.

Chapter XXXIX.

Chapter XL.

the midst of all the deportation of Jerusalem and Judah, of those who were led away to Babylon. 2. And the chief of the cooks took him, and said to him: The Lord thy God hath spoken these evils upon this place: 3. and the Lord hath brought it, and done as he hath spoken: because ye have sinned against the Lord, and have not heard his voice: ^A and this word hath come upon you. 4. Even now: behold I have loosed thee ✗ this day: from the chains which are upon thy hands: if it be good in thy sight to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will set my eyes upon thee: ^B and if it be evil in thy sight to come with me into Babylon, stay: ✗ behold all the land is before thee: whithersoever it is good and right in thy sight to go, thither go: 5. ^C and until I return again, run thou: and return to Godoliah the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, whom the king of Babylon hath appointed in the land of Judah, and dwell with him in the midst of the people; but if not, ^D go in all things which are good in thy sight to go. And the chief of the cooks gave him provision, and rewards, and dismissed him. Masphiam, and dwelt with him in the midst of the people, who were left in the land. 7. And all the princes of the power, who were in the field, they and ^A their power, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Godoliah the son of Ahicam in the land, and that he had committed to him men, and their wives, ^B and a great multitude, and of the poor of the land, whom he had not carried away to Babylon: 8. and they came to Godoliah in Masphia: Ismael the son of Nathania, and Johanan, and Jonathan the sons of Corah, and Saria the son of Thanahmeth, and the sons of ^C Yphi, who were of Netophath, and Jezonia the son of Maachath, they and their men. 9. And Godoliah the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan swore to them, and to their men, saying: Fear not ^D to serve the Chaldeans: dwell in the land, ^A and serve the king of Babylon, and it shall be well with you. 10. And as for me, behold I dwell in Masphia, to stand before the face of the Chaldeans, whoever shall come upon you. And you gather the wine, and ^B the fruit, and oil, and store it in your vessels, and dwell in your cities, which you have seized. 11. And all the Jews, who were in the land of Moab, and among the children of Ammon, and who were in Idumea, and in all the land, heard that the king of Babylon had given a remnant in Judea, and ^C that he had appointed over them Godoliah the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan. 12. And all the Jews returned out of all places, whither they had been dispersed, and came into the land of Judah to Godoliah in Masphia, and gathered wine, and ^D much fruit.

Chapter XLI

11. And Johanan the son of Corah, and all the princes of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ismael the son of Nathania had done. 12. And they took all their men and went to fight ^A against him with Ismael the son of Nathania; and they found him by the great waters that are in Gabaon. 13. And it happened that when all the people who were with Ismael saw Johanan the son of Corah and all the princes of the forces who were with him, 14. they were glad, and all the people whom Ismael had taken captive from Masphia returned; and when they had returned, they came to Johanan the son of Corah. 15. But Ismael the son of Nathania escaped with eight men from before Johanan, and went to the children of Ammon. 16. And Johanan the son of Corah and all the princes of the forces who were with him took all the remnants of the people whom he had recovered from Ismael the son of Nathania from Masphia, after he had slain Godoliah the son of Ahicam: mighty men in war, and women, and children, and eunuchs, whom he had recovered from Gabaon. 17. And he went and settled in the land of Beroth Chamaham, which is by Bethlehem, to set out to go into Egypt, 18. from before the Chaldeans; for they were afraid before them, because Ismael the son of Nathania had slain Godoliah the son of Ahicam, ^B whom the king of Babylon had appointed in the land.

