Jeremiah 12; Jeremiah 13; Jeremiah 14; 2 Timothy 1

1 Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, but yet I will speak what is just to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper: why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?

2 Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

3 And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee: gather them together as for the day of slaughter.

4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts and the birds are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.

5 If thou hast been wearied with running with footmen, how canst thou contend with horses? and if thou hast been secure in a land of peace, what wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?

6 For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe them not when they speak good things to thee.

7 I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given my dear soul into the hand of her enemies.

8 My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: it hath cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.

9 Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? is it as a bird dyed throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all ye beasts of the earth, make haste to devour.

10 Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a desolate wilderness.

11 They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart.

12 The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.

13 They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.

14 Thus saith the Lord against all wicked neighbours, that touch the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of the midst of them.

15 And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have mercy on them: and will bring them back, every man to his inheritance, and every man into his land.

16 And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as they have taught my people to swear by Baal: that they shall be built up in the midst of my people.

17 But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.

1 Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.

2 And I got a girdle according to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.

3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:

4 Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

5 And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.

6 And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.

7 And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it and behold the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.

8 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

9 Thus saith the Lord: After this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.

10 This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle ,which is fit for no use.

11 For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

12 Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine. And they shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

13 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness.

14 And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.

15 Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.

16 Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.

17 But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down with tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.

18 Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.

19 The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.

20 Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?

21 What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

22 And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.

23 If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you also may do well, when you have learned evil.

24 And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.

25 This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.

26 Wherefore I have also bared thy thighs against thy face, and thy shame hath appeared.

27 I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?

1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the words of the drought.

2 Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

3 The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.

4 For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandman were confounded, they covered their heads.

5 Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.

6 And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

7 If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it for thy name’s sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned against thee.

8 O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?

9 Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us, forsake us not.

10 Thus saith the Lord to this people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.

11 And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their good.

12 When they fast I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.

13 And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he will give you true peace in this place.

14 And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.

15 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and 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, their sons and their daughters, and I will pour out their own wickedness upon them.

17 And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed down tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an exceeding grievous evil.

18 If I go forth into the fields, behold the slain with the sword: and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with famine. The prophet also and the priest are gone into a land which they knew not.

19 Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred Sion? why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us? we have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and behold trouble.

20 We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

21 Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name’s sake, and do not disgrace in us the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

22 Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.

1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus:

2 To Timothy, my dearly beloved son. Grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father and from Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 I give thanks to God, whom I serve from my forefathers, with a pure conscience, that without ceasing I have a remembrance of thee in my prayers, night and day.

4 Desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy:

5 Calling to mind that faith which is in thee unfeigned, which also dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and in thy mother Eunice, and I am certain that in thee also.

6 For which cause I admonish thee that thou stir up the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands.

7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear: but of power and of love and of sobriety.

8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but labour with the gospel, according to the power of God.

9 Who hath delivered us and called us by his holy calling, not according to our own works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the times of the world:

10 But is now made manifest by the illumination of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath destroyed death and hath brought to light life and incorruption by the gospel.

11 Wherein I am appointed a preacher and an apostle and teacher of the Gentiles.

12 For which cause, I also suffer these things: but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed and I am certain that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him, against that day.

13 Hold the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me: in faith and in the love which is in Christ Jesus.

14 Keep the good thing committed to thy trust by the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us.

15 Thou knowest this, that all they who are in Asia are turned away from me: of whom are Phigellus and Hermogenes.

16 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus: because he hath often refreshed me and hath not been ashamed of my chain:

17 But when he was come to Rome, he carefully sought me and found me.

18 The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day. And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou very well knowest.