Jeremiah 46; Jeremiah 47; Hebrews 6

1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the Gentiles,

2 Against Egypt, against the army of Pharao Nechao king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Charcamis, whom Nabuchodonosor the king of Babylon defeated, in the fourth year of Joakim the son of Josias king of Juda.

3 Prepare ye the shield and buckler, and go forth to battle.

4 Harness the horses, and get up, ye horsemen: stand forth with helmets, furbish the spears, put on coats of mail.

5 What then? I have seen them dismayed, and turning their backs, their valiant ones slain: they fled apace, and they looked not back: terror was round about, saith the Lord.

6 Let not the swift flee away, nor the strong think to escape: they are overthrown, and fallen down, towards the north by the river Euphrates.

7 Who is this that cometh up as a flood: and his streams swell like those of rivers?

8 Egypt riseth up like a flood, and the waves thereof shall be moved as rivers, and he shall say: I will go up and will cover the earth: I will destroy the city, and its inhabitants.

9 Get ye up on horses, and glory in chariots, and let the valiant men come forth, the Ethiopians, and the Libyans that hold the shield, and the Lydians that take, and shoot arrows.

10 For this is the day of the Lord the God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may revenge himself of his enemies: the sword shall devour, and shall be filled, and shall be drunk with their blood: for there is a sacrifice of the Lord God of hosts in the north country, by the river Euphrates.

11 Go up into Galaad, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou multiply medicines, there shall be no cure for thee.

12 The nations have heard of thy disgrace, and thy howling hath filled the land: for the strong hath stumbled against the strong, and both are fallen together.

13 The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremias the prophet, how Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt:

14 Declare ye to Egypt, and publish it in Magdal, and let it be known in Memphis, and in Taphnis: say ye: Stand up, and prepare thyself: for the sword shall devour all round about thee.

15 Why are thy valiant men come to nothing? they stood not: because the Lord hath overthrown them.

16 He hath multiplied them that fall, and one hath fallen upon another, and they shall say: Arise, and let us return to our own people, and to the land of our nativity, from the sword of the dove.

17 Call ye the name of Pharao king of Egypt, a tumult time hath brought.

18 As I live, saith the King, (whose name is the Lord of hosts,) as Thabor is among the mountains, and as Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.

19 Furnish thyself to go into captivity, thou daughter inhabitant of Egypt: for Memphis shall be made desolate, and shall be forsaken and uninhabited.

20 Egypt is like a fair and beautiful heifer: there shall come from the north one that shall goad her.

21 Her hirelings also that lived in the midst of her, like fatted calves are turned back, and are fled away together, and they could not stand, for the day of their slaughter is come upon them, the time of their visitation.

22 Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.

23 They have cut down her forest, saith the Lord, which cannot be counted: they are multiplied above locusts, and are without number.

24 The daughter of Egypt is confounded, and delivered into the hand of the people of the north.

25 The Lord of hosts the God of Israel hath said: Behold I will visit upon the tumult of Alexandria, and upon Pharao, and upon Egypt, and upon her gods, and upon her kings, and upon Pharao, and upon them that trust in him.

26 And I will deliver them into the hand of them that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the Lord.

27 And thou my servant Jacob, fear not and be not thou dismayed, O Israel: for behold I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed out of the land of thy captivity: and Jacob shall return and be at rest, and prosper: and there shall be none to terrify him.

28 And thou, my servant Jacob, fear not, saith the Lord: because I am with thee, for I will consume all the nations to which I have cast thee out: but thee I will not consume, but I will correct thee in judgment, neither will I spare thee as if thou wert innocent.

1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremias the prophet against the people of Palestine, before Pharao took Gaza.

2 Thus saith the Lord: Behold there come up waters out of the north, and they shall be as an overflowing torrent, and they shall cover the land, and all that is therein, the city and the inhabitants thereof: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl,

3 At the noise of the marching of arms, and of his soldiers, at the rushing of his chariots, and the multitude of his wheels. The fathers have not looked back to the children, for feebleness of hands,

4 Because of the coming of the day, in which all the Philistines shall be laid waste, and Tyre and Sidon shall be destroyed, with all the rest of their helpers. For the Lord hath wasted the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Cappadocia.

5 Baldness is come upon Gaza: Ascalon hath held her peace with the remnant of their valley: how long shalt thou cut thyself?

6 O thou sword of the Lord, how long wilt thou not be quiet? Go into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.

7 How shall it be quiet, when the Lord hath given it a charge against Ascalon, and against the countries thereof by the sea side, and there hath made an appointment for it?

1 Wherefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on to things more perfect: not laying again the foundation of penance from dead works and of faith towards God,

2 Of the doctrine of baptisms and imposition of hands, and of the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

3 And this will we do, if God permit.

4 For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

5 Have moreover tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come,

6 And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God and making him a mockery.

7 For the earth, that drinketh in the rain which cometh often upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is tilled, receiveth blessing from God.

8 But that which bringeth forth thorns and briers is reprobate and very near unto a curse: whose end is to be burnt.

9 But, my dearly beloved, we trust better things of you, and nearer to salvation; though we speak thus.

10 For God is not unjust, that he should forget your work and the love which you have shewn in his name, you who have ministered and do minister to the saints.

11 And we desire that every one of you shew forth the same carefulness to the accomplishing of hope unto the end:

12 That you become not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience shall inherit the promises.

13 For God making promises to Abraham, because he had no one greater by whom he might swear, swore by himself,

14 Saying: Unless blessing I shall bless thee and multiplying I shall multiply thee.

15 And so patiently enduring he obtained the promise.

16 For men swear by one greater than themselves: and an oath for confirmation is the end of all their controversy.

17 Wherein God, meaning more abundantly to shew to the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed an oath:

18 That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest comfort, we who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us.

19 Which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, and which entereth in even within the veil:

20 Where the forerunner Jesus is entered for us, made a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.