Chapter XLII

1. And all the princes of the forces, and Johanan the son of Corah, and Jezaniah the son of Hosæa, and all the people from the small to the great, approached, 2. and they said to Jeremiah the prophet: Let our petition now fall before thy face, and pray for us to the Lord thy God, for these remnants; for we are left a few out of many, as thy eyes see us. 3. And may the Lord thy God tell us the way in which we should walk, and the word that we should do. 4. And Jeremiah the prophet said to them: I have heard; behold, I will pray to the Lord our God according to your words; and it shall be, every word that the Lord shall answer you, I will declare to you, I will not hide a word from you. 5. And they said to Jeremiah: The Lord be a witness—just and faithful—against us if we do not do according to every word with which the Lord thy God shall send thee to us. 6. Whether it be good or evil, we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending thee ^C to him, that it may go well with us, because we will listen to the voice of the Lord our God. 7. And it happened after ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8. And he called Johanan the son of Corah, and all the princes of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the small to the great, 9. and said to them: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to him, to pour out your supplication before him: 10. If you will sit and remain in this land, I will even build you up and not pull you down, and I will plant you and not pluck you up; for I have quieted myself concerning the evils that I have spoken of doing to you. 11. Do not be afraid before the face of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid before his face: do not be afraid of him, says the Lord; for I am with you, to deliver you and to save you out of their hand. 12. And I will grant you mercy, and I will have pity on you, and I will bring you back to your own land. 13. And if you say: We will not sit in this land, so that you do not listen to the voice of the Lord our God, 14. saying: That we will go into the land of Egypt, and we shall not see war, and will not hear the voice of the trumpet, and we shall not hunger for bread, and we will dwell there. 15. And now, on account of this, hear the word of the Lord, O remnants of Judea; thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will surely set your face to enter into Egypt, and you shall enter to dwell there, 16. it shall be that the sword, of which you are afraid before its face, will there find you in the land of Egypt; and the famine, the reason of which you are anxious before its face, will there seize upon you in Egypt, and there you shall die. 17. And all the men who set their face to enter into the land of Egypt, to dwell there, will fail by the sword, and by the famine, and in death; and there shall not be of them even one man who shall escape from the evils that I am bringing upon them. 18. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: As my fury has poured out, and my anger upon the inhabitants in Jerusalem, so shall my fury pour out upon you, when you have entered into Egypt: and you shall be in destruction, and in subjection, and in a curse, and in a reproach, and you shall not see this place more. 19. That which the Lord has spoken concerning you, O remnants of Judea: Do not enter into Egypt: and now, in knowing, you shall know that I have testified to you today; 20. because you have done evil in your hearts, when you sent me to the Lord our God, saying: Pray for us to the Lord our God; and according to all that the Lord our God shall speak to thee, so declare to us, and we will do it. 21. And I have declared it to you today, and you have not listened to the voice of the Lord your God, and according to all that He sent me to you. 22. And now you shall know that in the sword,

and in famine, and in pestilence, you shall fail in the place ^D where you yourselves desire to enter to dwell there.

Chapter XLIII

1. And it came to pass, when Jeremiah had ceased speaking to all the people all the words of the Lord their God, which the Lord their God had sent to them, all these words; 2. then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, said to Jeremiah: You are speaking falsely; the Lord our God has not sent you to us, saying: Do not go into Egypt to dwell there. 3. But Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us, so that you may deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death and carry us away into Babylon. 4. And Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the princes of the forces, and all the people, did not listen to the voice of the Lord, to dwell in the land of Judah. 5. But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the princes of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations ^B whither they had been dispersed, to dwell in the land of Judah, 6. men and women, and infants, and the king's daughters, and every person whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah; 7. and they came into the land of Egypt, for they did not listen to the voice of the Lord, and they came to Tahpanhes. 8. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying: 9. Take for yourself large stones, and hide them in the brick-kiln ^C which is before the doors of Pharaoh's house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah. 10. And you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and he will set his throne above these stones which you have hidden, and he will lift up his weapons over them. 11. And he will come and smite the land of Egypt, those for death, to death; and those for captivity, to captivity; and those for the sword, to the sword. 12. And he will kindle a fire in the houses of their gods ^D and he will burn them and carry them away; and he will search the land of Egypt as a shepherd searches his garment, and he will depart from thence in peace. 13. And he will break in pieces the pillars of Heliopolis, which are in the land of Egypt; and he will burn the house of their gods with fire.

Chapter XLIV

1. The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews inhabiting in the land of Egypt, and those dwelling in Migdol, and in Tahpanhes, and in Memphis, and in the land of Pathros, saying: 2. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evils which I have brought upon Jerusalem, and upon all the cities of Judah; and behold, they are a desolation this day, and no one dwells in them, 3. because of the wickedness which they committed to provoke Me to anger, by going to sacrifice and to serve other gods, whom they knew not, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers. 4. And I sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying: Oh, do not do this disgusting thing which I hate. 5. But they did not listen, nor incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, so as not to sacrifice to other gods. 6. And My wrath and My anger were poured out, and were kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they have become a desolation and a waste, as it is this day. 7. And now thus says the Lord God, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit great evils against your own souls, to cut off from among you man and woman, infant and nursing child out of the midst of Judah, so that there is not even a remnant left to you; 8. in that you provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands, sacrificing to other gods in the land of Egypt, whither you have come to dwell, that you might be cut off and become a curse and an object of reproach among all the nations of the earth? 9. Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, and the evils of the kings of Judah, and the evils of your own wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10. They have not humbled themselves to this day, nor have they feared, nor have they walked in My law and in My statutes, which I set before you and before your fathers. 11. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set My face against you for evil, to cut off all Judah. 12. And I will take the remnant of Judah, who have set their faces to come into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt they shall fall by the sword and by famine; they shall be consumed from the least to the greatest, even by the sword and by famine they shall die; and they shall be for an oath, and for a ruin, and for a curse, and for an object of reproach. 13. And I will visit...

