Jeremiah 3; Jeremiah 4; Jeremiah 5; 1 Timothy 4

1 It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.

2 Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.

3 Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

4 Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:

5 Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.

7 And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

8 That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.

9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

10 And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.

11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.

12 Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.

13 But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.

14 Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your I husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.

15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.

16 And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.

17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.

18 In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.

19 But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.

20 But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.

21 A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.

23 In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

24 Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

25 We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.

1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved.

2 And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgment, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him.

3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:

4 Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it because of the wickedness of your thoughts.

5 Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.

6 Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.

7 The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.

8 For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.

9 And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed.

10 And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reacheth even to the soul?

11 At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.

12 A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.

13 Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.

14 Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?

15 For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from mount Ephraim.

16 Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.

17 They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.

18 Thy ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy heart.

19 My bowels, my bowels are in part, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.

20 Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.

21 How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

23 I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.

24 I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.

25 I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.

26 I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.

27 For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.

28 The Earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.

29 At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away: they have entered into thickets and climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.

30 But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.

31 For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as of a woman in labour of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain.

1 Go about through the streets of Jerusalem, and see, and consider, and seek in the broad places thereof, if you can find a man that executeth judgment, and seeketh faith: and I will be merciful unto it.

2 And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

3 O Lord, thy eyes are upon truth: thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved: thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return.

4 But I said: Perhaps these are poor and foolish, that know not the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God.

5 I will go therefore to the great men, and will speak to them: for they have known the way of the Lord, the judgment of their God: and behold these have altogether broken the yoke more, and have burst the bonds.

6 Wherefore a lion out of the wood hath slain them, a wolf in the evening hath spoiled them, a leopard watcheth for their cities: every one that shall go out thence shall be taken, because their transgressions are multiplied, their rebellions are strengthened.

7 How can I be merciful to thee? thy children have forsaken me, and swear by them that are not gods: I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and rioted in the harlot’s house.

8 They are become as amorous horses and stallions: every one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.

9 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? and shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

10 Scale the walls thereof, and throw them down, but do not utterly destroy: take away the branches thereof, because they are not the Lord’s.

11 For the house of Israel, and the house of Juda have greatly transgressed against me, saith the Lord.

12 They have denied the Lord, and said, It is not he: and the evil shall not come upon us: we shall not see the sword and famine.

13 The prophets have spoken in the wind, and there was no word of God in them: these things therefore shall befall them.

14 Thus saith the Lord the God of hosts: because you have spoken this word, behold I will make my words in thy mouth as fire, and this people as wood, and it shall devour them.

15 Behold I will bring upon you a nation from afar, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: a strong nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou shalt not know, nor understand what they say.

16 Their quiver is as an open sepulchre, they are all valiant.

17 And they shall eat up thy corn, and thy bread: they shall devour thy sons, and thy daughters: they shall eat up thy flocks, and thy herds: they shall eat thy vineyards, and thy figs: and with the sword they shall destroy thy strong cities, wherein thou trustest.

18 Nevertheless in those days, saith the Lord, I will not bring you to utter destruction.

19 And if you shall say: Why hath the Lord our God done all these things to us? thou shalt say to them: As you have forsaken me, and served a strange god in your own land, so shall you serve strangers in a land that is not your own.

20 Declare ye this to the house of Jacob, and publish it in Juda, saying:

21 Hear, O foolish people, and without understanding: who have eyes, and see not: and ears, and hear not.

22 Will not you then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not repent at my presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over: and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail: they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.

23 But the heart of this people is become hard of belief and provoking, they are revolted and gone away.

24 And they have not said in their heart: Let us fear the Lord our God, who giveth us the early and the latter rain in due season: who preserveth for us the fulness of the yearly harvest.

25 Your iniquities have turned these things away, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

26 For among my people are found wicked men, that lie in wait as fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men.

27 As a net is full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit: therefore are they become great and enriched.

28 They are grown gross and fat: and have most wickedly transgressed my words. They have not judged the cause of the widow, they have not managed the cause of the fatherless, and they have not judged the judgment of the poor.

29 Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord? or shall not my soul take revenge on such a nation?

30 Astonishing and wonderful things have been done in the land.

31 The prophets prophesied falsehood, and the priests clapped their hands: and my people loved such things: what then shall be done in the end thereof?

1 Now the Spirit manifestly saith that in the last times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to spirits of error and doctrines of devils,

2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy and having their conscience seared,

3 Forbidding to marry, to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving by the faithful and by them that have known the truth.

4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be rejected that is received with thanksgiving:

5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

6 These things proposing to the brethren, thou shalt be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished up in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which thou hast attained unto.

7 But avoid foolish and old wives fables: and exercise thyself unto godliness.

8 For bodily exercise is profitable to little: but godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.

9 A faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

10 For therefore we labour and are reviled, because we hope in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful.

11 These things command and teach:

12 Let no man despise thy youth: but be thou an example of the faithful, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in chastity.

13 Till I come, attend unto reading, to exhortation and to doctrine.

14 Neglect not the grace that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with imposition of the hands of the priesthood.

15 Meditate upon these things, be wholly in these things: that thy profiting may be manifest to all.

16 Take heed to thyself and to doctrine: be earnest in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.