^A upon those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have visited upon Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by death; 14. and there shall be none of the remnant of Judah, who come to dwell there in the land of Egypt, that shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they lift up their souls to return to dwell there: they shall not return, but such as shall escape. 15. Then all the men who knew that their wives were offering sacrifices to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: 16. As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you; 17. but we will certainly perform every word that shall go forth out of our mouth, to offer sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah and without Jerusalem: and we were filled with bread, and were well, and saw no evil. 18. But since we ceased to offer sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her, we have been in want of all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by famine. 19. And when we offer sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and pour out libations to her, do we make cakes for her to worship her, and pour out libations to her, without our husbands? 20. And Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people who had answered him with such words, saying: 21. Did not the incense that you offered in the cities of Judah and without Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, ^B and the people of the land, remember, and did it not come into the Lord’s heart? 22. And the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your deeds and because of the abominations which you committed: and your land has become a desolation, and a waste, and a curse, so that there is no inhabitant, as it is this day. 23. Because you have sinned against the Lord, and have not listened to the voice of the Lord, and have not walked in his law, and in his statutes, and in his testimonies; therefore these evils have come upon you, as it is this day. 24. And Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women: Hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hands, saying: We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to offer sacrifices to the queen of heaven, and to pour out libations to her: you have indeed fulfilled your vows, and have performed your vows. 26. Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah, saying: The Lord God lives in all the land of Egypt. 27. For behold, I will watch over them for evil, and not for good: and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them. 28. And those who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, being few in number: and all the remnant of Judah that have come into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall know whose word shall stand, mine or theirs. 29. And this shall be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will visit upon you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil: 30. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will give Uaphre king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies, and into the hand of them that seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy, and who sought his life. ^C

Chapter XLV

Chapter XLVI

^A and approach to battle. 4. Harness the horses, and mount, O horsemen: set yourselves in array with your helmets, draw out the lances, and put on your breastplates. 5. Why have they feared, and turned back? For their mighty ones shall be beaten down: they have fled in flight, and have not looked back; they are taken round about, saith the Lord. 6. Let not the swift flee, nor the mighty escape toward the north: those which were by the Euphrates have been weakened, they have fallen. 7. Who is this, which riseth up as a river, and as rivers rolling the water? 8. The waters of Egypt ^B like a flood rise, and as streams its waters are moved. And he said, "I will ascend, and will cover the earth, and I will destroy the city, and the inhabitants in it." 9. Ascend upon the horses, and prepare the chariots: go out, ye warriors of the Ethiopians and Libyans, armed with arms, and Lydians, ascend, bend the bow. 10. And that day is to the Lord God of our hosts a day of vengeance, to take vengeance on his enemies; and the sword shall devour, and shall be sated, and shall be inebriated with their blood; for there is a sacrifice to the Lord God of Hosts from the land of the north over the river Euphrates. 11. Ascend, Gilead, and take balm for the virgin daughter of Egypt; in vain hast thou multiplied thy medicines, there is no profit for thee. 12. The nations have heard ^C thy voice, and thy cry has filled the earth; for the warrior is weakened against the warrior, together both have fallen. 13. The word which the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to strike the land of Egypt. 14. Announce in Egypt, and proclaim in Magdol, and proclaim in Memphis, and in Taphnas say: "Understand, and prepare thyself, for the sword devoureth thy circle." 15. Why has thy chosen calf fled? It did not remain, because the Lord dissolved it. 16. And the multitude has been weakened, and has fallen, each one to his neighbor they spoke: "Let us arise, and let us return to our people, and to our region from before the face of the Greek sword." 17. Call the name of Pharaoh king of Egypt, "Saon Æbir Moed." 18. I live, saith the king, the Lord of Hosts is his name; for as Itaburion among the mountains, and as Carmel, he shall come in the sea. 19. Make for thyself vessels of migration, O inhabitress daughter of Egypt, because Memphis shall be in corruption, and shall be called "Woe," because there are no inhabitants in it. 20. A heifer ^D adorned and fair ^A is Egypt, destruction from the north cometh upon her. 21. And her mercenaries in the midst of her are like fatted calves; for they also have turned back, and have fled together, they have not stood; because the day of their destruction has come upon them, and the time of their retribution. 22. Her voice, as of a hissing serpent; for they shall go in the sand, they shall come with axes upon her. 23. As those who cut down wood, cut down her forest, saith the Lord God, because ^B it shall not be searched out, because it is more abundant than the locust, and there is no number to them. 24. The daughter of Egypt has blushed, she has been delivered into the hands of the people from the north. 25. Behold, I will avenge Ammon, his child, upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt, and upon his gods, and upon his kings, and upon Pharaoh, and upon those who trust in him. 26. And I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants, and after these things it shall rest as from of old, saith the Lord. The end of the prophecy of Egypt. ^C And thou, do not fear, O my servant Jacob, nor shake, O Israel; for behold I save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity: and Jacob shall return, and shall rest, and shall sleep, and there shall be none to make him quake. 28. And thou, do not fear, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord, for I am with thee, for I will make a consumption in every nation, to which I have driven thee; but thou I will not make to fail, and I will punish thee in judgment, and I will not send thee away innocent.

Chapter XLVII.

is Ascalon, and the remnant of the Anakim. 6. How long, O man mighty for war, against the towns of slaughter, the sword of the Lord? How long wilt thou not rest? Return into thy sheath; be at peace, and be still. 7. How shall it rest, seeing the Lord has commanded it against Ascalon, and against those by the sea, and against the remnant, he shall rise up.

Chapter XLVIII

^A and over thy vintage, the spoiler has fallen. 33. Joy and gladness are taken away from Carmel, and from the land of Moab; and I have made the wine fail from the winepresses: they shall not tread with the vintage shout; the shout shall be no shout. 34. From the cry of Heshbon even unto Elealeh, and even unto Jahaz, have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even unto Horonaim, ^B and to Eglath-shelishiyah: for the waters also of Nimrim shall be desolate. 35. And I will cause to cease from Moab, saith the Lord, him that offereth in the high place, and him that burneth incense to his gods. 36. Therefore my heart shall sound for Moab like pipes, and my heart shall sound like pipes for the men of Kir-heres: because the abundance he hath gotten hath perished. 37. For every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings, and upon the loins sackcloth. 38. There shall be lamentation generally upon all the housetops of Moab, and in the streets thereof: for I have broken Moab like a vessel wherein is no pleasure, saith the Lord. 39. How is it broken down! ^C How hath Moab turned the back with shame! So shall Moab be a derision and a dismaying to all them about him. 40. For thus saith the Lord: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread his wings over Moab. 41. Kerioth is taken, and the strong holds are surprised, and the mighty men's hearts in Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. 42. And Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he hath magnified himself against the Lord. 43. Fear, and the pit, and the snare, shall be upon thee, O inhabitant of Moab, saith the Lord. 44. He that fleeth from the fear shall fall into the pit; ^D and he that getteth up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation, saith the Lord. 45. They that fled stood under the shadow of Heshbon because of the force: but a fire shall come forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and shall devour the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones. 46. Woe be unto thee, O Moab! the people of Chemosh perisheth: for thy sons are taken captives, and thy daughters captives. 47. Yet will I bring again the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith the Lord. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Chapter XLIX

^A 14. I have heard a report from the Lord, and he hath sent ambassadors unto the nations: Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up up to battle. 15. For lo, I have made thee small among the nations, and (p) despised among men. 16. Thy pride hath deceived (r) thee, (s) the hardness of thy heart hath destroyed (t) the holes of the rocks, (u) it hath seized the strength of the high hill: for though thou shouldest exalt thyself as the eagle, I will cast thee down from thence, saith the Lord. 17. And Edom shall be a desolation: every one that goeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all the plagues thereof. 18. As ^B Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown, and the neighbor cities thereof, saith the Lord Almighty; no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. 19. Behold, he shall come up like a lion (y) from the pride of Jordan against the habitation of Hamath; for (a) I will suddenly make them run from it. And who is the chosen man whom I shall appoint over it? for who is like me? and who will stand against me? and who is that shepherd who will stand before my face? 20. Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that he hath taken against Edom, and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely the (d) little ones of the flock shall be drawn out, surely their habitation shall be made desolate upon them 21. At the voice (e) of their fall the earth is moved, the cry is in the Red Sea, the voice (f) thereof is heard. 22. Behold, he shall fly as an eagle (g), and * will fly:, and shall spread his wings (k) over her strongholds: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs. 23. Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad, for they have heard evil tidings; (i) they fainted in the sea, they are troubled, rest they could not. 24. Damascus is waxed feeble, it turned itself to flight, and fear seized it: trembling, * also: sorrows have taken hold on her, as of a woman in travail;. 25. How have I not left (k) my city, the village they loved? 26. Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off ✶ in that day, saith the Lord of hosts. 27. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the (o) palaces of Ben-hadad. 28. Concerning ^C Kedar, and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote, thus saith the Lord: Arise, go up to Kedar, (q) and spoil the children of the East. 29. Their tents and their flocks shall they take: (r) their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels, shall they take to themselves; (s) and they shall cry unto them, Fear on every side. 30. (t) Flee, get you far off, dwell deep, (u) O ye that dwell in Hazor, saith the Lord; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath taken counsel against you, and hath conceived a purpose against you. 31. (x) Arise, go up unto the wealthy nation, that dwelleth without care, saith the Lord, which have neither gates nor bars, * (g) which dwell alone. 32. And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil; and I will scatter into every wind them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, saith the Lord. 33. And (b) Hazor shall be a dwelling for (c) dragons, and a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor any son of man dwell in it. 34. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet against Elam in the beginning (d) of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying: 35. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: * Behold; (e) I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might. 36. And will I bring upon Elam the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation (f) whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come. 37. For I will cause (g) them to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger, saith the Lord; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them. 38. And I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from thence the king and the princes, saith the Lord. 39. But it shall come to pass in the latter days, that I will bring again the captivity of Elam, saith the Lord. In the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah this word came concerning Elam. ^D

Chapter L

5. They shall inquire the way to Zion, ^A for hither they shall set their face; and they shall come and take refuge in the Lord; for the everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten. 6. My people has been like lost sheep, their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have led them away upon the mountains; from mountain to hill they have departed, they have forgotten their resting-place. 7. All they that found them have devoured them; and their enemies said: Let us not be idle, for they have sinned against the Lord: the pasture of righteousness, the Lord, for He is the one who gathers their fathers. 8. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth, and be as dragons before the face of the sheep. 9. For behold, I will stir up and bring up against Babylon congregations of great nations from the land of the north, and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: like the ^B arrow of an intelligent warrior, it shall not return empty. 10. And Chaldea shall be for a prey, and all they that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the Lord. 11. For you rejoiced and gloried, when you plundered my inheritance, for you were glad like bulls at grass, and you pawed like stallions. 12. Your mother has been greatly ashamed, the mother in good things: behold the last of the nations is a desert without water, and untrodden. 13. By the wrath of the Lord it shall be uninhabited: and it shall be entirely for destruction, and every one that passes by Babylon shall be ^C astonished, and shall hiss at all her plagues. 14. Gather yourselves against Babylon round about, all you that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare not your arrows, for you have sinned against the Lord. 15. Cry out against her round about: her hands are weakened, her bulwarks have fallen, and her wall is rooted up; for it is the vengeance of God, take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her. 16. Destroy the seed from Babylon, and him that holds the sickle in the time of harvest from before the face of the sword of the Greek, each one shall return to his people, and each ^D one shall flee to his land. 17. Israel is a stray sheep, the lions have chased him away: first the king of Assyria ate him, and this last, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, has broken his bones. 18. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will take vengeance upon the king of Babylon, and upon his land, as I have taken vengeance upon the king of Assyria. 19. And I will restore Israel to his pasture, and he shall feed in Carmel, and in Bashan, and in the mount of Ephraim, and in Gilead, and their souls shall be satisfied. 20. In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, they shall seek the injustice of Israel, and it shall not be, and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found; for I will be merciful to them that are left. 21. Go up against it and against the inhabitants: take vengeance, O sword, and utterly destroy after them, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded thee. 22. A voice of war in the land of the Chaldeans, and great destruction. 23. How is the hammer of all the earth broken and crushed? how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations? 24. I will lay snares for thee, and thou shalt be taken, O Babylon, and thou shalt not understand; thou art found and taken, because thou hast stood against the Lord. 25. The Lord has opened His treasury, and has brought forth the vessels of His wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has a work in the land of the Chaldeans. 26. For the time is come: open her storehouses, search her as a cave, and destroy her: let nothing of her be left. 27. Dry up all her fruits: and let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them, for their day is come, the time of their visitation. 28. A voice of them that flee and escape from the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance, which is from the Lord our God, the vengeance of His temple. 29. Proclaim against Babylon to many, to every one that bends the bow, encamp against her round about: let there be no escape for her, recompense her according to ^A her works: according to all that she has done, do to her, for she has stood against the Lord, against the holy God of Israel. 30. Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be cast down in that day, saith the Lord. 31. Behold, I am against thee, O thou haughty one, saith the Lord of hosts, for thy day is come, and the time of thy visitation, 32. and thy haughtiness shall fall, and shall not be raised up: and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her. 33. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together: all they that took them captive, oppressed them, and would not let them go. 34. And He that redeems them is strong, the Lord Almighty is His name: He will judge their judgement against their adversaries, that He may bring ^B rest to the earth.

^A earth: and He will stir up the inhabitants of Babylon. 35. A sword upon the Chaldeans, saith the Lord, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her ^B wise men: 36. A sword upon her diviners, and they shall be taken away: a sword upon her mighty men, and they shall be broken: a sword upon her horses, and upon her chariots, and upon her mixed multitude in the midst of her, and they shall be as women: a sword upon her treasures, and they shall be plundered: 38. A sword upon her waters, and they shall be dried up; because it is a land of graven images, and they gloried in idols. 39. Therefore shall spectres dwell in the islands: and the daughters of the sirens shall dwell therein: and it shall be built no more for a victory, and it shall not be inhabited for ever. 40. As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities thereof, saith the Lord, no man shall dwell there, neither shall a son of man abide there. 41. Behold, a people comes from the north, and a great people, and many kings shall be stirred up from the ends of the earth. 42. Bow and shield are with them: they are cruel, and will not show mercy: their voice shall roar like the sea, they shall ride upon horses, set in array as fire for war, against thee, O daughter of Babylon. 43. The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands are grown feeble: affliction has taken hold of him, and sorrows as of a woman in childbirth. 44. Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of Jordan unto the place of Ethan; because I will quickly drive them from it, and I will appoint over it whoever I choose: for who is like Me, and who will stand before Me? And who is this shepherd that will stand before My face? 45. Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord, that He has taken against Babylon, and His purposes, which He has purposed against the inhabitants of the Chaldeans: surely the least of the flock shall pull them down, surely their pasture shall be desolate because of them. 46. At the voice of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Cap. LI. 1. Thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against the inhabitants of the Chaldeans, a destroying wind. 2. And I will send unto Babylon fan-men, and they shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for they shall be against her round about in the day of her trouble. 3. Let not him that bends his bow bend it, and let not him that is armed lift himself up: and spare not her young men, and destroy all her host. 4. And the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the pierced through in her streets. 5. For Israel and Juda have not been widowed by their God, by the Lord Almighty, because their land was filled with iniquity against the Holy One of Israel. 6. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul, and be not silenced in her iniquity; for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance, He will render unto her a recompense. 7. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine, therefore the nations were mad. 8. And suddenly is Babylon fallen and broken: wail for her, take balm for her pain, if so she may be healed. 9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: let us forsake her, and let us go every man into his own land; for her judgement has reached unto heaven, it has been lifted up even to the stars. 10. The Lord has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Sion the work of the Lord our God. 11. Make bright the arrows, fill the quivers: the Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because His wrath is against Babylon, to destroy it, for it is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance of His temple. 12. Upon the walls of Babylon set up the standard, keep the watch, post the guards, prepare the ambushes; for the Lord has both devised and done what He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters, and art rich in thy treasures: thy end is come, even into thy bowels. 14. For the Lord Almighty has sworn by His arm: Surely I will fill thee with men, as with locusts, and they shall cry out against thee. 15. He that makes the earth by His power, that establishes the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heaven by His understanding: 16. At the voice of His thunder the multitude of waters in the heavens is gathered, and He causes the clouds to ascend from the ends of the earth: He makes lightnings with rain, and brings forth the wind out of His treasures. 17. Every man is become foolish by his knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by his graven image: for he has melted a lie, and there is no spirit in them. 18. They are vanity, the work of errors, in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 19. Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for He is the former of all things, and He is the rod of His inheritance; the Lord Almighty is His name. 20. Thou art My battle-axe, and weapons of war: for with thee I will scatter the nations, and with thee I will destroy kings. 21. And with thee I will scatter the horse and his rider, and with thee I will scatter the chariot and his rider, and with thee I will scatter...

the man and the woman, and I will scatter in thee the old man and the young man, and I will scatter in thee the chosen one and the virgin, 22. and I will scatter in thee the husbandman and his husbandry, and I will scatter in thee leaders and prefects. 23. And I will render to Babylon and to its inhabitants, the Chaldeans, all their evils which they did in Zion before your eyes, saith the Lord. 25. Behold, I am against thee, O corrupt mountain, saith the Lord, thou that corruptest the whole earth; and I will stretch out my hand over thee, and I will roll thee down from the rocks, and I will make thee as a burnt mountain: 26. and they shall not take from thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for a foundation, because ^A thou shalt be in everlasting destruction, saith the Lord. 27. Lift up a standard upon the earth, sound the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, command against her the kingdoms of Ararat, and Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint against her a station of those who shoot arrows, make the horses ascend against her like a multitude of locusts. 28. Sanctify against her the nations of the Medes, her princes, and all her prefects, and all the land of her dominion. 29. The earth is moved, and is in pain; for the thought of the Lord is risen against Babylon, to set the land of Babylon into destruction, and it shall not be inhabited. 30. The warrior of Babylon has failed: they shall sit in the stronghold: their power is struck: they have become as women: her tabernacles are burnt: her bars are broken. 31. One pursuer shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to announce to the king of Babylon that his city is taken, 32. from the extremity of the passages they are seized, and their congregations are burnt in the fire, and her men of war depart. 33. For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The house of Babylon shall be threshed like a fat threshing-floor: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come. 34. Nebuchadrezzar, the king of Babylon, has devoured me, he has troubled me, he has cast me aside: he has made me like an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a dragon, he has filled his belly with my delicacies: 35. my labours and my ^B calamities have been driven into Babylon, saith the inhabitress of Zion: and my blood is upon the inhabitants of the Chaldeans, saith Jerusalem. 36. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold, I will judge thy cause, and I will take vengeance for thy vengeance, and I will lay waste her sea, and I will dry up her fountain: 37. and Babel shall be for a dwelling of dragons, for destruction, and for a hissing, without inhabitant. 38. They shall roar together like lions: they have been aroused like the whelps of lions. 39. In their heat I will give them their drink, and I will make them drunk, that they may be weighed down as in a tavern, and they may sleep an everlasting sleep, and not awake, saith the Lord. 40. Make them descend like lambs to the slaughter, and like rams with ^C he-goats. 41. How is Sheshach taken, and the glory of the whole earth occupied? How is Babel become a destruction among the nations? 42. The sea has risen over Babylon, she is covered with the sound of its waves. 43. Her cities are become for a ruin, a land without water, and not trodden, a land in which not even one man shall dwell, neither shall the son of man pass through them. 44. And I will take vengeance on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth that which he has swallowed out of his mouth, and the nations shall not flow together unto him any more: and indeed the wall of Babylon shall fall. 45. Go ye out of the midst of her, my people, and save every man his soul from the fury of the wrath of the Lord, 46. lest your heart be dismayed, and ye fear the report that shall be heard in the land: and report shall come in the year, and after the year report, and injustice in the land, and parable upon parable. 47. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon the graven images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be put to shame, and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her. 48. And the heavens and the earth shall rejoice over Babylon, and all that is in them; because from the north there shall come to her those who afflict her, saith the Lord: and indeed in Babylon shall fall the slain of Israel, 49. also in Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth. 50. Ye that are escaped from the sword, go, and stand not still: remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem ascend over your heart. 51. We are shamed, because we have heard our reproach: ignominy has covered our face; because foreigners have entered into our sanctuaries, into the house of the Lord. 52. Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will take vengeance upon her graven images, and in all her land ^D the slain shall fall. 53. For if Babel should ascend to heaven, and if she should fortify the height of her strength; from me shall come to her spoilers, saith the Lord. 54. A voice of a cry is in Babylon, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans; 55. because the Lord has destroyed Babylon, and has taken away from her the great tumultuous voice; and her waves, as many waters, have given forth the sound of a great tumult.

^A 56. For misery comes upon Babylon: between the wall and the outwork, which was to the garden, her combatants were captured; their bow trembles; ^B because the Lord is a requiter. 57. The Lord shall requite her with a requital, and shall make drunk with drunkenness her wise men, and her leaders, and her rulers, and her governors, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep an everlasting sleep, and shall not awake, saith the King, the Lord, whose name is the Almighty. 58. Thus said the Lord: The wall of Babylon shall be widened; by being pulled down it shall be pulled down, and her high gates shall be burned in fire; and the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations shall fail in the beginning. 59. The word which the Lord commanded Jeremiah the prophet, to tell Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he went from Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign; and Seraiah was the prince of the gifts. 60. And Jeremiah wrote all the evils which should come upon Babylon in one book, all these words written upon Babylon. 61. And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you come to Babylon, and see and read all these words, 62. and say: O Lord, you have spoken concerning this place, to destroy it, and that there should not be an inhabitant in it, from man unto beast; for it shall be a desolation forever. 63. And it shall be, when you have finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone upon it, and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say: Thus shall Babel be submerged, and shall not rise again from the face of the evils which I bring upon it. ^C [s]And the words of Jeremiah hitherto stood.

Cap. LII. 1. When Zedekiah was twenty-one years old, he began to reign, and for eleven years he reigned in Jerusalem; and the name of his mother was Hamutal, daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 2. And he did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just as Jehoiakim did. Judah, until he cast them out from his face, and Zedekiah departed from the king of Babylon. 4. And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, and all his power against Jerusalem, and he surrounded it with a ditch, and built and fenced it around with mounds of stones round about. 5. And the city came into straits until the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 6. In the fourth month, on the ninth of the month, the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 7. And the city was broken into, and all the men of war fled, and went out of the city by night by the way of the king's gate, and the Chaldeans were over the city round about; and they went the way to the Arabah. 8. And the power of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and they apprehended him, king Zedekiah, beyond Jericho, and all his servants were dispersed from him. 9. And they took the king, and brought him to the king of Babylon in Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke with him in judgment. 10. And the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he slaughtered all the princes of Judah in Riblah. 11. And he put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in fetters, and gave him into the house of the mill until the day that he died. 12. And in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, this is the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, who stands before the face of the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem; 13. and he burned the house of the Lord, and the house of the king, and all the houses of the city, and every great house he burned in fire; 14. and all the wall of Jerusalem round about he destroyed; all the power of the Chaldeans who were with the captain of the guards. ^D 15. The rest of the people that were left in the city, and the deserters who surrendered themselves to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the people, Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, left behind. 16. And from the poor of the land Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, left some to be vinedressers and husbandmen. 17. The columns of brass that were in the house of the Lord, the Chaldeans broke, and took all their brass into Babylon; 18. and the caldrons, and the shovels, and the crown, and the bowls, and the meat-forks, and all the vessels of brass which they ministered with they took. 19. And the basins, and the censers, and the bowls, and the fire-pans, and the candlesticks, and the flat dishes, and the goblets—as much as was of gold, and as much as was of silver—the captain of the guards took. 20. Two columns, and one sea, and the twelve oxen of brass, which were under the bases, which king Solomon made for the house of the Lord; there was no weight of the brass of all these vessels. 21. And as for the columns, thirty-five cubits was the height of one column, and a line of twelve cubits encircled it, and its thickness was four fingers round about; 22. and the epistyle upon them was of brass, and the magnitude of one epistyle was five cubits;

and the netting and the pomegranates round about upon the chapiter of brass. And in like manner were these, which the second column possessed: and eight pomegranates of twelve cubits. 23. And there were ninety-six pomegranates on a side; and all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the netting round about. 24. And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the door. 25. He took also out of the city an eunuch, who was the captain of the men of war, and seven men of them that were near the king's person, who were found in the city; and the principal scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city. 26. So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah. 27. And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land. 28. This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty. 29. In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty and two souls. 30. In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty and five souls: all the souls were four thousand and six hundred. 31. And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison, 32. And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings that were with him in Babylon, 33. And changed his prison garments: and he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. 34. And for his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Jeremiah is finished.

INDEX OF CONTENTS CONTAINED IN PART TWO OF VOLUME XVI

ORIGEN. HEXAPLA: WHAT REMAINS.

Proverbs. 1279 Ecclesiastes. 1491 Song of Songs. 1567 Isaiah. 1611 Jeremiah. Lamentations. Prophecy of Jeremiah from the Syriac-Hexaplar manuscript.

THE END OF PART TWO OF VOLUME SIXTEEN.

Paris. — Printing House of J.-P. MIGNE.